The Romance of Romans-Part 49

Romans Chapter 8 cont'd

If God's Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, God will take possession of your weak and mortal body by the Spirit, and make it his living vessel. Therefore dear friends, we live with a holy indebtedness; not to live for our selfish pleasures, but for the pleasure of our gracious Master. For if after all this, we stubbornly continue to live selfishly, death, in one form or another, will encroach upon us: but if we ruthlessly put to death our old selfish tendencies and lustful habits by the Spirit's power, true life will flourish and endure.

Comments:

It's like we simply need to choose, in an ongoing way, what is going to "die" in our lives...our extreme and stubborn self-centeredness and all that flows from that basic orientation or...our experience/enjoyment of abundant life in Jesus Christ and the love, peace, joy, meaning and adventure that goes naturally with this quality of life. Either way, one way of being must "die" and the other way will automatically "live". In Christ, the Father has provided all we need to genuinely walk in the freshness of life in the Spirit. Now he is inspiring and urging us to simply cooperate by believing/trusting that it is true and subordinating our energies and powers to the Person of the Holy Spirit whose presence is dwelling in and integrated with our deepest parts, and then, outward to our very physical being. If we respond to this kind of divine initiative, the Holy Spirit will respond to our response and faithfully do his part. He will even help us to respond...he is, afterall, called The Helper!

Paul later calls this latter kind of cooperative response to God's grace and mercy: our "reasonable service of worship". Good theology makes great sense and a whole-hearted response of gratitude, love and service on our part is truly a brilliant investment. Let's do it y'all.