Now No Condemnation

There is, then, now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit; (Romans 8:1 YLT)

I have two questions that came up as I reviewed the present verses around the end of chapter 7 and the first of chapter 8. I know I have covered this maybe several times but I always feel it is important to still be willing to look more.

If I put myself into the mind of the persons Paul was addressing in Romans 7 (which is not at all hard for me to do), I realize that my normal reaction to the detailed description of a person's condition, as Paul described his own experience to be, would arouse in me feelings of condemnation toward such an individual. That is one of the stock attitudes of people who are working very hard to be obedient to all the rules to please God. They naturally tend to perceive others who reveal their weaknesses and talk about sin dwelling in their flesh with an attitude of condemnation. Somehow they assume that what that person needs is a stronger sense of guilt to cause them to quit sinning and tow the line more carefully. It is believed that condemnation is an important part of the Christian life; it is the “stick” as opposed to the “carrot” approach that they believe God uses to push and pull us toward a righteous life.

Many Christians today have various methods to employ this tool. In some circles it is very common to preach the terrors of hell-fire and damnation to frighten sinners into repentance. It seems to work quite effectively and many are seen to respond, so it is assumed that it is a valid method to intimidate souls into salvation. Others use much more subtle approaches of displeasure or disdain. But there is one common thread through all of these things and that is fear.

So if I am one of the people listening or reading this discourse by Paul describing his own emotions and struggles and then declaring (7:25) that though with his mind he is serving the Law of God but with his flesh the law of sin, I would naturally respond with reactions of some level of condemnation toward Paul. I would assume that the reason he is struggling so hard and obviously not succeeding in his fight against sin is that he is not trying hard enough, not surrendering enough, maybe not intimidated enough, so he must need to feel more condemned to compel him toward a more righteous life of obedience.

I think that one reason Paul used this detailed description and made sure he used himself as the example and not anyone else is because he knew ahead of time that it would evoke just this kind of response in his listeners. It was just that core attitude that he wanted to expose as the faulty thinking that keeps this type of person trapped in their frustrated attempts to achieve righteousness through their relationship with the Law and their strong attempts to be obedient and to get right with God.

The presence of condemnation in the heart, especially when it is considered a legitimate part of God's plan of salvation, is a fatal flaw in the spiritual life that keeps us trapped in the very experience that Paul has just described in chapter 7. Condemnation simply is not the means that God uses to draw us to Himself but we have a very hard time accepting that idea. The problem is that when we believe that condemnation is legitimate, in becoming like the God we imagine we will inevitably end up using it to motivate others to join us in our “service” and “obedience” to the God of our twisted perceptions.

The other question that came to me and is very much integrated with what I am looking at here is the sudden shift in “person” that Paul uses in his writing at this point. He has been talking for some time about “I” and “me” in the first person as he describes this unenviable position of struggle with sin in his flesh, but he suddenly shifts to second person in 8:2 where he exclaims, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”

I believe that Paul does this so that he personally takes all of the heat and becomes the lightening rod for all of the condemnation that he knows will be aroused by this description so that it is not directed at anyone else. At the same time he also knows that those who share the same struggle secretly inside have by this time begun to realize that they are experiencing the same reality that Paul is describing. He has now awakened in their heart a growing desire for escape from this feeling of being trapped. Paul is externalizing by expression the secret, hidden feelings of every person who is trying to please God through a religion of fear so that they will identify with his own frustrations enough to listen to the glorious true realities that God has for us to experience. Right at the point that we are willing to admit, if we are honest, that what he has just described is all too like what we are feeling, he then switches the focus from himself to us by saying “you”. He takes the light that he has up to this point been shining only on his own feelings and frustrations and turns it suddenly into our heart exposing the fact that we too share these feelings of helplessness even though we may have kept them hidden and repressed for many years. But he does this at the critical moment as he begins to reveal the wonderful good news that we should not accept condemnation as a part of God's plan for our lives, but that God wants to set us free from this spirit of sin and death (the essence of condemnation) into a completely different paradigm and perception of reality. The Spirit of life is the real antidote that we need to motivate us in a successful experience of salvation, not the life-sucking emotions of condemnation and its surrounding negative attitudes and fears.

Just before I looked at this passage today I read the presentation in My Utmost and found some striking insights to compliment what I have been learning in Romans 7 and 8. Here is what he said.

Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. John 13:13.

To have a master and to be mastered is not the same thing. To have a master means that there is one who knows me better than I know myself, one who is closer than a friend, one who fathoms the remotest abyss of my heart and satisfies it, one who has brought me into the secure sense that he has met and solved every perplexity and problem of my mind. To have a master is this and nothing less—“One is your Master, even Christ.”

