Romans
By Norman P. Grubb
Many Christians live a bugged life because they think they are wrong because they are tempted. No, temptation is your jumping off spot. “Count it all joy when you fall into temptation.” It gives you a chance to prove faith! The trial of your faith means it gives you a chance to prove faith and then faith gives you a settlement in patience.
By Norman P. Grubb
Many Christians live a bugged life because they think they are wrong because they are tempted. No, temptation is your jumping off spot. “Count it all joy when you fall into temptation.” It gives you a chance to prove faith! The trial of your faith means it gives you a chance to prove faith and then faith gives you a settlement in patience.
So, Paul comes round to this, very simple. He says in Rom. 8, when you have got this you discover you are governed by a new law. A law is a principle, the spirit of life, through Christ. Christ is the one Who cut you off from the old law of sin and He said He condemned sin in the flesh. The fact that the thing shouts at you—it is under bars now—“Come and join me, come and join me”—like a prisoner can shout through the bars. A condemned prisoner is not free and so sin can shout at us through temptations. But, there’s a new law in the Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ—“I have got a new principle—the Spirit of Life.” He goes on to say, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.” And, it says in Verse 10, If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is Life because of righteousness.” The Spirit is your life; the Spirit of God dwells in you. He is you.
Then he says, “You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit” (Verse 9). That is where you are. Now then, in this condition you walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You live this life now—under this new settlement. It is settled in you now, surely has settled in you. You are redeemed by the blood of Christ. So it has settled into you, you are unified with Him in His body at His death and resurrection. In His death, out with the old. You are really CHRIST IN YOU. Now, you have settled in that. Now it says, you walk in that, because you are in the world which shouts flesh at you. The whole world is bent on flesh. This is the false world. This is our privilege to shine as lights in a dark world. So it shouts at us.
Now, if you walk in the flesh, every time you walk in the flesh it cuts you off from God. Result is you are fighting, resenting, hurting and you are in trouble. What does that mean? Walking in the flesh isn’t some big sin; it is self response. Flesh is independent-self. That is what Satan is. It isn’t some vast sin; it isn’t that at all. It merely means that every time I’m tempted, “Oh, what shall I do about that?” I’m in trouble. I am waling straigh...t into, “What shall I do about that, this and the other thing?” You always start that way; that is what life is. Life always is by a negative pull on me. “What about, what about?” Now walking in the flesh doesn’t mean that I’m tempted by the flesh. It means that if I proceed that way I am in trouble. I can’t do it, and I am resentful, hurt, worried, burdened. More fool you!!! All that is to give me a little more education to say, “Why am I such a fool? I am not that, Christ is managing this.” So walking in the Spirit is to recognize Who it is walking you, the Spirit of God. And when you are right, your flesh is an asset, it is through your flesh that God comes.
Then he says, “You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit” (Verse 9). That is where you are. Now then, in this condition you walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You live this life now—under this new settlement. It is settled in you now, surely has settled in you. You are redeemed by the blood of Christ. So it has settled into you, you are unified with Him in His body at His death and resurrection. In His death, out with the old. You are really CHRIST IN YOU. Now, you have settled in that. Now it says, you walk in that, because you are in the world which shouts flesh at you. The whole world is bent on flesh. This is the false world. This is our privilege to shine as lights in a dark world. So it shouts at us.
Now, if you walk in the flesh, every time you walk in the flesh it cuts you off from God. Result is you are fighting, resenting, hurting and you are in trouble. What does that mean? Walking in the flesh isn’t some big sin; it is self response. Flesh is independent-self. That is what Satan is. It isn’t some vast sin; it isn’t that at all. It merely means that every time I’m tempted, “Oh, what shall I do about that?” I’m in trouble. I am waling straigh...t into, “What shall I do about that, this and the other thing?” You always start that way; that is what life is. Life always is by a negative pull on me. “What about, what about?” Now walking in the flesh doesn’t mean that I’m tempted by the flesh. It means that if I proceed that way I am in trouble. I can’t do it, and I am resentful, hurt, worried, burdened. More fool you!!! All that is to give me a little more education to say, “Why am I such a fool? I am not that, Christ is managing this.” So walking in the Spirit is to recognize Who it is walking you, the Spirit of God. And when you are right, your flesh is an asset, it is through your flesh that God comes.
It is only its misuses that are wrong. Its misuse is self, independent-self. That is the flesh, independent-self, which makes you think, “I should do that, I shouldn’t do that.” You learn to live out of that one and you walk and get tempted all the time. But your temptation becomes your practicing grounds. So, he says you have no more debts to pay to the flesh. You are not debtors to the flesh to live under the flesh. The flesh has no call on you. That independent-self got you, through the fall. You are no longer an independent-self. You are Christ in you, and you begin this new life that follows death. When I am tempted to misuse my body, “I am dead, Christ you are right in this and YOU take over, and YOU overthrow the temptation or something.” You get that when you get into Romans 8. He moves away from this flesh/Spirit business. He has left that behind, now. That has been done in these Chapters 6 and 7 and the first part of 8.
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