For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. - Eph 1:15-17

 The battle is the Lord’s

 Throughout the centuries Christians have celebrated Advent as a way to set their expectations on the Christ of Christmas. What are your expectations this year?

 Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

 God saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth (Palingenesia)  and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

 This week we step back and look at how Paul frames Romans 6,7, and 8 to better understand his overall approach to applying the gospel before we unpack these chapters in the coming weeks.

 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.