He who made us also remade us.
~Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
~ paul, The Least of the Apostles, and Chief of Sinners in Romans 8
Oh beloved, there is this flatness that can come into our lives.
We, in but a few heartbeats, can look away from the Author and Finisher of our faith – and quickly (seemingly) leave the space under His wing. There is this clanking sound in the back of our spirit as the soul asserts its energy drawn from the lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and the mortal pride of life in this fallen world.
And for a moment, we feel the panic.
We feel the edges of the horrible existence we had before we were brought into Him and the Life He now lives in us and through us. There is a dryness and anxiety. There is a sense of alone-ness, and this horrible turning of our focus from that which is outside our sphere of need and directly back into its center.
And He calls us. And we listen.
But sometimes we mess up. We do the very worst thing possible in the moment. We try to apply the power that is asserting itself within us to turn ourselves back around and look in the right direction. And in doing so, we only make the problem worse. For the flesh and intellect that is “trying” to do the right thing is absolutely unable to do so.
And, in fact, any attempt on our part to do the right thing is absolutely going to fail. For body and soul are attempting the impossible. The work of G_d to put us into the Spirit was an infinitely powerful work of an infinitely powerful Being. We can no more get ourselves back into the right attitude than a sponge could mop up the Mariana Trench.
And, further in fact, if we keep trying to get our act back together, it will kill us. Even if our bodies don’t die from the effort, any fruitfulness we had in this new Life will first rot on the vine, and then dry up and fall away.
And, even further in fact, there is this wretched truth underneath all of this. We (that old, wretched “I” in each of us) don’t even really want to be good. We would rather lie in a pool of our own vomit and waste than submit ourselves to a truly holy and truly righteous G_d.
We are dead meat…. And this is very good news.
Can we see it?
We are no longer that old wretched “I” any more. He/she is dead. Jesus’ work on the cross was not just some substitution for our sin – though it was SURELY that. It was more! Jesus death was our death. His death was the final condemnation of the old man in us. So much so that – as we reckon simple truth as true – that old man of flesh and doubt and fear and rebellion and evil is no longer a going concern in our existence.
Said simply, being in the Spirit is not a matter of behavior or attitude. Rather, being in the Spirit is a matter of YIELDING to the truth that Jesus has already done everything necessary to put us into that place with Himself. And once we do that, by simply putting our focus back on the One who has done, does do, and will do the work – all is well.
This One who has saved us has us entirely written on His hand. He has not just scribbled our initials on His palm as some icon by which to remember us. No, everything we are is in His plain sight and center of control. Yeah, all is well.
And there is nothing that wretched old man screaming in the back of our brains can do about it.
