These scriptures tell us how to live in the Spirit {Holy Spirit, heavenly} -verses- living in the flesh {satan, worldly}. These show the exact same thing that we see from the story of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden whereby they had choice from their first day, as have each and every one of their descendants:
Choice #1: The tree of life (walking in the Spirit, God's heavenly ways)
Choice #2: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (walking in the flesh, satan's worldly ways)
{Gen 2:9 KJV}
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
{Gen 2:15-17 KJV}
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God even *warned* Adam NOT to eat from the wrong tree. Do you see where we've always had at least two choices? Because Adam & Eve made the wrong choice and ate from the wrong tree (the one God warned them NOT to eat from) God had to remove them from the Garden of Eden to keep them from eating from the tree of life and be forever sealed in sin.
{Gen 3:22-23 KJV}
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
This is why mankind dies, so that our fleshly body ... the vehicle from which we act out our sins ... is eliminated. Our spirit man lives on, but where our spirit goes after the body dies is another matter. {Perhaps I'll do another article about that if the Spirit leads me to go there.}
{Rom 6:23 KJV}
For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Adam did indeed die "in the day" that he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was 930 years old at his death and we know from the following scripture that a day with God is as a thousand years for man.
{2Pe 3:8 KJV}
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
This is the promise made to us from ancient days. This is why you should pick Choice #1, to "choose life", and to be *born again* in Jesus.
{Eze 36:26-27 KJV}
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them].
Believers ... do you truly have God's Holy Spirit within you? If not, submit your hearts, repent of your sins, turn to Him with your whole heart and He will forgive you and give you the gift of His Spirit to dwell with you and teach you His ways.
And now let's get back to the scriptures regarding the Spirit -vs- the flesh ...
{Jhn 3:6 KJV}
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. -Jesus/Yeshua {THIS is why we must be *born again*, into the Spirit.}
{Jhn 6:63 KJV}
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. -Jesus/Yeshua
{Rom 8:5 KJV}
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
{Rom 8:9 KJV}
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. {"But ye are not in the flesh ..." is speaking of believers in Jesus, those of us that are *born again* in the Spirit. You
do NOT belong to God's kingdom until you repent of your sins against
Him, give your life to Jesus who died to pay your sin debt in order to
set you free from your sins, and thereby receive His Spirit to live with you and teach you of His ways. You cannot understand God's ways without His Holy Spirit in you.}
{Rom 8:13 KJV}
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. {"do mortify the deeds of the body" means to put away, or die to, the old self, the fleshly/worldly man.}
{Gal 3:3 KJV}
{Christians ... } Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
{Gal 5:16-17 KJV}
[This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
{Gal 6:8 KJV}
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
I pray that God blesses you with understanding through His Holy Spirit, amen.
Thanks for reading ;o}
{Curly bracket &/or italicized comments are mine. Scripture is KJV. Red letter text is Jesus/Yeshua speaking.}
