Context—Paul has finished his discussion about the problem of law and its ineffectiveness by reason of inherent sin (chapters 6-7); he now introduces a power to lift the Christian to a better place in relationship to law and sin based on Christ’s victory and the promise of God’s ultimate victory over evil.

• Paul speaks of two ways of living—flesh and spirit. Take the path of sarx and we end up with a life influenced by rebellion, idolatry, or in the words of one commentator, a "human being turned in on himself or herself, the person becoming the center of all values. Life in the flesh is a life of self-idolatry. The other path—life in the Spirit—is life in service to the Creator who has broken the enslaving power of self-idolatry and sin.
  
• Paul may be drawing on an image from our first lesson—Ezekiel 37—for his understanding of the Spirit’s work as the "Lord and Giver of Life" in this passage. When Ezekiel wanted to describe the reality of the new covenant between God and his people he described it in terms of a new animating spirit which God would give them (Ez. 36:26-27; 37:1-11).

 

It was a cardinal element of early Christian faith that it was God who raised Christ from the dead (Ro. 4:24; 1 Cor. 15:15, 20; Gal. 1:1). Equally central was the conviction that God would raise those "in Christ" (1 Cor. 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:14). In the Christ-event God unleashed the dynamic force that Paul calls "resurrection life." To be incorporated into Christ is to be introduced to this new force, to share in the resurrection. Even though resurrection existence begins now, it is not fully realized or consummated until the eschaton.

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In many senses, today’s text takes us ahead to Pentecost. It certainly pints us toward Easter as we are directed to think of both Christ’s resurrection as well as our own. Yet within the context of Lent, it speaks a direct message, urging us to see clearly the contours of two antithetical forms of existence that continue to pose options for us, even though we have taken up the "outlook of the Spirit." What rings true is the moral tension of the text. This what Lent forces us to confront before we celebrate Easter.

 

Seldom do all three lessons have a natural connection between them. You might build a sermon from this passage in conversation with Ezekiel 37 and John 11. Sort of three vignettes of the Spirit, spending a few minutes on each noting the Spirit’s activity and then on to the next, moving to a series of response questions as closure.

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