Our Lord never enforces obedience; He does not take means to make me do what He wants. At certain times I wish God would master me and make me do the thing, but He will not; in other moods I wish He would leave me alone, but He does not.

“Ye call me Master and Lord”—but is He? Master and Lord have little place in our vocabulary, we prefer the words Saviour, Sanctifier Healer. The only word to describe mastership in experience is love, and we know very little about love as God reveals it. This is proved by the way we us the word obey. In the Bible obedience is based on the relationship of equals, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not God’s servant, He was His son. “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience . . .” If our idea is that we are being mastered, it is a proof that we have no master; if that is our attitude to Jesus, we are far away from the relationship He wants. He wants us in the relationship in which He is easily Master without our conscious knowledge of it, all we know is that we are His to obey.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. September 22

After I read the second paragraph I stopped and pondered what this meant in the light of what I have been learning about how the brain works. I decided that the problem described here was based on the motives of fear. I too, have many times wished God would force me to do the right thing, but He does not desire to do that for me, sometimes to my great frustration. And I share the sentiments of the author when he says there are other times when I wish He would leave me alone and He does not. His conviction is gentle but persistent and He desires for me to move from a relationship of fear to one of genuine love.

Then as I read the next paragraph that was confirmed for me. “The only word to describe mastership in experience is love, and we know very little about love as God reveals it. This is proved by the way we us the word obey.” Boy does that ring a bell for me! I still struggle against gut-level negative reactions every time I hear Christians use the word “obedience”, especially with that certain intonation that subtly applies the inference of condemnation without explicitly expressing it.

What Chambers is describing here is a wonderful illustration of what I have been seeing in Romans 6 and 7, and I really like the way he describes the right way to perceive the idea of Master. It dis-attaches it from the natural negative implications that we feel when that word is used and places it in a completely new context of the thriving, loving relationship of being part of a family. That is the desire that God has, the experience that He wants to draw us into when we present ourselves to be His slaves (6:16).

The real experience for us in salvation is to be drawn into bonds of love replacing our old fear-bonds that we are so used to. As I thought about this I became actually frightened, for I realize that I am so used to depending on fear-bonds in my relationship toward God to motivate me that love-bonds seem weak and flimsy by comparison. But my heart tells me that I was designed for something much better that a life of fear and the accompanying condemnation that it always produces. I was designed to live and thrive in the atmosphere of love and trust and peace that produces a natural response of the fruit of genuine righteousness. I am still many times confused as to how to get there from here, but I have to trust that the One who is revealing this to me will also be faithful to continue and finish the project that He started with me.

For the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus did set me free from the law of the sin and of the death. (Romans 8:2 YLT)

(next in series)

Be Perfect as your Father

"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48 ) (see my Utmost for His Highest for today.)

Perfect is a description of the attitude in the heart that results in how one treats others. I have always thought it was a description of external conformance to a list of requirements and ideals that felt unattainable so I always felt resistance to this verse. It triggered the reaction inside of me that legalism uses the Law to produce as described in Romans 7.

But when reading My Utmost it suddenly hit me with much more clarity just now that Jesus is talking about a disposition of the heart, not a description of performance. That becomes much clearer when I honestly consider what being “perfect” is in God's context.

If being “perfect” for God meant the same thing that I always thought it meant for me, then God would be always careful to do the right thing to get everyone else to think He was perfect. He would never fail to keep all of His rules and Laws and would never be caught doing or thinking anything bad.

Now of course, that would seem to be very easy for God to do because He is all-powerful and furthermore is not even tempted by sin. But it seems to me, with that view in mind, to be uncaring and even harsh of Him to demand that I have to do the same as He is doing with all of my disadvantages. But now that I think about it that is basically what I have thought for most of my life.

But Chambers said something here that alerted me to a completely different perspective on this word. I have always placed the word “perfect” in the realm of the externals, the behavior – including the thoughts – the performance arena of my life. Since I was nearly unaware of how to live from the heart successfully I had no alternative option from which to consider this word. This text was always used to impose a sense of inadequacy, guilt and shame on me with the supposed effect of causing me to want to work even harder to become externally perfect with the added burden of including my own imagination and impulses. That was an impossible task and a burden that neither we nor our father's could bear. But it was laid on us nonetheless.

Now I am beginning to see this text quite differently. Chambers implies that perfection as God demonstrates it is in the perfect attitude and disposition that He has toward us. It is seen in His gentleness, forbearance, forgiveness, graciousness, and strong, passionate desire for us to come close to Him so that we can receive more life and be filled with joy in the presence of His love.

