God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him. If we would abide in the Spirit of God we must obey God at all times, praying without ceasing.

It is only by such wholehearted serving of the Lord that we can walk in the Spirit, gaining victory over sin and death.

In the eighth chapter of Romans, as we have stated, Paul explains what he means by the expression, "the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ our Lord."

If we Christians live according to the lusts of our body and soul we will die spiritually.

God has given us through Christ the authority and power to turn aside from the ways of sin and death and pursue eternal life.

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not in the appetites of the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

If we do not walk after the Spirit, choosing instead to spend our life giving first priority to eating, sleeping, working, playing, and reproducing, abiding "in the flesh," the righteousness of the Law of Moses is not fulfilled in us. We have been divorced from the Law of Moses but have not been married to Christ. We are attempting to live as a spiritual "single," being wed neither to Moses nor Christ. We therefore are living under condemnation.

How many believers are wed neither to Moses nor Christ? They do not keep the Law and they are not living in Christ. They are hoping their doctrinal position will bring them to the spirit Paradise when they die. They are mistaken. They are dwelling in spiritual death. Their spiritual death will be revealed in the Day of Christ.

We who are living in the Spirit already have dwelling in us the potential for the redemption of our body.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

When we first receive Christ, God places the Spirit of resurrection life in us. If we nourish this inner life by following the Spirit of God, then, in the Day of Christ, our developed inner spiritual life will be extended to our mortal body making it alive. This is what Paul meant by attaining the resurrection from the dead.

If we choose instead to live in the appetites of the flesh, our inner spiritual life will be weakened greatly and may, in fact, become nonexistent. In that case, we will be raised in the Day of Resurrection as a mortal, not possessing immortality.

Paul goes on to explain that because we are in pursuit of eternal life in our body, in pursuit of the resurrection from the dead, of that which will deliver us from "the body of this death," we do not owe our flesh anything. We are not obligated to give all of our attention to its appetites and desires.

To be continued.