Rabbi Schneider - The Spirit of Life
Now, as we continue on, we're going to pick up reading the words that Paul spoke that iterate exactly what I just said to you. Here it is in verse number 22 of Romans 7. Let's go to 21. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. So Saul Paul says I love God, but he says at times I almost feel like I'm held captive by this other law in my nature, the law of sin. And then he goes on to describe, Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? And then he says, Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, through Yeshua HaMashiach our Lord. So that on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh the law of sin. But listen, beloved. I don't want you to take this to mean that he's living this double-natured life.
Paul talked about we resist sin, we resist sin with all our heart, strength, soul, and mind. We present ourselves as instruments to God. But he's simply recognizing, beloved, the struggle of humanity. You see, within Judaism, we're taught that we have two natures, that we have an evil inclination, and this is what Paul's describing here. He's actually talking from almost a rabbinic mindset here. There's an evil inclination. What would an evil inclination be? An evil inclination would be the temptation to gossip. How many of you can relate to that? The temptation to want to know things that are not even worth knowing. They're unprofitable, they're death. That's the evil inclination. So within men there's the evil inclination, then there's also, when we're born again, there's the good inclination, the God inclination. And we must rise up in God and crush the evil under our feet.
And as we're living for the Lord, beloved, crushing the devil under our feet, the Lord wants us to know that when we slip, not because we've given ourself excuse to fall, but because we're trying our best, but we're still human, God says I still love you, I forgive you, don't define yourself by that fall, you are mine, you are righteous, let's continue on together, pick yourself up, let's continue to go on because I'm going to crush Satan under your feet completely, and you will win the victory absolutely, you will be free indeed. So Paul continues now with this word in Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set me free from the law of sin and death.
This is awesome. Get this now. First of all, Paul says don't let yourself be condemned. Jesus paid for your sin. Don't allow condemnation to come upon you. Your sin has already been paid for. And then he says secondly, not only has your sin be been paid for, but get the next verse, Romans 8:2, listen, That the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free, he said, from the law of sin and death. Get that. The law of the Spirit of life in Yeshua HaMashiach, Paul says, has set me free, Romans 8:2, from the law of sin and death. What is he saying? He's saying that even though I've got these two natures in my body and at times I feel them waging war against each other, the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit lusteth against the flesh, there's this war inside me between my two natures. He said I have the victory because the law of the Spirit of life in me is the more powerful one.
He says in Romans 8:2 once again, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. What is he saying? Not only am I forgiven, not only is there no condemnation on me, but the law of life that's in me is going to ascend above the law of death and crush it under its feet. In other words, beloved, if you have, for example, an airplane, when you look at an airplane, the law that the airplane contends with is the law of gravity. So when you look at a jet airplane, there's two laws that are at work in a jet airplane.
Number one, there's the law of gravity. The law of gravity is pulling that jet down to the ground. The law of gravity is pulling that jet downward, trying to keep it earthbound. It's a very real power, it's a very real nature, you could say. But also operating in that airplane in addition to the law of gravity is the law of the jet engine. That there's another law in the jet's engine, and that the law in the jet's engine is stronger than the law of gravity. So that even though the law of gravity is seeking to pull the jet down and to keep it connected to materialism and to the earth, the power of the engine in the jet is more powerful so that the jet is able to ascend through and above the law of gravity and to live above it. And that's what Paul's saying here. Thanks be to God that gives me the victory. The law of the Spirit of life in me is stronger than the law of death and sin in my members. The law of the Spirit of life, listen, has set me free from the law of death. Hallelujah.
Read it again. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. And this is an awesome verse, beloved, that even though we're in this battle, it's not like it's a tie, it's not like we hope we can overcome. We will overcome, hallelujah, because Jesus inside us is greater than he that's in the world. The power that raised Yeshua from the dead lives in us, so we have the power to put the evil nature, beloved, to death under our feet. Thanks be to God that gives us the victory.
And by the way, this verse here in Romans 8 verse 2 can also be used in the law of healing. That when our body gets sick, when we get an infection, when we're dealing with some type of physical illness, we just begin to confess the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. I command you out, sickness, in Jesus' name. The law of the Spirit of life, hallelujah, has set me free from the law of sin and death. I am whole, I am healed in Jesus' name. The law of the Spirit of life, hallelujah, has set me free from the law of death. I am whole, I am healed, I am victorious, hallelujah. I live in victory in Jesus' name and for Jesus' fame, glory to God and amen.
Now, let's continue on in verse number 3. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending his Son, his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. As an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. And so what Paul is saying here, the law couldn't bring me into relationship with God because of the sin nature within my flesh. What the law couldn't do for me, Paul says, Jesus did do for me by dying in my place as an offering for my sin, forgiving my sin by his offering, and then putting, hallelujah, his Spirit, bless the name of the Lord, within me. I'm going to continue on now in verse number 5. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
So this will help you know, are you living in the flesh, or are you living in the Spirit? And Paul actually defines the flesh. The things of the flesh are lust, envy, jealousy, murder, self-ambition, gossip and all these things that are fleshly, they're the nature of the world today. The world even esteems these things. But the law of the Spirit is fixing our mind on Jesus and overcoming by the Spirit of God in love, in joy, in hope, et cetera, et cetera. Confidence, courage in the Lord. Verse number 6, For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it's not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
How do we know if we're in the Spirit? Listen to this. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Son who indwells you. Paul is reiterating, beloved, what I just got done sharing on. That if God's Spirit is in us, we must set our mind on the Spirit. And if we set our mind on the Spirit and choose to overcome, remember Jesus said seven times in just the first two chapters of the book of Revelation, he that overcomes will inherit these things, he that overcomes will sit down with me on my throne, even as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
You see, Jesus had overcome, too. Remember when he was about to go to the cross, it was so painful, it was so hard. Jesus said Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will, but thy will be done. Jesus also had to overcome. He had to resist Satan. He had to resist sin. He went into the wilderness resisting Satan. After that temptation experience in the wilderness, the Bible says he was so weak, beloved, that angels had to come and minister to him. We have to overcome, too. We have to resist sin. We have to resist the lust of the flesh. We have to resist, beloved, the prince of the power of the air that's now working in the sons of disobedience. We have to resist gossip. We have to resist jealousy. We have to resist hating. We have to resist being self-willed. We have to resist being stubborn. We have to resist being arrogant. And we set our mind on the Spirit, we set our mind on obedience to the Lord, on taking every thought captive, on being humble, on putting Jesus first, on releasing our finances to him, on being giving people, on allowing him to cleanse us. Beloved, when we set our mind in the Spirit, we reap from the Spirit. And the Bible says when we do this, we reap life.