The biggest obstacle for me to see perfection in that light previously was that my internal picture of God did not perceive Him in that light. Oh, I might have been able to string those words together as a verbatim repeating of some Biblical proof texts. But my heart did not feel or experience the reality of those words in the way I thought and felt He was treating me, and certainly not in the way most people who claimed to represent Him treated me.

My picture of God was mostly formed around a stern, rigid, rule-imposing authority figure who seemed rather distant but demanded that I love Him in spite of His unattractiveness. To make matters worse, I read many statements that described a natural obedience motived by spontaneous love in response to God's love and it all seemed totally confusing and meaningless to me. I could never comprehend how that could be a reality in my life by trying harder to keep rules and discipline my thoughts and .... and I could never honestly say that I could feel any love coming toward me from God. Now after spending significant time in Romans 7 I can see more clearly how I was “married” to the wrong spouse spiritually which made it impossible to be “perfect” even though that was the constant demand of the “Law” and all the rules of performance that I was directed to focus on. The more I tried to be perfect the more I seemed to experience the opposite reactions, in my heart, at least if not externally.

But now after receiving several years of radical modification of my views about God and starting to see Him as a heart-based being who is passionate about His love for everyone, who lives from His heart and desires us to live more from our hearts than being focused on performance, it is becoming easier to see this word in a different light.

I am realizing that it is crucial that I first experience the truth about how God really feels about me and treats me before it is even possible to approach the idea of perfection and arrive at a correct understanding of it. If I treated people the way my heart thought God was treating me for most of my life, my attitude toward them would be very distant, somewhat harsh and quite demanding of conformance to my ideals for them. I am sad to say that that is really a pretty accurate description of what my life has looked like and still does far too much. I have treated people the way my heart felt treated by God and the damage from that has been enormous and devastating. But I cannot change the way I spontaneously act toward others until I get a better picture of the truth about how God really feels toward me. And I can't get that changed by means of force, even toward myself. Instead, I have to be exposed at the heart level to the humbleness, gentleness, and kindness of God that leads me to repentance. I have to get a correct understanding of who Jesus really is and what He has done for me. And I also need to be filled with a new Spirit at the heart level that energizes and gives life to all of these new understandings and truths about God. That is what I see as the Romans 8 experience.

Now I am beginning to see that when I look at the word “perfect” as a description of attitude more than performance that it becomes much more within reach. Not that I can change my own heart by trying harder. But I am starting to learn that my heart will change naturally if it is exposed more openly to the grace and beauty of God's real feelings and dealings with me. Instead of focusing on trying to be “perfect” – which only tends to trigger the opposite feelings as described in Romans 7 – I find that as I fill my mind with more and more truth about God's passion and emotions and heart attitudes about me that my own heart begins to warm and desire to reflect what I see in Him.

That reminds me of a verse coming up later in Romans 12. It contrasts the difference between a life of attempted conformance and a life of spontaneous and joyful combustion. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2 NIV)

The pattern of this world is to insist on external conformity through force and hard work, motivated by fear, intimidation or shame. The religious life modeled on this pattern is not that much different but uses the Law of God as its tool for measurement. It is primarily a left brain religion that is very keen on being right, believing the right facts and doctrines and focused on looking good. That is the goal of that interpretation of “perfect”.

True religion, in contrast, is a heart-based transformation that comes naturally by filling my mind with new things that dislodge the lies about God. It is a transformational experience that reorients the relationship of my left and right brain so that I can be led by the Spirit of God and live as a Christian naturally and spontaneously. The compelling motivation of my life will be springing from my heart instead of being driven by my head. My life can move from fear and shame and force to love and value and peace. It is only then that I am even able to perceive and agree with what God's will is and I will then perceive His will as something good, something that is pleasing and desirable and I will be glad to be perfect.

Slavery 201

As I think about it more I am becoming really enamored with the prospect of being a total slave of Jesus Christ. It used to set off a low-level reaction of rebellion and resentment inside of me that I have to be a slave to someone and there is no option outside of that according to Romans 6. But after recent experiences it is beginning to dawn on me that being a slave of Jesus Christ is an extremely desirable relationship to be in. It is a real privilege to be able to cry out for help to my Owner when I am in trouble and know that He is very interested in the welfare of every one of His slaves.

God is extremely jealous for His slaves. Since they are totally His property He is fully responsible for their health and welfare. Since it is His slaves that He has chosen to use as His instruments of outreach and self-expression in this world, He is very keen to do everything possible to equip them to accurately reveal the message of the truth about Him. I crave that kind of jealousy. When someone loves me so much they are furiously jealous of my affections and deeply desire my undivided loyalty to them, that conveys something important about their heart and the value they place on me. God does not want me to be compromised by any deceptions of the enemy, for all deception is designed for only one purpose, to get me to doubt God and create within my heart a handle for the enemy to manipulate me and to insert his destructive lies so that through me he can further wound the heart of God.

