GOD'S GREAT NEWS for MAN'S GREAT PROBLEM - Romans 1-8

A Tale of Two Men

I want to begin this study by contrasting two men. The two men were both Frenchmen, one named Blaise and the other called Francois-Marie. Blaise was 16 when he wrote a mathematical paper that astounded the intellectual establishment. He invented the first digital calculating machine during three years when he was 19-21. He was hailed a genius in his own time. But on the night of Nov. 23, 1654, he had a fiery vision of God cleansing him of his sin and giving him assurance, joy, peace and love. That night he wrote an account of his conversion on a piece of parchment that he always wore with him, sewed into his clothing:

From that night forward, Blaise forgot the world and everything except God. He spent the remaining years of his life compiling notes, working to compose a full-scale defense of the Christian faith. He died before writing the defense, but the notes he compiled remain as a classic of Christian thought. They are the Pensees of Blaise Pascal. The original Pensees are closely guarded at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris as the supreme example of the French genius. But his genius was not because he was French; it was birthed by the Spirit of God living in him.

Another Frenchman named Francois-Marie also became a writer. Francois-Marie was 16 when he wrote witty verses mocking the royal authorities. He was clapped in the Bastille prison for 11 months. In that prison he named himself Voltaire. He was one of the leading lights of the Enlightenment, a man vigorously opposed to organized religion. His book entitled Lettres Philosophiques is a landmark in the history of thought. He lived with Madame du Chatelet from 1734-1749, after fleeing Paris because of his anti-religious and anti-government views. His thought on Christianity can best be summarized by his famous prophecy: that in one hundred years from his time, Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history. Pascal forgot the world and everything except God; Voltaire hoped the world would forget God. Pascal was a man in the Spirit; Voltaire a man in the flesh.

Two men. One man in the Spirit, one man in the flesh. They represent two humanities: one Christian, by virtue of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, one not Christian, having only the flesh. It is this contrast that we will study in Rom. 8:5-11.

What Difference Does the Spirit Make?

Last time, we discovered that the indwelling Holy Spirit is the key to the Christian life. He is the key to the Christian message, because Paul is able to synthesize his entire message of seven chapters into four concise verses once the key to the riddle, the Spirit, is introduced. The importance of the indwelling Spirit in God's plan of redemption cannot be overstated. He brings Christ home to live inside us. He makes us Christians indeed, because the original and best Christian inhabits us in order to live the authentic Christian life through us. The Spirit is indeed the key.

All this sounds plausible theologically, but what difference does the Spirit make in my life right now? How important is it that I be indwelled by the Holy Spirit?

Those Who Are Not Christians Have Only the Flesh - Rom. 8:5-8

In order to clearly highlight the significance of the Spirit, Paul lays before us a great contrast in Rom. 8:5-11. The contrast is between two different humanities: unregenerate humanity in the flesh, and regenerate humanity in the Spirit. Paul is going to detail for us the difference between those who are "in the flesh," and his readers who are "in the Spirit" in vs. 5-9. His description of "THOSE who are in the flesh" is found in vs. 5-8, juxtaposed to his contrasting point in vs. 9, "but YOU are in the Spirit." The "those" Paul describes as "in the flesh" in vs. 5-8 contrasts sharply with Paul's emphatic "YOU" in the Spirit in vs. 9. Paul wants these Roman Christians to be crystal clear about who is a Christian, and who is not; about who has the Spirit, and who has not.

Paul begins by looking first at "those walking according to the flesh" in vs. 5-8. He declares "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh." This statement defines the life of the unregenerate man, the unbeliever who is limited to his flesh, not having the Spirit living inside him, and thus he can only adopt the mind set of the flesh. There is no other option for him.

