Jesus - the Legalist Husband

“You also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ...” Rom. 7:4

I am still digging and praying myself into this phrase to try to uncover more of its true meaning and implications for me. I am looking at it in the context of still searching for the husband in this chapter who dies so that I can be intimately joined – married – to the resurrected Christ and live in that atmosphere of glory, joy and love.

What I think I might be seeing now is something very familiar to my own experience – legalism. Anyone I know who is suffering under the control of legalism in any of its forms are living a counterfeit Christianity and with a distorted picture of God. I could elaborate at great length on this but that might become too much of a distraction from the point I am looking at right now. I do want to note that legalism is always based on fear and according to 1 John 4:18 there is always torment in fear. Some of the most tormented people on earth are those suffering under the illusions and lies of legalism and I know that from personal experience.

A person living with a legalistic view of reality is very much in a sense “married” to their legalism, their fear-based feelings of obligation to keep any number of rules and laws and they can usually be recognized by their lack of real joy. They often try to look like they have joy but it is a left-brained, forced kind of joy that does not have the ring of freedom and abandon that real joy carries. They usually live a life very much like an obligation-based kind of marriage that is primarily founded on a sense of “duty” and grudgingly staying within the lines of rules. The heart is usually dying inside but the person is so disconnected from their own heart that they often do not even recognize it themselves until the pain sometimes bursts out in a surprising, shocking explosion when it cannot be supressed any longer.

The wonderful good news is that Jesus loves the ones stuck in this kind of thinking and living just as much as He loves any other kinds of sinners. And the way that He saved them is the same way He saved everyone else – by taking upon Himself the very feelings and internal consequences that the legalist experiences within his heart and soul. When Jesus went through the three days and nights of unspeakable torture that culminated on His death on the cross, that included the torture produced by legalism in the heart of every person who has ever lived or who ever will live. He did not feel something like it or similar to it, He experienced the very feelings, fears, pains and dreads that we carry around for our whole life due to our mistaken view of God. Those sins were taken upon Himself fully and put to death on the cross so that we do not have to suffer under them any longer but can have the incredible privilege of entering into a relationship with God of which the most perfect marriage and the most intensely satisfying sex can only hint at. What He did to set us free from legalism was to place Himself into the position of being the “bad husband” that the legalist is married to and then by His death satisfy the marriage requirements of the law that bound us to our fears and lies about God so that we could be free to be intimately joined to the resurrected, living, exciting, all-powerful Christ in a life free of fear and torment.

I have recently been talking with individuals who have been extremely damaged beyond my comprehension by the abuse of legalism for all of their lives. It has ruined their lives in almost every way imaginable and I cringe to even think about what I can see. I am so glad that there is a Savior that is far more powerful to love and redeem than the sin that is still tormenting the lives of these friends. (Rom. 5:20) Because of the lies that legalists have forced on them and still reinforce at times, these individuals usually cannot even think about God without some level of revulsion. They have been inoculated against the very One who can and who desires to free them from the lies about Himself that are destroying their life. I'm glad that its His job to reach their hearts through all the tangled web of resistance that has been woven by Satan around their souls, for I have no idea how to effectively counter the millions of lies and fears that swirl around in their lives. But I know a Savior who can disguise Himself enough to slip into their souls through secret passageways and began healing any amount of damage that Satan has caused if He is given permission.

Very often that permission must come in the form of intercessory prayer on the part of others for them. I want to be a part of that process and watch God melt away the fear and pain and make them glorious experiments of His grace and power to save. Yes, Jesus loves legalists too, (and their victims) just as much as the more colorful kind of sinners that get much more publicity. That's good, because that's the kind of stock from which I was formed.

God, in the name and authority of Jesus who took on all the damage and pain of the legalists and their victims, I give you permission to do anything possible not only in the life of the people I am thinking about right now but in mine as well. Tap every resource of the universe to intervene and repair and restore us to the original purpose and design that you intended for us. Glorify Your name in our lives and cause our hearts to burn with passion for You as we are ravished with Your unconditional love this weekend.

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Musings on the Spirit

As I was petitioning God for the Holy Spirit this morning a thought occurred to me. In all the incidences in the Bible of people receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I can't think of any time when a person received it separately as a lone individual. That seems to indicate how critical, how fundamental God views “community” in my spiritual life. That is not to say that the Holy Spirit will not work on individuals or prompt them to do things. But the “gift of the Holy Spirit” seems to always be poured out on groups of people.

As I thought about this more I remembered the text that was twice given to me as a prophecy for my life. It was the prophecy spoken over Saul before he became the first King of Israel and was really God's invitation to him to enter into a long-term, dynamic, power-filled life of service (which, sadly he very soon turned away from). I wondered if this was an instance of a lone individual receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. So I looked up the quotation and reviewed it to see what it said. What I found was again a confirmation that God wants us to be used by the Holy Spirit to act in concert with His community of believers and not independently. “And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power, and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be changed into another man. And when these signs come to you, see that you take the chance which is offered you; for God is with you. (1 Samuel 10:6-7 BBE)

Apparently God is not satisfied for our experience to be one where He is just with us individually, as important as that is. Yes, He is faithful to be with us always as He promised even when everyone else forsakes us, but He wants that faithfulness to reproduce within us the fruit of us being faithful to be with His other children as well. One of the main issues in our salvation is the bonding and synchronization that is so vital to being a part of the body of Christ. Paul understood this well and talked about it in the analogy of the parts of the body all working together smoothly and sympathetically. This is what produces the unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17.

Now it is one thing for me to analyze and postulate on this idea and a whole different thing to actually engage my heart fully in this process. I am by nature a loner. I am one of those people who want to enjoy great intimacy with God but I have an extremely difficult time doing it with anyone else. I have been burned emotionally so many times when I have tried to do so that my mind recoils with self-protective defensiveness and fear anytime I think about this even though I deeply yearn for it.

The idea of submission to others (Eph. 5:21) is another aspect of this that elicits strong reactions within me resonating from the rebellion still latent within me from my youth. Any attempts by others to lecture me about this issue only tends to reinforce it. It is a heart issue and this healing can only be dealt with at the heart level by those who are willing to relate at that level. But it is an issue that I have to face and deal with much more fully, I am aware.

I suppose that maybe I am laying out a number of reasons why I am not yet ready to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit myself. Not only do I still have triggers that are not yet disarmed involving submission and authority, I cannot even see around me a group of believers to which I could attach to as a part of the body of Christ. I know this may sound bizarre to some people, but it is true. The only small groups of people that I know of in my vicinity that claim to be the chosen people of God are so out of touch with heart issues and stuck on externalism that we only talk past each other when we try to communicate. I realize that this might be a judgment on my part, but I don't know any other way of perceiving it right now. At this point my only source of spiritual social connection with others who are trying to be “real” is when I can make it to a men's group that meets 250 miles from my home.

I know I could go on with this, and maybe I'm quickly getting sidetracked here – or maybe not. Anyway, my original point that I wanted to ponder was the idea that if I want to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised and wants me to have, somehow I have to figure out what He wants me to do in my relationship with His body – wherever and whoever that is. I can see that this is a problem far to big for me to figure out so I will put it back into His hands to deal with. I know He is faithful and worthy of my trust and His heart is toward me and His plans for me are always good, even though at times they are very painful. I want to come into a relationship of obedience and present myself every day to Him to be His slave in total obedience to His desires. What's so good about this is that He treats His slaves like sons, in fact He makes them His sons and daughters and gives them the full inheritance of everything He possesses. I want to be in that kind of slavery.