As a slave of Christ I am fully owned by Him. Naturally He takes extremely good care of all of His property and intends to restore it and maintain it in as premium a condition as possible. Unlike most slave-masters, He gives an amazing amount of autonomy to His slaves. He does so in order that they will reflect His own character and as He demonstrates His intense value for freedom. But since we are in the middle of an deadly war He cannot allow me the freedom of living outside the bondage of slavery to Him for I am not equipped to live on my own because of my fallen human nature. When I refuse to be a slave of Jesus I am immediately stolen and enslaved by the cruel agents of Satan that bind me with galling chains designed to torture, degrade and destroy me. Since there is no possibility of neutrality because of Satan's obsession for soul-snatching, my only safety is in remaining under the protective ownership of slavery to Jesus.

I am just beginning to comprehend a little bit how desirable it is to be in this slavery. It is really something to be greatly envied. In fact, the very angels of God are amazed at the privileges endowed on the slaves of God, especially those who have been rescued from the cruel bonds in Satan's kingdom. Jesus is extremely protective of His slaves and never takes His eyes off of them for a moment, not because He doesn't trust them but because He knows He cannot trust the enemy to leave them alone. The enemy is always plotting how to break their bonds to Jesus or to lure them away from His protection so he can viciously attack them unsuspectingly. Sometimes he launches an all out physical and/or emotional assault against them, but the slaves of Jesus learn to cry out for help at such times and Jesus always immediately comes to their aid in one way or another. It may not always be in the way they expect, but Jesus knows what is best and they learn to trust His wisdom and care for them even though they often do not understand the methods He uses to protect them. Sometimes it seems that they are abandoned, but they learn to trust even in the darkness of their ignorance of what He is presently doing. They trust the passionate heart of love that provides the glue, the bonding influence that binds their hearts close to His.

Many times the enemy comes with subtle attempts to deceive God's slaves in any way possible. He knows that if they will endorse any of his lies about God that he will then have an access point from which to launch even deeper attacks into their hearts and minds. He tries to allure them with promises of better satisfaction and pleasure than God has for them. Or he promises access to power and control over others that they think will bring fulfillment. These deceptions are almost always designed to be undetectable by the slaves as they are beyond their perceptive abilities to detect. The only protection and safety of God's slaves is to stay in connection and constant communication with God's Spirit at all times so they can be alerted by God who will warn them of deceptive dangers that they cannot perceive themselves. As they continue to trust the heart of God to protect and guide them they will be guided by His Spirit to avoid the many schemes of the enemy and will remain in the safety and inner peace enjoyed by all of God's loyal subjects.

Since God's slaves realize they are helpless to create provisions for their own needs, God has also assumed full responsibility for providing for all of the needs of His slaves. He gives each one of them the vision of what He wants them to do for Him each day and then promises to also provide the provision for them to fulfill that vision. Consequently they are free to focus their attention on carrying out the desires and instructions of their Master instead of wasting time grubbing around in frustrating attempts to keep themselves alive and healthy. That is not to say that they do not have to work or fix their food or take care of their bodies. Part of the duties of God's slaves is to participate and cooperate with the plans that God has for each one of them. But the plans of God almost always look very different than human plans, so His faithful and loyal slaves learn that as they carry out His instructions they are not only provided for but they become His means for providing for His other slaves as well.

God's kingdom of slaves operate under very different principles and relationships than the kingdom of darkness. While the slaves of Satan are driven by demeaning selfishness to directly clamor for whatever they can get to satisfy their own needs and desperate cravings, the slaves of God are arranged within a circuit of interdependence and mutual caring. In God's kingdom, life flows from the throne of grace – that flaming source of passion and limitless energy – out into the connected and dependent circle of all His loyal creation. As each receives life it immediately becomes an animated source of life to minister to the next recipients in the circuit while returning praise to the Source of life and joy. Each being in turn receives life and fellowship from the beings above and around them while allowing themselves to be open channels to let that life, love and energy flow out to others in need. All of this interaction is coordinated perfectly through the vibrant and interactive communication system directly linked to God in the Holy Spirit – God's nervous system.

Just like our body is designed to process nutrition and life-giving elements from its surroundings through the complex interdependency of all of the cells and organs, so too the body of Christ is designed for total interdependence and mutual support. And just as the body is primarily the container for our minds and hearts and spirits to interconnect with others and live in ways that extend beyond our own bodies, so too the slaves that make up the body of Christ are to exist as the supporting “container” for the head – Jesus Christ Himself.

