8/5-expanded

News: umm... we went on a day trip to the mountains for Labor Day. Did you all do anything?
Otherwise, my weeks have been fairly uneventful. Dance starts on Tuesday. Unfortunately, due to minimal signups of older girls, we're having to shift the classes. Although I was a bit daunted by having 11 and 12 year old girls to teach, some of whom have probably been dancing for longer than I have, I was excited to be able to teach them some more complicated dance steps and choreography. Now instead it appears I will have mostly 10 and 11 year olds-not too much of a difference in many ways, but enough that I'll have to do some tweaking... but God has a plan in this too!
New news: slightly random, yet exciting :-) Amy and I swing danced (swung danced??? :-)) together a few nights ago (she leads), and we came up with 4 new moves together! Very happifying! :-) They are called (drumroll) the Washer, the Dryer, the Milkshake and (both of our favorites... unsure about the grammar of that comment... :-))... the Lasso!

Nuggets: (warning: !very! long! --but probably more worthwhile than most things I write, as it is based on the Bible-in fact, having a Bible handy would probably be useful... or here is a useful resource, an online searchable Bible, and for a mostly irrelevant comment, here is a very cool resource, an online clickable Bible that gives you the transliteration of the original word, its etymology, definitions, and usage throughout the KJV-who knew that the word used in Gen 1:21 for "whales" is more often used for "dragon"??)
Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense-I'm using some shorthand and incomplete sentences for relative brevity, but I fear I may sacrifice clarity... if so, drop me a comment to that effect and I'll edit it.
Romans 8:1-"There is therefore" is a strange phrase to use, given ch. 7. There is no condemnation because I sin and sin? Rather despite! But the final verse of ch 7 is different: God has delivered and forgiven him! Therefore, because of Christ Jesus, there is no more condemnation! But ch 7 does have a bit more to say: this condemnation is primarily what happens as a result of omission in our lives, not God condemning us to Hell (though there is none of that either!) So what is condemnation? The act or process of condemning. To condemn is "to justly blame, to consider worthy of painful or final punishment after full consideration of the evidence." We are all justly condemned. But God - He has taken our just punishment, and so can say: NO CONDEMNATION! FOR ANYTHING! And now that we are in Christ Jesus, we can't be justly condemned for the sin that we do is not done by us, but by sin within us! (7:17) Because we are included in Christ, in His death and resurrection, we are no longer slaves to sin: PTL! But the next clause is discouraging: "who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." The unequivocal, triumphant NO CONDEMNATION - no longer. Or so it seems. Really, this is just a repetition, in different language, of "for those who are in Christ Jesus." Reading on, especially v. 9, we see that only Christians and all Christians (those who have the Spirit of God) walk according to the Spirit. Thank you God - what a relief!*
v2-Because we are in Christ Jesus, identified with Him (6:4), the Spirit of life has freed us all from the law of sin and death (now that Adam has sinned, all must sin/all have sinned, so all must die, in both senses of die).
v3-4-The law was perfect. That was not its problem - Jesus was too. But the Law, like God, was "spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin" (7:14). The spiritual law was weak - it couldn't help us carnal ones. BUT GOD. Sent His own Son. In the likeness of sinful flesh. -Likeness: he looked like us. He was like us. But He was not the same as us. He alone was able to do what the Law couldn't do through us: fulfill the "righteous requirements of the Law" (v 4). Now - because of what He has done - glorious truth! - He fulfills the Law also through us! Holiness is possible!
v5-"Set their minds"-interesting-"set." Like lie and lay, sit and set imply different things. Set implies an inanimate object which, once placed somewhere, will not move - if only it were so! (with minds). It also implies setting a course - determining a direction - and setting something up: starting with the basics to create something lasting. Finally, to have something set - especially in stone - means to have it done, complete, unchangeable. All of these meanings of "set" reflect on what we should be doing with our minds: setting a course, working from the ground up to make sure it will last, then making it definite and unchangeable - accomplished only through God's power! The fact that our minds are set is, however, something that we can rest on and return to, thanks to Him! (for further explanation of this last comment, see my Watchman Nee quote here).
(see v14 for comments on v5-v9. For those verses, see also Phil. 3:10, Col 3:2)
