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Conformed to the likeness of His Son means to be like Jesus. We will someday reflect Jesus spiritually. We will have the same mind that Jesus has. It involves our lives now because this is a process taking place now, every day. God is shaping us into what He wants us to become; like His Son. He is using whatever situations that are going on in our lives to conform us to His Son. Paul uses the word predestinate because this gaurantee that we will become like Christ because God has ordained it to be so. He will bring it to happen because we love Him and believe in Him and because He KNOWS us which is we have a personal relationship with Him. Jesus Christ is the firstborn. He is the begotten(One and Only) Son, the One with the highest ranking. But because of our belief and faith in Jesus we are the children of God--Rom 8:17 and joint heirs with Christ. If we suffer with Christ we will share in His glory. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

The actual promise in verse 28 is that God will cause whatever happens in one who loves Him life to work together for that person's good. It means that come what may, that God will cause the good and the bad to work together. He will take every piece and put them together and make things work out for those who love Him, true believers, obedient servants. This especially points to building the character and the image of Jesus Christ that trials involve. The two qualifications for the recipeints are that they love God and are called (and responded positively) according to His purpose. This verse gives a person hope in knowing that whatever is going on in their lives, whatever the suffering, and pain and crisis that we are going through that we can have confidence that God knows and that He will make things right for us in the end. That He will cause something good to come out of the situation.

We really don't know what that glory will be revealed in us. We can only go by the glory of Jesus and know that we will share His glory. His glory has been described as being radiant, shining etc.and He wanted it returned to Him like He was before He became human.The creation will experience the glory of God by being restored to the way it was when He created it. The order of thing will be restored. Every creature and thing will be able to exist without conflicts or fear from each other. Man and animal will be able to dwell in peace.Isa. 11:6-9 As for our mortal bodies we will be given new bodies. Our spirit will experience the glory of God by having all our sufferings in the past. We will have nothing but joy, no more decaying and dying, no more sorrows and pain. We will become joint-inheritors with Jesus.

The characteristics of a person who has lost hope is one who is probably either depressed and has truly given up and could be suicidal or one who is happy because he does not have to struggle with his own nature, but just gives in and conducts his life walking after the flesh and doing those things that pleases the flesh. He is living for the now, what he can get out of this life only, unlike the person who is hoping not only for a better life now but an even better life in the future with God which is the Christian hope. This is the way having the Spirit of God makes a person different. This should make us strive to please God in everything that we do

The Holy Spirit helps us by leading, guiding us and moving us to pray for what is the will of God. When we are weak, depressed, angry the Holy Spirit can help us because we may not be able to pray ourselves because of the situation. As stated the Holy Spirit sees the big picture. We may be asking for one thing and the Holy Spirit knows that it needs to be another and that is what is requested to God. That is why some of our prayers are answered in different ways than what we expect. Jesus as our High Priest and advocator does the same work as the Holy Spirit as stated in the verses mentioned. Why shouldn't there be similarities because they both are God. It is for that very reason that we may take the Holy Spirit for granted in that we overlook the Holy Spirit as the third Person in the Trinity and only think of it as an it instead of a Person. We focus on Jesus as it should be but at the same time do not recognize the work that the Holy Spirit is doing. I myself do not always recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit, something which we need to do at all times.

Jesus the Word came to earth to dwell among us; He came to redeem man who had sinned. And He came in the form of a human being. Heb 2:17-18 (NLT) tells us "Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested" And Heb 4:15 says " This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin." Jesus lived as a human so that He could be tempted as we are and be an advocate for us when we cry out to God knowing what we go through as humans. We and creation both suffer because of Adam's decision to eat of the fruit of the tree when God told him not to do so. Because of that sin God had to make good on His word that from that moment man would decay(decay is like a slow death) and die and not only man but the whole creation. Gen 2: 17 "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." We suffer because it is the consequence of sin. All suffering is an opportunity for God to use to have us look to Him for His help, to have us depend on Him. We suffer because Phil 1:29 says "For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him." And the suffering is not limited to us; the whole creation moans. "Hosea 4:3 says "Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying." We only have life through Jesus Christ. Once we acknowledge Him as our Lord and Savior we have eternal life. We can look forward to the day that our physical bodies will be changed and the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18. And verse 21 tells us that all creation is doing the same thing, looking forward to the day when its death and decay will end.

Seven times at least, numerous times it is mentioned that saved Christians are children of God. We are promised to share Christ's Glory with Him; the creation will be freed from death and decay. We learn that God will cause all things to work together for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. We learn that we are groaning and waiting patiently for the time when God's glory will be revealed in the sons of God. I think we will help set things back in order the way that Christ created things in the beginning.

