The Spirit of life in Christ

Rom 8:1-9
"With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud.
A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it.
And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them--living and breathing God!
Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.
Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.
And God isn't pleased at being ignored.
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about." (msg)

"Flesh and Spirit"

F. F. BRUCE



Rom 8:6-15

"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But 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. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

"To be “in the Spirit” is for Paul the opposite of being “in the flesh”. All believers, according to him, are “in the Spirit”: “you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit”, he tells the Roman Christians, “if the Spirit of Christ really dwells in you. Any one who has not the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). The two following sentences begin with the conditional clauses, “But if Christ is in you . . .” (Romans 8:10) and “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you . . .” (Romans 8:11). It appears, then, that there is no difference between the indwelling of the Spirit and the indwelling of the risen Christ, so far as the believer’s experience is concerned, although this does not mean that Paul identified the risen Christ and the Spirit outright. There is a dynamic equivalence between them,²⁴ but they are nevertheless distinguished. The Spirit conveys the resurrection life of Christ to believers (which may be a further reason for his being called the Spirit of Christ), and in doing so he conveys the assurance that they in their turn will rise in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection — the assurance that “he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). This is one of the most distinctive Pauline insights regarding the Spirit: it is because of this that he describes the Spirit as the “first fruits” of the resurrection life (Romans 8: 23), the “seal” and “guarantee” — the arrhabōn or initial down-payment — of the heritage of glory into which they will then be ushered (2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13f.).²⁵ The Spirit not only makes the benefits of Christ’s saving work effective in them, but also enables them to appropriate and enjoy in advance the benefits of the age to come."

(At the time of this writing, F.F. Bruce was Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester, England and editor of The Evangelical Quarterly. The excerpt is taken from his book, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free, (Eerdmans: 1977, Chapter 19).

1 Corinthians

The SHOVELATION : 1 Corinthians

by Jim Minker

1 Corinthians 1

Paul, one who was chosen by God's desire and sent forth to testify of Jesus Christ, I address this letter to the new creation of God in Corinth, for you are those who have been claimed for God's own possession in Christ Jesus, together with everyone everywhere who miraculously recognize the risen Jesus Christ as the very source of life itself, for they belong to him as surely as we do.

To you I proclaim this freely bestowed favor and assurance from God our father and from the one who is our all in all, Jesus Christ. For this grace was freely given to you in Christ, and because of this I thank God concerning you, for you have already been made immeasurably rich in all things in him - yes, immeasurably rich in all speech and all knowledge - even as the witness of Christ himself was validated in you, a witness declaring that you lack nothing regarding that which has been given, as you eagerly await the miraculous revelation of the one who is our everything, Jesus Christ, who will also validate you to the end, perfectly blameless in the day of Jesus Christ, who has become our all in all. God can be counted on to bring this to pass, as it is through Him that you were called into the total sharing of His son, Jesus Christ, our everything.

My brothers, I urge you to find your true agreement according to one name, Jesus Christ - our mutual lifesource - and put an end to the divisions that have been erected among you! Instead of the fractured mess you force together into a false unity I encourage you to find your completeness in the same mind and in the same judgment - which is that of Christ. I say this because it has been brought to my attention that there is much contention and in-fighting among you.

As I've come to understand it each one of you has been naming yourselves according to men and saying things like, "I am of Paul," and "I am of Apollos," and "I am of Cephas," and "I am of Christ." Since when did Christ get divided? And when was Paul crucified for you? Furthermore, was it in the name of Paul that your testimony of faith in Christ was publicly made known? I thank God I wasn't involved in any of these welcome-to-the-family events except that of Cripus and Gaius, because I surely wouldn't want any of you to suggest your membership in Christ was somehow attached to my name! I also recall officiating the public welcome of Stephanus' family into the faith ... and if I happen to be overlooking any other I am not concerned, as it's unimportant, because Christ did not send me as the validator of faith, but to simply declare the good news. I do not do this according to the persuasive power of one who knows how to use words to bring about a desired effect, for that would only negate the real power of the cross of Christ.

After all, the message of the cross is absurd, for it makes no sense to those who are passing away, but to us who are being delivered it is the power of God. From the written record, "I will bring the wisdom of the wise to an end, and the intellegence of the intelligent I will throw away." And so I ask you ... where is the wise, and the recorder of this world's wisdom, as well as the disputer of this enlightened age? Hasn't God drained all of its significance so that it has become nothing but babbling foolishness? After all, it was God who - by his understanding - set it up so that this enlightened age - by its understanding - would never understand him. However, God was delighted in doing the very thing that could never work, which was to send messengers declaring what could only be understood as insanity -- and then save those who believe the unbelievable message!

But what of the radical differences in this world's reasoning? I tell you, all such distinctions are immaterial. For the institutional Christian mind is hung up on outward fleshly indicators, while the rational assume their advanced knowledge will lead them into all truth. But our message - Christ crucified - is accepted by neither. For the religious mind, though attached to his name and strengthened by its established practices and doctrines, is still offended by its impotent savior. As for the scientifically enlightened mind? It only perceives him as the symbol of primitive ignorance! But to those who have heard him Christ has become something else entirely. To those rescued from religious bondage he has become the power of God; while to those who rejected him according to their higher knowledge he has become the wisdom of God! Because Christ, who is judged as the absurdity of God, blows man's wisdom away ... and Christ, who is judged as the weakness of God, destroys the fortifications of the religious mind!

Do you need any other proof regarding what I say than to consider your own status in society before having heard him? After all, how many of you were considered wise according the standards of this world? How many of you held positions of power? How many of you were held in high esteem? Not very many. For God has deliberately chosen the ignorant to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, the dishonorable and the despised, yes, and the things that are not, in order to make nothing of the things that are, in order to remove any and all possible reason one might boast before God. But it is of God that you are in Christ Jesus! For Christ has become our wisdom (not intellectual wisdom, but that which is from God). Christ has also become our true righteousness, and our belongingness to God, and our total completeness, so that our boasting is found in God alone ... which is testified to in written words held sacred by the institution, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

The Net

The Net

During the building of the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, construction fell badly behind schedule because several workers had accidentally fallen from the scaffolding to their deaths. Engineers and administrators could find no solution to the costly delays. Finally, someone suggested a gigantic net be hung under the bridge to catch any who fell. Finally in spite of the enormous cost, the engineers opted for the net. After it was installed, progress was hardly interrupted. A worker or two fell into the net but were saved. Ultimately, all the time lost to fear was regained by replacing fear with faith in the net.

Source unknown