The Walk with the Ruach
8: 1-8
The walk with the Ruach DIG: List the various names for the Ruach? What ministries does the Ruach Ha’Kodesh perform in us, through us, and for us? What are the differences of a person who lives according to the [sin nature], and one who lives according to the Ruach Ha’Kodesh? How does the Ruach’s presence and ministry change our very nature?
REFLECT: What truths here can help you handle feelings of conflict and unworthiness? How do you feel about being judged not guilty? What does it mean to you that you are not God’s slave, but also God’s child? Do you feel like you are serving God out of a sense of love, or a set of rules? How do you know whether you are walking according to the flesh or the Ruach?
Walk according to the Ruach, and you will not carry out the desires of the old [sin nature].
Two questions from the previous section (to see link click Cb – The Inner Conflict) naturally arise. First, “Must a believer spend his whole life on earth frustrated by ongoing defeats to the old [sin nature]? And secondly, “Is there no power provided to achieve victory?” The answer to the first question is “No” and to the second question “Yes.” Here, in Chapter 8, Paul describes the ministry of the indwelling Ruach Ha’Kodesh who is a Person, the third member of the Trinity, equal in every way to God the Father and God the Son, the source of divine power for sanctification (being set apart for the holy use and purposes of God), and the secret for spiritual victory in daily living.200
Among the many characteristics of the Ruach are: He functions with mind, will, and emotion, and corrects them; He can be grieved, quenched, lied to, tested, resisted, and blasphemed. He is called God, Lord, the Ruach of YHVH, the Ruach of ADONAI, the Ruach of the Father, the Ruach of the Son, the Ruach of Yeshua, and the Comforter and Advocate for believers. Since Shavu’ot (see the commentary on Acts An – Peter Speaks to the Shavu’ot Crowd), the Ruach Ha’Kodesh has indwelt all believers, illuminating our understanding and application of God’s Word. He fills us, seals us, communes with us, fellowships with us, intercedes with us, comforts us, rebukes us, sanctifies us and enables us to resist sin and to serve God.201
Therefore: By simple definition, therefore introduces a result, consequence, or conclusion based on what has been established previously. This therefore sums up the first seven chapters of Romans and means: Because of who Yeshua is and everything He has done in history on behalf of sinners.
Therefore, there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union with the Messiah Yeshua (8:1). We have accepted the remedy of YHVH. To be in union with a perfect God, you have to be perfect yourself. And the only way to do that is to believe in Yeshua Messiah and have all His perfect righteousness transferred (imputed) to your spiritual bank account. Like death, a parallel term (5:16 and 17, 5:18 and 21, and 8:1 and 6), condemnation indicates a state of being lost, being estranged from God that, apart from our Lord, every person will experience for all eternity. However, those who are in union with the Messiah are removed from this state – and removed from it forever (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer) because we are in Him, where all condemnation ends.202 He is the sphere of safety for all who are identified with Him by faith.
Why? In spite of the reality of our [sin nature], Messiah has already paid the price of redemption. Therefore, we can be confident. Because the Torah of the Ruach, which is our blueprint for living, produces [blessing] in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from “the torah” of sin and death (8:2). What are these two? First, here is the wrong answer: Yeshua gave a good Torah of the Spirit which produces life, in contrast with the bad Mosaic Law that produces only sin and death. This interpretation not only contradicts Paul’s arguments in Chapters 3 and 7, but is subtly antisemitic as well.
The right answer is that the Torah of the Ruach is the Torah of Moshe properly understood by the power of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh in believers, what Paul elsewhere calls the Torah’s true meaning, which the Messiah upholds (Galatians 6:2) usually rendered the law of Christ in non-Messianic bibles. The second “torah” written as “the torah” of sin and death is in lowercase and put in quotation marks, because it is “sin’s torah,” in other words, not a God-given Torah, but an anti-Torah. Within me, I see a stubborn “torah,” one that battles with the Torah of Moshe in my mind and makes me a prisoner of my old [sin nature] which is operating within me (7:23). “The torah” of sin and death is the Torah of Moshe corrupted and perverted by our [sin nature] into a legalistic system of earning God’s approval by our own works (3:20).