But what are "the things of the flesh" that the unbeliever's mind is set on? What transfixes the unbeliever's mind? We need only watch TV for a night to see exactly what the mind set of the flesh is: sex and toys. Self-gratification, in whatever form that takes. There is precious little about giving to others, and an unremitting stream of enticements to take what you "deserve" in life for yourself. The "things of the flesh" are human things apart from God. The thoughts of the flesh are man's thoughts apart from God. Gal. 5:19-21 gives us a very clear portrait of the "works of the flesh," the behaviors spawned by the mind set on the flesh. The "works of the flesh [are]: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these." These are the things of the flesh.

Thus, the mind set on the things of the flesh THINKS ALONE APART FROM GOD. They have not God's Spirit in them and cannot think in intimate inner relationship with God. The mind of the flesh is a human mind working all alone, plotting and planning what is best for the self.

At the end of vs. 5, Paul contrasts this mind set on the flesh, the mind set of the unbeliever, with that of the believer, the one indwelled by the Spirit. He says, "those who are according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] the things of the Spirit." Here is the great contrast: the thoughts of those who are in the flesh arise from the self alone, in isolation. But the seedling thoughts of those who are in the Spirit do not arise from our finite selves; they are spawned by the Spirit of God in us. These thoughts arise from prayer of the deepest kind, prayer initiated by God Himself. Christians routinely speak of "the Lord put it on my heart," or "The Lord reminded me ..." What these Spirit-indwelled believers refer to is the seedling thoughts coming into their minds by the Spirit of God living in them. These are thoughts which come not from man, nor from the flesh of man, but from God in man.

The mind set on the things of the Spirit is thus a mind looking beyond itself to perceive the thoughts of God by the indwelling Spirit. Those who are in the flesh think the thoughts of men only, like Voltaire. Those who are in the Spirit are fed thoughts by God Himself, thus thinking thoughts after God's own thoughts, like Pascal. The difference is profound: a man or woman thinking in the ultimate isolation of one finite mind working in silence, versus a man or woman indwelled by the Spirit of God thinking thoughts spawned by the eternal relationship of their mind with the mind of God in them by the Spirit. Two heads are better than one, especially when it is God's mind working in union with our mind by the Spirit.

But what are the "things of the Spirit?" In Gal. 5, we see the "fruits of the Spirit" revealed in vs. 22,23: "For the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." When we "think together with God" by the Spirit, and ask the Spirit to live out Christ's life in and through us, these are the fruits He will ripen within us.

One of the men in history who thought in oneness with the indwelling Spirit was a little French monk named Brother Lawrence. His experience of setting his mind on the things of the Spirit is recorded in his book The Practice of the Presence of God. On those pages, Brother Lawrence describes his own work in the kitchen in the monastery. Listen to how even some of the most mundane kitchen jobs became opportunities to walk by the Spirit and set one's mind on the things of the Spirit: "The prayer time was really taken at both the beginning and the end of my work. At the beginning of my duties I would say to the Lord with confidence, 'My God, since you are with me, and since, by Your will, I must occupy myself with external things, please grant me the grace to remain with You, in Your presence. Work with me, so that my work might be the very best. Receive as an offering of love both my work and all my affections.' During my work, I would always continue to speak to the Lord as though He were right with me, offering Him my services and thanking Him for His assistance. And at the end of my work, I used to examine it carefully. If I found good in it, I thanked God. If I noticed faults, I asked His forgiveness without being discouraged, and then went on with my work, still dwelling in Him. Thus, continuing in this practice of conversing with God throughout each day, and quickly seeking His forgiveness when I fell or strayed, His presence has become as easy and natural to me now as it once was difficult to obtain." Brother Lawrence discovered what it means to set one's mind on the things of the Spirit: THINKING TOGETHER WITH GOD ABOUT THE DAY THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

