Daily Bread 6/9/2021

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Daily Bread – June 9, 2021 (The Fourth Day – Genesis 1:14-19) Romans 8:1 – There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Part 3 ~ Walking Not After The Flesh The flesh may be understood as walking after the human ability, which cannot fulfill the promises of God. An example of this is given in Galatians chapter four, Abraham attempted to fulfill the promise of God through his own human ability (Galatians 4:23, 29). We know Abraham did not stagger at the promises of God, but he at one point thought he would be able to fulfill God’s promises through his own ability; and therefore, took his concubine Hagar to wife (Romans 4:20). This same human ability is addressed in Romans 8:3 as the reason for the Law being weak. The Law was powerless to impart the life, or the Spirit, of God; and therefore, it was dependent upon man’s human ability and discipline to fulfill the righteousness of God (Galatians 3:21). Jesus told Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, that those who had been born of the flesh were flesh (earthly, or natural). Therefore, flesh may be understood as the natural human ability to which Jesus said He could do nothing by (“I can of my own self do nothing”), and to which Paul said he knew nothing by, and to which we are all commanded to deny (John 5:30; 1 Corinthians 4:4; Luke 9:23). This natural life was subjected to death and condemned under a penalty of eternal death because of Adam’s transgression. It was also to this flesh, or earthly existence, that the Word was made, thereby becoming the sin offering for all of mankind. Jesus suffered in the flesh, and we are commanded to arm ourselves with the same mind (1 Peter 4:1-2). So as Jesus was subject to temptation and suffered being tempted but did not yield, we ourselves are to be partakers of the same (Hebrews 2:18, 5:8). It is to this determination of resisting the devil, or abstaining from fleshly lust, that the last part of Romans 8:3 addresses, which is a state of being in the flesh, or earthly existence; but having been born of the Spirit, we are empowered to give no place to sin. Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen