The life of the Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life, is an all-or-nothing proposition. If any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Conversely, if any man does have the Spirit of Christ, he is all of his.

Is Christ in you? Then there is complete and absolute closure between the life you used to live in the flesh and the life you now life in Christ. Your physical body must be counted as dead. Only your spirit is alive - just as Christ submitted his physical body even to death, and went down into hell alive only in spirit. Then, just as the Holy Spirit raised Christ up from the dead because of righteousness; so that same Spirit dwelling in us makes our mortal bodies live the life of Christ’s resurrection now! So we live as children of the resurrection, functioning exclusively out of the supply of the firstfruits of our inheritance.

Christ’s resurrection was violent, deeply disturbing, radical; it shook the entirety of the heavens and the earth. Just as the massive temple veil was torn in two from the top to the bottom at the moment of Jesus’ death; so many of the saints, those dead in Christ, were seen come out of their tombs and walking around Jerusalem for days after the resurrection. If this was the physically documented fallout of the upheaval that seismically thrashed the entire spirit-realm; how much more are we to expect Father to take the triumphant arc of his resurrected Christ’s ascension, and parade it through the life-giving violence of the kingdom of God manifested in the resurrection lives of the saints in light, the life of the living church?

This is the church the gates of hell can’t prevail against. This is the church that keeps itself, the church the wicked one cannot touch. This is the church made up of believers with absolutely no connection or debt or obligation to any flesh nature.

The prince of this world already stands condemned, and those who live tied to a flesh nature face the same impending death and condemnation. On the other hand, those made alive by the Spirit have the authority by the Spirit to put to death the activities associated with the body of sin. Their bodies are no longer bodies of sin.

Any high thing or imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God in the believer’s mind can and must be cast down. Sin may no longer reign or even exist in our mortal bodies, unless we foolishly give it permission; and the one who is in Christ is charged and perfectly equipped to give no place whatsoever to the devil. No matter what the temptation, we are promised a way of escape; a way out without sin. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God! We have a divine guarantee that the Holy Spirit will never lead us into sin. He only produces righteousness.

…And this righteousness is tactical; beautiful, and eternally practical.