March 29, 2019


Sometimes I Am the Pharisaic Lawmaker
and
Other Times the Sinful Law Breaker

Talk about no good option! Both are odious to God. Both result in a fracture in fellowship and create a fissure in our friendship with the Lord. The first leads to hypocrisy, the second leads to hedonism. Again, both are bad options.
The problem in both cases is... me. It is me-myself, the sinful self, that leads me in the wrong direction. Some call this quandary the work of "the flesh" or "the body of sin" while others call it "the old nature." Call it what you like, it is readily on display. The spiritual solution to this debilitating situation is to walk in the Spirit and not the self.
The apostle Paul felt this difficult dilemma as he explains in Romans 7:15-16. He tells us that he - the born again apostle Paul - actually does the very thing he does not wish to do and does not do what he actually desires to do. He concludes that it is not the real me but sin that dwells in me that accounts for this discouraging reality.

He then continues in Romans 8:12-13 to provide the solution - walk according to the Spirit. (Count how many times the word Spirit is mentioned in Romans 8 compared to the first 7 chapters). He covers the same theological truth and conveys sound pastoral advice in Galatians 5. The choice is to not walk in the flesh but to walk in the Spirit. The result for the Christian is the difference between enjoying Spiritual life or experiencing Spiritual death. (Romans 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16)
The paradoxical reality is that I actually am a new person in Christ. Christ is in me and so "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." (Galatians 2:20) The challenge of the Christian life is allowing the risen life of Christ, to live through me through His Spirit in my spirit.
Mystical? Yes! Supernatural? Of course! Wonderful? Amen!
         
Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us,
Fred