The Spirit inspires a person to pray Abba Father by giving us the assurance that we are children of God as believers in Jesus Christ. When we refer to God as our Dad we show that we have a personal intimate relationship with Him, not a formal fearful approach to Him. If we do not have an assurance of our salvation we will not have hope that we will live forever with God; we will be separated from Him for eternity. We receive this personal assurance by the witness of the Holy Spirit which assures us we are a child of God.

To mortify or put to death means to stop doing an activity; in the case sin, whatever is unpleasing to God, the Holy Spirit. To look at a person do this we can see when a person stops doing certain activities that have been deemed sin by God. We will not be able to see and know what exactly is in that person's heart or his motives but we can see this person being led by the Spirit when his life style goes in the opposite direction of his sinful life of before. Being led by the Spirit is following what the Spirit instructs us to do. Listening to Him. He dwells in us and He is either leading us into the right path or back to the right path; controlling us or convicting us of our error or sinfulness. We are to ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE LED. In actual practice you can see the results as stated before, a complete turn around from the life of sin. Of course we will not do everything right, but we are allowing the Spirit to work in us to show us our errors, to follow what it says to do and not to do. Putting to death and being led by the Spirit tie in together. Most of the work will be done by the Spirit. The Spirit tells us what to mortify but we have to listen and submit and obey.

As Christian we do not have to sin as stated in Romans 12 and Romans 6:14 NLT Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Yes it is possible not to sin for that length of time asked if we continually submit to the voice and instruction of the Holy Spirit. verse 12 states we are under no obligation to do what our sinful nature urges us to do. But we will still slip up from time to time because 1 John 1:8 tells us so. I think Christians get a defeatist attitude toward sin because we have not fully understood that by walking by the Spirit means that we do not have to sin. We think because we are still mortal and fleshly that we will sin whether we want to or not and do not put for the effort and discipline to resist temptations and submit to the Holy Spirit (be filled with the Spirit) as they come our way. It is definitely not Scriptural as the book of Romans tells us.

To set your mind on things of the Spirit means to think on, consider, be intent on, a way of thinking about spiritual things. We can do thing only if we are walking by the Spirit and not by the flesh; listening to and submitting to the Holy Spirit and trusting in the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. A list of things to think on concisely is listed in Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. You can recogonize when your mind is set on sinful things when these things are not pleasing to God. If the thoughts are inward about self it is of sinful nature. You can only live right and please God if you are walking by the Holy Spirit. not by willing ourselves to do good. The Holy Spirit produces love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness and temperance. To have the nature of Christ living in us is the only way to have these attributes.

Obedience to the law could not save us because we could not keep the law because of our sinful nature. We could try but our efforts would be in vain. The law doesn't save anyway. The law just points out what sin is. The weak link is us, because we are wicked according to Jer 17:9 and our flesh is enmity to God in Romans 8:7 It takes our belief in Jesus on the Cross and His resurrection to save us. It is a gift from God. All we need to do it believe and accept it.

After further study I believe that Paul is talking about himself and mature Christians. Paul wrote this letter 25 years after his conversion; surely the Apostle Paul was a mature Christian by this time. A mature Christian will have struggles with sin. When Paul said we are no longer slaves to sin he is saying that we are no longer slave to the reign of sin, that we are not slaves to the power of sin, that sin does not reign in our lives; therefore we will struggle with certain things, each to his own. As Christians infants or mature we are all still flesh and we will have fleshy struggles until Jesus returns for us.

The doctrine of total depravity is that every part of man (man in his original form as God created him) has been corrupted by the sin of Adam. It does not mean that there is no good in man but mixture of good and evil, even though what good is in man is tainted because of our sinful nature.We may do good, but we do it with wrong motives specifically for our own gain. Our heart is deceitful and wicked. We are sinners by nature. We do not have to be taught how to sin; it is inherited. Just about everything we do is is corrupted one way or another. I believe that modern man tend to believe that man is basically good because of the good acts that we do. Most may not commit adultery, or steal or rob a bank or murder, commit what man sees at big sins. Modern man does not recognize that mental sins or thoughts of the mind as being sin, only acts of sin therefore they think man is basically good. The Bible teaches that man is deceitful and wicked in Jeremiah 17:9 and in Romans 8:7-8 it says 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God

What the law does well is it reveals sin, tells you what is wrong. What it does not do well is that once a sin is revealed it provokes us to want to do that sin even more. We always want what we cannot have and always want to do what we should not do. The law is the revelation of sin. It is our heart that is the problem. Because even after sin is revealed we still want to sin. We are powerless to resist temptations on our own. WE NEED A SAVIOR!!!