God, I am trying to be real again today and it feels really risky again. I don't know if I should even say these things sometimes and I'm always afraid they will be twisted or used against me. I guess I still have a lot of fear in my heart in spite of all these years of slowly replacing it with Your love. You still have a lot of work to do in me and I'm glad its Your job to finish what You started in me. I present myself to You this morning as You talk about in Romans 6:16. Take me today as Your slave and fill me with Your Spirit of obedience. I need to feel Your love and see Your face more openly. I need more bonding with the rest of Your body here on earth. I don't know how to do that, or maybe I'm just too afraid – I don't know. But I put my life and my reputation into Your hands today and rest in Your protective love for me. Prepare me more fully to receive the gift of Your Holy Spirit in its fullness and fulfill Your word in my life. Make me an instrument of Your peace.

Do You Not Know?

“Do you not know, brethren...” Rom. 7:1

I am looking at this wondering what the reason is that Paul used this phrase. I believe there is something important behind it if I take the time to look for it and listen to the Spirit.

Since I can see that he is beginning this part of the letter targeted more specifically to Jewish Christians who have a cultural and theological background very much like his own, I think he may be setting them up to see a much clearer view of the gospel that he is trying to convey to them. Evidently one of the reasons for this letter in the first place is to correct misunderstandings about God and about salvation that were brought into the church from their past thinking and reasoning. We are in just the same situation today and need to understand these truths more clearly just like they did.

I try to put myself in the mind of a Jew in that day who has converted to Christianity. While parts of that attempt may not work so well due to my lack of intimate knowledge of the their culture, it also may be easier for me than for many others since I was also brought up in a legalistic religious environment very much like those Jews. So it is easier for me to put on those clothes and look out of their eyes at life than it would be for someone who identifies more with the first group Paul is addressing from Romans 1.

So in that position my natural response would be to say, “Well of course, Paul, you are reinforcing what we have been insisting on all along. As long as we are alive we must keep the Law. We have been uncomfortable with all your talk about grace and your lax attitude toward the Law that we see in your preaching, especially with the Gentiles who need a lot more discipline in their lives. Yes, the Law absolutely has jurisdiction over us for as long as we live. So what are you trying to say here?”

From this point Paul leads the legally acute mind into the subject of marriage and adultery which had long been a hot topic of debate in Jewish religious circles. They might wonder what answer Paul is about to offer to a debate that had not been conclusively resolved for hundreds of years by the brightest minds in Judaism. But Paul does have a new take on this subject like anything they might expect, but what he is targeting is what it really means to live as a genuine Christian in relationship to the inner sinful nature constantly taking control of our imagination and hijacking our behavior. It was this very problem of our sinful nature and its overwhelming desires that had fueled these debates on marriage and divorce for all those years and the solution that Paul puts forward is so radical that at first it is shocking.

What he says is that the Law should be followed to the letter – absolutely! And the way it should be followed is to invoke the provision of Law that declares complete freedom for the surviving spouse when one of the married partners dies. The implication suddenly becomes frighteningly clear – the only way to enter into real freedom requires that someone must die; there simply is no other option if you want to come into real freedom of heart.

But far more than offering what would appear to be a bizarre solution for a bad marriage under the Law, Paul is saying that all of us find our souls hopelessly stuck in a bad marriage to our sinful nature. We are in a forced marriage to a deadbeat spouse arranged for us by the fact that we were born as sons of the sinner Adam who got us all into this bad marriage arrangement. And once in the marriage there is no legally acceptable out for us except for someone in the marriage to die. But how can that take place in reality?

The whole chapter 7 of Romans is dealing with this very issue and the intense turmoil involved in it. But understanding this context explains the reason Paul used the phrase at the very outset, “Do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law)....”

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Why Am I Writing?

I have been becoming more aware lately of a growing reason why I continue to write down what I am discovering and learning. I have probably said this before but it has come up in discussions with people close to me lately and I have been thinking about it more.

It could be assumed by many that I post these thoughts in order to convince others of what I believe. However, that is not the case, that is not my motive. When that thought comes to me I tell God that if He wants the Holy Spirit to lead someone to this site to teach them something Himself that I will be very glad to be used in that way, though most likely I will not know anything about it anyway. I certainly enjoy learning more about truth and warming my heart in the presence of God in association with others, but so far this forum has not contributed much to that end. So that is not a reason why I write what I have been learning.

The main reason that I have become so “addicted” to immersing myself in intense scrutiny of the Word of God and writing down my thoughts during the process is the powerful influence that it is having on my own heart as I do it. I very seldom have any idea what is going to emerge when I begin to write except for the few thoughts at the beginning that I want to capture before I forget them. I have found repeatedly and have come to appreciate that what I am discovering is that the process of writing itself has become a very effective form of communion with God for me personally. It usually happens that as I feel compelled to write down what first comes to my mind as an inspiration to me and I follow that compulsion that I immediately receive follow-up thoughts and connections to other texts or truths as I am writing that would not likely have come if I were not engaged in the writing activity.

So I have come to see that, for me writing is becoming a channel of listening just as much as reading. Maybe it is “active listening”. I suppose that is why many people get much more out of sermons if they take notes while listening to it. Engaging the body in participating in what the mind is doing is a means of synchronizing and sinking the things being learned deeper into the soul. Unfortunately, many of the best talks that I want to take notes on are listened to while I am driving so I can't take notes and I often feel quite frustrated about it. I feel that if I could get the main points down in writing and be able to look at them and organize them into outline form I could remember them more securely and have them more available for future retrieval from my memory.

The main point I guess I am trying to address here is maybe to counteract a voice inside me trying to accuse me of coming across as being arrogant by writing when that is not what my motives are at all. I try to deliberately avoid allowing what others think of my writing to influence it as much as possible because I want to maintain it almost exclusively for personal interaction with God as I settle in to listen to Him each day. I have come to look forward eagerly to these times together with His Spirit and many times find it hard to pull myself away to go on to do other things. But He usually gives me a sense of closure at some point and I ask for His sense of peace and timing as to know what He wants for my day.

These times are what I like to think of as “marinating” in the presence of Love and soaking up something new and fresh each day from the limitless resource of His Word. They have become the most important and enjoyable part of my day. I feel listened to and connected and challenged, rebuked, instructed and assured as I ask questions, make stimulating discoveries and have my emotions awakened to new feelings of awe, delight, conviction and deepening love. During these times I begin to feel a peace that seems to quietly collect as silently as the dew as I linger a little longer in His presence to taste His sweetness.

As I write I sometimes stop and ask Him what direction my thoughts need to go before writing more because I do not want to write just to be sounding off. I want to keep my writing in its useful place as simply a means of listening and interaction with the mind and heart of God. Sometimes I have to just lay it aside and let my heart process what it is experiencing alone for a few minutes, or sometimes even for a few days before I come back to the writing again. But always it has been serving a useful function as an instrument of growth in my own heart and is bonding me to my God and Savior.

Why did I feel like writing about writing this morning? I am not sure, except that I have been thinking about it more lately as I previously mentioned. I also would like to encourage anyone who might be reading this to consider something similar if they feel moved to try it. I know how resistant I used to be when people urged others to journal during their devotion time. They expressed many of the same thoughts and benefits that I have just described which certainly sounded attractive to me. But it seemed to be a discipline that was too much work or carried with it a negative “obligation” burden that I just wasn't ready to take on right then. I suppose that came from being raised in a religion that was nearly 100% obligations and little to no joy. With that mindset, taking on another obligation would feel like the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

So how do I finish this now? Well, I would like to strongly urge everyone to read today's reading from My Utmost for His Highest. I have a link to a web site that offers access to its readings in my Recommended Reading link at the top of my blog if you do not own this book. Today's reading really spoke to my heart about receiving peace and some of the issues surrounding that in our relationship with God. I believe you will be blessed by it.

I have some friends with me this weekend and we plan to take out our boat today and enjoy some skiing and fun on the water for the first time this summer. I look forward even more to the time and bonding that takes place together with them more than the activities themselves, though I certainly intend to enjoy that as well. The only reason I have ever had for owning a boat is for this very reason. I want it to simply be an instrument for making deeper connections with hearts of people willing to join us in doing fun things together. If you would like to be one of those people I would love to know about it. I certainly could use more close connections with other people in my life and I enjoy making good memories. Have a blessed day.

