Because I Follow Jesus

I am absolutely miserable! Is there anyone who will deliver me from this body where sin and death reign so supremely? I am thankful to God for the freedom that comes through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! (Romans 7:24-25, The Voice)

Belonging

The "wretched man" (ESV) that Paul expounds on in Romans 7 is his effort to identify with his "brothers and sisters well versed in the law" in verse 1. It reflects some of Paul's experience from his past and present in his struggle against self-justification.

Paul begins by explaining that a person may either belong to the law or belong to Christ (vv. 1-4).  A person who belongs to the law justifies his life by the law. The law is his reason for doing or not doing certain things in his life. When asked why he has certain habits or practices he will cite the law. His ability to explain the law will prove whether his action is for God or not.

A person who belongs to Jesus seeks to follow him, to remain as close to Jesus as possible. Following Jesus is the reason for her actions and his intentions. Jesus justifies her rather than her ability to explain the law. Her actions will be supported by her Lord or not. By his voice she stands or falls. She will probably also have reasons from the law, but these are supportive to her interactive relationship with Christ.

We cannot belong to both law and Christ. In the end we will seek our justification from one or the other. One is based in prayer and living with Jesus. The other is based on having the correct views about God and being able to defend a viewpoint. One of them is at the bottom of our hearts. That is our justification. When we belong to Jesus we not longer seek our justification through the law: "my brothers and sisters, in the same way, you have died when it comes to the law because of your connections with the body of the Anointed One. His death - and your death with Him - frees you to belong to the One who was raised from the dead so we can bear fruit for God." (v.4, The Voice)

Flesh and Spirit

A person who belongs to self-justification will find themselves "living in the flesh," that is, by their own wits and abilities. (vv.4-12) The law arouses self-defensiveness, which only increases worry and fear. Such motivations only lead to evil (Psalm 35, Matthew 6). Sin gets the upper hand and seems like the only way out, since it is so natural for us to do. We find in the face of law, we pretend or even lie about ourselves in order to escape what the law requires and yet seem like we are justified in our actions. This is the inevitable outcome of living in the flesh, by our own wits and abilities.

Jesus justifies and releases from the law anyone who belongs to him. The law's requirements are still before them, but instead of generating worry and fear, they bring hope and anticipation. The law no longer imprisons him because he knows he cannot obey it without Jesus, so he "dies" to such an obedience to the law. Instead he serves in a "new Spirit-empowered life." Jesus gives grace so that obedience is possible by asking him for help instead of trying to manage on our own.

The bad fruit generated through trying to obeying the law is pretense and disobedience to God. The good fruit grown for God is real obedience to him through following Jesus and depending on him every step of the way. The law becomes a promise of what God will do in those who follow Jesus rather than a punishment for those who cannot keep it. Those who follow Jesus can truly see "the law is holy; and its commandments are holy, right, and good" (v.12) instead of suspecting that the law is sin or that that God sent the law to destroy people. (v.7, 13)

The Role of Trials

The heart of this problem is that the law is spiritual, that is, from the Spirit and that we are on the flesh, which is enslaved to sin, that is, a life without God (vv.13-20) This is like oil and water. As long as the law is spiritual and I am not, the two will always come apart. So when I try to obey the law with my own wits and abilities, I will always find myself compelled to disobey it for some very good reason. It will just make sense to lie or pretend or just do it this one time. The natural abilities of humanity are not enough for the law. In the end they will separate just like oil and water. Good intentions are not enough. We need more powerful that comes from outside of us into our hearts.

Sin lives in us as long as we live by our own abilities. Sin is resistance to God. The flesh cannot be used to get to God. It cannot be removed. It must be sacrificed. Our natural abilities find their place when they are surrendered to God. They are put to death when we refuse to rely on them. We rely on Jesus instead. Our natural abilities are meant to serve, not rule.

The war inside each person is the war of temptation (vv.21-25). Temptations are the law of the flesh on its own. Inevitable as gravity. Mere human ability is enslaved to wrong-doing because it is powerless to resist. Temptation is the door for Jesus to enter our lives. In trials we realize our inability and can rest in his ability. This is the law of God. We serve God's law by being delivered from a body that cannot save itself by Jesus, who saves us from all trials and temptations.

In the face of trials and temptations, then, the law is spiritual. It points the way. We are unspiritual and of the flesh if we merely try to figure how to do what the law says on our own. Jesus died so we can become spiritual, born from above, immersed in the Spirit, saved by him, and then train to the law with Jesus as our Teacher, submit to the law with Jesus as our Lord, and delight in the law with Jesus as our dear Friend.

