How would you feel if you owed a debt, and the more you paid on it the more you owed? You may say, I already have one – my credit card! That may be true, but there is another debt like that. It is the debt we think we owe to fulfil the desires of our human nature! The more we feed these desires, the more our human nature demands from us!
Paul says we are liberated from this overwhelming debt to our own nature, when we receive Christ’s nature, because it desires God’s will for our lives.
Do you accept the the contrast between living according to your sinful nature, and living according to the new person that the Spirit wants to make us to be?.
Rom 8: 5.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
The contrast is between two kinds of people. The first kind refers to those who are not saved and are still lost slaves trying to fulfil the never ending demands of their sinful nature. The second kind has been saved from this slavery by being born from the Spirit of God. Every Christian receives the Holy Sprit and is controlled by him. There are 2 kinds of people: Unsaved people can never do enough to satisfy a sinful nature and saved people are free to serve God!
There is now also a contrast of their two concerns in life. Unsaved people are mainly concerned about what the world offers. Those who are saved set their minds on the things of God and on the things of the Spirit. One of the evidences that we are born from the Spirit is that our attitudes toward the things of God begin to change. Look at verses 6 and 7: The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
People who do not know Christ are unable to set their minds on the things of God.. They are blinded to spiritual truth. But those who born from above have a new nature that understands spiritual truth. God's will becomes the desire of every Christian heart: that God's will would be done in our lives.
So this results in the contrast between two lifestyles. One life style gives everything to meet what sinful nature desires. The other seeks obedience to the Spirit, that lead to actions according to the image of Christ. .
So, finally, there are the two contrasting conclusions: Rom 8: 6, The mind of sinful man is death … but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.
We simply have to see that there is a radical contrast between being a Christian and not being one. And that the results of forever giving in to the life threatening demands of the debt collector called “our sinful nature” are death and hostility toward God.
But the results of living according to the demands of the Holy Spirit, are life and peace.
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