Getting ID on the Husbands

OK, it is finally starting to come together and make much more sense 3-4 days into the questions. I am now carefully looking at each reference to the “husband” in this chapter to get a positive ID on him. This is where some of my previous questions also fell into place to contribute to the solution.

Here is what is emerging with the guidance of the Holy Spirit this morning:

• the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives – v.1 So whoever it is, the only way to become free is for him to die.

• the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband – v. 2 It is not the Law that dies or disappears, it is the husband that dies which triggers release from the demanding control of the Law.

• if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man – v.3 This is a very interesting issue that is not usually addressed. It is apparent that the “woman” can attempt to have intimate relations with the second man she is in love with before the first man is confirmed dead. That puts her under intense condemnation from the Law instead of freedom. This has very serious implications for us when we try to become intimate with Jesus without understanding or making sure that our first husband is dead, whoever that is.

• you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ – v.4 This is the previous question that now falls into place to unlock the baffling question I am grappling with of who is the husband. Ironically it appears that we were somehow married to Christ in some way in a very unhealthy relationship that caused us to resent Him and live in bitterness and rebellion toward God. This needs a lot of examining and unpacking yet, but it is clear in this phrase that the “husband” that has to die is somehow connected with the “body of Christ”.

• so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead – v.4 This gives positive ID to the One we are to have as our second husband. In this verse there is a distinction made between the body of Christ that died and the Christ that was resurrected. They are clearly two different entities in some way with very different characteristics, even opposite ones somehow. This needs more unpacking.

• while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, ...were aroused by the Law – v.5 In our first marriage (and it is becoming clear by implication that we are represented as the woman) we are “in the flesh”. This alerts me as a link back to the transition verse between these two chapters of 6 and 7 where Paul shifts from addressing one group to the other. In 6:23 he introduces the key term “in Christ Jesus”. This is in very clear juxtaposition to being “in the flesh” and is a key ingredient to understanding which marriage we are in during a careful examination of our life. If we find ourself to be “in the flesh”, then we must be married to the wrong Christ; if we are “in Christ Jesus”, then we are joyfully married to a second husband in freedom from condemnation from the Law – not because the Law is gone but because the wrong relationship is gone.

• we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound – v.6 Here is another very key clue in unpacking the ID of the husband and what the first, very unhealthy relationship looks like. In this phrase the husband is referred to as “that by which we were bound”. In an unhealthy marriage in which one is very miserable (which seems to be the case here by implication) there are some consistent, typical elements and attitudes usually present. What comes to my mind are things like fear, force and shame. All the demands of the husband feel very unreasonable to the wife and the husband usually seems devoid of compassion, mercy, kindness or forgiveness, at least from her perspective. The wife usually feels controlled, manipulated, used and even abused and as a consequence is desperate to escape the constant controlling atmosphere that is suffocating her heart. Even if everything the husband wants is perfectly legitimate and technically correct, because of the lack of love and compassion and romance in the relationship her heart will yearn for the spark and fire of real intimacy that she sees in other marriages that are alive and on fire with glowing passion between the two lovers. From this perspective, the phrase here “by which we were bound” would indicate bonds consisting primarily of fear, not love-bonds.

• we serve ...in oldness of the letter – v.6 Here is another important clue defining the first marriage relationship. When we observe in our life a spirit of heavy obligation for keeping the letter of the Law without the spark of passion and romance in a loving relationship, we can be sure that we are in the lifeless, sparkless marriage that will cause our real heart to yearn to become free from. Our hearts were never designed to thrive in the harsh, sterile environment of rule-keeping and letter-nitpicking. Our hearts (which I believe largely is found in the right hemisphere of our brain) are designed for passion, for intense feelings, for joy and peace and intimacy. When we live in relationship to Jesus devoid of these things we are living in a marriage to the wrong Jesus according to what I am reading in this chapter. Does that sound absurd? Yes it does, but it seems that according to Paul it is the real truth.

• we serve in newness of the Spirit – v.6 This is another important clue in its contrast to its opposite condition just looked at – serving the letter of the Law. I believe that while we often think we understand the difference between these two that in fact we cannot really know about this newness until we have tasted with our heart the attractiveness of the living Jesus. We may present theories and explanations and thesis endlessly on this topic, but until our heart becomes the dominate player in our relationship to God we are just spouting off a lot of hot air while still living clueless as to the heart experiences that God wants to have with us. I have to admit that I am largely still in this condition myself and feel that I am just beginning to catch glimpses of the possibilities I could be enjoying living in an intimate, unpredictable, exciting life gazing into the sparkling eyes of the ultimate Lover who is crazy about me. But I must also admit that the attraction is growing more intense the more I observe and learn and experience this love that is far beyond my present comprehension. From this perspective I can now see much better why Paul could not contain himself any longer by the time he reaches the last part of chapter 8 and has to break out into expostulations and exclamations about the love that is beyond all description. That is the very love we are created to thrive in and that we cannot live long without. Just writing these words causes my heart to warm and tingle with the potential excitement that this love intends for me to experience personally on a much deeper level.

• now we have been released from the Law – v.6 Many times when I have read this before it appeared that the Law was the first husband. But in the context of the previous verses it is becoming clearer that the release described here is not from the truths or principles contained in the Law but the resulting condemnation experienced in our heart from living in a heart-suppressing relationship with a perfect husband, yet without any love. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but that's what a legalistic relationship creates – illogical but very intense internal conflict between the head and the heart. If we have any doubt about this just ask any woman, feeling stuck in a lifeless marriage, what her heart is feeling, especially when she observes others up close who are enjoying a vibrant, exciting dynamic love life full of joy and intimacy. If she is a woman of integrity she will feel a heavy obligation to not abandon her marriage based on the letter of the law, but to remain a dutiful wife while her heart is dying more and more every day from lack of emotional nourishment and shared passion. The inner tension becomes overwhelmingly oppressive over the years and the conflicting emotions and thoughts become a destructive source of torment that slowly suffocates her soul. What her heart really yearns for is not so much for the Laws about marriage to change, though that certainly would be a constant temptation to entertain in her mind, but what she longs for most is for a husband who is life-giving, heart-sensitive and unconditionally loving no matter what she looks like or how she feels. Were she to legally be able to enter into that kind of relationship due to the death of her first husband, she would experience a tremendous sense of release from the heavy sense of “Law” that is talked about here, not because the Law no longer applies to her, but precisely because it does apply and she can stay in her integrity and in harmony with the Law while at the same time enjoying a new relationship in a thriving, life-giving marriage that does not produce condemnation from the Law. She could describe to you very accurately what it feels like to be released from the Law. I believe that to understand this phrase accurately requires that one view it through the perception of the right brain more than the left brain. This “release” talked about here is not a release of the technical requirements of the Law but a release from the suffocating condemnation experienced by not having one's heart engaged while trying to satisfy the demands of the Law.

From this point in the chapter it appears that Paul moves on from the analogy of marriage to more detailed explanations of our confusing condition in relationship to the Law and its reactionary effects in our lives when it exposes our inward sinful nature. But to better understand the following verses I believe it is imperative that I first understand the context that comes before it. Romans 7 has been one of the most confusing passages in Scripture for me for most of my life and I have decided that this time I am not leaving it until it becomes very clear to both my mind and my heart. This process of unpacking Romans over the past few months is having its effects on my inner life and hopefully on my external one as well. Thank-you for sharing this journey with me.

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Questions on Romans 7

Notes, thoughts and questions in chapter 7 of Romans. I have been jotting these down over the past few days as they come to my mind and decided to post them pretty much unedited (for what its worth). If everything doesn't seem completely consistent – be patient (and maybe even contribute), it is simply the record of a work in process.

Do you not know?

This starts off the chapter and seems to be a refrain from two places in chapter 6. Also I think it may be a possible link to chapter 2 – do you think lightly...

