From Bondage to Freedom
"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it..." Luke 9:23-24
The law brings conviction
(Romans
7:18-25)
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh)
nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is
good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I
will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is
no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
"I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
"I thank
God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law
of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
But God's grace sets us free
(Romans
8:1-11)
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin
and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on
account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the
flesh but according to the Spirit.
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of
the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject
to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot
please God.
"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of
God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is
not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the
Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."
- to receive a a new identity through
Christ (Romans
8:12-17)
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to
the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
[By faith,]
"reckon yourselves to be
dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:5-11
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you
did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit
of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then
heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him,
that we may also be glorified together."
See also
His Cross and our cross -- The same one - or different?
"Thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your
labor is not in vain in the Lord." 1
Corinthians 15:56
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