by Elizabeth | Aug 25, 2010 | Learning Story
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Galatians 5:18
It’s like being on a tour through a new country and you stop to take a closer look at a site you never understood that well but knew was really important. That’s the way I feel about these verses in Galatians. It’s another one of those, “What does that really mean?” verses.
Here’s what I did with this — read Keller’s commentary, then went through it in a real life situation — a squabble I had with my husband last night. (I won’t go into the details today — suffice it to say, our kids got so tired of listening to us go round and round they got up and cleaned the kitchen (it came at the end of dinner.)) At the end of Keller’s quote, I wrote the prayer that came from my reflection on how much God loves me in spite of my faulty attempts to live under the law of pseudo-Saviors. Maybe you’ll want to try it too.
“…’crucifying the flesh’ is really the identification and dismantling of idols. It means to put an end to the ruling and attractive power that idols have in our lives, and thus to destroy their ability to agitate and inflame our thoughts and desires. Verse 24 is about withering sin at the motivational level, rather than simply setting ourselves against sin at the behavioral level. Real changes in our lives cannot proceed without discerning one’s “characteristic flesh,” the particular idols and desires that come from it. We have to ask ourselves not just what we do wrong, but why we do it wrong. We disobey God in order to get something we feel we have to have. That’s an “over-desire,” epithumia. Why do we have to have it? It is because it is a way we are trying to keep “under law.” It is something we have come to believe will authenticate us. To crucify the flesh is to say, “Lord, my heart thinks that I have to have this or I have no value. It is a pseudo-Savior. But that is to forget what I mean to you, as I see in Christ. By your Spirit, I will reflect on your love for me in Him until this thing loses its attractive power over my soul.”
Lord, you love me. You really love me. You love me in my glory. You love me in my sin. You sent your son to die BEFORE I committed all of these sins, and BEFORE I was born into the world as a sinner. You KNOW my heart. You know the sinful nature, and you know the Spirit resides there. You know the Spirit has won this battle. You treat me as a “son,” a child adopted by you, given all the rights (righteousness) and inheritance of Your kingdom. That means you PROVIDE everything I need. I need not fear. I need not worry about my reputation. I need YOU. Loving You is truly the only way to live with freedom and hope.
“Your faith has made you well. Go and sin no more.”
by Elizabeth | Aug 24, 2010 | Learning Story
Continuing my study of Galatians 5:16-17, I am focusing today on the last part of v. 17. Scroll down to read the entire verse in context, also because I want you to read Jimmy Davis’s very helpful comments on that post which help us understand even better the difference between the “flesh” and the “sinful nature.”
“They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want.”
Keller says that the “desires” of the sinful nature is the Greek word epithumia, which translates literally into “over-desires” or “inordinate longings.” It is not desire which is bad – it is taking a good thing and making it the key to your salvation: “I’ll die if I don’t have a date to the prom.” “I must have the constant approval of my co-workers[fill in the blank.]” These would be examples of taking desires for good things and making them the driving force of our lives.
Here’s the good news – the Spirit is in us, and it creates desires too. And guess what, these desires are even more powerful than the “over-desires.” What we really want, or desire, is what the Spirit wants. What does the Spirit want? To “glorify Christ” (John 16:14). The Spirit wants to reveal Christ and to make us more like Christ.
And that’s good news. Because even with “flesh” or “sinful nature” bent toward wanting what we think will make us happy or safe or powerful, as Christians, we have new hearts that want what we were really made for – to glorify God and to enjoy God. To love others more than we love ourselves. To give rather than take. To say, “I will be sad if I don’t have a date to the prom, but I won’t die, because God will dance with me.” To know, God’s approval is unfailing because I have Christ’s righteousness and thank God, I don’t have to work work work to please my co-workers, boss, friends, spouse, children.”
