Amazing Family Status Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Amazing Family Status------------------------- Date: 1/13/2002 Keywords: "family" "power" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Romans 8:1-14* (the Apostle Paul writing to the early church in Rome) 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2. because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4. in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7. the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. 12. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14. because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Question Why do we view porn?   Practical help There are really two questions that Christians who struggle with porn should ask: 1. Why can't we resist porn more easily? 2. Why do we look at the crap in the first place? We've taken up the first question in the last several studies. Now to the second question. Here's one likely answer: forgotten identity. Namely, the identity that came to us upon salvation — that we're "sons of God" (see verse 14 above). Instead, we think we're still our old selves, still under the control of old habits. We need to remember to believe that things — all things — are different once we accept Christ's work on the cross. For starters, we're now members of God's immediate family. We call him Father, and he calls us his children. No reason to dress shabbily when Dad owns the cattle on a thousand hills, in the words of the old gospel hymn. No need to act lowbrow. No need to act like we're in some lesser family. Realizing our amazing family status should be enough to help us stand strong against porn. Yet acting this role isn't what will do it. Believing the role is what will empower us. The capacity to believe is a gift of God. It's not a result of us trying harder to believe. So want to embrace your status as a child of God? Ask God to give you the ability to believe it. He will give you not only that ability, but the power to stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2002 by eXXit *Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version, © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved. -