Daily Bread 6/21/2021

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Daily Bread – June 21, 2021 (The Second Day – Genesis 1:6-8) Romans 8:8-9 – For those in the flesh are not able to please God. And 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, this one is not of His. Just as no one can please God without faith, neither can the person who is in the flesh please God (Hebrews 11:6). Paul makes it absolutely clear to the saints that they are not in the flesh. The definition and proof a person is not in the flesh is that the Spirit of God dwells in them. The idea of a dualism existing in the person who has been transformed by the Spirit of God does not exist in New Testament doctrine. Those who have been born of the Spirit have received the Spirit of Christ, which is absolutely opposite to the spirit of the world and of the flesh. These are those who are in Christ because of the new birth. When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about the new birth He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit” (John 3:6). John described those who are born of the Spirit and made sons of God in the supernatural terms necessary to understand the regeneration that took place, “…not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13; Titus 3:5). Obviously, Paul is not referring to a natural human body when he uses the word flesh. He is speaking of the unredeemed nature of those who have not been born of the Spirit. The argument, therefore, goes that since we have been born of the Spirit, we are led and governed by the Spirit; and therefore, are no longer under condemnation, nor led by the flesh nature. God, the Holy Spirit, not only governs our lives, but also empowers us with His ability so we do not have to depend on human ability to please God. When we were born from above, a special New Testament kind of circumcision took place in us which cut away the body of the sins of the flesh (Colossians 2:11). We now wholly belong to God, and are to glorify Him in our bodies and in our spirits which are the Lord’s (Romans 6:6). Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen