“Aug 12, 2024 - The Hope of the Spirit”

Sunday, August 11, 2024

The Hope of the Spirit

Reading:  Romans 8:5-11
    
    Paul has been arguing that Christians can’t keep sinning because we have died to (Rom 7:4) and been set free from (Rom 8:2) the Law of Moses.  We now have a new allegiance.  “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit”(Rom 8:5).  “Setting the mind” stresses the things we choose to continually think about and give our allegiance to.  Our minds have changed.  We do not think in worldly ways—or even in ways we once did.  “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot”(Rom 8:7).  Rather than remaining “hostile to God,” we focus on the Spirit and his leading. 

    We set our minds on the Spirit because he dwells in us as a sign that we belong to Christ. “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you”(Rom 8:9-11).    So despite our past history in sin (“the body is dead because of sin”) we still have hope of a resurrected body through the regenerating power of the Spirit (“the Spirit is life because of righteousness”).  The hope of the Spirit is that the same power that raised Jesus will raise our bodies.  With such a hope, how could we go back to sin?

    Setting our minds on spiritual things will mean renewing ourselves in the hope the Spirit holds out for us.  My body is continually giving in to decay, but he will “give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you”(Rom 8:11).  This hope also creates a new perspective on sin:  that it could rob me of the incredible gift God offers me through Jesus.

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One Thing to Think About:  What is my mind “set” on?

One Thing to Pray For:  Renewal of the hope of the resurrection of my body
 

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