Daily Word
A word of encouragement for your day.
WALK IN THE SPIRIT! (2)
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 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, 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."
How can Jesus (through Paul) demand that we always walk in the Spirit?
Because He Himself has done so first!
He became an ordinary man (with a carnal body), subject to all the temptations, desires and trials like everyone else – with one difference: He never allowed his “flesh” to get the better of Him, did not allow Himself to be controlled by His circumstances, did not give the devil so much as a little finger, but overcame everything.
Thus, He became the first man to live his life “without sin”!
But He did something even more important and decisive!
He put “the law of sin and of death”, the dominant spirit-law that had governed all men, out of action on the cross.
It received its death sentence there.
And then He did something even more important!
As the resurrected, glorified and enthroned Victor over the devil, death and hell, He poured out His
all-conquering and triumphant Spirit-law – “the law of the Spirit of life” – into His disciples on the day
of Pentecost.
The Law of the Spirit makes it entirely possible for you and me to live exactly the same temptation-desire-trial-overcoming life that He Himself did during His earthly life.
Jesus therefore does not ask/demand from us to do anything that He Himself has not done – and far beyond that: He does not ask us to do anything that He has not given us all the possibilities and abilities to do.
In the Spirit of Jesus, we have everything that is ever needed to be able to live the life of Jesus.
What was previously absolutely impossible has become completely possible – so, what excuse do we have for not always “walking in the Spirit”?
Read yesterday´s devotion once again and allow the Lord to take you through the process that leads to a life in the Spirit!