Speaking to those who know the law. Definite reference to chapter 2 – those who pride themselves on knowing the law, the will of God etc.

the law has jurisdiction – coming off of chapter 6, these people are likely uncomfortable with the slave-bond analogy that Paul used to address the chapter 1 group, but he launches into another analogy that they can understand perfectly well – legal issues and questions about marriage that religious people have enjoyed arguing about for decades.

Both these chapters are about bonds and both describe relationships based on fear bonds. Both offer the solution as replacing fear bonds with love bonds to Jesus.

There seems to be an implied warning in verse 3 about trying to love – be joined – to Jesus while still living in “marriage” under the old, legalistic mentality.

Who is the husband in this chapter? Who is the wife? Who dies and who doesn't? It is not real clear at first. It almost seems that Paul is launching into the “2 me's” concept that becomes much clearer later in the chapter. If so, then does the wife represent our true heart that is designed to produce fruit/offspring? And maybe the husbands are (1.) our sinful flesh and (2.) the Holy Spirit/Jesus.

Whoever the husbands are, both arrangements produce offspring from their intimacy. In the previous chapter there was reference to benefit/fruit from both relationships. In this chapter it seems more like offspring/fruit. If so, what/who are the offspring?

you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ.

Does this mean you were married to the law or does it mean you are no longer bound or under domination by the dictates of the law because death has satisfied the requirements of the law?

What does “through the body of Christ” mean?

Verse 4 and 5 are the two alternatives we have for living in passion that are hearts are designed to do. Both imply marriage and “sexual” intimacy resulting in fertility. The first option can only be realized by first becoming identified in the body of Christ and His death to sin. Then we can become intimate with His resurrected body as a wife is with her husband, with our passions fired up in response to His pure and holy passion for us, becoming fertile with His seed and bearing offspring in His likeness.

The second option is to live in the flesh, in self-trust and working hard to follow the Law. In that relationship the Law will create an arousal in us, firing up reactionary passions in the various parts of our body and mind causing us to become fruitful in reproducing the offspring of our evil nature which always leads toward death. This is not due to any evil in the Law but in the strong reaction that our selfish predisposition has to the presence of the Law. In verse 9 he says, “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died”.

This whole chapter has to be understood with the realization of multiple “I's” or it becomes terribly confusing. Paul makes that quite clear toward the end of the chapter. If we do not become aware of conflicting identities within ourselves we will remain frustrated and full of doubts about what God is trying to explain to us and do in our lives.

Maybe the husbands are primarily in the spirit realm. The spirit of Satan which is full of selfishness, pride, fear etc. is the husband we are bound to in fear bonds under the law. To receive a new husband the first spirit/husband we are married to has to die. Since that husband lives inside of us and is so integrated into our perceived identity that we cannot free ourselves of him, we have to experience internal death of our “own” desires, dreams and passions that were never intended to be a part of our identity from our original creation by God. But since that is often almost all we can see about ourselves we have to experience psychological and spiritual death to become free from the inescapable principles under which our very existence is governed and externally explained by “the Law”. The Law is simply an explanation of the principles of the realities in which we exist, just like the many “rules” of physics and science that we observe around us. The problem is not in the principles themselves but is in the negative results of violating or getting out of sync with those principles.

There is the ever-present element of passion brought out here that is an important ingredient that must be taken into account to understand this passage. The passion that is stirred up or aroused by the Law is a reactionary, rebellious type of passion that is unavoidable when we are in disharmony with God. It is a tension, a stress that is produced in varying degrees of dissonance depending where we are located in the scale of defiance against God.

The passion of God awakened within us is in sharp contrast, but is similar in ways to our sinful passion. It can also be reactionary but in very positive ways. Healthy, life-producing passion is stimulated by exposure to the real fire of God's passion for us. The more we become aware of the selfless love God has for us, the more clearly we see His beauty and attractiveness without resisting it. The more our own hearts are fired with a reflection of His passion, the more our love affair with Him will surpass anything we have ever imagined or experienced in our relationships with other lovers.

Marriage and sex are not evil parts of life that need to be hidden or kept in a secret box as we have too often made them. They were given to us by God to practice and nurture so that we could experience at a very dim level the true realities of intimacy that He has planned and designed for us to experience with Him throughout all eternity. Humans have become so afraid of anything to do with this part of our life that we have deeply buried and glossed over many of the explicit references to these things in the Scriptures. The translators of the Bible have often substituted very generic, bland and sometimes even misleading words for much more explicit passages found in the original language because they simply rejected the idea that God would want to convey these kind of intimate and even sexually charged messages to the human race. But in so doing we have created a huge chasm between our sexuality and our spirituality that God never intended for us to struggle with.

Properly understood and experienced, our sexual nature with all its passions and nuances are a powerful arena for better understanding God's passions and feelings at a much deeper level than most of us have dared to believe. When we place these passions into their proper perspective and position in our life and not try to hide from them or distort them, we can enter into a whole new dimension of spiritual bonding with our Creator that we never realized was possible to experience. This is the context from which Paul is writing and it is found all throughout the Bible, particularly when you begin looking closer at the original languages in which it is written.

When we fall into denial of this reality, we then are forced to wrest and twist much of the Word of God into our little boxes of theology to keep ourselves from becoming fired with the very passion that is the essence of the heart of God. We formulate all sorts of bland and confusing explanations to gloss over the intensity of God's communications to our hearts and we end up fitting ourselves for hell instead of for heaven. For hell is in reality an experience of being exposed to the unveiled passion of God's desire for our hearts, reflected in the intense sexual passions that we are more familiar with, while being out of harmony with the heart-moving music that emanates from that passion. The pain that is experienced from our resistance to His love and His intimate desires for us will ultimately destroy us in the flames of hell filled with our own bitterness, anger and regrets.

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Saved by the Skin of their Teeth

"It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:28-30)

I wonder if there may be two groups of Christians in that day. One group will be like Abraham living in harmony and close communion with God and keeping a distance between their lives and the corruption concentrated in the cities. The other group will be living very close on the edge of sin, living in the midst of sinful environments and having their witness for God compromised by their familiarity with it. Their families will be contaminated and they will only be saved by the skin of their teeth, dragged out by angels and suffering losses of members of their families in the process. Their works will be tested by fire and will be burned up but they will be saved – barely. (see 1 Cor. 3:12-15)

Intensifying Light

And law came in, that the offence might abound, and where the sin did abound, the grace did overabound, (Romans 5:20 YLT)

A realization came to me this morning while I was listening to God through my morning devotional books, that enhanced my understanding of this verse. I have often quietly puzzled over this statement. It makes it seem on the surface that God gave the law to accelerate sin or even create more sin, which on its face seems counter-productive. But some ideas from the two devotional books acted like catalysts this morning to shed more light on this verse.

In fact, that was the essence of the thought – light. The law is nothing more than a severely condensed, left-brain statement of the character of God. As such, it was like a powerful light that was switched on in a very dark room that had filled with rats, snakes and all sorts of other revolting evils that thrive in the dark. As a primarily intellectual, factual revelation of God, the Law was a light that suddenly exposed or highlighted the many sins in the world that had thrived and multiplied since the first sin of Adam.

Paul says that “before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.” (Romans 5:13-14 NIV) “Breaking a command” is the favorite technical definition for sin given by those who insist on religion and righteousness being externally and behaviorally oriented. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4 KJV) I know, I was raised that way very carefully. It is also the natural human condition to view sin or righteousness as external issues of behavior.

That is where the implied question arises in Paul's statement here. He too was intensely trained in the external-oriented mode of left-brained, behavior-based religion so he knew the arguments that his words would arouse. “If you never specifically told me not to do it, then why are you getting me in trouble for it?” Have you ever heard that reasoning before? That is the logic of an immature child who is learning the nuances of how to play the externalism game. If he learns it well it will help keep him in a state of permanent immaturity for the rest of his life.

