Hiding Things from Myself

There is a fine line between "Let your light shine before men" and "They do everything to be seen by men."  One is glory, the other hypocrisy.

The spiritual discipline of secrecy is not so much about hiding good deeds from other people, but hiding them from myself.  "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."

Three-Dimensional Prayer

How do we seek "full" prayer?  Pray in 3 dimensions.

1.  The first dimension is the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit, we are dead in the water, like a sailboat without a breeze.  It doesn't matter how we move the sails or the rudder, we need wind to go.  He is the life of all we do spiritually. (Romans 8:1,6)  Without him, all aspects of our spirituality end up "dead," going nowhere. (Romans 8:7-8)

2.  The second dimension is spiritual exercises.  Without planned actions, the wind of the Spirit blows right past us.  We are like a sailboat without a sail.  We may feel it or even enjoy it, but we are not caught up in it.  The actions do not cause our movement or growth, but enable us to be moved and be grown.  These are often called spiritual disciplines.  In Henri Nouwen's The Way of the Heart, he emphasizes the use of two disciplines and their effect on prayer.  Examples:

a.  Solitude enables freedom from the pressure to control other people, so we can truly seek God and help them.

b.  Silence teaches the true use of words and deepens our trust in God and not ourselves.

3.  The third dimension is life-practice.  Without bringing the Spirit and our spiritual exercises into our daily life, we lack direction.  We are like a sailboat without a rudder.  God can only direct us in the life we live on a daily basis.  We discover his calling and our destiny day by day, as each wind catches us and as we respond to that wind.  In this way, the analogy breaks down, because God is not just a force to move us, but places his hand with ours on the rudder to guide us.  The point is that we cannot find our way in life without the ongoing influence of the Spirit and the planned action of spiritual discipline being applied to our daily existence.  We end up wondering and wandering instead of trusting and living.  Example:

Nouwen talks about this in his section on Prayer of the Heart.  It is all-inclusive.  It embraces all of life.  He also has some practical ways in which such prayer can be brought into daily life.

Prayer without these 3 dimensions ends up flat and going nowhere.  The 3 dimensions make prayer full and also real to us instead of just a picture.

Freedom Through Death

Romans 8 begins with the freedom from the law of sin and death into the law of the Spirit of life.  The death that  sin brings is condemnation.  I do what I hate, so in this life, I stand condemned and unable to save myself.  Such a life is full of confusion, since my will, mind, and body are not working together.  Such a life brings despair, since sin controls each part of me in its own way, subverting even my intentions toward goodness into evil desire.

Paul describes the freedom that comes through the Spirit of life in this way: "What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of flesh for sin.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh."  First to unpack this, I was drawn to the the basic statement, what the law was powerless to do, God did.  Romans 7 shows what the law could not do.  Although the law is good and a source of delight to the mind, it produces death because sin resides in my body and enslaves my will.  The law cannot renew the mind, set the will free, and inhabit the body.  This is what God did through Jesus.

How does this happen?  God deals with the flesh.  The natural human abilities become the haunting place of sin when left to themselves.  In order to bring the flesh into its proper place, God inhabited the flesh through Jesus and defeated sin in the body.  Sin is condemned - or put to death - in the flesh by means of the Son coming as a man to destroy sin and its workings in the life of people.  This is evident in the crucifixion and resurrection.  Jesus put sin to death in his own body and sacrifice, but then rose victorious over it.

The law is powerless because it is weakened by the flesh.  The law is weakened by the flesh because I seek to use the flesh to keep the law.  Jesus shows that the only way to deal with the flesh is to crucify it, not use it.  My natural human ability apart from God must become pure garbage and seen as a liability.  I cannot hope to use it or it will use me with the power of sin behind it.  Jesus' death points to my inability to save myself, my need to be set free by God's ability, and the way in which such freedom takes place - through death and resurrection.

Now Paul introduces a new way to living.  Instead of living in dependence on my flesh - my natural human status and ability apart from God - I can now live in dependence on the Spirit - God's status and ability through him who lives in and with me.  The entry point of the Spirit into my life is my mind.  As my mind dwells on Christ and his life, death, and resurrection, my will becomes increasingly controlled by the Spirit - the person of God's will living in me.  In the same way, if my mind dwells on the flesh, then I am controlled by that outlook and I end up hostile to God, unable to follow his laws and ways, and unable to please him.

The work of Christ in me is this: my body is dead.  As sin has resided in the members of my body, my body dies in the work of Christ, since I give up on the flesh as a means to navigate life.  I am dead to that way of living.  My bodily habits of sin no longer rule and enslave my will and spirit.  Instead, I am alive because of the goodness that Christ has brought to me.  The righteousness comes from this continual focus on Christ.  By laying myself at his feet, I am now able to reverse the law of sin and death.  No longer do I hate what I do, but I find I am able to do good, "yet not I, but Christ who lives in me."  (Ephesians 2)  I am alive because I can finally do what I want to do in Christ: righteousness.

