So then, my brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to. For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live. Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, "Father! My Father!" God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ’s suffering we will also share his glory.

I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:12-17

Nature is violent. Life and death are the law of field, stream, and jungle. The principle that nothing lives unless something else dies extends beyond nature to our daily walk with God. Interests of the flesh must succumb to the interests of the Spirit, or else the interests of the Spirit will succumb to the interests of the flesh. In the jungles, fields, and streams of our own heart, something must always die so that something else can live.

To live for Christ, we must die to self.

Our Daily Bread – March 3, 2003