And just like the brains and minds of a healthy, mature person will make sure to nurture and protect the body that supports it, even more so will the Head of the body of Christ jealously guard, protect and nurture every cell, organ and appendage of His body. He will not tolerate infections to spread or wounds to go untreated. Every attack on the body of Christ is instantly recognized and will be cared for by the head. But just like our own bodies, the head needs the rest of the body as the means to minister to itself. The hands will care for the feet and other parts, the eyes will alert the body to its surroundings. The ears will not only receive communications but will be the means of entry for enriching music and the calming sounds of nature. The feet and legs will support and carry the body and the internal organs will process and provide useful material to nurture and provide for every cell of every part of the body.

In all of these functions every cell or entity is a slave under the guidance of the nervous system designed to contribute to the perfect functioning of the whole. When any cells become rebellious and independent and grow out of their intended functions, eventually they have to be separated from the body like a tumor or cancerous cells that would threaten the health of the whole body if left unchecked.

But I am now getting too far away from my original thoughts. I still want to ponder on the privileges that I can enjoy being a slave of Jesus bound to Him with cords of lovingkindness that can never be broken. I want to train my heart to instantly cry out to God when I am afraid or in trouble. I want to learn to listen instantly to the quiet, gentle promptings of His “nervous system”, the Holy Spirit instead of just following my own instincts, impressions or cravings. I want to learn to consistently trust His heart and know that He can always take everything that happens to me, no matter how inexplicable or painful from my viewpoint, and will rearrange life to weave everything into an eventual blessing for me that I will eagerly and thankfully praise Him for in the end. And knowing that He is that kind of Master and Friend I want to train my heart to praise Him even before I can see how things are going to work out because I trust His heart, His ability and His desire to always bless me.

Luke 17:1-10 is an insight to what the slaves of Jesus look like. Because of their implicit, trusting relationship to the Master and because they are willing to serve Him first with an attitude of joyful humility, they will be filled more and more with the faith requested by the disciples and described by Jesus in the early verses of that passage. In fact, in the end those who become veteran slaves on a permanent basis will discover to their amazement that their own spirit of service is simply reflective of the very same spirit in their Master as He Himself turns the table on them and desires to serve them in the same way. (see Luke 12:34-37)

I suppose the problem that I and most others have to work on is the re-translation and reinterpretation of the words and their implications in this context. All of the negative, resentment-producing ideas triggered up in our minds and emotions by the words “slave” or “service” are because of the way the kingdom of darkness has used them to abuse us and those around us and skew our image of God. It is the counterfeit interpretations that have taken predominance in this world that leave us confused and afraid of God. Then when God invites us into an intimate, life-giving relationship with Him while using these words and illustrations we become afraid.

But really, our fear grows out of the ignorance of our heart about the truth about God's heart. We are afraid of becoming His slaves because of our past abuse, but the slaves of God are treated better than the unfallen sons of God. The slaves of Satan are harshly bound with chains of fear, shame and cruel, heartless pain while the slaves of Jesus are bound with love. (see Hosea 11:4) It is true that God's slaves will not be free from pain, but pain while in the service of God is recognized, shared and ministered to and becomes a means of growth and development and bonding while pain in Satan's kingdom leads to bitterness, anger, despair and finally death.

God's slaves are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace where their Master sits enthroned in the fiery passion of His love for them anytime they are in need. Jesus never drives His slaves with force, fear or intimidation; He always leads His slaves by example and attraction in gentleness. He protects and provides for His slaves everything they need to keep their spirit in harmony with His Spirit. They will not always be completely protected physically or even emotionally from harm, but He will always guard their spirit and will always turn the scheming attacks of the enemy into even greater achievements of grace.

I choose to present myself to God to be bound to Him with His love-bonds and become a slave of obedience to Him. (Romans 6:13-18) It is His work to do the bonding and the love has to be received from His heart. But I really like the privileges and pleasures enjoyed by the slaves of Jesus and I choose to be one of them.

(next in series)

What Did God Do?

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 7:24 - 8:4 NAS95)

It seems clear to me that these verses cannot be properly understood unless they are closely connected, which the chapter break seriously disrupts. There are many places in my Bible where I have crossed out the chapter break to alert me to not hesitate in my reading at that point if I want to grasp the real meaning of the passage. This is definitely one of them.

As I look at the section I have several questions that I want to clarify. Those questions inevitably create more questions but the answers that come are almost always very interesting and stimulating. It is why I continue to dig my way through the Bible with a fine-tooth comb – not just to intellectually learn interesting facts but more so to interact with the original Author who wants to reveal Himself to my heart through this means.

I dwelt a little bit previously on what condemnation is, but I think there must be more I don't yet catch. I see two places where it is mentioned here and it creates a real question in my mind. What does it mean when it says, “He condemned sin in the flesh”? I want to go much deeper into that.

