But now there is an end to it! Glory to God! That was then, when we were in the flesh. Now we are not there anymore. We have moved over into the Spirit. The sinful passions have no more power over us, simply because we are not where they rule and have power. What an amazing salvation, an amazing Chapter 7 in the epistle to the Romans. Now we have died to what we were held by so that we serve in the newness of the Spirit. How glorious that is! What a precious newness that is: Truth, purity, love, and all kinds of goodness. Nothing that is bad or unholy! We have died to it. Death has separated us from it. Death separates us from where we have been before—from everything and everyone—uniting us with everything and everyone where we are going. God be praised for this unique salvation, this radical salvation! May many people partake of it and be set free from all bondage to the flesh, from all striving and all indifference that does not lead to a new life, from everything that is unable to lead us to serve in the newness of the Spirit. Imagine that the sinful lusts no longer work in such a way that they cause us to commit sin. Their power has been broken. It has been disconnected in a mysterious way; namely, because I have become disconnected. I am dead without having died a natural death. This is a supernatural death, a death while I am still living, death in my inner man, a death that is just as radically effective and ruthless as the natural death. I am no longer present in the flesh; therefore the sinful passions no longer have any power over me, over my conscious “I.” Anger, lying, unrighteousness, vain ambition, dissatisfaction, suspicion, conceit, anxiety, etc., etc., no longer work in such a way that we commit sin. The power of these sinful passions over us has forever been disconnected. However, when we were in the flesh, then the sinful passions worked in such a way that we bore fruit to death. This is what is written in Romans 7, and this is how it is. How foolish it is to continue in the flesh where all of this devilry is playing havoc, when we have the opportunity of moving over into the Spirit. Formerly we were also children of wrath, just as the others. Eph. 2:3. But now we are dead—we have died to—what we were held by. Glory, glory, glory, glory to God! His name is highly exalted!Elias Aslaksen