May God bless you with continued health and wisdom and a voice here.

Because of Christ,
Steve Valentine

Verse 16 ends with a promise “…you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” This is opposed to the command found in the RSV of the same verse. The command as stated in the RSV is just one more thing that I cannot live up to, but the proper translation stated as a promise takes the power out of my hands and firmly places it where it belongs – in the realm of the Spirit; relieving me from a doomed quest to meet the standard by my own doing. It can do this because of v.24; the flesh has been crucified in Christ.

Yet there still is a war waged in my flesh because the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit contrary to the flesh. Now this is not a bad thing because as I see it, this war is a sign that the Spirit indwells me. In other words, walking with the Spirit does not mean that all of my bad desires have been conquered and are now gone but that I now struggle to overcome them with the power of the Spirit; where as before the indwelling I would just cave to the fleshly desires. This war is fought in at least two ways: 1) objectively trough the word of God and 2) subjectively through my inner convictions.

Now, as I walk with and am led by the Spirit I am abiding in the Vine (John 15.4-5). No branch can bear fruit by itself; it can only do so as long as it abides in the Vine. If by the above stated indwelling I know that I abide in the Vine then my fruit that I bear is not of myself but a gift from God who has placed His spirit in me, and these not for my consumption but for the nourishment of others. Thus I live by faith/faithfulness and by love, and etc.

So now that the flesh has been crucified and the Spirit dwells in me there is no fear of the law because the law is being fulfilled by the fruit that is produce by the Spirit in me. In other words, how can I be under the weight of the law when the requirements of the law are blooming out of every branch of my life?

Without realizing that it is the Spirit that produces the requirements of the law, I see grace as only the top rung of a latter that I have to climb of my own strength. But knowing that the Spirit dwells in me due to my walk with it and by letting it lead me I can then move along knowing that grace is the side rails of a ladder that I and the Spirit climb together.

I know this has left out much of what you have covered in your post, but I wanted to know if I was moving along the right direction. Your input is greatly appreciated.

Because of Christ,
Steve Valentine

Jesus said you will know false teachers (prophets) by their fruit. Even as a lad growing up in “the church” I used to wonder about some of the fruit that I saw in the congregations I knew. As I became older, I began to realize that this bad fruit did not come from the seed of the gospel. It came, instead, from the flesh.

As long as we emphasize the “rules” while ignoring the Spirit, we will continue to have such evil fruit and will continue to “bite and devour one another.”