Rom 8.1-17a – How Sarayu affects your behavior

(8.1) Do you realize what this means?  My out-of-touch bodily behaviors are no longer earning me the wage of death!  We have already earned that wage, and in Master Jesus, we have already been paid in full!  Our actions no longer condemn us to die, because we have already died!  Our death sentence has already been carried out!  Jesus knows this, and to share in his knowledge is to experience his freedom from the burden of condemnation and shame. (2) For Sarayu, the living Spirit of Master Jesus, has set us free from the oppression of darkness and death. (3) Papa has now done what Torah wanted to do (but couldn’t because of the weakness of our flesh).  By injecting her own Son into our diseased human-ness, she both destroyed the disease AND absorbed the death sentence that results from it.  (4) She did this to fulfill Torah’s desire — abundant human life.  This desire is fulfilled in US as our bodies learn to follow Sarayu in living according to reality.

(5) If we choose to preoccupy our minds with our bodily appetites and urges, then we will continue behaving in ways that seek to satisfy those appetites.  But if we choose instead to occupy our minds with Sarayu’s desire for goodness/truth/ beauty, then we will begin to behave in ways that satisfy THOSE desires. (6) The path to death is the mind set on the moment-by-moment satisfaction of bodily cravings.  The path to life and peace is the mind set on the fulfillment of Sarayu’s desires. (7) The mind obsessed with bodily self-gratification is hostile to Papa.  It does not listen to her; indeed it cannot. (8) To manage your mind in this way is to fight against Papa’s dreams for you.

(9) But YOUR mind is not obsessed with self-gratification.  YOUR mind is set instead on Sarayu’s obsession with abundant life.  Sarayu dwells in your spirit, and as you grow in belief, she is more and more expressing herself in your bodily behaviors as well.  The point is that Sarayu HAS your mind now, and your body will follow.  It is GOOD that your inner self is at war with your outer self.  It means you have begun to heal!  It is much worse for those whose mind and body are united in opposition to Jesus and Sarayu’s work.  Such people have a long and painful road ahead of them.

(10) But YOU are already well on your way down that road.  Master Jesus has already conquered your mind, and your body is next!  Yes, your body still languishes in darkness and death, but your spirit is alive with the rightness of Jesus! (11) Sarayu is dwelling in you and expressing the Triune Life in you.  Remember, she is the Spirit of him who raised Jesus’ body from the dead.  You can trust him to raise YOUR body too!

(12) So you see what a huge debt of gratitude we owe.  We don’t owe indulgence to our bodies’ appetites for poison, (13) and it’s a good thing too, because eaters of poison tend not to live very long.  The way to abundant life is to starve those appetites to death, which you can do only if you trust what Sarayu tells you about what’s food and what isn’t. (14) She is leading you deeper into your true life as Papa’s child. (15) She is not a spirit of bondage and fear.  She is the Spirit of Adoption, the Spirit who puts Jesus’ sonship inside of us.  When we cry out “Papa! Daddy! Father!” (16) it is Sarayu who is speaking the truth from inside OUR spirit.  The truth that we ARE Papa’s children, (17a) the truth that we are the inheritors of the super-abundant life Jesus shares with Papa and Sarayu.