C'mon, Dorm you might say. I am a busy person, with tons of work to do at my job or in my home, tons of family responsibilities, not to mention maintaining my friendships and commitments at church. And it's tax season too! How on earth am I supposed to walk through each day with the Spirit, conversing continually with God and thinking together with God about the day throughout the day? Won't I slow way down and start dropping the ball? Won't I be unable to meet my obligations because of all that time spent in prayer? These are the same questions I ask myself at times. But let me read some more about our little friend, Brother Lawrence, written after his death in February, 1691, by his friend Joseph de Beaufort: "Even when he was busiest in the kitchen, it was evident that the brother's spirit was dwelling in God. He often did the work that two usually did, but he was never seen to bustle. Rather, he gave each chore the time that it required, always preserving his modest and tranquil air, working neither slowly nor swiftly, dwelling in calmness of soul and unalterable peace." And all this came from cultivating an inner conversation with the indwelling Presence of God, the Spirit. Brother Lawrence called it "a quiet, familiar conversation with God," and it didn't hold him back from his work, but focused him to work well and efficiently, without panic, in communion with the Spirit. I don't know if I have ever read a more simple and compelling model of the Christian life than the life of Brother Lawrence, a man who set his mind on the things of the Spirit.

Now, in verses 6-8, the portrait of the one "in the flesh" is even more poignantly drawn by the Apostle Paul. He begins verse 6 by telling us that "... the mind set on the flesh [is] death." Paul could not be more succinct here: the mind set on the flesh, which is thinking through life alone apart from God, limited by its own understanding and informed continually by indwelling sin alone, can only produce one thing: death. Every time. This death is the spiritual death of being separated from God, the aloneness and apartness from God that defines the life of the unbeliever. T.S. Eliot caught this very powerfully in Choruses from The Rock:

But as in vs. 5, Paul highlights the contrast between the mind set on the flesh and the mind set on the Spirit at the end of verse 6. He tells us, "but the mind set on the Spirit [is] life and peace." The contrast is obvious and stated in the starkest terms available, the language of death vs. life. The "life" referred to here is the eternal life of God Himself, infused into us by the Holy Spirit. This is LIFE in all capital letters!! The resurrection life of Christ in you contrasts absolutely with the finality and hopelessness of human death.

What is striking in vs. 6 is that Paul adds "peace" to the contrast being drawn. Why does he add "peace?" I think he adds "peace" because it stands in utter contrast to the "war" that goes on within the heart of the one whose mind set is on the flesh, the unbeliever. Blythe went through an interesting experience after the Spirit of Christ came to live inside her. For years, she had been an avid artist, sometimes painting out her thoughts and her pain night after night, sometimes even painting through the whole night. In the months before coming to Jesus Christ, she was working up at Sun Valley, Idaho, and she would often paint all night while a friend of her's who had just become a Christian read from the Bible. Blythe painted constantly in those days, because there was no peace in her heart. But a few months later, late at night, on her knees in front of a bar in northern Washington state, with rain pouring down around her, Blythe opened her heart to Jesus Christ by faith, inviting the Holy Spirit to come and live inside her. The chief change wrought in her heart by the indwelling Spirit was a newfound peace. A peace flooded her heart like a warm river. And having this peace, she found no longer the burning need to paint. She was at peace, because the Spirit was inside her. However, where there is not the Spirit living inside a man or woman, there is no peace.

Moving on, Paul tells us in vs. 7 that the mind set on the flesh is death "Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God." This is clearly the case of the unbeliever, whose whole mind set is rooted in sin, which says to God, "I Don't Need You." It turns its mind away from God and thinks only thoughts apart from God, against God. Voltaire boldly stated that Christianity would vanish in 100 years. He surely hoped it would happen. That is hostility to God: wishing God would go away.

