Today’s devotion comes from Romans 8:1-9.
“1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 However, 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, he does not belong to Him.” Romans 8:1-9.
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“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” John 6:63-65.
One could (but wrongly) read the Scripture for today and interpret it that it is primarily urging us to try harder to avoid the lusts of the flesh, and to instead, think Godly thoughts. The focus, under such wrong thinking, would still be on the self (rather than on God) and on one’s own willpower (rather than what God has done).
The context of any portion of Scripture is so important, and the context of today’s Scripture is Romans Chapters 3 through 7 emphasis of “total depravity”, the inability of the Law to produce righteousness, and God’s provision of faith in Christ to credit that needed righteousness. In sum, “Salvation belongs to the LORD; Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah.” Psalm 3:8
But, even just carefully reading today’s Scripture, we can understand that the focus is on what “God did”!. Romans 8:3. The focus is on the Spirit of God.
As Jesus stated in the above-stated John 6:63: “”It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing”.
But, we can’t grasp the Spirit. We can’t seize the Spirit to make it our own. The Spirit must be given to us. We remember Jesus’ conclusion in the above-stated John 6:65: “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” We also remember Jesus’ words in John 3:8: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
But, we can treasure that Spirit. We can hope for that Spirit. We can seek that Spirit. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:13
The importance of the Spirit and the means by which we receive the Spirit is seen in Galatians 3:2-5. “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”
Those who seek the Law to produce righteousness and perfect themselves, are the ones who, in the language of the Scripture for today, “set their minds on the things of the flesh”.
Those who seek the Spirit, are the ones who are “born of the Spirit”. John 3:5-8. They are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in them. Romans 8:9. This is entirely God’s work.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 