Though not Jesus’ audience, demons represent another group of outsiders He deals with. By verse 23 of Mark Chapter 1, Jesus has already encountered a demon possessed man. The parasitic spirit responds to Jesus’ presence by declaring “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Unlike the crowds, this unclean spirit knew exactly who Jesus was. In fact, in every instance where they speak, the demons encountering Jesus recognize Him. They call him “Son of the most high God and force their host to fall down and declare “You are the Son of God!" The Epistle of James echoes these demonic reactions to Jesus, “You believe that God is one, you do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
Think about the things that make you “shudder.” Is it a scene from the television show “Fear Factor” where a hairy spider the size of your hand walks across a contestant's face? Maybe peering over the edge atop a 20 story building or standing in front of a large crowd with speech notes in your hand. Our worst fears cannot approach what a demonic spirit sensed when faced with Son of the most high God who had the power to torment them, silence them, or send them into exile. Their master had taken his best shot with Jesus and failed. They knew the truth. Before them stood One with God’s authority, One whom they must obey and whose power overwhelmed them.
The religious leaders round out the groups of “outsiders” Jesus interacts with. Though they hear the parables and references to the Kingdom of God and are educated in the Hebrew Scriptures, they don't get it, or don’t want to. Jesus challenges their sense of propriety and ritual practices over and over. He eats with sinners because those are whom He came to call. His disciples did not fast because Jesus the bridegroom was still with them. They “harvested” on the Sabbath by picking heads of grain to eat because the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He healed on the Sabbath as a demonstration of the a new access to God's kingdom.
After all this, these men still fail to respond. Jesus continues to pursue them by pointing out their destructive habits of form over function and worshipping the rule rather than the rule Maker. He notes with authority that even some of the law given by Moses does not express God’s highest expectations for His people, but necessarily accommodates the hardness of their hearts. Jesus chides their common misinterpretations of the law and explains that they, the leaders and teachers of the people, are “greatly mistaken” about God's law because they don't understand the Scriptures or the power of God.
The religious leaders repeatedly encountered Jesus' teaching. Its seems unlikely they lacked the capacity to understand. They had received good educations and spent their days working through intellectual pursuits. When Jesus used a parable to speak directly to them and communicate that He was indeed God’s Son whom they unjustly sought to kill, Mark tells us the religious leaders understood. Even if Jesus' rebuke pressed against their consciences, almost to a man they chose not to acknowledge it. Instead, they opted to continue in their imaginary righteousness.
What do the outsiders tell us about Jesus? His teaching amazed even the uninitiated and possessed an unfamiliar quality of authority. He possessed at least the character of a prophet, healing the sick , raising the dead, casting out demons. To those who saw into the spirit realm, Jesus was the Holy One of God and Son of the most High God. He wielded a spiritual authority that could only come from God and struck terror in His opponents. Jesus could see past the cheap exterior of the religious leaders and had the will to expose them. In doing so, He demonstrated the inadequacy of the old ways and announced new Kingdom ways that would restore the inside of men. Finally, the outsiders make clear with whom the decision to follow Jesus rests.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The Gospel of Mark: Jesus and the Outsiders, Part 1
I don’t need a theology degree to figure out what the New Testament is all about. In fact, I only need a little 4th grade math to do the job. The New Testament mentions Jesus’ name 990 times (that’s just “Jesus,” not including the other names used for our Lord). On average, from Matthew chapter 1 to Revelation chapter 21 every 8th verse contains the name of Jesus. Funny, I didn’t find my name once. So often we come to the New Testament for answers, comfort, direction, confirmation, what to believe, how to act, and on and on. Don’t get me wrong – we’ll find all those things there, but that’s not what it’s about. We easily slip into what comedian Brian Reagan describes as the “me monster,” a state of self-absorption in which I attribute to my self sun-like gravity that everyone else succumbs to. But, it’s not about me, it’s about Jesus. If it's all about Jesus, we ought to read it with any towards the question "who is Jesus?" The gospels are a great place to start.
