Who's In Control?

Jesus said,
"I tell you the truth,
everyone who sins is a slave to sin."

So I find this law at work:
When I want to do good,
evil is right there with me.

For in my inner being
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 a slave to the law of sin.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus,
because through Christ Jesus
the law of the Spirit of life set me free
from the law of sin and death.

For what the law was powerless to do
in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,
God did by sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
in order that the righteous requirements of the law
might be fully met in us,
who do not live according to the sinful nature
but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature
have their minds set on what that nature desires;
but those who live in accordance with the Spirit
have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

The mind of sinful man is death,
but the mind controlled by the Spirit
is life and peace;
the sinful mind is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

Those controlled by the sinful nature
cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature
but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.
And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
he does not belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you,
your body is dead because of sin,
yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

And if the Spirit of him
who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
he who raised Christ from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies
through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation --
but it is not to the sinful nature,
to live according to it.

For if you live according to the sinful nature,
you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death
the misdeeds of the body, you will live,

because those who are led by the Spirit of God
are sons of God.

For you did not receive a spirit
that makes you a slave again to fear,
but you received the Spirit of sonship.
And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit
that we are God's children.

Now if we are children, then we are heirs --
heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,
if indeed we share in his sufferings
in order that we may also share in his glory.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express.

And he who searches our hearts
knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints
in accordance with God's will.

(John 8:34; Romans 7:21-25; 8:1-17, 26, 27;
All scripture taken from New International Version.)

Is the Spirit leading YOU?


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