Justification

Self-justification comes from a person who belongs to a law or religion rather than a living Lord. It grows a disposition of resistance to God evidenced by hidden vices and contempt for other people as one struggles to obey by her own power. Self-justification fails in trials and temptations, ending up with a person doing what she does not really think is right. Justifying oneself is a temptation in itself, because it ignores the reality and presence of God.

Justification from Jesus comes to those who belong to him and have abandoned self-justification based on the law or religion. It grows a disposition of loving surrender to God. When one justifies his life by saying, "It's because I follow Jesus," usually the outcomes will not be disputable. The fruit of that person's life will indicate who or what they are following. A life of virtue and compassion flow from Jesus. Trials are the place of salvation for a person who belongs to Jesus, one sure place where he will discover a truly Spirit-empowered life, one of mercy and grace, one full of light - love, truth, and power from God.

Two Kinds of Slavery

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back again into fear, but you have received the the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba!  Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified in him. (Romans 7:14-17, ESV)

Two Spirits

 "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit."  Here is one of the clearest pictures of the "still, small voice" Elijah and many other friends of God have detected.  Through the agency of our own spirit, God speaks.  He speaks to us through us.   In this passage, Paul identifies the Spirit of adoption as the one who speaks through our own spirit of our dear place in God's hands and heart.

In contrast there is another spirit at work.  Another voice has spoken to us through our self-absorbed flesh, the systems that support this pride all around in the world, and the being that pushes and orchestrates it all - Satan.  The voice is the voice of slavery that pulls each person toward fear.  Many live is fear due to the slavery they sense.  The spirit of slavery may very well be the Devil himself and his work, which Jesus came to destroy.  He came to destroy the bondage to sin and the spirit that accompanies it.

Bondage to sin is accomplished by being "weakened by the flesh."  Our determination to live life without God and by the power of our natural abilities makes us unable to live a life pleasing to God or even ourselves.  We fail miserably.  We suffer deeply, knowing we cannot manage our lives, but we blame God for making a life unmanageable.  We find some comfort in building up our pride through various deeds and distractions.  We also find God's presence in his words, his works, and his ways only fills us with fear leading to loathing or indifference.  Such is the way of the flesh.  It brings a spirit of slavery that leads to a hateful fear of God or an indifference to God.

The freedom of the children of God stand in contrast to this life.  Freedom from sin is accomplished through the power of the cross.  Fundamentally this means that we accept the futility of the work of our flesh and actively put such works to death.  We learn to dispose of our natural abilities as avenues for our success and savlation.  This is the suffering and death of the cross in our lives.  The cross also points to resurrection.  A new life which begins immediately.  This new life is one not lived by our own means and in our own way, but under the instruction of Christ and empowered by his Spirit.  Just as we used to find comfort and pleasure in satisfying our desires, we now find comfort and pleasure in satisfying God's desires.  Instead of serving our desires and allowing God to get the leftovers of our efforts, we serve God's desires and allow our own desires to get the leftovers.  Instead of fearing God's presence, we find ourselves fearing and suffering sin and its consequences in our lives and in the lives around us.

The Spirit bears witness to this life within us through the cry of "Father" that breaks out from our hearts for God.  The Spirit uses our spirit as the voice for this cry.  Another witness to our adoption is that we suffer with Christ.  We suffer in the presence of sin instead of seeking it out.  We seek God out instead of just suffering his presence.  The thoughts and feelings associated with this love for God as Father and with the suffering of sin against him is the testimony of the Spirit through our spirits pointing to the new life in us.

Knock It Down or Cover It Up

There are two primary forms of religion that operate under the spirit of slavery.  Both lead to self-righteousness.  One form manages sin by speaking against it and feeling bad about it.  The other manages sin by trying to cover it up with certain good deeds or rituals.  Sin does not die in either religion, but ends up leading people away from Christ and his gospel and leading to further disappointment and corruption.

In both of these types of religion, sin is managed instead of destroyed.  The efforts to knock sin down or cover it up must be maintained.  When the will of the person or group is weakened and slackened, the sin resurfaces.  Religion then becomes the managment of such sin and the ways to maintain control.  This is not the teaching of Jesus nor the way of the Spirit.

