The flesh is linked in Adam while the Spirit is with Christ.
For us to enjoy the provisions of what is in Christ, we must live in the Spirit. If we live after the flesh, even though in fact in Christ, we will only experience what is in Adam.
Living in the Spirit entails that we trust the Holy Spirit that dwells within us to do in us what we cannot do by ourself. We trust and rest in Him to manifest the reality of the resurrected life. We come to the end of ourselves of constant trying and struggling to do His will by ourselves, and hand over that ability to Him to do it in us. Exodus 14:13
Satan’s strategy for keeping us in perpertual defeat is to always cause us to act and do everything in the flesh — both trying to please God and reacting to situations and circumstances. The flesh is his realm and he knows how to use it against us, but we must not give in to the demands of the flesh by resting on the Holy Spirit to live out the newness of life in us.
God commands us to walk by the Spirit, for it is by doing so that the Spirit gains for us new victories of the flesh everyday. Galatians 5:16
Our victory lies in hiding in Christ, and in counting in simple trust upon His Holy Spirit to overcome in us our fleshly lusts with His own new desires. — Watchman Nee
Regeneration means that the life of Christ is planted in us by the Holy Spirit at our new birth. `Reproduction’ goes further: it means that new life grows and becomes manifest progressively in us, until the very likeness of Christ begins to be reproduced in our lives. That is what Paul means when he speaks of his travail for the Galations “until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). — Watchman Nee
Jesus is Grace personified who lives in us by His Holy Spirit. He is every good thing in God that we ever needed to become and manifest. Hence, God does not dispense grace in doses — patience, love, meekness, etc. rather His Son is a sumation of those graces and as we look to Him, we manifest all those graces in experience. 1 John 5:11,12; Romans 6:23; 1 Corithians 1:30; Galatians 5:22.
How can we grow in ever increasing grace? It’s first by realising and accepting that we are deficient in ourselves. Secondly, we become aware that only Christ and Christ alone can help us.
Two Concepts:
- Sin and the law of sin
- Death and the law of death
What is a Law? A law is a generalization examined until it is proved that there is no exception. From this definition of a law we can conlude that:
- A law is not just an assumption but something that has been carefully studied and tested. It must be applicable universally in all cases observed, without exception, for it to be considered a law.
- A law describes a repeated and predictable occurrence. It reflects consistency in outcomes when the same conditions are met, making it a reliable description of how things function.
In essence, a law is a thoroughly verified principle that describes a consistent and repeatable pattern in nature or behavior, which can be confidently expected to occur in the same way every time.
Difference Between Sin and the Law of Sin If someone insults me and I slap that person, it means I have commited a sin, but if I find myself slapping everyone that insults me, then there is a law within me that causes me to slap people under the condition of being insulted. The law is there and it thrives under a condition. That law is called the law of sin and death.
Difference Between Death and the Law of Death Death is weakness produced to its limit. It’s “I cannot”. If we try to please God in the flesh and fails, immediatelly it produces a weakness in us (I cannot). If we devise another stragy in the flesh to please Him, and fail again and again, and the cycle keeps repeating, we realise that there is a law that causes it. That law is called the law of death.
How can We be delivered from the Law of Sin and Death? Just like the way natural laws cannot be destroyed even so the law of sin and death cannot be destroyed. Laws can neither be broken nor destroyed.
The law of gravity entails that anything that has mass when thrown up will be pulled down. To oppose or counterect the law of gravity, we can neither break it nor destry it, but introduce a new law under certain conditions. E.g to have an object fly in the air, you have to introduce the law of Aerodynamics which opposes the law of gravity under the condition of pressure difference created by the shape of the wings of an aircraft.
God does not destroy or break the law of sin and death to deliver us from it. He introduces another law called the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which super-imposes the law of sin and death under the condition of resting on and trusting in the Holy Spirit.
Why do men use will-power to try to please God?
- They might not have experienced the new birth.
- They may have been born again and the life be there, but they have not learned to trust in that life.
If we will let go our own wills and trust Him, we shall not fall to the ground and break, but we shall fall into a different law, the law of the Spirit of life. — Watchman Nee
Our fleshly and carnal will is what interfers with the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Even though present, it is rendered impotent by our will.
Is the the law of the Spirit of Life that gives us hunger for the things of the kingdom og God:
- Fasting
- Prayer
- Reading the Bible
- Fellowship with the brethren
- Etc.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:34
The above scripture is of two fold:
- What the Lord has done for us.
- What the Holy Spirit will do in us.
What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Walking in the Spirit means to be subjective to the Spirit. That is, to be totally dependent on the Holy Spirit and obey Him, for in this practices will the law of the Spirit of Life be in full operation in our lives, hence the ordinances of the law (the things I have been trying to do to please God) becomes fulfilled bu Him in me and not by me.
Colosians 1:29; Galatians 5:19,22; Romans 8:14.