Paul points out that the symptom, the evidence that sin is present, which is death, was plainly evident even though the legalistic external commands were not obvious between Adam's time and the event at Mount Sinai. The only thing the Law really did was switch on the bright light and as a result all the existing sin became much more exposed. But where God is present there is grace, for He has never changed, and His character also is full of mercy and grace. The people in the Old Testament had to be saved exactly the same way the people under the New Covenant have to be saved – by grace alone. God provided more than enough grace for them to have, but, like too many of us yet today, most of them failed to realize that their only hope was embracing their hopelessness and throwing themselves into the grace that was waiting for them in the heart of their Creator.

The whole span of the Old Testament/Old Covenant was a period of immaturity where God had to relate to the world and His chosen children as a father has to relate to the very immature reasoning of a rebellious child. They were so stuck on defining right and wrong in terms of externals that He had to switch on a bright light to explicitly show them how out of sync they were with the ideals, character and heart of their God. The Law was not designed to save them but to expose their desperate condition and stimulate them to realize their helpless condition and cry out for mercy. Instead, they cried out with promises of obedience which plunged them into centuries of exploring every attempt to achieve righteousness and earn favor with God imaginable. Of course that is impossible – sinful humans cannot become like God by trying harder no matter how intense their desires are or how sincere their motives.

Nothing has changed in that regard. Most of us are still attempting in some way or another to help God out by working on changing our lives so we can somehow motivate Him to do something for us or answer our prayers etc. Jesus revealed that mentality in the heart of the debtor who, instead of asking for and receiving mercy in the face of a ludicrously impossible debt, took the course of promising to pay it off somehow if he was just given enough time. (Matt. 18:23-26) If you look carefully at the size of his debt, any reasonable person would realize the absurdity of his promise. The debt amounted to 150,000 YEARS of wages for the average man. Given enough TIME? Just how much eternal life can you generate on your own to pay off that kind of debt anyway? But his subsequent actions demonstrated that, indeed he fully intended to launch into his grand project of paying off his debt so he could sing, “I did it my way”.

What I realized this morning is that in a sense, a very similar event happened in the New Covenant as what happened at Mount Sinai. Jesus is a perfect revelation of the Father; He is the character of God personified. He repeatedly referred to Himself as the Light of the World. "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world." (John 1:9 NRSV) As a light He exposed the intensity and vileness of the sin that had filled the whole world in spite of the light from the Law given at Sinai. But there was a big difference with this Light. For Jesus was not just a left-brain explanation of God's character written in words (left-brain only function) on hard tables of lifeless stone. He was a demonstration, an example (right-brain function of imitation) of what God looks like in attitude and relationships and feelings. He came to expose the real wickedness and helpless condition of our hearts, not just our actions and words.

The light that blazed in the world through the perfect life of Jesus was not primarily to show us what perfect behavior looks like but how to live a life from our heart in total dependence on another Source for everything. Jesus was a much brighter light than the Law because He demonstrated and taught how impossibly great the chasm really is between us and God's perfect character. We must not make the same mistake that the Children of Israel did at Mount Sinai and promise that we will try harder and be obedient. In His teachings Jesus raised the bar of perfection so high that when we realize the truth in what He said we will fall into hopelessness – which is exactly where God wants to meet us.

If Jesus had just come and lived a perfect life and gone back to heaven without dying on the cross for our sins, He would have not done anything much different than what happened at Mount Sinai, only the results would have been much worse. We need much more than an explanation of what God is like and even much more than a living demonstration of what He is like, as helpful as those are. What we must come to realize is that we need to become swallowed up in Christ by dying to ourselves in hopeless despair and throwing ourselves constantly into His grace and mercy. One reason Jesus came was to make us despair of ourselves, for it is only in total despair that we become ready to trust fully in Jesus to save us whatever that involves.

The Light keeps getting brighter; the glory will soon fill the whole earth. (Rev. 18:1) The intensity of God's passion, the fire in His bones, His intense desire to be close to us and have us with Him for eternity – this consuming fire will either ignite our reflected passion for Him and draw us closer to Him as we allow our sin to be consumed in its invading presence, or it will harden our hearts like Pharaoh and we will ultimately be baked to extinction by the very love we rejected. We cannot blame the light for the rats and snakes. The only thing the light does is reveal reality. And likewise we cannot blame the passionate love that God has for us for the ultimate destruction of the lost. But as the light and heat intensify, we are all forced to choose which side we will live on, which view of reality we will embrace, which master we will present ourself to in loyalty and service. (Romans 6) Our choice is the only thing we have in freedom and everyone will exercise it one way or the other.

Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." The people did not answer him a word. (1 Kings 18:21 NRSV)

He must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (James 1:6-8 NIV)

See, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes, that great day, greatly to be feared. And by him the hearts of fathers will be turned to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers; for fear that I may come and put the earth under a curse. (Malachi 4:5-6 BBE)

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Slavery Options

In my further investigation into this concept of slavery I scanned through Romans 6 and 7 to isolate out the two sides being presented by Paul. So far I have only condensed the “sinner” side of the issue and in another post I will do the same for the “saved” side. It is also very helpful to notice that these chapters are primarily addressing different classes of “sinners” that were outlined in the first two chapters of the book. The analogy that Paul uses to address the first group is the slave/master paradigm which was quite familiar to those to whom he was writing at the time. The second group addressed in Romans 7 were the ones he identified in Romans 2 who were the religious people attempting to live a righteous life and being a Christian by keeping the rules. Their situation is different in many respects from the first group and for them he uses the analogy of a stifling marriage arrangement. This too was quite familiar to many of those living in that day and likely to many of us as well. So to start out with, let me just share what I have condensed so far and then see what emerges after that.

Elements of slavery to sin in the life of lawless sinners:

• Through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned. 5:12

• By the transgression of one many died. v.15

• Judgment arose from one resulting in condemnation. v.16

• By Adam's transgression death reigned through him. v.17

• Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. v.18

• Through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. v.19

• The Law came in so that the transgression would increase. v.20

• Sin reigns in death. v.21

• Lives in our body of sin, our old self. 6:6

• We have not died. v.7

• Death is master over us. v.9

• Sin reigns in our mortal body so that we obey its lusts. v.12

• We present the members of our body to sin as weapons of unrighteousness. v.13

• Sin is master over us under the law. v.14

• We present ourselves to sin for obedience resulting in death. v.16

• We are slaves of sin. v.17

• We presented our members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in more lawlessness. v.19

• As slaves of sin we are free in regard to righteousness. v.20

• The benefit, fruit or outcome derived from those things is death. v.21

• The wages of sin is death. v.23

Notice that the results in this category are measured out in wages. The next category uses the analogy of sexual union in marriage resulting child-bearing to produce its outcome.

Elements of slavery to sin in the life of Law-obsessed sinners

or

Marriage to the Law instead of Jesus:

• I am under jurisdiction of the Law. 7:1

• My real self is bound (to my sinful self) by the Law. v.2

• I am in the flesh where my sinful passions are at work, aroused by the Law, in the members of my body to bear fruit (children) for death. v.5

• I serve (God) in the oldness of the letter. v.6

• Sin takes opportunity through the Law to reproduce itself (conceive offspring) in me. v.8

• (This kind of) sin can only live (as a parasite) with the Law. v.8

• The commandment causes sin to come alive, deceive me and causes the real me to die. v.9-11

• Sin is the cause of death for me through the commandment – not the commandment itself, which is good. v.12,13

• I are of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. v.14

• I am doing the very thing I hate while not practicing what I would like to do. v.15

• I agree with the good Law while doing what I do not want to do. v.16

• It is sin that dwells in me that is doing all this, not me. v.17,20

• Nothing good dwells in my flesh, even though the desire for good is present in me. v.18

• I practice the very evil I do not want. v.19

• I realize that I am under the control of an inescapable principle that evil is present in me. v.21

• I joyfully concur, delight in, the law of God in my inner (real) self. v.22

• I see a different law (inescapable controlling principle) in the members of my body waging war against the law (my good intentions) of my mind making me a prisoner of the law of sin. v.23

• I am wretched and bound to the body of this death (a dead corpse tied to me). v.24

• I see that in my flesh I am serving the law of sin and with my mind the law of God. v.25

Sifting through these two chapters to condense this list has been helpful for me to begin to clarify the real problems in my own experience. I am far from finished yet, but the confusion and fog that has surrounded Romans 7 in particular for most of my life is beginning to clear away some more. It greatly helps to study it in the context of a clearer understanding of the rest of the book that has come before it instead of just dropping into the chapter from outside and trying desperately to figure it out.

