There were some who said that a man at the point of death was more free than all others, because death breaks every bond, and over the dead the united world has no power.
~François Fénelon (1651-1715)
For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him…. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord…. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to Another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God…. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin… 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… in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~ Unfathomable Truth gleaned from Romans 6-8
Oh beloved, it is true. Don’t even pinch yourself to see if it is. For perception is not the key to understanding this key set of truths. There are truths so deep in the Gospel as to blow the ability of the rational mind to understand.
Oh, it is not that we can’t understand them in some sort of scholarly, as to catch the tense of verbs; sense the imagery, sort of way. Yeah, we can do that. And yet, even in doing it, there is beauty so intense as to strain the ability of language to contain the reality of the Gospel.
Oh L_RD slay our thoughts that they may take on Your mind!
And astoundingly Holy and Loving G_d, submitted His very Self to be slaughtered as payment for the horrendous shortfalling – and grossly transgressing – man that i (and you) once were. This we almost understand, but the depths of this truth crush our intellect. He took us through that death with Him. He allowed Himself to be killed that we might live, but He killed us all the same that we might not keep living as we did before.
He made us (those who have cast their trust on Him alone) alive through this same death. And neither us, nor He, will ever die again.
And in setting us free from a death apart from Him (through our co-death with Him), He has also set us free from the catalyst of the former fate: sin. We are no longer bound to fall short. We are no longer constrained to failure. And any failure on our part is now a brutal betrayal of His Loving work on our behalf.
Enter Grace. The very Person of G_d, has poured out the riches of His Being on our behalf. His unfathomable goodness has been given to us, by Him. Forever. And in giving us His very own goodness and strength, we have have been set free from something else. We have been set free from the requirement to ever (read never ever) need to, or think we can be good enough for Him to accept us. There is no set of rules we could ever follow anyway that could ever come close to His unapproachable holiness.
And still, we fail. We sense our wretchedness apart from Him. We wretch at the excrement of our words and actions and thoughts and imaginations. The images of the world bombard us, and tempt us. The desires for self-comfort entice us. And sometimes we give ourselves over to the things, even though we know they will not work. We rage and lust and embitter and hate and blame and scratch and claw. Who are we? Oh G_d!
Enter Grace again. Him.
Love flows in one direction. It is not dependant on the reciprocation of the target. He speaks the kindest words a Lover can speak. “You are Loved with an everlasting Love beloved. The actions of my Love have cancelled any condemnation, because any claim on you has been paid and put away by Me, that you may be Mine.”
“Further, beloved, My Spirit has instituted a new Law. I have written it on your heart. For the heart is the only thing that can comprehend the Life within the Words. Love beloved. There is only one Law of Life in the Spirit. Love Freely, Love completely. Love others like I Myself Love you. There are no other constraints.”
“Furthermore, beloved, there is nothing that can abrogate this new Law of Life in the Spirit. Nothing can separate you from Me. Not even you now. This is why I killed the old you in the first place. To comprehend and participate in something this huge and eternal required a whole new you. You could not have grasped it before, and even now it is something for which you only have seen a glimpse.”
Can we see it? For the believer:
We have Died.
We are Free.
We are now completely Alive.
We are Loved Forever.
Yeah, this is gonna take eternity to comprehend. Regardless, i for one, look forward to the journey into the center of His Great Heart. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to reckon some things true. Dive into Romans chapter 6 through 8, and perhaps this fool of a writer will see you at the bottom of this ocean of His goodness one Day!