I typical fashion, Mark (considered the first of the four evangalists) doesn’t hold back and starts with “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Quick answer to our question – Jesus is the Son of God. However, the answer is much bigger than we think and we need to look at how Jesus interacted with those around Him to begin putting it together. In Mark 4:11 Jesus tells His disciples “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables.” The outsiders saw Jesus, listened to Jesus, became the benefactors of His miracles, but had a relationship to Jesus separate from what He shared with His disciples.
Commentators often note the active nature of Mark’s gospel: everything happens immediately (39 times) and people are constantly amazed (11 times) or astonished (5 times). By the 14th verse in chapter 1, Jesus had alredady begun “preaching the gospel of God.” But often, those who heard had a fuzzy understanding of what Jesus talked of. They knew they had encountered something important, but couldn’t quite put a finger on it. To some, Jesus was Lord (a respectful address like “sir”), Son of David (in hope of a messiah-king who might free them from the oppression of Rome), or Teacher. The combination of His public ministry of healing and miracles with His astonishing teaching caused many others to cast Him as a prophet. Most of the general audiences probably saw Jesus this way – a man with the special ability to apply the power of God to certain situations, but only a man.
To these Jesus spoke in parables, declaring the gospel of the God, but without the private explanation reserved for the disciples. He almost appears to be searching for people like those who came to John the Baptist with repentant hearts, expecting something more from God. People who could see more than a big event or a free meal or an opportunity to have themselves or relatives or friends healed. Jesus found such a man on one occasion, a Scribe who hearing Jesus answer the Sadducees and their disingenuous question about marriage in the afterlife (they did not even believe in the afterlife, but sought to trick Jesus). When this scribe acknowledged that the double law of love – loving God and loving neighbor – exceeded the importance of burnt offerings and sacrifices, Jesus responded that “you are not far off from the kingdom of God.”
But even to those who were still left scratching their heads, Jesus spoke in a context they could, if they would, understand. Though the Hebrew Scriptures do not use the phrase “Kingdom of God,” they clearly communicate ideas about God’s rule. Spend but a few moments in the Psalms and you know that God is King. “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.” Yet, first century Jews would have interpreted God’s Kingdom as a literal rule of His people Israel, mirroring their history. Though He veiled His teaching in parable, Jesus and those who heard Him had a common understanding to work with. However, just as the Passover lamb provided only a historical representation of the timeless and boundless work of Jesus , so too, the historical idea of the Kingdom of God familiar to Jesus hearers only provided a glimpse of His announcement of the Kingdom of God.
Next, Jesus will address two other groups of outsiders and His combined treatment of these three groups will begin to give us part of the answer to our question, "who is Jesus?"
I typical fashion, Mark (considered the first of the four evangalists) doesn’t hold back and starts with “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Quick answer to our question – Jesus is the Son of God. However, the answer is much bigger than we think and we need to look at how Jesus interacted with those around Him to begin putting it together. In Mark 4:11 Jesus tells His disciples “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables.” The outsiders saw Jesus, listened to Jesus, became the benefactors of His miracles, but had a relationship to Jesus separate from what He shared with His disciples.
Commentators often note the active nature of Mark’s gospel: everything happens immediately (39 times) and people are constantly amazed (11 times) or astonished (5 times). By the 14th verse in chapter 1, Jesus had alredady begun “preaching the gospel of God.” But often, those who heard had a fuzzy understanding of what Jesus talked of. They knew they had encountered something important, but couldn’t quite put a finger on it. To some, Jesus was Lord (a respectful address like “sir”), Son of David (in hope of a messiah-king who might free them from the oppression of Rome), or Teacher. The combination of His public ministry of healing and miracles with His astonishing teaching caused many others to cast Him as a prophet. Most of the general audiences probably saw Jesus this way – a man with the special ability to apply the power of God to certain situations, but only a man.