The mind set of our culture is certainly "hostile to God." At virtually every university from coast-to-coast, there is an anti-God attitude attempting to smother any expression of faith in Jesus Christ. I read TIME magazine this week and was heart broken by two articles on back-to-back pages. One article on pg. 67 reviews a new movie entitled Touch. This movie explores what would happen if Jesus Christ returned to the world today. The picture atop the review shows the young man acting as a modern Jesus in bed with Bridget Fonda. The title of the review is "Jesus Christ, Superdude," a mock reminder of Jesus Christ Superstar. If Jesus won't disappear, at least we can reimagine him just like us. On pg. 68 was a review of the death rock group Marilyn Manson, whose recent album Antichrist Superstar has risen as high as #3 on the charts. The title of that review is "Satan's Little Helpers," and the picture of the group is something out of your worst nightmare. Chuck Colson boldly stated that we are living in a "post-Christian culture" when he wrote the book The Body a few years ago. But our culture has already outdated that assessment. We are undoubtedly living in an anti-Christian culture. Beyond a doubt, the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.

But we should not be surprised at this hostility toward God. Sin and the flesh can breed nothing but contempt for God. Paul tells us in the rest of vs. 7, "... the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." The mind set on the flesh does not yield itself to the Law of God, specifically the righteous calling of God that we love God and love one another. The mind set on the flesh wants its own way, to think what it wants, to fantasize what it wants, to strategize what it wants, and to do all this far away from God. It wants no God-placed boundaries, no moral strictures, no limitations.

But it goes beyond just "not wanting" to yield to God's call. The problem of the flesh is much deeper; the weakness of the flesh is much more weak than we even imagine. The mind set on the flesh CAN ONLY be hostile to God, it CAN NEVER yield to God's righteous ways, because IT IS NOT ABLE. Where the Spirit is absent, THERE IS NO POWER to be at peace with God and yield to His principles of living.

This is where we evangelical Christians make our colossal error in dealing with non-Christians in our culture. We do to them the worst thing possible: we demand that they live by Christian moral principles when they ARE NOT ABLE to by definition because they don't have the Spirit of God living in them. For example, when we tell non-Christians about God's plan for sex within the bounds of marriage only, we often conclude by saying, "Do Not Have Sex." We put them under the rule without telling them about the power of the Spirit to enable them to obey the rule! This is terrible: all we do is frustrate them and make them hate God and His morality all the more, because THEY ARE NOT ABLE to yield to these things until the Spirit comes to live in them when they become Christians. It is not that we back down from the timeless principle that sex before marriage is morally wrong in an absolute sense. That is not what I mean. But to tell non-Christians the rule "Do Not Have Sex" without FIRST introducing them to Christ and the Spirit who enables them to obey, is to put the cart before the horse, breaking the horse's legs.

We as evangelical Christians must stop trying to demand Christian behavior from non-Christians who have not the Spirit and thus ARE NOT ABLE to live like Christians. Rather, we should befriend them non-judgmentally, pray for them, look for ways to serve them by the Spirit, ask the Spirit to love them through us, and ask God to lead them to Himself. We try to change them from the outside inward, which never works and only frustrates them. And what a failure this is! In fact, the lead singer of the death rock group Marilyn Manson went to a very rigid Christian high school, but was alienated by all the rules and the rampant hypocrisy. They tried to change him by imposing Christian morality on a non-Christian unable to respond because he had not the Spirit inside him. They tried to change him from the outside inward, and birthed a monster. God always tries to change us from the INSIDE OUTWARD by the indwelling Spirit, birthing a child of God.

Paul underscores this truth in vs. 8, poetically sharpening the large truth that "they are not able." Paul adds in verse eight that "And those who are in the flesh are not able to please God." Twice Paul uses the telling phrase "they are not able" to describe those who are not yet Christians: THEY ARE NOT ABLE to yield to God's way of living, and THEY ARE NOT ABLE to please God.