I find it very helpful and useful to isolate one side of an issue and collect all the items together in one place so that their identity can be more clearly seen like I have done here. Then the contrast between the two sides becomes much easier to identify and remember instead of going back and forth from one side to the other as is usually the way they are presented. I am not saying that it is wrong to present them that way. It is just very helpful to separate them for awhile until it becomes much more clear in my mind and then when I read them again mixed together I can understand them much better and appreciate the contrasts more intelligently. I suppose maybe it is part of my adaptation for accommodating my weaker mental capacity at times to get me up to speed with brighter minds. But I also find it useful for being able to explain it more simply and clearly to others as well.

I welcome your thoughtful input.

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Slavery 101

I received a comment on my last Romans post that stimulated my thinking. This is the kind of thing that I experience when participating in an inductive study with other people and I enjoy that immensely. I wish that I could do that again; it has been years since I have enjoyed those experiences with others. Anyway, this forum has been a weak substitute in the meantime for expressing my plodding discoveries in the book of Romans and the comment from Josh stimulated my curiosity to look deeper into the real meaning of the idea of slavery as talked about in Romans 6.

The verse that I am focusing on for this is Romans 6:16. The way it reads in the translation I am currently studying is “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” (Romans 6:16 NAS95)

I really like the rendering of this text from the Bible in Basic English which reads, “Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness.” (Romans 6:16 BBE)

Josh mentioned that he looked up the Greek word for slavery which is “doulos” and wondered how that fit into what God is trying to reveal about our relationship to Him. That prompted me to look up the word as well which, as usual, flushed out a great deal of very interesting implications as I wandered through the various definitions both of the original word and the words that form its roots. I also did the same kind of trace on the word translated “present” or “yield” which is the precursive action that we do to choose which kind of slavery we will end up in. That too yielded rich results.

I suspect that this subject could grow and deepen indefinitely which I could not exploit to its full capacity here, but I would like to take a good bit of time to do some in-depth exploration of this aspect of salvation and see what God wants my heart to learn and experience in the process. I invite your participation in this. After all, if I and everyone around me have no alternative but to be in total servitude to one master or another, it seems quite reasonable at the very least to explore what that relationship is going to look and feel like and what outcomes it will produce in our lives for our future. That only seems reasonable so we can make a more informed choice of which master we want to link up to.

So the two words that I am looking at here describe, first the means by which we choose and then a description of the situation in which we will live after our choice. Maybe in this post I will simply focus on the facts and try to clarify the intellectual meanings and definitions surrounding the words. That is the first step in healthy inductive study and is very important for laying a good foundation for further, deeper heart work.

The first word I would like to look at is the Greek word “paristemi”. I scanned through the various translations that I have available in my computer to see what different options they used to translate this word into English. The words used are yield, present, offer, give, surrender. This gives a good flavor for what the Greek word means but I found some very stimulating surprises when I went one level deeper and looked at the meaning of one of the roots of this word. It comes from two words, “para” and “histemi”. “Para” seems to be a rather generic preposition that gives movement to the word. But when I looked at “histemi” I uncovered a treasure chest of meaning with far-ranging implications for this study. Here is a condensation of Strong's definition for this word:

“to stand (transitively or intransitively), which properly denotes an upright and active position,: – abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present”

The word “covenant” particularly caught my interest here after the life-changing teachings I recently received about what are involved in covenants, what they mean and the powerful implications surrounding them. What I am beginning to see here is a choice involving entering into a covenant relationship with someone who will then become the dominating force in our life. They will become the model into which we will be shaped in our covenant relationship with them.

This leads me to the next word “doulos”, translated into English as “servant” or “slave”. Strong's defines it this way: “a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary; frequently, therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency): – bond(-man), servant.”

What I also found fascinating here is when I checked the root word for this which is “deo”. That word means “to bind (in various applications, literally or figuratively): – bind, be in bonds, knit, tie, wind.”

Given the many things I have been learning lately about attachment bonds being at the deepest foundational roots of the human brain, I am beginning to see that being bonded is not an option for us as humans – only who or what we become bonded to is an option. And while it is true that the bonds we have in the present were all primarily formed by our family surroundings, culture and upbringing to this point, Paul is stating here that we now have a choice to establish new bonds that can radically override and replace our old bonds if we choose to offer our deepest self to a new Master. This offer involves entering into a covenant relationship with the very One who designed us originally and craves the opportunity to restore us to that original design far beyond our wildest imaginations. This will happen by having all of our fear-bonds replaced with love-bonds that are far stronger and better suited to make us thrive.

When we choose this “slavery” to our Creator and Designer, we are choosing to be knitted, tied, intertwined at the heart level with the greatest Lover in all the universe. And how do we choose this? One of the definitions for describing the word translated “present” is “abide”. That reminds me of John 15 where Jesus laid out very explicitly what this servant/master relationship would look like – abiding. Repeatedly Jesus talked about abiding in us and us abiding in Him. This is the real model of “slavery” that we are looking at here in contrast to the dominating, fear-based, controlling, exploitive, force-oriented kind of slavery that is ultimately the only alternative to this. We may be conned into believing that we are free and can enjoy life independent of a covenant relationship with our Creator, but in the long-term it will become very painfully obvious that selfishness and independence only disconnect us from the only source of life there is. And like a computer disconnected from a power source the only option left is pain and death.

Well, I am verging on writing more than my heart is producing which is always a hazardous function at best. I need to think about these things today and let them soak deeper into my mind and heart as I ponder them, hopefully with others. God has a way of bringing many things to my attention to enhance what I am learning after giving me a subject like this, so I am looking forward to what is coming.

Shabbot Shalom.

(next in series)

Compulsive Interference

Sometimes I feel like this blog idea is taking on a life of its own, and what it does to me is not always desirable. I started out many months ago doing this as an experiment in self-disclosure and it certainly assisted in doing that, maybe too well, I don't know. But it seems since then to have morphed into something different somehow and now it tries to assert undue influence over my thinking processes at times. I sometimes find it interfering in my personal times with God, trying to formulate how I will write down what I am experiencing. The trouble is, the very act of writing things down sometimes dampens the fire that is just starting to flicker in my heart as it struggles to hear and see more clearly the face of God. The right brain/heart part of me becomes confused by all the language processes of the left brain and quietly slips back into hiding if my left brain doesn't shut up and back off soon enough.

Both devotional readings today addressed this very thing and now I am here formulating a post about it – how ironic. But that is because of the other aspect of this “journaling” experiment which has provided a lot of benefit and growth for me. Many people have found that journaling during their quiet times with God has greatly enhanced the depth of their experience and accelerated their spiritual growth. I believe that has largely been the case with me as well, though I may be doing it much more publicly than most. What bothers me is this subtle nuisance pestering of my left brain eager to translate what my heart is experiencing into language terms before the experience has even taken form or is fully entered into yet. I have written about this before and it is still pestering me to the point that sometimes I deliberately stop writing for awhile to create time and space for my heart to grow more easily.

