THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit

Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you. It has been noted that spiritually minded people differ from materially minded people not in that they think about different things but in that they think about the same things differently.

The new "law" is not another 613 commandments which applied only to the external body but could not reach the spirit. The new law is the "Spirit of Life" or the spirit of Christ which allows the believer to "die to the old spouse."

Jesus came to bring salvation FROM this CROOKED generation. This permitted the ekklesia or synagogue of Christ to function. For that Paul outlawed the personal diversities included in Romans 14 because the kingdom of God is not about the external body. In Romans 15 he defined the synagogue "which had no praise service" and outlawed the SELF-pleasing which means to "create mental excitement." This is identical to the RESTJesus gave us. The Greek word PAUL is highly dedicated to meaning "stop the speaking, stop the singing and stop the music." The SELF-PLEASING was facilitated in paganism by the excited NOMOS or singing the laws of Apollo who is the Apollyon in Revelation.

THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1

Sarc (g4561).. the body (as opposed to the soul [or spirit], or as the symbol of what is external, or as the means of kindred), or (by impl.) human nature (with its frailties [phys. or mor.] and passions), or (spec.) a human being (as such): - carnally minded

The word "speak" as applied to the ekklesia meant to "whisper or use conversational tone." When applied to the Word it specificially excludes MUSIC.

Flash back to Mount Sinai and understand that God gave Israel The Book of the Covenant

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2

If we keep God's commandments as "prescriptive" then and only then will Jesus Christ come to us as The Holy Spirit Comforter:

If ye love me, keep my commandments. Jn.14:15

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; John 14:16

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14:18

He that hath my commandments (authoritative prescription), and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Jn.14:21

Paul's old self condemned him because he put his trust in his body or flesh or carnal nature or the Law of Moses. However, when one "worships in the spirit" and "according to truth" there is no little nagging voice in the conscience. As a result, one does not get involved in "body rituals" of sight, sound or motion which can not possibly penetrate beyond the external senses. The confidence of the "spirit" is a quiet rest beside still waters.

There is nothing evil about a law. A law is a statement of cause and effect: if you fall down you will hurt yourself. Therefore, the New Testament is also a statement of cause and effect and is a law but not in the Mosaic sense where laws preserved the human body but had no effect upon the spirit. Jesus stated a law which is also gospel when He discredited the outward body (where modern worship dwells) and defined the TRUTH part of the IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH worship.

Law in Romans 8:2 is "nomos" or "prescriptive usage" or regulation. That regulative principle from Jesus Christ is His Word. Therefore, John said what Paul said directly from Jesus Christ:

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63

There is no spirit or life unless the SEED is planted in our hearts and makes a change in OUR OWN SPIRIT OR HEART. God the Spirit does not force us to suddenly convert our lives. Therefore, the WORD operates on our own SPIRIT and out own spirit begins to produce FRUIT as evidence of LIFE.

The way Christ brings spirit and life is through His Words. Because those who reject them or minimize them or cut-and-past them ignore Jesus, the Words can become the law of death just like the Law of Moses whose hallmark was ignoring of God's Word.

Those who walk after the Spirit do not trail around behind a one-third god person. Rather, those who walk after the spirit walk according to Christ's words which are spirit and life. This is the natural practice of those who have "turned to the Lord."

The gospel as performed by Jesus but is not imitated by believers is another spirit and another gospel and therefore will not bring life:

For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. 2 Corinthians 11:4

Paul uses parallelism to restate the same truth in three different ways to keep us from putting our focus upon a pagan-like "spirit" religion of external and charismatic rituals. He follows Jesus by demanding that we worship God in spirit and according to truth. The three identical things are:

These three are one

Another Jesus
Another spirit
Another gospel

Without the Spirit of Christ people are dead. When one believes that gospel and comprehends that spiritual deadness, it is possible to be "baptized for the dead" and be alive in the spirit. This is what Paul said in Romans 7:

For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. 1 Peter 4:6

We were made after the image of God. That is, we have a body or the power to manipulate physical things. We have life which allows the body to be moved. And we have mind or spirit or the "inner man" which holds "mental attitudes" and equips the brain to move the body for the glory of God.

Under the Law, in Romans chapter seven, Paul said that "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." He did not, could not, introduce the notion of a cut-in-third part of God living in our literal body to replace our mind. If this is true then we, as the Romans thought (Rom 9-11), can blame God. No. Paul never allows us to abandon our God-given, God-enlightened mind as the responsible spirit which guides our body.

In the next passage, Paul continues to contrast walking after our flesh with walking after our mind:

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: Romans 8:3

The law demanded death for any sin; the exception is that God couldn't punish a dead person. Therefore, the only way to get relief from sin under the law was a token sacrifice or death through animal sacrifice.

Therefore, Jesus died for us in the literal sense so that we do not have to pay for that which we have no power to pay.

In the New Testament, righteousness is still available only to those who present their bodies as a living sacrifice which is then considered dead and "burned up." Only as the old body quits jerking, stomping and performing talented rituals is it possible to be resurrected in the mind or spirit.

Jesus performed the literal act which destroyed the power of sin. However, those who stop following the Law of Moses and/or their own human senses will also die to self, be baptized in imitation of Christ and be resurrected as a spirit-led person rather than a body-led person. The "spirit" person thinks of God and His word; the "carnal" person continues to try to attract God and "customers" with their own body which, like Dracula, will just not die. Paul made this very clear in Romans 8:4-6:

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,

who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Romans 8:4----- ------

For they that are	after the	flesh
do	mind the things of the	flesh
but they that are	after the	Spirit,
(do)	(mind) the things of the	Spirit. Romans 8:5
For to be	carnally minded is	death
but to be	spiritually minded is	life and peace. Romans 8:6

For when we were in the flesh,	But now we are delivered from the law,
the motions (emotions, conflicts) of sins, which were by the law,	that being dead wherein we were held;
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Romans 7:4 (our body parts)	that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7:6 (our spirit or mind)

Romans 8:1-5 - There is No Condemnation in Christ