LIFE
IN THE SPIRIT
One of the things that God promises us is a new life. That’s a great promise, but what does it actually mean?
Well,
imagine that you’ve been in jail for the last twenty years. Finally, the day
comes for your release. You step outside with fresh clothes into the bright
sunlight, and finally, the jailhouse door clangs shut behind you for the last
time.
Going
from captivity to freedom on the one hand would of course be wonderful, but
coming to grips with this new-found freedom would take time.
In
this devotional series, we’ve spent time looking at the central problem in our
lives: sin. God dealt with sin so decisively on the cross, when Jesus died a
brutal death for our sins. That tells you the priority God puts on dealing with
this problem!
But
stepping into this grace is a bit like stepping out of that jail. We have to
come to grips with our new life, and make sure we don’t end up in the prison
again.
How
do we do this?
Well,
Jesus didn’t only open the door for us to leave the jail – He also gave us a
way to live going forwards. We are now to live according to the Spirit. Paul
writes about this in Romans:
“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.” (Romans 8:9-11)
This
is such an awesome thing. The plan of God is not just to give us a new start,
but to give us a new life.
When
we shift our minds from what we used to desire to what the Spirit desires, the
Spirit of God brings us a new life, a new freedom, a new peace, a new glory in
our lives.
That’s
God’s grace. Extravagant grace.
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