Romans 8:1 – So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. (NLT)
If we were reading through Paul’s letter to the church in Rome from the beginning, we would have seen that to this point Paul has mentioned the Spirit only briefly. In this chapter alone Paul will mention the Spirit at least twenty times. Throughout this letter, and in this chapter, Paul uses the words Spirit, Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, and Spirit of Christ, interchangeably. While we never find the term Holy Trinity in the Bible, it is clear to see that Paul was well versed in the doctrine of the Hoy Trinity.
While Paul doesn’t use the word slave here, basically he’s giving the same idea – each of us will be controlled by something. In verse five uses the phrases ‘dominated by’, and ‘controlled by’. Each of these phrases speaks to the idea of the human spirit being enslaved by something. We are fallen, and something will dominate and control each of us. When sin dominates us, our minds are filled with thoughts of sinful things. In fact, when sin dominates us, we are hostile towards God (verse 7).
However, when the Holy Spirit dominates us, we think of godly things. Paul is not saying we will never sin. Indeed, he tells us that we will sin (Romans 3:23), but we will not be controlled by sin if we seek a Spirit filled life. In verse six we are told that a Spirit filled life leads to peace in our lives. The Greek word we translate as peace is εἰρήνη. This word literally means tranquility. Life is often stressful; we could all use some tranquility!
Today, let us seek God’s Spirit and experience some peace and tranquility in our lives.
Posted by Ramón Torres
🙏🙏🙏