The classic struggle between good and evil captivates us in literature, movies, even in world events. We love to see good triumph over evil, to see justice prevail, to see the right win the day.
Curious that we as Christians are so prone to jump in and choose sides in this struggle, when the very thing that caused our initial downfall was a tree called "the knowledge of good and evil," not just the tree of evil. Are good and evil really polar opposites, or are they fraternal twins, opposite sides of the same counterfeit coin?
In his final book, "Ethics," written from a Nazi prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer points out that our real choice as humans is not between good and evil, but between relationship to God and submission to logical morality. He observed that the church of his era (1930's Nazi Germany) had been lulled into complacency by their culture of religious rationalization, leaving them void of the conviction as a whole to fight or even speak against the Nazi regime. He held that they, both individually and collectively, had learned to operate under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than the tree of life, or relationship to God, and therefore had substituted their intellectual reasoning powers for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
Heavy example, but a good reminder. We are not on the side of good or right or justice per se, but rather on the side of life. Remember that it was the ultimate alliance of good and evil that crucified Jesus, and it was not evil that He conquered when He rose, but sin and death. How much more effective are we when we listen to God's voice, live out of love for Him, instead of trying to follow the rules, or worse, trying to get everyone else to?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Infinite Uniqueness of Your Spirit
God doesn’t want you to conform to some mold and be a good little Christian boy scout. That’s just what religious people want you to do. God wants you to be more of an individual, more unique than you can even imagine. Jesus was a natural radical, a sincere rebel, an easy revolutionary, and He created you to be the same way.
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“But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”
1st Corinthians 6:17 NIV
Paul says that when you become a Christian, you become one with God spiritually. Before you became a Christian, your spirit was dead because of sin, but now it is alive again. How did God make it alive again? By joining Himself with you so completely that you are now one with Him.
There is no dividing line, no space, no difference between your spirit and His. In fact, it is a complete misnomer to say “your spirit,” and “God’s Spirit” as if to make a distinction between the two. The scripture clearly says that they are no longer two, but one.
Notice also that he doesn’t say that God put His Spirit into you in place of your dead spirit. One verse in Colossians makes it sound that way (“For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Col 3:2), but Paul’s repeated reference to the new “self” indicates, along with this verse, that you have not been removed or replaced, but rather, regenerated.
God loved you and wanted to preserve all your individuality, every facet of your personality, and so He didn’t discard your true self, He joined Himself to you. All He discarded was the sin and brokenness that kept you in fear of revealing your true self; kept you afraid of being who He made you to be.
Why would God discard the very thing for which He paid the Sum of all His riches, Jesus? Why would He eradicate the one creation that contained His own image and glory? You are the crown of His creation and the treasure at the center of His plan of redemption and glory, the reward of His suffering and sacrifice.
You have not lost one ounce of individuality. In fact, the most exciting, unique, interesting, creative, bold, free-spirited people I know are people who know the stuff I’m teaching you. Since I began to see myself the way God sees me, I am so much more free to be myself than I ever was in my religious days.
God doesn’t want you to conform to some mold and be a good little Christian boy scout. That’s just what religious people want you to do. God wants you to be more of an individual, more unique than you can even imagine. Jesus was a natural radical, a sincere rebel, an easy revolutionary, and He created you to be the same way.
Read More...
“But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”
1st Corinthians 6:17 NIV
Paul says that when you become a Christian, you become one with God spiritually. Before you became a Christian, your spirit was dead because of sin, but now it is alive again. How did God make it alive again? By joining Himself with you so completely that you are now one with Him.
There is no dividing line, no space, no difference between your spirit and His. In fact, it is a complete misnomer to say “your spirit,” and “God’s Spirit” as if to make a distinction between the two. The scripture clearly says that they are no longer two, but one.
Notice also that he doesn’t say that God put His Spirit into you in place of your dead spirit. One verse in Colossians makes it sound that way (“For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Col 3:2), but Paul’s repeated reference to the new “self” indicates, along with this verse, that you have not been removed or replaced, but rather, regenerated.
God loved you and wanted to preserve all your individuality, every facet of your personality, and so He didn’t discard your true self, He joined Himself to you. All He discarded was the sin and brokenness that kept you in fear of revealing your true self; kept you afraid of being who He made you to be.
Why would God discard the very thing for which He paid the Sum of all His riches, Jesus? Why would He eradicate the one creation that contained His own image and glory? You are the crown of His creation and the treasure at the center of His plan of redemption and glory, the reward of His suffering and sacrifice.
You have not lost one ounce of individuality. In fact, the most exciting, unique, interesting, creative, bold, free-spirited people I know are people who know the stuff I’m teaching you. Since I began to see myself the way God sees me, I am so much more free to be myself than I ever was in my religious days.
God doesn’t want you to conform to some mold and be a good little Christian boy scout. That’s just what religious people want you to do. God wants you to be more of an individual, more unique than you can even imagine. Jesus was a natural radical, a sincere rebel, an easy revolutionary, and He created you to be the same way.
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