The image of being spiritually dead is being enslaved, condemned, and full of fear.  The image of being spiritually alive is being free, righteous, and loved.  The body given to sin dies.  The spirit given to the Spirit will be raised in a new body.  For now the body continues to die, but the Spirit sustains my spirit with hope. Whatever suffering the body goes through does not compare with the hope of renewal and resurrection, not only for our own bodies, but also for all of creation.  Hope is not wishing, but a calm confidence in a future outcome of a present reality.

Just as I am weakened by sin so that I hate what I do, I am weakened so that I do not know what I need.  The Spirit asks for I cannot conceive or even want now in my present weakness.  As he asks, God works in my life.  The Spirit works from within my heart submitting and combining my desires with God's in perfect unity.

And so nothing happens that can ultimately thwart God's desires.  This is not enslaving, but freeing because of God's love.  All trust and hope are based on this love.  Pain does not move me to suffering when I live in God's love.  Rather, I am willing to go through pain for his sake and conquer.

Paul explains that I am controlled by what I trust.  My hope is based on what I trust.  The basis for my trust in God is his love.

Lord, I want to live by the Spirit.  The deeds of the body must be killed when they stand on their own because through them sin lives and rules in my life.  I have too much experience with this way of life. Sin has had its way with me and I have freely given myself to it.  Now I see how I can be free of this master through your work in Christ and his work in me through the Spirit: I will die so that you might live.  I will give up sin and the death that follows so I might be united with you in the Spirit and have life.  Such life comes through a new outlook - a real belief in Christ and his way - which permeates each part of my being.  I have new thoughts, I can choose what is good, and find virtue working into my body.  This is Christ who lives in me, my hope and salvation.  May your grace always be sufficient to me.  I need nothing else.  Amen.

How I Cannot Help Myself

Romans 7, The Law of Sin and Death

In trying to sum up Romans 7, I think Paul points to this law: I do what I hate.  This inconsistency and lack of integrity in my heart is "business as usual" when I live "in the flesh," that is, by my own status and abilities, only.  Paul calls this the law of sin and death.  The death he describes is one of guilt and condemnation, although I do not think this excludes physical decay, as I note Paul's discussion later in chapter 8.

I unpack this law by identifying the parts of me that contribute to this way of life.  If I do what I do not want to do, then it is not I, but sin living in me that is at work.  I can see why this idea of Paul's might be used as an excuse for continued sin in my life.  It almost sounds like it is inevitable.  It is, "in the flesh."  This is the "natural" state of a person apart from the Spirit.  Paul is not promoting self-resignation here, but pointing out the enslavement of the will.  This is one of the indicators of this law of sin and death, this life in the flesh: enslavement to sin.

Another contributor to this way of life is the body indwelt by sin.  Sin is located in the members of the body most specifically.  I can see how this has encouraged a poor view of the body even to the extent of body hatred or mistreatment.  After all, Paul cries out in desperation, "Who will save me from this body of death?"  And yet what has happened is that the body has been offered to the wrong master.  In short, my body ends up full of sinful habits.  Things "come naturally" to me because my body has been trained to do certain things without thinking or directly willing them.

The mind is also affected by this law of sin and death.  Although I may be taught by God's laws and have some desire to do them, I find that sin takes these very good things and converts them into evil desires.  A mind without such knowledge is "dead to sin" in that it remains unaware of sin's active presence, but "death reigns" (Romans 5) even with this lack of knowledge.  Unfortunately, even with the knowledge, I may not "dead to sin," but find that sin produces death in me by taking such knowledge and deceiving me.  How does sin deceive?  It takes the knowledge of the law and produces evil desires.  I hear about what is wrong or forbidden and then I long for it.  The mind is darkened.  It becomes a place where even what is good becomes a snare because my desires remain opposed to God.  Whatever I think becomes rationalization for doing what sin in me desires rather than reasons to trust and follow Jesus.

The law of doing what I hate, then, shows that my will in enslaved by sin, my body is inhabited by sin, and my mind is darkened by sin.  The law of sin and death is that when I take on sin, I die.  I cannot overcome sin through choosing not to sin, sin my will is enslaved.  My will is enslaved by my sin-inhabited body, which by habit and training opposed my good choices with evil desires.  My mind remains darkened because the desires of sin rule and pervert my thoughts and feelings into rationalizations.  Sin rules in me through desires that inhabit my body, enslave my will, and darken my mind.

This is not how I am to live.  Romans 6 makes it clear that living enslaved to sin is not what God intends for his children.  Baptism is a picture of the death that I must enter so that I might find resurrection in my life.  I am not only looking forward to being raised form the dead, I am supposed to live a life raised from the death that sin brings in a new life in this age.

Romans 8 describes the freedom from this death, this condemnation that sin brings.  I am set free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit and life.  As sin brings death, the Spirit brings life.

Lord, I see that I cannot cope with sin or fight sin, I must lay myself out to die so that sin my be removed from my being and so that I may live a new life.  Let this immersion into death be done to me, so that I might be raised into your love and light, Father.  Increase my trust in you.  I fear leaving sin behind at times, but have found such hope in your work in my life.  Let me never try to manage sin.  It needs to die.  By your grace.  Amen.