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 ...

Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh, with the passions and lusts thereof. If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk (Gal. 5:16, 24–25) “If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us walk.” These words suggest to us very clearly the difference between the sickly and the healthy Christian life. In the former the Christian is content to “live by the Spirit;” he is satisfied with knowing that he has a new life, but he does not walk by the Spirit. The true believer, on the contrary, is not content without having his whole walk and conversation in the power of the Spirit. He walks by the Spirit, and so does not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Failure to Walk in the Spirit As the Christian strives thus to walk worthy of God and well-pleasing to Him in all things, he is often sorely troubled at the power of sin and asks what the cause may be that he so often fails in conquering it....

Whenever you see spirit and flesh set side by side in a passage (“the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” or “the spirit wars against the flesh,” as Paul says here), we’re talking about, not the warfare between the physical body of man and his internal, mental, or spiritual inclinations, but rather the conflict that every Christian experiences between his old nature—his fallen nature, which is corrupt and is filled with desires that are not pleasing to God— and the new nature within him that has been brought to pass by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.  Now, life becomes complicated once we are renewed by the Holy Spirit (when we become a Christian); now we have two principles at war within ourselves: the old inclinations and the new inclinations.  The old inclination is against God, and the new inclination is to obey God and to do that which is pleasing to him. In this Galatians passage, Paul discusses the ongoing battle that all Christians experien...