There is nothing that those in the flesh can do to please God. By definition, they are NOT ABLE TO PLEASE GOD. This is easy to deduce from the "works of the flesh" in Gal. 5:19-21. Clearly those deeds do nothing to please God. But what about all the "good deeds" done in the flesh, all the "good" human effort done apart from God, but done for God? This is a great deal more difficult. But Paul's word here is clear: those who are in the flesh, thus those without the indwelling Spirit, cannot please God. What does this mean? All the church attendance in the world avails nothing without the indwelling Spirit. All the quiet times avail nothing unless the Spirit is indwelling the person informing their prayers. All the good deeds performed for the homeless or orphans of the world avail nothing to please God unless the Spirit is in the person doing those deeds through them. The only way to please God is to yield yourself totally to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, asking His Spirit to come and live inside you, then asking that Spirit of Christ to live out the life of Christ through you. The works of Christ alone please God, both when He was on the earth in His human body and now when He is on the earth in our human bodies by the Spirit. The "righteous deeds" of man are like filthy rags in God's eyes, as it says in Is. 64:6, unless they are the deeds of Christ done through us by the Spirit.

Truly, truly the Spirit is the key to the Christian life. Without Him inside, nothing we think or do will please God. Having clearly described "those being in the flesh," in vs. 5-8, now Paul will clearly describe YOU who are in the Spirit in vs. 9.

Those Who Are Christians Are Indwelled by the Spirit - Rom. 8:9

Paul begins this monumental verse with a strong contrast "But YOU ALL are not in [the] flesh but in [the] Spirit." Here is where Paul makes his most stirring contrast, and he makes his point very forceful through his use of the grammar. First, he uses the emphatic personal pronoun "YOU ALL are not in the flesh." Then, Paul uses the strongly contrasting alla in Greek, the most forceful "but" to show the stark contrast between those who are in the flesh and those who are in the Spirit. Thus, "YOU ALL are not in the flesh, BUT in the Spirit."

But what does it mean to be "in the Spirit?" Paul defines the phrase "in the Spirit" in the very next phrase in the verse: "[You all are] in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." Being "in the Spirit" therefore means being "indwelled by the Spirit." You are "in the Spirit" when the Spirit lives "in you."

Paul then moves to state very clearly and concisely exactly what defines a person as a Christian, in the last sentence of vs. 9: "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." HERE IS PAUL'S UNEQUIVOCAL DEFINITION OF THE CHRISTIAN. HE STATES CLEARLY THAT THE NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITION OF BEING A CHRISTIAN IS BEING INDWELLED BY THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. Paul says something very similar in II Cor. 13:5: "Test yourselves to see that you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you -- unless indeed you fail the test?" John says something similar in I John 5:12: "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."

Simply put, it takes the Spirit of Christ to make and define a Christian. He must be dwelling inside us in order to make us Christians indeed. There is no way to argue this: it is a definitional truth as certain in the spiritual world as the law of gravity is in the physical world. I might try to deny the law of gravity and jump off a cliff, but my death would inevitably result because I was trying to fly in the face of a natural, physical law. Likewise, I might go before God upon my death and try to persuade Him that I was a Christian because I was born into a Christian family, because I was a citizen of a Christian country, or because I was an avowed member of a strong Christian church, and God would not be pleased unless I was indwelled by the Spirit of God. It takes the Spirit of Christ to make a Christian. The Spirit is the key not just to my theology, not just to my understanding of Romans; the Spirit is the key to my Christian life, making me belong to Him.

The Spirit: The Resurrection Power of God Indwelling the Believer - Rom. 8:10,11

So what difference does the Spirit make in my life today? He infuses into me the resurrection power of God. Nothing more, as if there could be more, and nothing less. The power of God is unleashed in the human heart by the Spirit in vs. 10, 11.

Verse 10 begins with "And if Christ [is] in you." Now Paul begins from the premise that Christ is in you all, the ones to whom he is writing as a group, although he is speaking of the inner reality in the life of any individual indwelled by the Spirit of Christ. Here he describes the dual reality of that which is within the Christian: the dual reality of the dying body, dying because of sin, and the very alive human spirit, made alive in union with the indwelling Spirit of our resurrected Christ.

