Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

When Scripture admonishes the believer concerning the lifestyle of a Christian, the intention is to reveal what can identify one who is reborn. It’s not like the admonitions are as though one who is reborn and indwelt by God’s Spirit would ever desire to “live after the flesh,” considering this is exactly what God guards against in those who His (Phil 2:13), but it’s to reveal the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom 8:19).

Jesus spoke and demonstrated what redemption meant and of what was to be expected from one who is redeemed so that it could be known of what it was to be a Christian. After the Lord’s ascension the Apostles were inspired by God’s Spirit to know and wright of what the Christian life involves, and from then on they and others would know what lifestyle is expected from one who is born-again.

Thus, all through the time the Bible was being written, Christians were beginning to learn how the Spirit was applying God’s Word to their lives. For example Romans 8 contrasts the life of a believer and an unbeliever, neither from which can come both a lifestyle of evil and good. The Lord Jesus declared that nobody can be good and evil simultaneously (Mat 7:16-20). James hyperbolically wrote, “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter . . . so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh” (Jam 3:11, 12).

Romans 8 is probably the best description of this principle:
Verses 1, 4 refer to those “who walk after the flesh” and those “who walk after the Spirit”; neither can do both.

Verse 5 states that those who “are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit”; again, it’s only one or the other.

Verse 6 shows you are either “carnally minded” or “spiritually minded”; the believer cannot be carnally minded because it would involve “death” (“second death,” e.g. “lake of fire”).

Verse 7 states that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” This is not to be confused with being “carnal.” Paul in 1Cor 3:1 stated that there were those who were in Christ, but were still carnal and at the maturity level of spiritual “babes” (v 1), who were just learning.

Verse 9 states that Christians “are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,” thus—nobody can do both! It may at times seem that way but it’s just the trial-and-error learning period that gives a temporary appearance as so. Therefore it’s just a matter of time until maturity manifests itself via the new life of the Lord Jesus which is within the saint (Col 4:3).