AP

Romans 8:9-11  You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

What a depth of rich spiritual wisdom is contained in these three verses, and in this whole chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans!  It is easy to just think that, when we realise we are helpless sinners before a holy God, headed for eternal death, and so turn in repentance-and-faith to Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord, we are then then recipients of eternal life and that’s it, job done,’pie in the sky when we die’, finished.  The free gift of eternal life by grace alone is a present reality, that’s true!  And praise God!  But Paul is telling us here that this is just part of a much bigger ‘package deal’.

This act of faith also puts us in a whole new, completely different, realm of existence even now while we live out the rest of our pilgrimage here on earth!  We have passed out of the realm of the flesh, the realm of death, and into the realm of the Spirit, the realm of life – it gives us a whole new perspective on everything.  As he’d said in verse 5: “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”

I am therefore ‘obliged’ (verse 12) to ask myself, “What is my fundamental ‘mind-set’ in life here and now?”  I am being bombarded every moment of my waking life with things that are designed to appeal specifically to a flesh ‘mind-set’, and unless I stay aware, alert and committed to not being attracted to these things I will, without realising it, be possessed by a ‘flesh’ mind-set.

Accepting Jesus as my Saviour and Lord brings me into a realm where the Spirit of God is living in me, and this must change everything for me – how I act, speak, behave, even think!  I remember how Jesus warned me how easy it is to break the sixth Commandment just by getting angry with my brother and saying nasty things about him, or the seventh Commandment by letting my eyes lead me into unwholesome thinking!  The advertising, marketting and fashion industries all know exactly how to ‘push my buttons’ in this area.

So, I need to keep constantly at the front of my mind that “if Christ is in [me], then even though [my] body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit giveslife because of righteousness”, ie Christ’s righteousness, not mine (praise God!), and that this puts me in a whole new realm of existence.  “This life I live is not my own, for my Redeemer paid the price; he took it to be his alone, to be his treasure and his prize; the things of earth I leave behind to live in worship of my King, his is the right to rule my life, mine is the joy to live for him” (Michael Morrow).

– Bruce Christian