Paul says, "on one hand the body [is] dead because of sin." On the one hand, the painful reality of the Christian life is that death will claim this physical body born into sin. There is no way out of this, except the divine intervention of God to catch us up to Him should we be alive when He invades human history at the Second Coming. The "groaning" part of the Christian life is that this body which houses us is decaying inexorably, unto death because of sin. That is one side of the dual reality, the side of the past, the side detailed in our first biography, the side which will pass away at death. But this is only one side of our personal story as believers!!

Then Paul fills us in on the other side: "but on the other hand the spirit is alive because of righteousness." Right now, housed in this dying body, is a completely resurrected human spirit, which has been made eternally ALIVE through its union with the indwelling Spirit of Christ!!!!! The righteousness of Christ infused in me by the Spirit has made my spirit forever alive in Him!! Paul says in Eph. 2:1-5 that we were spiritually dead, unable to respond to God. But when the Spirit came to live in us, He made us alive to God, ready and able to respond to Him. This is the resurrection that God offers to us, as a result of the resurrection of Jesus Christ: He offers to take our spiritual deadness and make us alive by the indwelling Spirit of Christ!! This then is the other side of the dual reality, the side of the future, the side detailed in my eternal biography written with Christ, the side unto eternal life!!!

Paul then concludes this glorious paragraph with verse 11. He says, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you." Here Paul talks of one further, remarkable result of the indwelling of the Spirit: He will make alive our mortal bodies, quicken them unto good deeds under the direction of the Spirit, thus sanctifying them even though they are destined for death because of the dual reality of indwelling sin.

There is a whole genre of stories within Christian circles of sick and physically beaten people coming to Christ, and having their physical bodies flushed with health and new vibrancy. Several studies ago I mentioned the conversion story of B. J. Thomas, the famous singer/songwriter. He was absolutely strung out on drugs, to the point that he was unable to sleep for several nights in a row. His body was being given over to death. But he came to Christ through the intercessory prayers of his wife and another couple, as well as spiritual deliverance from the demonic forces inhabiting him and influencing him. Here is how he described the change wrought by the indwelling Spirit when he asked Christ to come into him, in his own words: "I prayed for about 20 minutes, and I prayed all the good things they told me I should pray. When I raised my head these guys were crying, and I was so happy I was just jumping around. That conversion experience to me was just a miraculous thing. I had been such a bad person." But then specific physical changes occurred in his body. He had some marijuana with him that night, but he went home and threw it away. He had been dependent on valium for years. He needed that more than all the other pills. But that very night he stopped taking valium. He expected terrible withdrawal pains. He was willing to go through it. He had sone so before, but had always gone back to drugs. But this time he went through no withdrawal symptoms: no shakes, no bad illusions or dreams. His physical deliverance from drugs was just as miraculous as his spiritual salvation. His mortal body had been given new life, just as His spirit was resurrected with the Spirit.

This sounds strange to us, but to the Apostle Paul it was part of what God was doing through him during that time. We can recall how God miraculous healed people in Ephesus through Paul, when Paul merely touched a handkerchief sent to him by the sick person. God was clearly at work in the apostolic era showing physical restoration as an outward manifestation of the inner restoration caused by the infusion of the Spirit. But He is still at work in the same way today, restoring our physical bodies in many ways for the good works He has planned for us to walk into.

Verses 10 and 11 can form within our hearts an unshakable foundation of HOPE in this hopeless world of ours. So often, you and I get overwhelmed by the death that works within us as a result of our own sin and the tragedy of being born into a world where sin as a great disease afflicts everyone. Often we bear the consequences of our parent's sin in many of the struggles of our own lives. Some of us have been scarred by sin in such a way that we can barely relate to other people in a healthy way, especially in intimate relationships. This is death at work in us, a relational death that renders us unresponsive to others and living apart from them. But it is just this form of our death through residual sin that our indwelling Spirit wants to raise up to new life. Maybe some of us feel a sense of death by an agonizing cloud of discouragement that seems to darken our days and haunt our nights. We feel we cannot climb out from under it, experiencing the death of hope in our lives. But it is just this type of hopelessness that the Spirit wants to transform into unquenchable hope through His resurrection power.