So, 8:2 can be paraphrased as follows: The Torah of Moshe, as understood and applied through the Ruach, thereby producing blessing in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the legalistic aspects of “sin’s torah” that stimulate me to sin (see Bz – Application to Believers in Yeshua), fill me with lasting conflict (see Cb – The Inner Conflict), and condemn me to death.203
For the sake of illustration, let’s consider our old [sin nature] like the law of gravity, and sin, like gravity, will continue to pull us down. And “the torah” of death likened to be the consequences of the law of gravity, or death, for the wages of your [sin nature] is death (6:23a). We can fly in an airplane only because it has a power greater than the pull of gravity. If you don’t believe that the law of gravity is still in effect, try cutting the engine and see how long it takes before you crash and die. Can you imagine trying to “fly” (living the righteous life of a believer) in your old [sin nature]? Living in the flesh, will only pull you down. The only way you can overcome any law is by another law that is greater.204
For what the Torah could not do by itself (summarizing all of Chapter 7), because it lacked the power to make the old [sin nature] cooperate, God did by sending His own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one [but without sin]. This verse is perhaps the best and most brief statement of the substitutionary atonement to be found in Scripture. It expresses the heart of the Good News, the wonderful truth that Yeshua Messiah paid the penalty on behalf of every person who would turn from sin and self, and trust Him as Lord and Savior.205 God [sent His own Son] as a sin offering (Isaiah 53:4-8), and in so doing he executed the punishment against sin in human nature, so that the just requirement of the Torah that sin against a perfectly holy God must be punished by death might be fulfilled in us who do not run our lives according to what our old [sin nature] wants but according to what the Ruach wants (8:3-4). ADONAI does not free us from our sin in order for us to do as we please, but to do as He pleases. And this is not merely just another form of legalism. Once we are saved; we have a new divine nature that is attuned to God’s will. As we live by the power of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh, God’s desire is our desire. We are not forced to do anything.
But because we still live in sinful bodies, clothed in the old [sin nature] as it were, we sometimes resist the will of God. To put it simply, we have a choice to make because we have both nature’s living within us: For those who identify with their old [sin nature] set their minds on the things of the old [sin nature], but those who identify with the Ruach set their minds on the things of the Ruach. But unbelievers don’t have a choice because they only have the old [sin nature] to guide them. Having one’s mind controlled by the old [sin nature] is death. That is why no self-help measures, psychotherapeutic methods, educational programs, environmental changes or resolutions to improve can enable us to please YHVH. But having one’s mind controlled by the Ruach is life, blessing, and shalom (8:5-6).
For the mind controlled by the old [sin nature] is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God’s Torah – indeed, it cannot. Thus, those who identify with their old [sin nature] cannot please God. They pursue the passing pleasures of this world (First John 2:16-17), and are characterized by a carnal mind that cannot please God (8:7-8). Their wicked heart reveals itself in ungodly behavior. And it is perfectly evident what the old [sin nature] does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. Paul warns: Those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21)!206
One may ask, “How do you know whether you are walking according to the flesh or the Ruach? It is perfectly evident what the old [sin nature] does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; involvement with the occult and with drugs in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these (Galatians 5:19). But the fruit of the Ruach is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). To determine if you are walking according to the flesh or the Ruach, examine what’s radiating out of your life. Though we are in Messiah Yeshua, we can still choose to operate according to the old [sin nature]. If we walk according to the Ruach, we will not carry out the desires of the [sin nature] (see the commentary on Galatians Bv – Walk by the Ruach and Not the Desires of the Flesh).
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Your Son to take my place on the cross. I choose to believe the truth that there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union with the Messiah Yeshua. I thank You for disciplining me as Your child so I may bear the fruit of righteousness. I believe the truth, There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment (First John 4:18a). I know that You are not punishing me when You discipline me, because You love me. I renounce the lies of Satan that I am still subject to “the torah” of sin and death.” I accept my responsibility to walk in the light, and I ask You to show me the times I have chosen to walk according to the flesh. I confess these times to You, and I thank You for Your forgiveness and cleansing. I now ask You to fill me with Your Ruach that I may walk according to the Ruach. In Yeshua’s precious name I pray. Amen 207
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