Day 2 | Spirituality Application
Read Romans 8:1–18
God the Spirit is all around us, above us, beside us, and even within us. God is like another dimension that transects our dimensions even while remaining distinct from us. But—and this is critical—God calls us, too, to transcend our physical dimension and to join Him in Christ in this spiritual realm. This is what Paul means in Romans 8 when he encourages us no longer to live merely “physical” lives: lives characterized by lust, selfishness, pride, and the mere gratification of our sensual desires. Rather, God wants you to live with Him in the realm of the Spirit where there is no condemnation, where there is life, where there is peace and glory.
So, how do we do this? Paul is clear. We must set our minds on what the Spirit desires so that we can put to death the deeds of the body. Ultimately, living in the Spirit is a matter of the mind, for it is there that we most fully engage the spiritual realities around us. With the mind, we determine to live by truth rather than by lies. With the mind, we commit ourselves to love and faithfulness, even in a faithless age. With the mind, we determine to live in the hope of eternity, pushing through our struggles, our failures, and our sorrows. To borrow from another of Paul’s letters, we set our minds on things above, where Christ is already ruling (Colossians 3:2–3).
When we set our affections on the spiritual, God begins to transform us into His very likeness. This is what it means to have the Holy Spirit as a “deposit” of Heaven itself (2 Corinthians 1:22). It is what Peter means when he says that we can actually participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Accepting Christ through faith, then, not only justifies us in the middle of our guilt. It also opens the door for a whole new way of existing: alive in the Spirit. Acts 2:38–39 says that those who repent and are baptized are given the gift of the Spirit; Ephesians 6:18 teaches us to pray in the Spirit. If you’re ready for a whole new life, put your faith in Christ; repent of your sin; pray for the Spirit; and receive Christian baptism!
Pray for 10 minutes