Maybe you experience death like the death from verse 6, because you are not yet a Christian and have a mind set only on the things of the flesh, which always results in death. But it is just this form of death that God wants to raise you up out of by providing His indwelling Spirit for you if you will believe Him and invite Him to come and live within you. No matter what, we can have an unshakable foundation of hope in a hopeless world because the SPIRIT WITHIN US IS THE SPIRIT OF RESURRECTION POWER, READY AND ABLE TO TAKE ANY DEATH AND RAISE US UP TO HIS LIFE!!! This is who He is at the core, and we need Him at our core to make us ALIVE like Him, alive unto eternal life!!

Conclusion: So, What Difference Does the Spirit Make?

The Spirit makes all the difference in the world to you and to me. If we have not the Spirit living inside us by our invitation of faith, then we do not belong to Christ. The Spirit indwelling us defines us as Christians. And the Spirit indwelling us resurrects our dead spirits unto eternal life, and quickens our mortal bodies for the useful purposes of God. The Spirit brings Christ Jesus home to live in us; the Spirit's indwelling presence defines us as Christians; and the Spirit gives us unquenchable hope by making God's resurrection power resident in us right now. What difference does the Spirit make? All the difference in the world!

I began with a tale of two men, Pascal and Voltaire. Here is a tale of two women. A few years after Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, a young woman named Anthea was imprisoned in Rome. She was from Britain, and had been brought to Rome as a captured slave. As she sat on the straw in a dark corner of her cell, her mind was filled with memories of her village under the oak trees, where long sunlight played through the pleasant afternoons. Suddenly her reverie was interrupted ... hurrying toward Anthea was her mistress, Flavia!

"Anthea!" Flavia called, stretching forth her hands. She paused for a moment, her eyes filling with tears as she glanced around at the dripping walls, the filthy straw, the cold stone floor. "My dear Anthea, I have come to have you released, if I can. My father does not know of this visit, nor would he allow it, but I have many friends in the palace of Nero; they will help you flee from here." Anthea pressed her hand and murmured, "I thank you!"

"I have authority that will grant you full pardon," continued Flavia, "if you will come with me at once to the temple of Jupiter and merely burn a little incense at the altar. You only need show yourself before certain witnesses. Come with me at once, Anthea!" Anthea half-turned away from her. Freedom! What a temptation! Unable to answer at once she asked, "What would become of me, noble Flavia? I am a slave, and you say your father --." Flavia assured her, "Have no fear, for I have arranged to sell you to Lucan, Antonia's brother. It seems he once saw you when I was visiting at his palace, and it is his influence that has obtained my pass into the dungeons. Through him I am able to offer you freedom."

"Sell me to Lucan!" said Anthea. "Why do you hesitate?" continued Flavia. "You know the Antoninus family is one of the first in Rome. You would have nothing to fear in their possession." Anthea straightened her shoulders unconsciously. "It is not that -- I am a Christian, Flavia, and I cannot deny my Lord. Making an offering to an idol is against my faith. I wish I could thank you and noble Lucan as I ought, but I cannot accept freedom at the price of my belief."

"I would almost become a Christian myself," were Flavia's parting words. "Your strength is so amazing. Would that I knew what upholds you so calmly!" Anthea was a Christian indeed, one in whom the Spirit of Christ lived, giving her life, strength, hope and peace far beyond herself. Flavia was a woman who had not the Spirit and was thus not a Christian, but she saw immediately the difference between Anthea and herself. The Spirit made all the difference in the world ... and Flavia walked away hungering for the life she saw in her friend. If anyone here so hungers, come to Jesus Christ and let Him satisfy your hunger by the infilling of His Spirit. And may all of us indwelled by His Spirit allow the Spirit to radiate the life of Christ through us, that we may be graciously and infectiously ALIVE by the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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