To these Jesus spoke in parables, declaring the gospel of the God, but without the private explanation reserved for the disciples. He almost appears to be searching for people like those who came to John the Baptist with repentant hearts, expecting something more from God. People who could see more than a big event or a free meal or an opportunity to have themselves or relatives or friends healed. Jesus found such a man on one occasion, a Scribe who hearing Jesus answer the Sadducees and their disingenuous question about marriage in the afterlife (they did not even believe in the afterlife, but sought to trick Jesus). When this scribe acknowledged that the double law of love – loving God and loving neighbor – exceeded the importance of burnt offerings and sacrifices, Jesus responded that “you are not far off from the kingdom of God.”
But even to those who were still left scratching their heads, Jesus spoke in a context they could, if they would, understand. Though the Hebrew Scriptures do not use the phrase “Kingdom of God,” they clearly communicate ideas about God’s rule. Spend but a few moments in the Psalms and you know that God is King. “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.” Yet, first century Jews would have interpreted God’s Kingdom as a literal rule of His people Israel, mirroring their history. Though He veiled His teaching in parable, Jesus and those who heard Him had a common understanding to work with. However, just as the Passover lamb provided only a historical representation of the timeless and boundless work of Jesus , so too, the historical idea of the Kingdom of God familiar to Jesus hearers only provided a glimpse of His announcement of the Kingdom of God.
Next, Jesus will address two other groups of outsiders and His combined treatment of these three groups will begin to give us part of the answer to our question, "who is Jesus?"
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Working From the Outside In
I last wrote of the inward-out transformation that Jesus wants to work in our lives. Like everything else in the partnership that God has established with man, we also have our part. We never have the ability to achieve God's desire, but He expects us to walk side-by-side with Him in the process. In a moment, we’ll discus activities like solitude, silence, prayer, journaling, study, meditation, memorization, fasting, chastity, secrecy, confession, fellowship, submission, simplicity, stewardship, sacrifice, worship, celebration, service, and witness, all of which we commonly refer to as spiritual disciplines. But first we must understand how our part, the outside in approach works.
God has put us together as unifed persons – inner man and body – in His image[1] and intends that we exist now and for eternity in physical form. Francis Schaeffer notes in True Spirituality that a wholly biblical view of spirituality involves a connection between the inward and outward aspects of humanness: “sweeping out of the inward positive reality, there is to be a positive manifestation externally.”
From a more direct point of view, Dallas Willard says it in The Spirit of the Disciplines “Human personality is not separable in our consciousness from the human body. And that fact is expressed by asserting the IDENTITY of the person as his or her body.” This fact is what makes it necessary for us to make our bodies, through the disciplines for spiritual life, the primary focus of our effort in our part in the process of redemption. Philippians 2:12-13 confirms the sentiments of both Shaeffer and Willard. “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” I’m wholly dependant upon God to work in me towards sanctification, but connected all the way back to continuing God’s creative activity after He rested, I have my part to do.
Spiritual disciplines like those I rattled off earlier generally fall into two groups. The disciplines of abstinence include the likes of solitude, silence, and fasting and disciplines of engagement include reading, meditation, and journaling – we’ll begin with those three here.
If you’ve taken the time to read this post, you can probably also list several good reasons why reading God’s revelation of Himself to man sits atop the charts of spiritual disciplines. We’re here to become disciples or apprentices of Jesus. We set out to become like Him in every way. The only full picture of who Jesus is lies between the “in the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 and “the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people” of Revelation 22:21.
The multi-faceted nature of Scripture, along with the ever expanding illumination of the Holy Spirit make discovering Jesus a life long journey. If I live to 110 years old and spend each day basking in God’s story of His Son, I will not have gotten to the bottom of it. The issue is not whether God’s Word is enough, but whether I engage it enough. First, you must have a plan and that plan must include the entire Bible cover to cover. Reading the Bible straight through in a year might be your plan but cover to cover isn’t the only way to read. Some find it helpful to alternate between sections of the New and Old Testaments. Others augment they’re regular reading of other passages with a chapter of Psalms or Proverbs each day. You might find it helpful to park in one book for while, reading slowly or rereading certain passages. I know of only two necessities – read it all and read it daily.
