Each day we have to fight to take hold of more eternal life, and then more eternal life. We do not want to live in the sins and compulsions of the life of blood any more than we have to. We desire to live by the Spirit of God, to think by the Spirit of God, to speak by the Spirit of God, to act by the Spirit of God. When we thus live in the Spirit we do not fulfill the lusts of our flesh and soul.

We are to "take hold of the life that is truly life." Blood-life is not "truly life." It is death. Our body is dead because of sin.

But Paul promises that if the Spirit of God is alive in us, God, at the return of the Lord, will make alive even our mortal body so our flesh no longer is animated by blood-life but by eternal life. This transition is our goal, and the answer to Paul's cry: "Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

Problems and pain assist us in the desired change from blood-life to eternal life. They beat down our body, frustrating us, keeping us from rushing about in our enthusiasm and passions.

As we respond correctly to the problems and pains the Holy Spirit is better able, now that we have suffered, to express His Life in us. As He does so we are set free from the law of sin and death, in the meanwhile being without condemnation because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ ascribed to us. This is how the new covenant operates.

We have seen then that problems and pain purify us from sin, teach us obedience, and change our blood-life to resurrection-life. This is why the Scripture says we enter the Kingdom of God through much tribulation.

Strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. (Acts 14:22—NIV)

Each day we increase in the power of Christ's resurrection. Each day we share His sufferings, being conformed to His death on the cross.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (Philippians 3:10—NIV)

We must remain in the imprisoning circumstances in which we have been placed if we expect to be crowned with life and righteousness when we are brought back from the dead and face the Lord Jesus.

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10—NIV)

Evidently the Apostle Paul was a man of great personal energy and motivation. In order that Paul's ministry would remain as an expression of resurrection-life and not of his pride or blood-life, the Lord permitted Satan to attack Paul's body. Some scholars believe this affliction was in the form of an eye infection. Whatever it was, it kept Paul leaning on the Lord instead of his own strength.

To be continued.