WEDNESDAY March 6th
Romans 8:1
‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus’ the NIV also has ‘who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.’
I have returned to this verse again, for as you will have noticed, I have added onto the text from the ESV, the additional text that is to be found in the NIV and the KJV, but not in the NLT or the CSB.
The additional text is like a caveat to the first statement, a warning if you like that says that if we want to continue in a state of not being under condemnation, then we must live according to the Spirit.
If we claim to be no longer under condemnation, then we must show it through the kind of life that we live and the choices we make. We cannot claim as we learn from 2 Corinthians 5:17 to be a new creation if we are still living as we were as the old creation!
Being free from condemnation means that we have not only been saved, or justified, we have also become new creations who now seek to live according to the Spirit, this means that we learn to say no to anything that would bring discredit to our testimony, discredit to the gospel and discredit to the one who is our Lord and Saviour.
I said at the commencement of this look into Romans 8 that the Holy Spirit is mentioned 20 times, this must be a good pointer for us that the Christian life can only and must only be lived out with the help of the Holy Spirit. A while back I used an illustration while preaching about the lane assist function in a lot of newer cars. When switched on it tugs the steering to tell you that you are going outside the lanes that have been marked. If you remember I said that I find it to be a nuisance and so I tend to switch it off! I illustrated that the Holy Spirit is essential in our lives, and we need to allow him to tug at us when we are veering off course, but how many of us try to switch off the tug of the Holy Spirit because what the Spirit desires or even has the right to demand of us is not according to what we want as far as the flesh is concerned!
I need the tug of the Holy Spirit, if we want to use a biblical word, I need the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, we all do, to enable us to stay on the right course, to enable us to live according to the ways of God, to help us to not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.