Mulling on the Eternal - Thoughts to Edify: Bible Study

Hi Everyone,

Notes for this Bible Study are below. Click here to download the audio to your computer.

You can also access the whole load of Friday Night Bible Study audio files.

Be blessed!

Chris

1. No More Condemnation

Romans 8: 1 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.

If you are in Christ Jesus, you are no longer under condemnation – God does not and will never condemn you!

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (NKJV)

The demarcation is very clear – believe, saved, not condemned, walk in the Spirit. Don’t believe, not saved, condemned, walking in the flesh.

2. Eternal Life Trumps Sin and Death

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

We now have the LIFE of Christ working in us! Eternal Life. This has set us free from sin and its effects. All the unwholeness in us marked by sin and the fall. Effects like what we saw in the last couple of weeks!

3 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,

4 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.

Verse 3

The law can only tell you what to do without providing you with the solution. It will show you how far you've missed the bar but not how to hit it. This is so much like what we see in much of Christianity today, where we are told what we have to DO to be a Christian. No, Christianity is all about the DONE, and about us standing in AWE of Christ as we know Him more and realise what he has done in our spirits and letting that sink into us and change us (Eph 3:19, Rom 12:2).

He sent His own Son to die in our place. He BECAME sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NKJV)

Verse 4

Jesus did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it.

Matthew 5: 17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (NKJV)

We who are saved do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Our leading is now not from our flesh, the 5 senses, but from the Spirit. There was a fundamental change the day you got saved – your spirit was made alive (2 Cor 5:17) and is one with the Lord (1 Cor 6:17)

3. New Creation: The Eternal Life

5 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. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Those who live according to the flesh – like fish swim in water – have no choice. Their minds are set on fleshly things. We are spiritual beings – our natural desire is for spiritual things.

If the water dries up, only fish are affected. You are geared for life and peace!

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 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.

See? 2 kinds of people

not saved, no spirit, led by the flesh = not subject to the law of God = Carnal = cannot please God.

Saved, Spirit of God inside, led by Spirit = fulfilled law (through Christ) = Spiritual = please God.

It is Jesus’ keeping of the law and then dying on our behalf that pleases God, not OUR law keeping!

4. Eternal Life Makes Us Whole

10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 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.

Your body is dead because of sin. But the Spirit in you gives life because of righteousness – not just right standing, but equal in goodness to God, deserving of all His grace and goodness.

It WILL give life to my MORTAL body, the one dead because of sin. It WILL make me whole.

Matthew 1:21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (NKJV)

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 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.

We owe it to ourselves to live according to the Spirit. If we live by our natural senses alone, we will see death (not hell, but death). The Zoe life of God will not flow.

If we live by the Spirit, we start to see the overcoming power of the God-life in us flowing out. Paul said it in Ephesians:

Ephesians 4: 17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (NKJV)

5. Children of God, Understand His Love

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Are you a child of God today? Then you are LED by the Spirit of God. Whether you will follow is your choice. We can choose to live according to the flesh or according to the Spirit.

15 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.”

Anything that is of fear is not from God. Any religious exercise from fear (Not looking good enough, respectable, holy etc.) stinks.

Fear is the opposite of faith.

1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us. (NKJV)

From love comes faith

Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. (NKJV)

We have been made children of God out of His love for us!

16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 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. (NKJV)

6. Other References to Read

John 17:3, Eph 3:19, Rom 12:2, Rom 10:17

7. The Take Away

No more condemnation-God does not and will never again condemn you!

We are already in the Spirit!

Jesus kept the Law for us

We enjoy Eternal Life in us because of this

Eternal Life in us conquers sin and its effects

Renew your mind: get to know God more for Eternal Life to manifest