Reading alone won’t accelerate knowing Jesus to extent we want. The depth of Scripture requires us to chew on it, mull it over, look at it from different angles, and wring it to extract every last bit the Holy Spirit has for us this day. We must read and meditate on what we read. As you read, pick out a verse or short passage that catches the attention of your heart, begin to ponder each word and phrase. Use your imagination to visualize the ideas expressed. Consider how these ideas fit into the bigger picture of the story of Jesus. Ask how they agree or disagree with your current condition. You might write down a verse that catches your attention and carry it with you for the day, taking time to reread it and ponder a little more. At times, you’ll have important “ah-ha” moments where the Holy Spirit takes what He has for you and holds it in front of your face. Other times, you might feel like you’ve accomplished nothing at all. This might require times of prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to reveal specific aspects of the passage or to assist your understanding. It might also require plain old perseverance.
The object of meditation is to make Scripture a part of you – to hide it in your heart, to let it richly dwell within you. During times of meditations the Holy Spirit will bring ideas, connect concepts, apply portions of Scripture to specific circumstances, use it to uncover hidden problems, and give us a broader idea of who Jesus is. Some of these events will develop over time and others will occur quite suddenly.
Spiritual disciplines are much like training in any other area of life. A hockey player who only works on a slap shot will never develop a sniper-like wrist shot. A golfer who spends all day in practicing with her driver will suffer when it’s time to put. We need to have a full quiver of discipline arrows. Since humans seem to have a knack for forgetting even the biggest insights the Holy Spirit reveals during meditation, Journaling provides a ready compliment to reading and meditation. Your journal becomes a safe place to store the daily treasures the Holy Spirit shares with you. I’m not talking about writing a treatise on some deep theological topic. A couple of short notes will do. Just enough to refresh your memory when you look back to your journal. Of course, nothing stands in the way of writing as much as you want. Much of what I post on this blog site began in my journal. However, mainly we want to create a record, a history of our spiritual development that will help us remember not only what we learn through reading and meditating, but how far down the pilgrim’s path we’ve come.
[1] This does not suggest that God has a body. God gives us bodies in order that we, like He, have a means of expressing the thoughts of our minds and emotions and carrying out the desires of our wills. Where God creates by imagining and speaking it into existence, we imagine and use our eyes, ears, mouths, hands, and feet to create.
God has put us together as unifed persons – inner man and body – in His image[1] and intends that we exist now and for eternity in physical form. Francis Schaeffer notes in True Spirituality that a wholly biblical view of spirituality involves a connection between the inward and outward aspects of humanness: “sweeping out of the inward positive reality, there is to be a positive manifestation externally.”
From a more direct point of view, Dallas Willard says it in The Spirit of the Disciplines “Human personality is not separable in our consciousness from the human body. And that fact is expressed by asserting the IDENTITY of the person as his or her body.” This fact is what makes it necessary for us to make our bodies, through the disciplines for spiritual life, the primary focus of our effort in our part in the process of redemption. Philippians 2:12-13 confirms the sentiments of both Shaeffer and Willard. “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” I’m wholly dependant upon God to work in me towards sanctification, but connected all the way back to continuing God’s creative activity after He rested, I have my part to do.
Spiritual disciplines like those I rattled off earlier generally fall into two groups. The disciplines of abstinence include the likes of solitude, silence, and fasting and disciplines of engagement include reading, meditation, and journaling – we’ll begin with those three here.
If you’ve taken the time to read this post, you can probably also list several good reasons why reading God’s revelation of Himself to man sits atop the charts of spiritual disciplines. We’re here to become disciples or apprentices of Jesus. We set out to become like Him in every way. The only full picture of who Jesus is lies between the “in the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 and “the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people” of Revelation 22:21.
