Daily - 4/29/08

Sometimes you’ll see the life in the flesh referred to as “the world” by Jesus in the gospels, and Satan as the “prince of the world.” When we commit our lives to Christ, we die to the life of the flesh (ie, “the World”), and move to the life in the Spirit. Paul describes this process in his letters, but sometimes you have to move from one to another to see the whole picture:


2 Corinthians 5:17

14 For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died.

15 He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

16 Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.

17 So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.


Galatians 2:19-20

19 For through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ;

20 yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.

Romans 8:5-13

5 For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit.

6 The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.

7 For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it;

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.

12 Consequently, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

This transition from life in the flesh to life in the Spirit is what happens when we make a commitment to Christ. In my experience, this isn’t something that happens according to a calendar. Although I had gone through the standard Catholic progression of sacraments, I didn’t make a commitment to Christ until I was 32 years old. The transition from life in the flesh to life in the spirit didn’t begin in earnest until then. It’s still going on, and it will continue until I die.

And quite frankly it has been difficult at times. Although the spirit of Christ lives in us, we still live in the world, and we’re also stuck with these mortal bodies that are sinful by nature. Paul himself mourned this struggle in Romans 7. More on that tomorrow.