Sin can only be destroyed through forgiveness.  Forgiveness is only received through the peace of a re-established relationship.  Forgiveness found through peace with God demonstrated and established through Christ at the cross makes such a relationship possible.  Both God's complete love for sinners and God's absolute rejection of sin are evidenced through Jesus' work on the cross.  We are forgiven, kept alive by his love, and scrubbed clean by his anger at evil.  Forgiveness is accomplished for the purpose of relationship.  Without the relationship, forgiveness has no meaning.

Sin management methods are ways of seeking forgiveness without relationship.  It seeks to make God happy without actually seeking him out.  It seeks to be right with God without actually being right with God.  Sin cannot be condemned or covered away, though.  God must take it from us manually, from our hands into his, for destruction.  Christ came to take our sin from our very own hands and breath his Spirit into our very own breaths.  Sin will only die in this "face to face" encounter with God in Christ.  There is nothing automatic about it.  Whether fast or slow, such freedom must come directly to a person through an encounter with God.

Forgiveness Is Freedom

Those who practice sin managment find such news disconcerting.  What if sin is not knocked down?  What if we don't do enough to cover it?   It seems to them that the world will fall apart.  Really sin management is a over-reliance on human ability to get God's work done for him.  Behind these methods is the suspicion that if sin is not managed, it will take over, and God will let it.  Sin seems to need our attention.

Forgivenss is certainly mentioned, but not really enacted or trusted.  People hear about forgiveness, but are not brought into relationship.  Instead they are excused from sin and brought to work for the all-to-human endeavors of managing sin and its consequences.  In their lives they are taught how they can keep their sin at bay without letting it destroying them.  Sins are defined by rules instead of relationships, by what hurts the organization instead what hurts the soul, and by what can be seen and controlled instead of what happens in the hidden parts of one's life.  The best they can offer are methods for coping.

In some cases, forgiveness that leads to freedom is called heresy.  We must feel bad about sin.  We must try to cover it up.  Statements that oppose these "golden rules" are treated with great suspicion, fear, and anger.  The managers of sin management set up their organizations to avoid or even condemn such freedom.  We find such places to be filled with rules and rituals concerning church and its leaders with very little about the kingdom of God.  The church receives all the attention and and concern and work and it is assumed the kingdom of God will take care of itself.

It turns out that sin does need our attention.  It needs our attention to continue.  Sin dies without adequate attention.  With Jesus, seeking the kingdom of God was the focus of his attention and the church and its leaders would "take care of themselves."  A good relationship with God is what matters to Jesus, and sin (both individual and corporate) will take care of itself.  The fear of sin and the extensive structures erected to manage it inside and outside of our lives come from slavery to sin - an existence apart from the influence and action of God in human life.  The solution lies in the personal reconnection of the human life to God in his words, his works, and his ways in the form of being received as a child and student.  God as "Father."

The Keys to Freedom

Abandoning church does not answer these problems.  Even "starting over" involves some level of rehabilitation from the ideas of sin managment that dominates the modern church setting.  No matter how big or small, in homes, churches, or coffee houses, young or old, the prevalence of sin management makes its presence felt.  Fierce individualism has never been the path forward for followers of Jesus who works to build his church.

It turns out that sin does need our attention.  It needs our attention to continue to exist.  Sin dies without adequate attention.  So in every age, people have needed to come face to face with God, to turn their attention to him.  From the beginning of time, that is what God has sought and developed.  Through various mediators and helps, he has sought once again to walk with each person the cool of the day as he did in the Garden long ago.  He still works in this way through his church, even if some have forgotten about this invitation.  The best reminders are those who will once again walk with God, allowing his presence to teach and keep them, to burn and heal them, to gather and unite them.  We give the cold shoulder to sin and our attention to God.

The work of Christ is continued through his church, those who respond to his invitation.  The access ("keys") to the kingdom of God continues to be mediated through those who trust in God and his plan to forgive and establish a relationship with each person.  The ones with the keys are the ones who have received the blessing of seeing Christ as he is and of hearing his voice as he speaks.  Only those with the blessing of such a revelation can hold the keys.

Being physical beings, we need places and times and groups to find such meetings with God.  We do not merely approach him abstractly.  Churches provide such a meeting ground.  They are not the only place or time or group where people can find God, but they do supply his address for those who would seek him.  The church is faithful enough to provide those who want to find Christ with encouragement and help and a place to serve.  The church is broken enough to provide those who do not want to find Christ with discouragemnt and disappoinment and a place to complain about.

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.