So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being (MY spirit) I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of SIN at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? THANKS BE TO GOD- through JESUS CHRIST our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the SINFUL NATURE (THE FLESH) a slave to the law of SIN. THEREFORE, there is no CODEMNATION for those who are in CHRIST JESUS, because through CHRIST JESUS the law of the SPIRIT OF LIFE (THE HOLY SPIRIT) set me free from the law of SIN and DEATH. For what the LAW WAS POWERLESS to do in that it was WEAKEN by the SINFUL NATURE (THE FLESH), GOD did by sending his own SON (JESUS) in the likeness of SINFUL MAN (THE FLESH) to be a SIN OFFERING. And so GOD CONDEMED SIN in SINFUL MAN (THE FLESH), in order that the RIGHTEOUS REQUIREMENTS of the law might fully met in us, who do not LIVE according to the SINFUL NATURE (THE FLESH) but according to the SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT).
Those who LIVE according to the SINFUL NATURE (THE FLESH) have their MINDS set on what that nature DESIRES (Gal.3:19-21); but those who LIVE in accordance with the SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT) have their MINDS set on what the SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT) DESIRES (Gal.3:22-23). The MIND of SINFUL MAN (FLESH) is DEATH, but the MIND CONTROLLED by the SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT) is LIFE and PEACE; the SINFUL MIND(the MIND set on the FLESH) is HOSTILE to GOD. It does not SUBMIT to GOD'S LAW, nor can it do so. Those CONTROLLED by the SINFUL NATURE (THE FLESH) cannot please GOD.
You however are CONTROLLED not by the SINFUL NATURE (THE FLESH) but by the SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT), if the SPIRIT OF GOD (THE HOLY SPIRIT) LIVES in you. And if anyone does not have the SPIRIT OF CHRIST, he does not belong to CHRIST JESUS. But if CHRIST JESUS is in you, your BODY (THE FLESH) is DEAD because of SIN, yet your spirit (THE INNER MAN) is alive because of RIGHTEOUSNESS (RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD). And if the SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT) of GOD who RAISED JESUS CHRIST from the DEAD is LIVING in you, GOD who RAISED JESUS CHRIST from the DEAD will also give LIFE to your MORTAL BODIES (THE FLESH) THROUGH GOD's SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT), WHO LIVES IN YOU!
THEREFORE, BROTHERS, we have an OBLIGATION- but it is not to the SINFUL NATURE (THE FLESH), to LIVE according to it. For if you LIVE according to the SINFUL NATURE, you will DIE; but if by the SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT) you put to DEATH the MISDEEDS (SINS) of the BODY (THE FLESH), you will LIVE, because those who are led by the SPIRIT OF GOD (THE HOLY SPIRIT) are SONS of GOD. For you did not RECIEVE a spirit (THE INNER MAN) that makes you a SLAVE again to FEAR, but you RECIEVED the SPIRIT OF SONSHIP (ADOPTION). And by HIM (THE HOLY SPIRIT) WE CRY," ABBA, FATHER". The SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT) HIMSELF testifies with OUR spirit (THE INNER MAN) that we are GOD'S CHILDREN. Now if we are CHILDREN, then we are heirs- heirs of GOD and co-heirs with JESUS CHRIST, if indeed we share in HIS (CHRIST) SUFFERINGS (HE SUFFERED for our SINS) in order that we may also share in HIS (CHRIST) GLORY (ETERNAL LIFE). AMEN!
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