Another question that comes to my mind for God is, “What did God do that the Law could not do?” I want to know the answer that emerges directly from the context, not the first thing that comes to mind from typical religious thought.

Another pattern that I see even more clearly that is the backdrop for all the other things here is the paradigm shift from living in the flesh to living in the Spirit. I am convinced that living in the flesh as described at length in chapter 7 means living from the head with a focus on the externals. Living in the Spirit is changing my priorities internally from a head religion to a heart-led spirituality that is strongly rooted in the emotional, intimate side of my being. I believe that keeping this paradigm shift in mind will help greatly while looking for the answers to the first two questions.

Here are some clues that I find for the question about condemning sin in the flesh. Just two verses previously he says there is no condemnation for those.... The condemnation in this sentence is targeted at people, and implied in this statement is that previously these same people were feeling a great deal of condemnation, most likely while in the state of being described in all of chapter 7. However, in the second phrase the condemnation is directed at sin, not toward people. That makes me wonder if I really understand enough what the word really means. If condemnation is a feeling, how can sin have that feeling? Or is condemnation something imposed by someone else? We have to be very careful about our assumptions.

As I look at this and ask for clarification from the Holy Spirit, I begin to notice even more clues in the immediate context. Whatever it means that Jesus did it was a direct result and a part of the plan that His Father was carrying out to do whatever it was that He did related to the second question. It also is connected with Jesus coming “in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin...”

This creates another interesting connection. Jesus was in the likeness of sinful flesh (whatever that meant) and at the same time condemned sin in the flesh. That sound like He ended up possibly condemning Himself since He was in the flesh that was being condemned. I want to go deeper into that also.

But another clue lies just beyond that phrase. It is the results of His condemning sin in the flesh. It says “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” Whatever it was that God did through Jesus expressed in the phrases it resulted in the Law being able to be fulfilled in us.

Now that raises another very interesting link, because it appears to me that in the previous passages it was the Law that was causing all of the troubling condemnation to start with. Many people reacted to that by trying to get rid of the Law and say that under the New Covenant the Law no longer applies to us. You know, we don't live under the Law but under grace mentality. That is another phrase wrested out of context to try to neutralize the thing that plagues our conscience and seems to create so much condemnation inside of us.

But Paul seems to have no interest here in sidelining the Law to fix the condemnation problem. Instead, he says that the real solution comes from God in such a way that, far from being sidelined or neutralized, the Law is suddenly quite satisfied with those people who are results of whatever it is Jesus did described in these verses. This is an echo of what he said back in Romans 3:31, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

So what emerges from assembling these clues and arranging them into the picture? What I am starting to see is the condemnation that results when a Holy God and sin get into close proximity with each other. In the Garden of Eden it was when God was approaching that Adam and Eve began to feel the increasing heat of condemnation in their hearts and ran to hide. Was God there to condemn them? Absolutely not! But their perception of God in their hearts had been twisted and distorted by sin in their doubts about His integrity, honesty and care about them. They now believed Him to be dangerous and even likely to be coming to kill them. Nothing much has changed since. We still have the same feelings about God based on the same lies embedded in our hearts.

But what happened when Jesus showed up, sent by God to this earth, and took on the likeness of sinful flesh? What was the result of God Himself in the form of Jesus getting that close to the very same contaminated flesh in which so many lies about Him resided? How was it that condemnation showed up in the middle of that mix? And furthermore, why did He do it that way? Why, really, was it necessary for God's Son to take on Himself our flesh, mix it up with the presence of sin and experience whatever this phrase means, “condemned sin in the flesh”?

I believe it is important to know the answer to these questions because those answers are directly related to the resulting effects of the Law being satisfied in the life of everyone who chooses to live in Christ Jesus. I also think it is vitally important to understand these issues to eliminate many of the confused and tragically mistaken ideas about why Jesus came to live and die as a human. We need to understand what it was that God had in mind when He sent His Son to do whatever it was that He did.

That launches me into the second question, “What did God do that the Law could not do?”

Well, I guess I would start by asking, what do we think the Law was attempting to do but not succeeding? I look back into chapter 7 and I see this in verse 10. “This commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me.” So if God accomplished what the Law could not, then God was able to produce the result of life for me through whatever it was that Jesus did.

Another thing that God did was mentioned even more recent in 7:24,25. He says that God will set me free from this body of death through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Well, I haven't really unpacked this very far, but I want to come back again and continue to listen to what the Spirit has to say to the churches. (see Rev. 2 & 3) You and me are part of the churches and the Spirit is very eager to communicate with us if we take the time to listen and receive and absorb the life that God has provided for us “in Christ Jesus”.

