The early Church lived an uprooted and overturned life, while the world around them stayed rigidly unchanged, ignorant of the new life Jesus offered. And the old life was seriously threatened by the new, leading to a persecution of those who were learning to obey Jesus’ teachings. The ‘Jesus Rebels’ were confronted within by their old nature and without by Jewish tradition and the Roman-dominated society around them. Encouragement to stay the course, to press in more and more to the liberating, Jesus-with-them-always, truth, was critical.

Romans 8:5-13, TPT

1. vv. 5-8 – Life ________________________________________

2. vv. 9—11 – Life ______________________________________

vv. 12,13 – Life ______________________________________