Double Vision
Lately, I have been confused with Romans 7-8 until I realized that Paul was talking about his two natures, his sinful flesh and his spirit filled mind. He describes them always at constant battle because he says that when he longs to do good, evil lies close at hand (Romans 7:21). So he praises God who is the only one who can deliver him from this body of sin.
Then in chapter 8, he goes on to say how the Spirit helps us. First he says that if we set our minds on the flesh, we will die, but if on the Spirit, it is life and peace. For if we allow our minds to linger on fleshly worldly pursuits, we will not be able to please God. But, he says that the same spirit that was in Christ is in us and because of that he will give life to our dead in sin bodies. But my favorite part is verse 13. It says that if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live! We must therefore do everything by the Spirit. Paul goes on to show some other amazing things, but this is what I want us to see.
So how does one live by the Spirit? Well, we first have to acknowledge that his Spirit lives in us. We know this every time we make a choice to do something. We can either do what we think is more fun, or what is more spiritually satisfying. That’s never how it seems to us at the time, however. It’s more like, do what is exciting and fulfilling or do what is boring and condemning. That’s why we must rely on the Spirit to show us the truth behind the lie of our sneaky selves. We have to realize that the boring and stupid choice, at first, is almost always going to be the Spirit’s prompting to help us put to death our flesh. The Spirit is just trying to reveal to us the truth behind the choices. Too often we just want to justify it and say that what the Spirit is telling us is a lie, but that’s because we have made it too much of a habit of doing so. We have to realize he’s doing everything possible to get us to choose life and peace over death, but he’s not going to choose for us. Lord help us more to see you more clearly and shed the blinders to come off our eyes!