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Restoring the Heart to Leadership

Why is it that in the condition described in Romans 7 that I feel compelled to do the things I don't want to do? What is the underlying drive inside of me that makes it so compelling?

I believe it is my heart desperately trying to express itself and stay alive under the suffocating repression of a left-brain domination. It is like a young woman forced to live in under the control of a stodgy old librarian and stays locked up in the library memorizing long lists of rules and constantly being forced to perform exactly to the external customs and manners of etiquette. She is never allowed to be expressive or allow her emotions to be seen but is expected to be always sober, reserved and rigid. Meanwhile her heart is churning inside of her to connect to other hearts, to explore and enjoy the beauty and charm of life, to engage in exciting relationships with young men, to break away from the suffocating restrictions and break out in singing and dancing and indulge in abandonment to her cravings and emotions. But no, she is never allowed to even speak or think of such things. They are considered wicked and completely off limits for her life and so she must live out her life pretty much like a nun cloistered away from contact with anything that would bring her joy.

As a result she finds himself daydreaming about forbidden things and hiding away with romance novels as an outlet for her starving heart. She feels tremendous guilt and condemnation every time she does it but she cannot help himself. She cannot even understand what is driving her to degrade herself in this way but neither can she stop herself. Like Paul she can only describe her experience as Paul did, “For I don't know what I am doing. For I don't practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I don't desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.... For desire is present with me, but I don't find it doing that which is good. For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice. But if what I don't desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.”

The analogy maybe could be tweaked to fit better as far as the librarian and the rules. But the situation is that all of the rules of behavior are correct – there may be nothing inherently wrong with any of the rules (except that many times they are carried far beyond their original intent). The real problem is that there is no acceptable outlet or role for the heart and for the passions under this arrangement.

I believe that God is the most passionate being in the universe. The reason we do not perceive Him that way is because of the distortions that sin has put on our perceptions and beliefs about Him. Somehow many of us have been deceived to believe that passion itself is somehow sinful and should be avoided. Therefore we assume that since passion is sinful then when God gets passionate it must be anger. This has led to many destructive beliefs about God that have alienated the hearts of millions over the centuries which is precisely what Satan intended.

We were created to live from our heart first and foremost and our head (left brain intellect) was to play a supporting role as a resource and guardian for our heart. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23 NIV) This describes the primary function for our heart – it is supposed to be the spring from which flows wellness for our life. It is the location within us where the life of God is to pour into and through us. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob's well, “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14 NRSV) This is what our heart was designed to experience and provide for us. Our head has the job of protecting and guarding our heart, not attempting to replace it and usurping its place in our life.

So it makes perfect sense that since our heart is the most important part of us, our access point to the eternal life of God, that it would be the primary target of the enemy in his attempts to destroy God's work to save us. He has done this in many ways, but one of the most effective ways is to turn religion into an external exercise of performance while disconnecting our hearts and denying or suppressing our emotions. In doing so the engine that is to drive our lives has been disconnected and marginalized and the fuel for that engine, the passion of God, has been denied to even exist or is banned altogether.

As a result we find ourselves doing all sorts of things that we know we should not do. This is because our heart does not want to die, but since it is not allowed to function as originally intended it seeks outlets anywhere it can which always end up being counterproductive in the end. If it is not allowed to be the connection for receiving life from God and being a conduit of God's passion to others while energizing our life, it becomes a source of distorted passion that causes us to do all sorts of things of which we are ashamed. As a consequence we experience more and more condemnation and then are led to believe that those feelings are reflective of what God thinks about us which further alienate us from coming close to God. This is the sinful confusion that is our primary problem described in Romans 7.

In the analogy above, the solution to this heart condition would be to develop a healthy relationship with the heart of a prospective marriage partner that God has for us and to develop healthy love bonds. This would allow the heart to have a proper outlet and when the relationship deepened into marriage and the marriage deepened over time into more and more intimacy at all levels, we would see displayed a miniature demonstration of what God is like. The hearts of both lovers would be the primary leading force in their life while their intellect and knowledge base would supply the means for practical daily life, solutions for external problems that come up and protection from anything that would threaten their love or safety. Then the young woman, if she was properly bonded to her husband, would no longer feel compelled to indulge in fantasizing or any other coping addictions that kept her in bondage while holed up isolated in the library.

Again, the real issue here is not whether the rules and intellectual concepts she was forced to learn were right or wrong as much as the suffocation of her heart. Yes, the library of the mind needs to contain good and wholesome information or it will not be a reliable resource or a good protector for the heart to make good decisions. But humans were simply not created to be led by the intellect as the primary leader of their lives. We were created to be creatures of passion reflective of the reality of the God of passion who desires to bond with us through this means. Our intellect and database left brain is to play the supporting role in achieving this end, not a domineering role trying to repress the natural expressions and healthy desires that God designed for our heart to experience and enjoy. We are designed to live from the heart and anything less is a distortion of creation.