v9-In the flesh/in the Spirit is our state of being - our spiritual nature. But we must still live according to the Spirit and therefore set our minds on things of the Spirit (v. 5). What are the "things of the Spirit"? Things above, not earthly things: God, the fruit of the Spirit, etc. I must remember though that "in the Spirit" is what I truly am - then live that way (again, see the Watchman Nee quote for further explanation).
v10-(cf 2 Cor. 2:15-16, which helped me think of this) If Christ is in us, He has killed the "old man" (Rom 6) so our bodies/flesh are dead. However, because of His righteousness which He gives us, the Spirit is alive/makes us alive in our spirits. Were it not for Christ's righteousness, the Spirit's holiness would be condemning, not lifegiving.
v12- v11 was straightforward. Here I ask, "what is therefore there for?" as my parents would say. Look at v7-v8. Since those who are in the flesh cannot please God - at all - it is obvious that our pleasing God through being in the Spirit is all His work (otherwise, transferring ourselves to teh Spirit in order to please Him would be something done in the flesh pleasing to Him). The rest of v12 corraborates this: "debtors-not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." In other words, we don't we anything to the flesh. It didn't do anything for us! God did-praise Him!
v14-"...in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (v1, v4)
"those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those of the Spirit, the things of the Spirit" (v5)
"if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (v13)
"for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." (v14)
There seem to be a lot of qualifiers in Rom 8. You're this - if you do (or have) that. Lots of "ifs" I guess (more than just the above) - 6 in all, with an additional 4 implied, so far. It feels very conditional, quite unlike the triumphant Romans 8 I knew from memorization (I only memorized vv. 1-2, 28-39). In fact, it feels like the emphasis is on what we do rather than what God does. However, after quite a bit of study, here is what I have come up with: the key was vv. 8-9, and a set of 3 little words: in, in and in. In my Bible, they make a neat little triangle :-). In the flesh, we cannot please God. (Implied) But in the Spirit, we can. Since in the flesh we cannot please God, in the flesh we cannot put ourselves into the Spirit, for then we would please God. Therefore, in the flesh/in the Spirit must be something that God does. But that doesn't seem to solve anything: look at how often "walk in the Spirit" or "set your minds according to the Spirit" or phrases like that - apparently about our responsibility - occur! Again, the key is v. 8, specifically the first two words: so then (NKJV). This implies that the sentence following summarizes the previous paragraph or so... and look at that! That means that walking, living according to, setting minds... these are all functions of being "in the Spirit" or "in the flesh"! Hurrah! I knew all along that it was there somewhere-that Rom. 8 declared God's soveriegnty too, despite what my deeper study uncovered about our responsibility too.
v15-It is great how God's Word explains itself. Looking at earlier verses, it would ave been easy to be afraid (without the insight of under v. 14 above). Setting our minds according to the flesh leads to death, as do a host of other things. BUT this Spirit we are to live according to is not a Spirit of fear, but of adoption! No worries; in God's Father-heart there is pardon.
v18-Present sufferings < future glory... makes sense. I know God's glory is great - greater, actually. The verse says "not even worthy [of] compar[ison]" - they're not even on the same level at all! But here is the greater mystery, the greatest glory: our present suffering is unworthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us! All to His ultimate glory, of course!
v20-Hope does not equal wishful thinking. Spiritual hope is based on God, and is closer to faith than to hope as usually defined. Here is one definition: "a confident expectation in things beyond this world." And when God hopes, certainty is closer to the mark: eager anticipation of what is going to come-glorious liberty (v 21) - hallelujah! v25 corraborates: "if we hope...we wait eagerly with perseverence" - we're anticipating, expecting, that is our hoping. We're waiting on a certainty because we're waiting on God - hallelujah!
v20- Bondage of corruption vs. glorious liberty of the children of God is the central contrast in this verse. Yet we are God's children and still enslaved to corruption so far as we can see... not so! For although it still has power over our bodies, yet its sting and victory are gone! And we are no way bound to corruption in our spirits! (drawn, but not bound) We can improve! Grow! Change! Praise Him!

And that is as far as I have reached, having taken a hiatus or two (umm... four actually I think). I'll resume this study after I've completed my study of Nahum 1 for dance  (I know, who studies the minor prophets with 10 year olds? ...Well, who studies Ruth with 9 year olds? You guessed it-me :-). And it worked well, I think, with God's blessing, of course...)