“I didn’t think the Christian life was supposed to be such a struggle.” Where in the world does this thinking come from? The scriptures describe our spiritual journey in very intense terms-as an Olympic event (1 Corinthians 9:24-26), as a wrestling match (Ephesians 6:10-17), as a holy war (1 Peter 2:11). Each of these metaphors is an image of intense effort and struggle, of victory and defeat. We are in a holy war, but it is not our war to win alone.
Our spiritual resurrection from the dead, the transformation of our hearts, is accomplished by God alone. From that point on, each step of our walk is a cooperative effort; warring against our flesh’s lust and selfishness and whatever we struggle with by the Spirit…By the Spirit…Not by our self-reliance and hard work, but in cooperation with Him. It is intense, but we are not alone. Our part is to put our minds on the Spirit (8:5), not on the things of this world, and to subject ourselves to God (8:7), obeying His word. His part is to create new life in us as we walk in obedience to Him.
However, note that we are under a holy obligation, according to 8:12. In fact, it seems that as Christ followers, we are under the strongest obligation possible; we are commanded to PUT TO DEATH the deeds of the body…Hard to imagine stronger words than that.
Yet, this is by the Spirit. What that means is that I don't need to make myself holy, by myself; I just need to respond to the Spirit as He leads me. The Spirit moves on our conscience. It is the Holy Spirit that cautions us against proceeding in some sin. The Holy Spirit is the one who energizes our lives as we obey. He does not do the work for us, but the Spirit is works in, by, with, over and under my will, but never without it.
To survive and win our holy war, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
We must treat the Holy Spirit as God because the Holy Spirit is God.
1 Comments:
You say, "He does not do the work for us, but the Spirit is works in, by, with, over and under my will, but never without it," and that's honestly one of the most irritating, frustrating things about this whole "Christian journey" thing I'm on. I honestly think that what most Christians really want is for God to "do all the work for us" -- that he'd just flip a switch and make me want to obey him. Really WANT to. That way, I don't have to struggle. If Jesus gives us victory, if he gives us Life, if he's fought the battle on our behalf, then why am I still getting fired at? If he won the battle over sin, why do I find myself still struggling so powerfully with it? Why can't we just kind of have some holy hypnosis that "cures" us and makes us WANT to do something that by my nature I DON'T want to do? I hate all this "becoming" stuff. It's frustratingly slow. Does it HAVE to be hard? And if Jesus did so much for me, why can't it be easier?
And it's funny because while all this is true (my frustration), one of the things I value the most is when someone values where I'm coming from, values my thoughts and feelings and doesn't just MAKE me do something but listens to me and helps me. I suppose I need to figure out what I really want: A god who has his watch dangling in front of me saying, "You're getting sleepy...when you awake, you will joyfully want to obey me" or a God who honors and respects my individuality and my will and emotions and works with me every day, making this a joint project of sorts. I like that better, I just wish it wasn't such a struggle to "become".
By the way, when do my abs and pecs grow to "Jim Poorman size" as promised on Sunday? Nothing much is happening here yet.
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kilts rock, at 9:30 AM
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