What does Jesus mean? And why, one might think, not prepare in advance, not think through at least in general terms what will have to be said when one has to testify before the authorities? God, of course, will help in a critical situation, but...
What does Jesus mean? And why, one might think, not prepare in advance, not think through at least in general terms what will have to be said when one has to testify before the authorities? God, of course, will help in a critical situation, but it would not be useless for a person himself to think through and formulate his own views and convictions, would it?
If the matter were views and convictions, then perhaps that would be exactly right. If Christianity were some new teaching, new religion, new theology, or new ethical system, then this teaching would have to be defended like any teaching, with arguments in hand, preferably with a clear and preplanned outline, or at least with ready answers to the most probable questions.
But the point is that Christianity is not a new teaching but a new life: life with Christ in the Kingdom He brought into the world. Of course, one can tell about this life just as about any other, but words alone are not enough here: behind them must stand real experience of that very life, so that the listener understands that the speaker really knows what he is talking about. And for this, the life of which the witness speaks must be a reality for him himself, a reality being lived at the very moment when he bears witness to it.
Such speech, of course, cannot be prepared in advance in any way. The breath of the heavenly Father, the breath of the Kingdom, is always unpredictable. One can never say for certain what it will reveal in a minute. Such is the life of the Kingdom in general, and only in this way can one speak about it.
The point is not that in a critical situation it is difficult to speak and therefore the direct participation of the Father, the Savior, the immediate sense of the breath of the Kingdom is needed at that moment. It is needed not only then; it is always needed. Testimony before authorities is only a particular case of testimony in general. But the probability of spiritual failure in a critical situation is, of course, higher. Therefore a Christian especially needs here what he actually needs constantly. And the Savior reminds the disciples listening to Him of this simple truth, the truth that a true witness of the Kingdom is not the one who speaks about the Kingdom, but the one through whom the breath of the Kingdom speaks. And the voice of the Father.
8
8:2 The law of the Spirit - That is, the gospel. Hath freed me from the law of sin and death - That is, the Mosaic dispensation.
8:3 For what the law - Of Moses. Could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh - Incapable of conquering our evil nature. If it could, God needed not to have sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh - We with our sinful flesh were devoted to death. But God sending his own Son, in the likeness of that flesh, though pure from sin, condemned that sin which was in our flesh; gave sentence, that sin should be destroyed, and the believer wholly delivered from it.
8:4 That the righteousness of the law - The holiness it required, described, Rom 8:11.Might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit - Who are guided in all our thoughts, words, and actions, not by corrupt nature, but by the Spirit of God. From this place St. Paul describes primarily the state of believers, and that of unbelievers only to illustrate this.
8:5 They that are after the flesh - Who remain under the guidance of corrupt nature. Mind the things of the flesh - Have their thoughts and affections fixed on such things as gratify corrupt nature; namely, on things visible and temporal; on things of the earth, on pleasure, (of sense or imagination,) praise, or riches. But they who are after the Spirit - Who are under his guidance. Mind the things of the Spirit - Think of, relish, love things invisible, eternal; the things which the Spirit hath revealed, which he works in us, moves us to, and promises to give us.
8:6 For to be carnally minded - That is, to mind the things of the flesh. Is death - The sure mark of spiritual death, and the way to death everlasting. But to be spiritually minded - That is, to mind the things of the Spirit. Is life - A sure mark of spiritual life, and the way to life everlasting. And attended with peace - The peace of God, which is the foretaste of life everlasting; andpeace with God, opposite to the enmity mentioned in the next verse.
8:7 Enmity against God - His existence, power, and providence.
8:8 They who are in the flesh - Under the government of it.
8:9 In the Spirit - Under his government. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ - Dwelling and governing in him. He is none of his - He is not a member of Christ; not a Christian; not in a state of salvation. A plain, express declaration, which admits of no exception. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!
8:10 Now if Christ be in you - Where the Spirit of Christ is, there is Christ. The body indeed is dead - Devoted to death.Because of sin - Heretofore committed. But the Spirit is life - Already truly alive. Because of righteousness - Now attained.From Rom 8:13, St. Paul, having finished what he had begun, Rom 6:1, describes purely the state of believers.
8:12 We are not debtors to the flesh - We ought not to follow it.
8:13 The deeds of the flesh - Not only evil actions, but evil desires, tempers, thoughts. If ye mortify - Kill, destroy these.Ye shall live - The life of faith more abundantly here, and hereafter the life of glory.