Along this same line I have noticed recently much to my chagrin that I have very often been writing things that I soon regret writing, usually in the comments section either on other's blogs or even in my responses to comments on my own. I have been thinking about this and trying to understand why I have such a tendency toward foot-in-mouth syndrome in this area. It seems that at least part of my problem is a sense of pressure – time pressure, sometimes due to my fears of what people will think about me if I don't respond quickly. But when I come under the influence of this pressure and try to write something profound on the spur of the moment I almost always end up writing something very regrettable instead. It is becoming more apparent to me that wisdom is not something to be hurried or forced, it is something to be accepted, respected and treated with great humility, something of which I am in far too short of supply many times.

So I should like to take this opportunity to apologize for my insensitive or coarse remarks written in the passion (and pride) of the moment that have caused some to wince when they read them. I am not being moved here on a self-inflicted guilt trip for this as would have been the case a few years ago. I am simply becoming more aware, though still just a very little bit I am afraid, of the possible enormity of my insensitivity toward others that many on the outside might be quite willing to communicate to me if I were of a mind to listen and receive.

As far as balancing the pros and cons of writing or journaling, I have sometimes felt the need to write out my feelings very explicitly to get them more exposed so they can't hide so easily in my mind but then take that document and lay it aside out of the public view. I know this sounds like just common sense and I'm sure it is, but though I need to be maybe more selective about what I “publish” I still need the assistive benefits of this form of expression (writing) to give more definite shape to what my mind and heart is grappling with at times.

I will share quotes and my comments from the two devotionals that I just read for anyone interested.

Our power is not in our talents of education or means, neither is it in our popularity; it is in self-sacrifice, our willing obedience to Jesus Christ. Those who truly surrender all to Him, will carry a weight of influence, and will carry others along with them, because they walk in the light. Brain power will be inefficient, purse power of little account with God; but heart power, thorough godliness, humble fidelity, will bear a weight of influence that will be irresistible. {SD 236}

I found this statement to confirm much of what I have been learning over the past few years. This is a powerful affirmation of the importance of living from the heart. It even states that when I learn to live from my heart in harmony with my Creator instead of just from my “mind” that my influence will be irresistible. That is stunning to me.

Likewise, the reading from My Utmost for His Highest today reinforced this lesson I am trying to learn at the heart level. Here it is.

Yet lackest thou one thing; sell all that thou hast. . . and come, follow Me. Luke 18:22.

“And when he heard this. . .” Have you ever heard the Master say a hard word? If you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear; when we do hear, His words are amazingly hard.

Jesus did not seem in the least solicitous that this man should do what He told him, He made no attempt to keep him with Him. He simply said—‘Sell all you have, and come, follow Me.’ Our Lord never pleaded, He never cajoled, He never entrapped; He simply spoke the sternest words mortal ears ever listened to, and then left it alone.

Have I ever heard Jesus say a hard word? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened? Not something I can expound or say this and that about, but something I have heard Him say to me? This man did understand what Jesus said, he heard it and he sized up what it meant, and it broke his heart. He did not go away defiant; he went away sorrowful, thoroughly discouraged. He had come to Jesus full of the fire of earnest desire, and the word of Jesus simply froze him; instead of producing an enthusiastic devotion, it produced a heart-breaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, He let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible thing is that some of us prevent it bearing fruit in actual life. I wonder what we will say when we do make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain, He will never cast anything up at us. (Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest August 17)

One thing that impressed me in this is the extreme sensitivity of Jesus in regards to our freedom to choose. While He certainly may allow great pressure to build up in our lives to align ourselves with reality and God, He is very careful not to force our will in the slightest, contrary to what many of us may believe. God puts a great deal of value on freedom being the basis of our love for Him.

This statement also gave expression to the growing sense of frustration I am having with myself about my growing impulsiveness for expounding even when my heart is not ready for it. I have much to learn about guarding my heart times in the presence of God from the noisy interference of my intellect-oriented left brain eager to “expound or say this and that”. I want to deliberately focus on listening with my heart to the hard word that only Jesus can share safely with my heart. Parallel to this, I also want to be careful not to preempt Jesus in His work of delivering a hard word to someone around me by trying to unduly assist Him in that work. Only the Holy Spirit knows how to deliver a conviction with the least cause for resistance or defensiveness in a perfect atmosphere of love. I need to let Him do His job and learn how to simply cooperate in the ways He wants me to relate to others.

Sometimes I find myself running out of inspiration and then discovering that I am just filling in words hoping that they will turn out to sound right, which of course they won't in the end. (I just did that in the last paragraph) What I apparently need to learn is to stop immediately when I sense this is happening (I did) and simply wait for my heart to finish what it needs to do or contemplate before my left brain overrides the “better part of wisdom” (as my folks used to say). I think that this counsel, if consistently followed, would keep me out of a lot of regrets and embarrassment, not to mention possibly allowing my heart more breathing room to feel safe to thrive and engage more actively. (Be patient with me while I have these open discussions with myself.)

Slave Options - Romans 6 & 7

Romans 6 and 7 are targeting somewhat separately the original two groups of people addressed in the first two chapters. Romans 6 is primarily addressed to the chapter 1 group and Romans 7 is addressed primarily to the chapter 2 group. That is not to say that they don't apply to everyone, but the characteristics and differences between the two groups are focused on in Paul's counsels as he goes back and forth between them explaining what they need to understand to live a holy life in Christ. At times he makes it clear that they are both really in the same boat but they are coming from different angles.

During his words to group 1 in Romans 6:13-23 he alludes to an underlying principle of our brains, that of bonding. The human brain is wired to bond, to have strong attachments to other minds and to take on some of the characteristics and personality of those minds. It begins at conception and becomes very intense from about 6 months to 7 years of age. This period of time is the major part of determining who we become and how we relate to others for the rest of our life.

There are two kinds of bonds – fear bonds and love bonds. As you might suspect, these two types of bonds originate from the two opposing kingdoms in the world, the kingdom of darkness headed by the archdeceiver and the kingdom of light spearheaded by Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world. Since we are all born into a world saturated with sin and are raised by sinners, we are all infected with the problem of fear-bonding and the deceptions and problems that accompany this. Some who have had the privilege of growing up in a more loving home protected from much of the intensity of the world's influence have the advantage of having their hearts trained from an early age to experience and value more love-bonds than others who have not had that advantage. But all of us to some degree or another must be saved, be salvaged and restored to the original intent and design of our Creator.

In these verses Paul is basically explaining to us the need we have and the opportunity that God has provided for us to choose which kingdom we will participate in for eternity. This is done by “presenting” ourselves to become slaves of one kingdom or the other. At first this seems like a very unhappy choice and our minds naturally insist that there must be a third alternative. We do not want to believe that slavery is our only option and the only choice we have is to choose our master. But that is in fact the condition we are in and it is inescapable. Adam and Eve got us into this problem and there is no way we can live independent without a master. Our only freedom is the choice we will make as to who will be in charge of our life and become our mentor.

One of the core ingredients of sin and the kingdom of darkness is fear. It is pervasive and comes in many colors and forms, but it is foundational to Satan's operations. It is woven deeply into all of the institutions and motivations of earthly systems of government and society and becomes more and more obvious and intense as societies or countries sink deeper into sin and abuse. Fear is the common denominator that is relied on to squeeze all its slaves into the molds that are shaped for us by the world.

In Romans 6 and 7 Paul is describing the two main categories of molds that are used in the world. Both are based on fear and selfishness, but they have very different external trappings. In Romans 1 and 6 Paul describes the mold and the fruit of choosing a life apart from God in slavery to self-indulgence and lawlessness. He makes an interesting statement in verse 20. “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”

This is simply a statement of fact that when we have sin as our master we are not bonded in the kingdom of light. The kingdom of God uses love-bonds as its motivation and common denominator, not fear. Perfect love casts out all fear, so when we live under the motivation of fear we have not been perfected by love, we are still living in slavery to the principles of darkness and death. Paul ends this section in chapter 6 by plainly stating that the fruit derived from living life in slavery to sin, selfishness and fear is death.

