Dr Paul Allen

How would you answer if I were to ask, “Who are you?” No doubt you’d say things about where you’re from, what you enjoy, and what you do for a living. As we look to Romans 8, Paul states our identity: we’re “in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1–2). We’re justified and no longer condemned. Our assurance is a Christ-centered reality. In addition, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit nineteen times in verses 1–27. In other words, because we’re in Christ we’re also in the Spirit. Paul proclaims our assurance is a Spirit-produced reality. CONTRASTING IDENTITIES (ROM. 8:5–8) A Different Kind of People. The ESV refers to “those who live according to the flesh” and “those who live according to the Spirit.” The Greek word translated “live” (ontes), however, is better translated as “are”: He actually says “those who are according to the flesh” versus “those who are according to the Spirit.” To be “according to the flesh” is to be born dead in sin, condemned, and bonded to sin and death.  To be “according to the

We all sin, many times daily! We sin secretly and may repent secretly, or with brother.  We may habit a habitual sin, where we daily repent but keep falling into temptation. Sometimes we are put on a pedestal, admired, but sin lays within. You feel you are too deep into brokenness and sin. Is brokenness the same as sin? Is repentance needed daily? WHAT DO YOU DO? The true believer’s response to the gospel of Jesus Christ is to pursue a radical transformation of the heart and mind in order to be conformed to the image of God in Christ (Col. 3:10).1 The central endeavour of this response is repentance. Repentance is the necessary response to the gospel through faith, as both faith and repentance are mutually congruent and inseparable.2  Repentance necessarily entails the pursuit to arrest and vanquish our innate corruption while intentionally pursuing a newness of life in the likeness of Christ. The former is what the Scriptures call mortification, and the latter, vivification.3 Johannes