Now, Paul goes on to say here this. How do we know if we're in the Spirit? Two ways. Number one, if we're setting our mind and the direction and course of our life on pursuing the things of the Spirit, that's the first way we know. Paul says the second way we know if we're in the Spirit and are reaping life is if, listen now, if Jesus' Spirit really lives within us. I want you to get this. This is a scientific, church, I'm talking to you, and this is a real reality. The same Spirit that raised Jesus physically and literally visibly from the dead is inside us. This is the point that Paul's making. This is why we can overcome. This is why we have power. This is why in Acts chapter 2 when the Spirit of God was given, they were able to speak in unknown languages, because a real life force, a real entity had come to take up residence in them.
So listen to what Paul says here once again. However, verse number 9, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. So Paul says this is absolutely necessary. This is the mystery, beloved, of the Gospel. Christ in you, Paul says, the hope of glory. How are we going to overcome? By Christ in us, by Yeshua in us, by Yeshua taking up residence in us, the hope of glory. Because he's in us, because the one that rose from the dead is in us, because the one, beloved, that rolled away the stone is in us, because the one that conquered every principality and power of darkness is in us, we too, beloved, will overcome. He that's born of God overcomes the world. But this is not just a doctrine. This is a real principle. This is a real scientific spiritual reality. Jesus is in us.
And I want you to know that in much of the Western church, this is a doctrine that people know in their mind, but they have very little experience of in reality. I want you to know it is crucial, it is vital, it is absolutely necessary for you and I to get a grip of the fact that Jesus is really in us. You need to know and I need to know that God's Spirit is literally inside us. And I want to encourage you to seek above all things this reality, to get ahold in revelation and in experience of the fact that God's Spirit is literally inside you. This is your secret to victory.
Father, I pray right now that you will release revelation into the minds and hearts, into the spirits and souls of your people that are watching this broadcast. Father God, that they would know that you're inside them. Give them this key, Father, I pray, this secret to victory to know that Jesus, the hope of glory, lives inside us. And because you're in us, Lord Jesus, we will stand up, and we will crush Satan under our feet because you reign and you're unconquerable. Oh, Jesus, release your Spirit, I pray, upon your people. Blow your Spirit, Abba, I pray, upon your people. Breathe life on them, Father, that they would come into an understanding that you're inside them. I pray that you'll wash their minds of materialism, that you'll wash their minds of being conscience of what's on the outside without being conscious of what's on the inside, namely you, Jesus Christ the righteous. Father God, forgive us, I pray, for being connected to the outer world, for focusing our eyes on materialism without recognizing, God, that the hope of glory lies within the human being, Father God, those of us that you've created for your own glory.
Oh, beloved, it's so important to get ahold of this mystery. I encourage you to spend time sitting along with God every day in silence or just with soothing worship music, not with music that's going to get you all excited, something very calm. And just say Lord, help me to become aware that you're inside me. It's not going to happen overnight for most of you. It's going to happen over a season that more and more, the Lord's going to open this up to you. You'll know that Jesus is in you. And when you know that he's in you, beloved, you'll have found the secret to the mystery of the Gospel and the secret, beloved, to living a life in the power of God's Spirit.
I remember in my own life, beloved, many of you know Jesus appeared to me in a vision back in 1978. And once Jesus appeared to me in that vision in 1978, I just began to run after him. I knew that the Lord had revealed himself to me. And I eventually got a Bible and eventually started going to churches all over the city. And I was just so hungry, and I wanted God, I wanted more of God because I knew that God was alive, I knew that he was real because he had manifested himself to me. But it seemed like wherever I went to church, the sermons always ended the same way, that I needed to give more, I needed to witness more, I needed to read the Bible more, I needed to pray more. And I was doing all those things to the utmost, but it seemed like I wasn't get ahold of that which I was so hungry for, and that was to come into an experiential reality of knowing God's presence in my life.
And after many years, the Lord told me the reason that you're not finding me and the reason you're not laying ahold of what you're seeking for is because you're looking on the outside. You're looking to find me in your works. You need to understand, he revealed to me, that I'm inside you. And I want you just to begin to sit before me, asking me to give you revelation that you would know that I live inside you really, tangibly. And beloved, I want you to know I tell you as God's my witness from that day forward, my life changed, and there was a new power. The power of the Lord Jesus flooded my life. Not that I don't have a lot to overcome and have a long way to go. I certainly do. But from that day forward, beloved, something brand new came into my life, a new power, a new effectiveness, and I've never been the same.
So Paul says the mystery of this thing. The way to overcome the fleshly nature, the way to get the victory is to know, beloved, that Jesus is in you. And knowing he's in you, seek him with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind. Set your mind and heart on the things of the Spirit, and from the Spirit you're going to reap love, joy, and peace, and you will experience, the Lord Jesus says, my eternal life.