Choosing the right path
This week is on Romans 8:1-13:
We live caught between two worlds. One world is the world of the spirit. It is the big picture world. It extends past our lifetimes, past the limits of the laws of physics, and beyond even time itself. It includes others, recognizes spiritual beings, and is ultimately subject in every way to God's will.
The other world is the world of the flesh. It is the world of self-preservation and self-advancement. It is the world of the brain stem, of the animal brain that drives our base instincts. It doesn't acknowledge God. It is actually a subset of the world of the spirit, but one which has been shaped to only acknowledge that which we can see and measure and that which exists within our lifetimes. It is a world that has neither heaven nor hell.
We're taught to live in the world of the flesh: "Study hard. Get married. Have kids. Build a career. Defend what's yours. Advance at any cost. If you can't prove it, don't believe it." Our modern, post-modern world is founded on predictability and the preservation of our species and culture. Mankind has always lived in this world.
That's not to say that Christians can't have or believe any of these things, just that our world is bigger and we need to take more into account than the here and now. Before our first encounter with God, the world of the flesh was all we'd ever known. Its habits, priorities, and mental limits aren't going to just vanish overnight.
Imagine growing up in a dark basement where the same meal was thrown down the stairs every morning and every night. Your whole life experience was defined by those two meals, and by learning to cope with life in the dark. One day, someone shows up and rescues you. Are you then instantly going to know how to pick out clothes, how to tell which foods you can eat, how to interact with other people, speak a language, etc? No, you're probably going to fear the light, react selfishly when someone wants to share your space or your things, and be mistrustful of any food that isn't one of the limited choices that got tossed down the stairs at you. But that doesn't mean that you're going to stop sleeping at night, or no longer need food and drink. You've been brought into a whole new world, but it doesn't mean you're no longer a person living on planet earth.
Our life with God starts the way life starts for that person rescued from the dark basement. It takes time to learn to live in a bigger world, and it's wrong to expect that we could continue to live the same way we did when we lived in darkness. Some things will stay the same, but others will change radically.
There's no shame in getting it wrong, as long as we continue to try to adjust. The question isn't strictly one of right versus wrong, but of whether we want to move forward into God's kingdom. It's impossible to please God if we continue to live in darkness, thinking only of ourselves and our immediate needs.
So, our struggle should be to replace the flesh-world's limited perspective with the spirit-world's eternal perspective. Get used to the light. Adopt the values and habits of the new world you've been brought into. Your obligation is to your rescuer, not your former captor. It's time to move on.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
We live caught between two worlds. One world is the world of the spirit. It is the big picture world. It extends past our lifetimes, past the limits of the laws of physics, and beyond even time itself. It includes others, recognizes spiritual beings, and is ultimately subject in every way to God's will.
The other world is the world of the flesh. It is the world of self-preservation and self-advancement. It is the world of the brain stem, of the animal brain that drives our base instincts. It doesn't acknowledge God. It is actually a subset of the world of the spirit, but one which has been shaped to only acknowledge that which we can see and measure and that which exists within our lifetimes. It is a world that has neither heaven nor hell.
We're taught to live in the world of the flesh: "Study hard. Get married. Have kids. Build a career. Defend what's yours. Advance at any cost. If you can't prove it, don't believe it." Our modern, post-modern world is founded on predictability and the preservation of our species and culture. Mankind has always lived in this world.
That's not to say that Christians can't have or believe any of these things, just that our world is bigger and we need to take more into account than the here and now. Before our first encounter with God, the world of the flesh was all we'd ever known. Its habits, priorities, and mental limits aren't going to just vanish overnight.
Imagine growing up in a dark basement where the same meal was thrown down the stairs every morning and every night. Your whole life experience was defined by those two meals, and by learning to cope with life in the dark. One day, someone shows up and rescues you. Are you then instantly going to know how to pick out clothes, how to tell which foods you can eat, how to interact with other people, speak a language, etc? No, you're probably going to fear the light, react selfishly when someone wants to share your space or your things, and be mistrustful of any food that isn't one of the limited choices that got tossed down the stairs at you. But that doesn't mean that you're going to stop sleeping at night, or no longer need food and drink. You've been brought into a whole new world, but it doesn't mean you're no longer a person living on planet earth.
Our life with God starts the way life starts for that person rescued from the dark basement. It takes time to learn to live in a bigger world, and it's wrong to expect that we could continue to live the same way we did when we lived in darkness. Some things will stay the same, but others will change radically.
There's no shame in getting it wrong, as long as we continue to try to adjust. The question isn't strictly one of right versus wrong, but of whether we want to move forward into God's kingdom. It's impossible to please God if we continue to live in darkness, thinking only of ourselves and our immediate needs.
So, our struggle should be to replace the flesh-world's limited perspective with the spirit-world's eternal perspective. Get used to the light. Adopt the values and habits of the new world you've been brought into. Your obligation is to your rescuer, not your former captor. It's time to move on.
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