Reading for August 16th

 Read Romans 8.1-11. In verses 1-8: Life inthe Spirit. In verse 1: No condemnation: Those in Christ no longer feel doomed (Jn 5.24). In verse 2: God life-giving Spirit unleashed in Christ becomes a liberating law, replacing the Mosaic law that sin uses to produce death (7.5, 11). In verses 3-4: By sending Christ as a sin offering, God met the requirement of the law (Lev 4-5). Recognizing what the law ... could not do, however, God  dealt with humans in (sin in the flesh) with a human sacrifice (in the likeness of sinful flesh) with a human sacrifice (in the likeness or sinful flesh). In verses 5-8: Flesh and Spirit represents opposing outlooks, with different lifestyles and consequences: death versus life and peace (Gal 5.16-26). In verses 9-11: God, Christ, Spirit. Paul now uses the plural form of you (8.2). His main focus maybe group rather than individual identity. In verse 9: Having the Spirit of Christ becomes the distinguishing mark of Christian identity. In verse 10: If Christ is in you: Christ's pattern of "dying and rising" becomes part of us (Gal 2.19-20). Our body may be mortal because of Adam's sin, yet our spirit lives because of God's righteousness shown through Christ (5.18). In verse 11: God's Spirit living with in us links our experience of the risen Christ with our hope of resurrection life. Comments or Questions..