This is in stark contrast to the kingdom of God where we receive gifts instead of wages. The kingdom of light operates in love-bonds, not fear-bonds, and the fruit is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is a very important truth that is too often overlooked here. We often assume that heaven is a place where we can escape the problems and pain of this earth and can enjoy life uninhibited and always be happy. While that may be partially true, we miss the fact that we will always be slaves if we want to live for eternity. Notice that the eternal life gifted to us by God is in Jesus and it is clearly spelled out that He is Lord. Lord is another name for master – as in slave-master. If we are not willing to accept this arrangement then it will be impossible to receive the free gift of eternal life because the two things are inseparable according to Paul.

The wonderful good news about this truth is that Jesus uses love-bonds to bind to Himself all who choose to become His slaves. The reason we have such misgivings about choosing slavery under a master is because of the use of fear-bonds and the accompanying abuse that we normally associate with the idea of slavery as exemplified in such earthly relationships. We are so unfamiliar with the heavenly type of slavery that we become very confused and understandably have strong reservations about signing up to become a slave.

But the reality of life is that we are already slaves and through the Redemption brought about by Jesus' death we have been provided the option of choosing slavery to love in place of slavery to fear. This is the essence of the gospel and as yet has not been understood or explained very well. I believe that it is part of the glory that will fill the whole earth described in the symbol of the angel in Revelation 18.

Romans 7 shifts from describing the slavery of open sinners who have abandoned life with God to focusing on the other category of sinners, pseudo-saints trying to use fear-bonds to simulate and coerce a counterfeit of the kingdom of God. The results of this attempt to create self-righteousness to impress others and God are described later in the chapter. And I will leave that for another day.

(next in series)

Class-Action Suit

Jesus won a class-action lawsuit against Satan and sin. The verdict in that suit was that all sinners were justified and were to be set free. The problem now is that most of the sinners never heard of the case and its outcome in a way that made sense to them. Many of them have heard all kinds of perverted versions of the story that did not make the issues clear to them and consequently did not arouse hope in their hearts. So they go on living in slavery to sin even though their emancipation has already been proclaimed.

Their slavemaster is not about to let them know they are supposed to be living in freedom from his control. And most religious people have such confused notions about freedom that they too are still living in slavery, just in a different camp. Satan has many prison camps designed for different styles of life but all still firmly under his control. Romans 1 and 2 describes the two main classes of prisoner/sinners that make up Satan's camps, the first are open, flagrant-type sinners and the second are religious zealots who believe they can manipulate God into saving them. But both classes are imprisoned by their delusions about what God is really like and how He feels about them.

God has to get people to see that no matter which camp we find ourself in we are all still stuck in the lies of Satan and are unnecessarily living under his abusive dictatorship in spite of what we think. When we become aware of the reality of our abject slavery and the truth that we have already been set free, when we accept the fact that we already have access to the key to our own prison cell and can walk out in freedom at any time, then we can exercise our power of choice – the hand that operates the key. By faith we can insert the key of the redemption purchased by the blood of Jesus into the locks of our minds and walk out into the freedom that we are designed to thrive in. We can enter into intimate fellowship with Christ and all the saints which is, in essence, the joy of our Lord.

(next in series)

The Jesus Mirror

Jesus came to earth and became a human mirror. Humans do not have any inherent light within them and so any light coming from them has to be reflected light received from another source. Inherently Jesus is a light, which gave Him unfair advantage over us in living the human life. But to become the example of how we can be saved, Jesus came in the likeness of sinful (empty, mirror-like) flesh to show us how we can experience life and light as a mirror. He laid aside His advantage of being original light itself but did not destroy that part of Him. He lived out His life on earth as only a reflection of the Father's light to show us how we are to live as a reflection of the light received from God.

This body of reflection that Jesus lived in as a man is the body that was destroyed on the cross. When He was resurrected He received a new, glorious body that no longer had to live under the restrictions of a mirror. He could then freely act as a source of life, not just a reflector of life. (see Romans 6:4-11)

The same is true in our experience in various aspects but not totally. When we are born again we receive into ourselves the birth of Jesus into our heart. So long as He dwells inside of us we, in a way, can be a source of life. But at the same time we are still only reflectors of light because we have to focus ourselves on Him to have any light at all. We must follow His example of living by reflecting the light of His Father so that His life was full of that reflected light.

But the Jesus that is incarnated within us is not the pre-resurrection Jesus that only lived as a reflector but is the resurrected Jesus with unlimited power to save. The first body of Jesus is an example of how we are to live in relationship to the second body of Jesus dwelling in our heart. Maybe it is like we are a step behind Him.

At the Second Coming we too shall lose our earthly body with many of its restrictions and will receive a body like the new body of Jesus. We will then have much greater capacity for light, both receiving and giving. But even then we will never be an independent source of light apart from connection with God. Instead, God will make us an integrated part of the body of His Son – the body of Christ. In that relationship we will be as close to being like God as is possible. We will be the bodily means by which God displays Himself, His light and glory, to all the stunned and marveling universe for the rest of eternity.

We arrive at that amazing end by starting where we are now as mirrors choosing to habitually turn our attention to the original Source of light and becoming channels of that light to others. We surrender our independence and self-dependence and keep our mind stayed on Him. The result is living in perfect peace. (Isa. 26:3) This becomes the witness that attracts others who crave that peace in their own hearts to follow our example and turn their focus on Jesus who is their more perfect example of how to live as a human mirror. The more consistently we all keep our mirror focused on Jesus and the Father instead of on each other, the more perfectly His character is reproduced and reflected in our lives.

Unpacking Suffering

I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. Col. 1:24

Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. 1 Peter 2:21

I recently felt an urge to unpack what is really behind this word suffering after a recent discussion with my sister about this. It is one of those words with very negative emotions attached to it that I naturally have avoided. Maybe my maturity level is approaching the place where I can examine it with a more open mind and heart.

When I was young I grew up with the assumption about suffering that it was sort of something that would get you into better favor with God. Having people make fun of you for being religious was somehow something to be proud of and would maybe make you more holy. I remember a discussion I had with a stranger when I was very young who asked me what our church believed. I did not have a very clear idea of the doctrines and I was frightened by his question but at the same time felt obligated to “witness” to him. I mentioned one or two doctrines that I could remember and told him that we believed that a person should suffer for Jesus. To this day I do not know why I said that or what I was thinking but I still remember the incident and the heavy sense of duty that I felt at the time associated with my response. I wonder how much of that is still lurking within me yet today?

As with many things that have gotten turned on their head after close examination of the Word, this idea of suffering needs serious revision in my thinking. These are some questions that I need to explore:

What was involved in the sufferings of Christ?

How was it different from most of our sufferings?

Here are a few thoughts that come to my mind.

He agonized with God over His disciples as well as all the people He sought to minister to. That surely created some kind of stress, pain or suffering within Him in some way.

He never suffered anything for His own mistakes or sins. That is very different from much of our suffering.

He brought about healing by taking onto Himself our sufferings. Maybe this is getting much closer to describing the “example” that He set for us to follow. This is one of the processes that we can often use to help each other heal; we enter into another's emotions with them so that we then can show them how to return to joy. To do this effectively we need to develop and increase our own capacity as well as tap into God's capacity to partially take upon ourself the suffering, the problems, the hangups, the 6 big negative emotions that people get stuck in, and in the Spirit and power of God we come alongside them in their feelings to show them how to rise up, to help them return to the surface from their drowning emotions. We become an example for them to imitate by entering into other's suffering with open hearts just like Jesus did, not for our own sins but for the sins of those we are sent to help rescue. We become co-laborers with Christ in His sufferings which is the very process of implementing into our lives the reality of Redemption.

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” (1 Peter 4:1 NIV) Sin in its essence is a state of being desynchronized from God the Source of life. When we learn to suffer the same way Jesus did we become synchronized with the mind of God which puts us into an attitude like Jesus.

There is much more to explore about this but I will visit it at a later time. Your thoughts?