We would not be better off because we would continue to covet which is wanting something that does not and cannot legally belong to us and this would cause harm to us and others. Not knowing that you are sinning does not mean that you are not in the wrong. In fact you are, and you will have to deal with the consequences of your actions. Our flesh, sinful nature is in rebellion to God and His laws. When our sinful nature is told not to do something it will do the very thing told not to do. That is our natural state. We want to do right but we can't because of the power that sin has over the natural state of mind. Romans 8:7 NIV The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God

We would not be better off not knowing that we should not covet because not knowing does not mean we are still not committing acts which displeases God. As a result of the covetousness we will have to suffer with the consequences or penalty of committing the act. When we are told not to do something we always want to do the opposite because there is another power at war within ourselves that is making us a slave to sin.

In these verses flesh is spiritual rather than physical. It is in the mind or heart. It is our nature to sin as human beings. Our nature is hostile, or an enemy to God and His law and we cannot submit to God's way of life on our own even if we try to. We are prone to lie, steal, cheat, commit sexual sins, commit murder, envy and all the works of the flesh, the sinful nature. In our minds we do not want to do these things but we cannot help ourselves because it is just our nature to commit these acts. [Thankfully Jesus made it possible that we do not have to submit to the temptations that come our way.]

There is no middle ground as to whether we will serve sin or Christ. We must chose one or the other. We long for this independent freedom because we want to be able to make our own choices which God does allow, but we must be ready for the consequences of our choices, whether to the good or bad. We may hesitate to make our position clear because as humans we want to look good to all. We want Christians to think of us as fellow Christians and we want the world to think that we fit in with them. We just want to straddle the line. But we must make a choice, whether to be slaves to sin or obedient to God.

Good doctrine teaches us to live the life that pleases God. We honor good doctrine because good, true doctrine comes from God. It most often comes from someone else other than ourselves or is passed down to us by others but we must make sure that what we are taught by someone lines up with the Word of God. We must avoid watered down doctrines to suit a group or congregation because that is what the group wants to hear, especially in order to receive money. We must avoid doctrine that is twisted to mean something other than the original from God.

You are servant to whom you obey. If we practice sin on a regular basis, sin is our master, therefore we are serving sin, we are slaves to sin. By the power of the Holy Spirit in doing acts of righteousness we are manifesting our desire to obey God. We become slaves to righteous living. We are servant to God. In the same way to sin we are servants to sin. If we obey sin's calling it is our master. It has dominion or authority over us. WE are set free from this bond when we are unionized with Christ by His death on the cross, His burial and His resurrection. Christ set us free from the power of sin. He did all the work. We just have to have faith in Him and His acts and accept what He is giving us. Obedience to Christ's teaching sets us free from sin. I need to submit to the Holy Spirit when it is ministering unto me in every situation I find myself in.

When we offer the members of our body to sin we can use our hands, our words, our heart to commit sins or to obey the wrong thing that our mind is telling us to do using members of our body to do so--steal, putting our hands and heart in places where they should not be, lying, gossiping etc. When we offer our body to God we can use our hands to do good for others physically, give words of praise to God, encouragement etc. from our heart. Sometime just giving a smile makes all the difference to another. We can sin unconsciously easily because we are still human and we are not being alert at all times and we have lapses when we serve sin. We can sin and not know that we have sinned also. We can begin by offering our members to God by rightful living as stated in some examples above. To do this we must submit ourselves to God and His authority, to pray and ask Him to to help us have the discipline to submit to the Holy Spirit when it convicts us to do or not to do something. We must study God's Holy Word to learn more about Him thereby drawing closer to Him and becoming imitators of Jesus.

Reign means to have dominion, to exercise authority over. Obedience means to follow, to be subject to. When we obey sin we allow it to have authority over us, our mortal bodies; we follow our natural passions and submit to that temptation because we cannot do otherwise.We actually serve sin as it is our master. This is the way it is before we became united with Christ through His death on the Cross.

Count means to consider, to believe that we are dead to sin. We have become united with Christ because of what He did on the cross and His burial and resurrection. We no longer mastered by sin and sin has no more power over us even though we will still be tempted by sin, but we will not feel like we have to sin because that is what we do naturally. Thus we can live a life that is pleasing to God because we have the Holy Spirit living in us helping us to resist sin's power when temptation comes our way. We will not do everything right but it gives us assurance that we can fight, that we have the most powerful HELP on our side helping us resists these temptations as they come into our lives.

Our old nature has been made powerless by being united or in union with Christ through spiritual baptism sharing in Christ's death on the cross when He overcame sin, when He shed His blood for us so that we might have life. This helps us to know that we do not have to keep obeying our temptation to sin. It gives us strength and confidence and joy to know we have the power to resist sin's calling when we have Christ living in us, the new person, the newness of life. Though the inherited temptation to sin is still there, sin is weakened & no longer has it’s power.