Our spirit is very closely associated with our heart. Our spirit is made up of our disposition, revealed in personality and by our emotions. (see some very insightful thoughts from the reading for today in My Utmost for His Highest)Yet our spirit is so deep and mysterious as to defy definition. Our spirit is a very real part of our identity whether it is recognized and appreciated or not. Our spirit is the access point for our heart for communication with other hearts through communion with their spirit. We are so little aware of this sometimes that we have very little appreciation for this part of our makeup, but it still is real nonetheless. Our spirit communicates with the spirit of others and also with supernatural spirits, both good and evil.

For us to live and function as human beings we have to form bonds with our hearts. As I have talked about before and as Jim Wilder has explained so well, there are two kinds of bonds – fear bonds and love bonds. These bonds become the foundation of all of our thinking and relationships with others. We cannot live without bonding – we will form bonds whether we intend to or not. Most of the bonds in this world are fear bonds of every nature imaginable, but the bonds in the kingdom of heaven are always love bonds. That is why there is such a radical change when we move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The Christian life is the process of becoming free from the many fear bonds that strangle our hearts and keep them in bondage, and replacing them with love bonds that feed and nourish our hearts and set them free to receive and give love with joy. This is the abundant life that Jesus promised, the life where we thrive and grow and feel fully alive in connection with others.

The problem with the kind of religion described in the first part of Romans 7 is that it fails to acknowledge the importance of a heart connection with God and puts all the emphasis on a head knowledge about doctrines and rules and behavior and spiritual facts. This results in the highly frustrating life described in the rest of the chapter due to the fact that the heart has not been allowed to take its proper position in our life. The reason we do not allow our heart to function as designed in this kind of setup is because we are afraid to let our heart express itself and take risks and experiment in life because it might cause us to make a mistake. These fear bonds are so strong that the heart is kept locked up to prevent it from ever embarrassing us or from causing us to make a mistake – which is always considered sin. This kind of religion is very keen on never making any mistakes or even taking any chances. It views God as a very strict and stern librarian and judge who is always comparing our performance with the “books” and rules and precepts and religious traditions. Any thought of making a mistake or taking risks in this kind of life immediately arouses fear and even terror at times. These fear bonds become the dominating feature of this kind of religious life and the heart is kept imprisoned to preclude it from causing any problems or creating any “trouble”.

The spirit of this kind of person becomes very much like the distortions of the God they imagine. They sometimes become stern and rigid and are often filled with fear and even anger. Or they may become depressed and despondent as they realize they can never measure up or satisfy the endless demands of this God. They never feel quite good enough to get God to love them. Over time a lot of internal (but repressed) resentment begins to accumulate and there is a good chance that bitterness begins to fill the heart. It is very hard to perform acts of love and unselfishness because the heart is not full of those attributes, so a great deal of energy is required to perform Christian acts of service for others because it has to look as good as possible while still devoid of the spontaneity of genuine love. Living a good-looking Christian life takes a horrendous amount of work and is very exhausting when the heart is kept locked away and is deprived of its primary fuel – the passion of God. These kind of Christians are often very tired if their bodies are not strong enough to compensate. They are sometimes very active and even aggressive in their outreach activities or religious performances but are prone to using force and pressure because of the absence of the natural attraction of genuine love and internal peace.

These kind of people are usually compelled to trans-mutate the meanings of most religious terms to fit the life they are living so that they can keep the Word of God aligned properly with the religious life they are experiencing. Am I saying this in condemnation? No, I am describing quite accurately the kind of religious life I have spent years living under trying to get myself into right favor with God, to earn His love and maybe even get to heaven.

The more I have studied and observed and learned, especially about the real truth about what God is like, the more I realize the importance of living first from the heart. This is the way I was designed to live even though it feels very scary given the background of my upbringing. The only safe way I can do this is to be led by the Spirit of God in connection and communion with my spirit, and being filled with a true knowledge about God. As I fill my mind – my database, my library – with more and more truth about what God is really like, this better information acts as a catalyst for my heart to begin to come more alive and take more risks and begin to stretch and move its atrophied muscles and appendages. I feel very awkward trying to live from the heart after a lifetime of living from the head and I really need people more experienced to mentor me in this growth. But despite my fears and apprehensions it still feels refreshing and invigorating and energizing as I start to experiment in living life in the reality of the presence of a passionate God who loves me and gives me His own life and love and energy.

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