Wednesday
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 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 to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the
flesh, 4
so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 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. 6
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit
is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the
flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law--indeed it cannot, 8 and those
who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the
Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the
Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead
because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the
Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his
Spirit that dwells in you.
The
Christian church in Rome insisted that adopting the Jewish religious laws were
a pre-condition for following the way of Jesus. Paul disagreed: “the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.[1] The life of a Jesus-follower is larger than
the limits set by the observance of the Jewish religious rules: ” you are not in the flesh; you
are in the Spirit” .[2] This
life begins not when a person has learned the rules, but when the Divine Spirit
touches our lives: “he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal
bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you”.[3]
So then why do so many people who follow Jesus
today pay more attention to the rules of faith than to the life of faith? Why
do we think that keeping religious rules equates to living a spiritual life?
Paul’s teaching is clear – surrender our lives to the direction of the Spirit
of God, and the Christ-like life will follow. I suspect we are afraid of this
radical freedom, and choose instead to find safety behind our religious rules
and regulations.
Here is the challenge: Pentecost is on its way!
The Divine Spirit is already at work within you. Surrender to the work God, and
worry less about keeping the rules.
Thought
Augustine of Hippo In epistulam
Ioannis ad Parthos
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.
Words: Charles
Wesley, Hymns for Those that Seek and Those That Have Redemption in
the Blood of Jesus Christ, 1747.
Third Sunday of Easter
24 The Lord is with us
The Scripture passage for
the day is drawn from Rueben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer
for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 154.
This reflection is from my own
devotional exercises for the day
No comments:
Post a Comment