The multi-faceted nature of Scripture, along with the ever expanding illumination of the Holy Spirit make discovering Jesus a life long journey. If I live to 110 years old and spend each day basking in God’s story of His Son, I will not have gotten to the bottom of it. The issue is not whether God’s Word is enough, but whether I engage it enough. First, you must have a plan and that plan must include the entire Bible cover to cover. Reading the Bible straight through in a year might be your plan but cover to cover isn’t the only way to read. Some find it helpful to alternate between sections of the New and Old Testaments. Others augment they’re regular reading of other passages with a chapter of Psalms or Proverbs each day. You might find it helpful to park in one book for while, reading slowly or rereading certain passages. I know of only two necessities – read it all and read it daily.
Reading alone won’t accelerate knowing Jesus to extent we want. The depth of Scripture requires us to chew on it, mull it over, look at it from different angles, and wring it to extract every last bit the Holy Spirit has for us this day. We must read and meditate on what we read. As you read, pick out a verse or short passage that catches the attention of your heart, begin to ponder each word and phrase. Use your imagination to visualize the ideas expressed. Consider how these ideas fit into the bigger picture of the story of Jesus. Ask how they agree or disagree with your current condition. You might write down a verse that catches your attention and carry it with you for the day, taking time to reread it and ponder a little more. At times, you’ll have important “ah-ha” moments where the Holy Spirit takes what He has for you and holds it in front of your face. Other times, you might feel like you’ve accomplished nothing at all. This might require times of prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to reveal specific aspects of the passage or to assist your understanding. It might also require plain old perseverance.
The object of meditation is to make Scripture a part of you – to hide it in your heart, to let it richly dwell within you. During times of meditations the Holy Spirit will bring ideas, connect concepts, apply portions of Scripture to specific circumstances, use it to uncover hidden problems, and give us a broader idea of who Jesus is. Some of these events will develop over time and others will occur quite suddenly.
Spiritual disciplines are much like training in any other area of life. A hockey player who only works on a slap shot will never develop a sniper-like wrist shot. A golfer who spends all day in practicing with her driver will suffer when it’s time to put. We need to have a full quiver of discipline arrows. Since humans seem to have a knack for forgetting even the biggest insights the Holy Spirit reveals during meditation, Journaling provides a ready compliment to reading and meditation. Your journal becomes a safe place to store the daily treasures the Holy Spirit shares with you. I’m not talking about writing a treatise on some deep theological topic. A couple of short notes will do. Just enough to refresh your memory when you look back to your journal. Of course, nothing stands in the way of writing as much as you want. Much of what I post on this blog site began in my journal. However, mainly we want to create a record, a history of our spiritual development that will help us remember not only what we learn through reading and meditating, but how far down the pilgrim’s path we’ve come.
[1] This does not suggest that God has a body. God gives us bodies in order that we, like He, have a means of expressing the thoughts of our minds and emotions and carrying out the desires of our wills. Where God creates by imagining and speaking it into existence, we imagine and use our eyes, ears, mouths, hands, and feet to create.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Inner Person & Outer Person
Watchman Nee comments on the connection between spirit, soul, and body in his classic book The Release of the Spirit. No matter how one classifies the inner fperson (soul, or soul and spirit as Nee does), Nee’s observations are enlightening. He pictures God's Spirit residing in the inner person, specifically in one's spirit, a separate part of the inner person where one connects with God. God intends His Spirit, joined with a person's spirit to govern the soul – the seat of our thoughts, emotions, and will. The soul then uses the body as its form of expression. For this to happen, God must break a soul still tuned to the call of sin so that the spirit, along with God's Spirit, might rule.
Similarly, in the soul-body make up of humans, the Holy Spirit makes its home in the inner part of a person, the soul, which God regenerates at conversion to Christ. A fundamental change takes place in our souls and we experience a break from the absolute controlling force of sin at regeneration. We become dead to sin, but sin does not completely die. Paul acknowledges that even though we become alive to Christ and dead to sin, we must not let sin reign in our mortal bodies so that we obey its evil desires.[1] Like the soul to Nee that must be broken, we must be made dead to sin that still rests in us.
