In part 5
This is a big passage of Scripture. Not in length, but in depth. So we might roll this idea right into the next Rant series. Ready? Let's go. Romans 8:9-10, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." In life. In death. Where you dwell. What you believe. And it all comes down to the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit. The love receptor. Because its all about love. No love... no life. Know love... know life! Love is the difference between life and death. Period. If Christ be in you the body is dead because sin is death. But sin is dead because Jesus died and rose again. There is no room in life for death. Just as 1 John 1:5 says, "This then is the message we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." How could there be darkness in light? How could there be death in life? And most people would take this idea to contrast love and hate. But when the Bible speaks about something not being in love... it speaks of fear. Love and fear. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18). I think that's important. And, listen, I think in some ways hate and fear are very much the same thing. But I think what we're really talking about here is not being afraid to love. Not being afraid to put yourself out there. Not being afraid to lose what we've got by giving it away--because we know that we are connected to the unlimited source. We know, in fact and in truth, that the more we give what we've got, the more we experience what we've got. The more we have it. The love is in the giving. Because love IS giving. Its not about getting anything. Its not about losing anything. Its about sharing what we have. Sharing who we are. And we can't do that unless and until we know who we are. Unless and until we know what we've got. And let me just lay it out for you: Who we are... is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. What we've got... is everything. God has blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in the heavenly Christ. He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. We are who we need to be. We have what we need to have. We are not in the flesh. We are in Christ. In the Spirit. Because the Spirit is in us. Because Christ is in us. We are in love, because love is in us. And because love is in us... love can come out of us. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. We love because God first loved us. He gave us what we needed so that we could experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love. He gave us Himself. He lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Christ is in us. The body is dead. The Spirit lives!