This morning I burnt our porridge.
What I intended to do was put the oats in the saucepan, put the water and milk
in the saucepan, turn the heat on and quickly go to the loo. I managed to omit
the vital step of putting the liquid in before turning the heat on, resulting
in a smoke-filled kitchen, and a blackened mess stuck to the base of the
saucepan. Life is often like that; we start off with good intentions but
somehow, we mess up.
The Christian life often seems like that as
well; our aim is to serve God with a pure heart and mind, but usually our pride
and self-love or sheer stupidity get in the way. Our bodies are created with powerful survival
instincts which reward us for actions which enable us to outperform our
competitors in the struggle to breed and survive. This is totally at odds with
loving our neighbour as ourselves. Paul struggled with the same problem, which
he describes in the 7th Chapter of Romans, when he talks about two
laws controlling us. Our minds and spirits want to follow the law of Christ,
but we are thwarted at every turn by the natural laws and instincts of our
bodies (what Paul calls the “law of the flesh”).
So, we find ourselves doing
things we are ashamed of, which we try to hide from God and our fellow
Christians, but which produces shame and condemnation in us. This results, in
Paul, with this massive cry of frustration.
Rom 7:24 Wretched
man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body
of death?
However, the Christian experience does not stop
there. It is the springboard from which we leap into Romans 8. When we offer
our lives to Jesus, he doesn’t just reprogram us, He comes to live in us by His
Spirit. When Jesus comes to live in us,
He brings with Him all the benefits and attributes that resulted from His death
and resurrection. When we become
Christians something very radical happens to us. Jesus talks about it as being
born all over again; when we become joined to Jesus, we are joined into His
crucifixion and resurrection; St Paul explains it like this:
“I died so that I might
live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I don’t
live any longer, but Christ lives in me. Now I live my life in my body by faith
in the Son of God. He loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:19b-20
NIRV.
As far as
God is concerned our old sinful bodies are dead, our position in Christ is that
all the guilt and condemnation have gone, and we now live a life controlled by
the Holy Spirit. As adopted sons and daughters of God, this is the inheritance
we are guaranteed by Christ. As Tom Wright explains: "When Jesus died on the cross, everything changed,
not only for us but for the whole of creation."
However,
as Paul continues to explain in
Romans 8: 22 We know
that all that God created has been groaning. It is in pain as if it were giving
birth to a child. The created world continues to groan even
now. 23 And that’s not all. We have the Holy Spirit as the promise of
future blessing. But we also groan inside ourselves. We do this as we look
forward to the time when God adopts us as full members of his family. Then he
will give us everything he has for us. He will raise our bodies and give glory
to them.
In the present, we still struggle with our old
bodies, with impure thoughts and actions. However, we are no longer alone. We
have the Power of the resurrected Christ surging within us, to renew and
transform us into the image and likeness of Christ. We have the promise of
Jesus that He will no longer leave us or forsake us. Our bodies are still
earth bound, but our spirits can soar into the heavenly places with Christ. We
can live on earth as whole-hearted disciples of Jesus telling others of our
love affair with Jesus, and working to bring His kingdom of love into the lives
of everyone we meet, but from time to time we still burn the porridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment