October 29
God no longer sees the believer in Christ “in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” This is our position in Christ, “to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved,” His own beloved Son. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” But though we are “in the Spirit” positionally before God, we are to translate this into everyday experience. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
The Spirit and the flesh war
For control of our daily life;
If we will follow the Spirit,
He delivers from fleshly strife.
Eph. 1:6; 2 Cor. 5:17-18; Eph. 2:6; Gal. 5:16-17; Rom. 8:12-13.