And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. —Galatians 5:24-25
We are new creations, children of God, and our lives should reflect this reality. And remember, please, that this life in the Spirit is not spinning our wheels. We are moving somewhere. In Romans 8 Paul reminds us of our groanings in this world. Along with the whole creation, we are waiting eagerly for the consummation of our redemption—the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23). He means the time when we will be raised from the dead and our corruptibility will put on incorruptibility (1 Corinthians 15:53–55).
And in fact, Paul says in Romans 8, it is in this very hope that we were saved (v. 24). Our faith inherently has a forward trajectory. We embrace Jesus by faith because eternity is real. It’s because there is a God. We have a Creator for whom we were made. So then it’s not about our best life now or reaching our best potential or blah blah blah. We have a hope that we cannot see (Romans 8:24). A hope that this world surely can’t see. We are gazing ahead at a new cosmos—a world filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
We have a hope that we wait for with patience (Romans 8:25). God knows it isn’t easy. Here is where the Spirit shines, because in all our waiting, in our eagerness and struggles, even when we don’t know how to pray, the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26). He’s driving our waiting and fueling our hope.