Though the exact makeup of the inner person remains the subject of some debate, the Bible makes clear: (1) the Holy Spirit takes up residency in the inner man at conversion to Christ; (2) we become new creatures in Christ; (3) we gain not only this newness, but justification for the legal penalty for our sins and adoption into the family of God. However, complete redemption remains a future event. At present, we still battle with sin and must devote ourselves in concert with God in the process of sanctification. We must act to treat sin as it now deserves - dead and without power. Likewise, we must treat the Holy Spirit as He deserves - the power of God in us to live holy, obedient lives in worship to the Lord.
Romans 7:21-23 paints a dismal picture of one on the loosing side of sin’s attempt to reign: “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” The inner person has broken away from the grips of sin and desires to conform to God’s law, but doesn’t have the developed machinery to put it to work. This person cries in despair “what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
In contrast Romans 8 tells the story on one dead to sin. The righteous requirements of the Lord are fully met in those who do not live according the sinful nature, but who live according to the Spirit (vs. 4). In verses 5 and 6 Paul continues with a contrast of the person who agrees with the law of God in the inner person and the one not only agrees, but walks by the Spirit. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”
Nee describes the breaking of the outer person as the discipline of the Spirit. Through life we will inevitably experience events that wound us. The Spirit knows the strongholds of sin that He must destroy. He knows how to use the circumstances of life that exhaust our cleverness. With a love that we might not immediately comprehend, He wields the events in life intended for our harm and that cause us to inwardly groan and we realize our desperate need for God’s redemptive work, that we can no longer live by ourselves or for ourselves, and uses them bring us to a Jesus commitment of previously unknown severity.
For our part, we must recognize the discipline of the Spirit, yield to it, and begin to live in Romans chapter 8 - setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, living by Him, in His strength which will make sin dead to us.[2]
[1] Romans 6:12-13
[2] Romans 8:4.
Similarly, in the soul-body make up of humans, the Holy Spirit makes its home in the inner part of a person, the soul, which God regenerates at conversion to Christ. A fundamental change takes place in our souls and we experience a break from the absolute controlling force of sin at regeneration. We become dead to sin, but sin does not completely die. Paul acknowledges that even though we become alive to Christ and dead to sin, we must not let sin reign in our mortal bodies so that we obey its evil desires.[1] Like the soul to Nee that must be broken, we must be made dead to sin that still rests in us.
Though the exact makeup of the inner person remains the subject of some debate, the Bible makes clear: (1) the Holy Spirit takes up residency in the inner man at conversion to Christ; (2) we become new creatures in Christ; (3) we gain not only this newness, but justification for the legal penalty for our sins and adoption into the family of God. However, complete redemption remains a future event. At present, we still battle with sin and must devote ourselves in concert with God in the process of sanctification. We must act to treat sin as it now deserves - dead and without power. Likewise, we must treat the Holy Spirit as He deserves - the power of God in us to live holy, obedient lives in worship to the Lord.
Romans 7:21-23 paints a dismal picture of one on the loosing side of sin’s attempt to reign: “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” The inner person has broken away from the grips of sin and desires to conform to God’s law, but doesn’t have the developed machinery to put it to work. This person cries in despair “what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
In contrast Romans 8 tells the story on one dead to sin. The righteous requirements of the Lord are fully met in those who do not live according the sinful nature, but who live according to the Spirit (vs. 4). In verses 5 and 6 Paul continues with a contrast of the person who agrees with the law of God in the inner person and the one not only agrees, but walks by the Spirit. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”
Nee describes the breaking of the outer person as the discipline of the Spirit. Through life we will inevitably experience events that wound us. The Spirit knows the strongholds of sin that He must destroy. He knows how to use the circumstances of life that exhaust our cleverness. With a love that we might not immediately comprehend, He wields the events in life intended for our harm and that cause us to inwardly groan and we realize our desperate need for God’s redemptive work, that we can no longer live by ourselves or for ourselves, and uses them bring us to a Jesus commitment of previously unknown severity.
For our part, we must recognize the discipline of the Spirit, yield to it, and begin to live in Romans chapter 8 - setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, living by Him, in His strength which will make sin dead to us.[2]
[1] Romans 6:12-13
[2] Romans 8:4.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)