Let’s live today asking the Spirit to help us live the way we really want to live.
by Elizabeth | Aug 23, 2010 | Learning Story
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
Are there Bible passages that you slide right past because you’re not quite sure what they’re talking about and they make you uncomfortable, not just because you don’t know what they’re talking about but also because you suspect they’re talking about something that nails you? This is the way the passage in Galatians 5:16- 26 has been for me. Today I read this explanation in Tim Keller’s Galatians study. It really helped me understand two of the key words in this passage: “flesh” or “sinful nature” and “Spirit.” See what you think.
Paul is contrasting the “sinful nature” with the “Spirit” (v.16 and v.17). On the one hand,
Paul speaks of the sarx, which in older translations is rendered the “flesh” and in more
modern translations is called the “sinful nature.” The flesh in the New Testament, when
opposed to the Spirit, does not refer to our physical nature as opposed to our spiritual
nature, but to the sin-desiring aspect of our whole being as opposed to the God-desiring
aspect. How do we know that? Just look at the list of “the works of the sinful nature [i.e.
flesh]” in v.19. “Hatred… jealous… ambition… envy” (v.19-21) have nothing to do with
the physical body at all, but with the spirit. Other works of the flesh do have to do with
the body. Therefore, the sarx is our sinful heart. It is the part or the aspect of our hearts
which is not yet renewed by the Spirit.
On the other hand, Paul speaks of the “Spirit.” At first sight, it may seem that this is a
battle between something inside us (our sinful nature) and outside us (the Holy Spirit). But
since Paul talks of each side as producing character qualities within us, and because of his
language of two kinds of “desires” (v.17), it is evident that this conflict takes place within
us. Therefore, “the Spirit” could be thought of as the renewed Christian heart, renewed
by the Holy Spirit. Our sinful nature was there, naturally, before we were Christians. The
Spirit, however, entered supernaturally when we first became Christians and has begun a
renewal that is now our “new nature.” Paul refers to these two natures as “the old man”
and “the new man” (often translated “old self/new self”) in Ephesians 4:22-24.
by Elizabeth | Aug 21, 2010 | Learning Story
Last week a dear friend gave me a new mix of songs for the soul as I like to call them. THEN on Sunday, I had the great joy of standing next to her in church and singing one of these hymns with her. I hesitated to post it because it’s 5 minutes long,and I know how we all are. It’s Saturday, we’re busy, we don’t have time, we need to check our Facebook and see if anyone posted a funny video:)…just try it. See if you can sit still, sing the words, gather your friends and family and make them sing it with you. As much as we struggle with doing so sometimes, it is so sweet to trust in Jesus.
by Elizabeth | Aug 20, 2010 | Learning Story
“If there’s something right to say right now, I don’t know what it is.” Mary Gauthier, “March 11, 1962” (A song that tells the story of her first phone call to her birth mother.)
This morning I woke up thinking about two hard situations – first, the good-byes college freshmen and their parents will say today and this week and next week, and second, the hello’s spoken by related ‘strangers.’
This time last year we were saying good-bye to our freshman daughter. The year before it was her older brother. Next year it will be their younger sister. By now, the only thing I’ve figured out is that “If there’s something right to say right now, I don’t know what it is.”
I’m thinking too of family reunions, where half-siblings and step-siblings and siblings who grew up in what we would now call a “dysfunctional” environment, dare to meet together. There is no right thing to say in the moment. Many wrong things could be communicated, but stumbling on the right thing will take immeasurable grace.
But here is where the hope comes in. In these moments and many others where no words fit the occasion, grace does move in. When we recognize that there’s no way we are going to get it right, we stop trusting in our own ability to say or do the right thing, and we turn to the One who does get it right, the One who is in the full-time business of redeeming even the most awkward moments. And even where there is pain in the parting and pain in the reunion, our God the Redeemer brings hope, healing, and shalom.
Dear Lord,
Please help us to look for and see your shalom spreading in the most awkward and painful moments of our days. You are the Redeemer who makes all things new; show us Your beauty even now.
In the holy and precious name of the Son whom you sent to bring peace,
Amen
by Elizabeth | Aug 19, 2010 | Learning Story
“In his great mercy God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3)
Today I’m editing the chapter in my Bible study on “Consummation, the Final Chapter.” John Stott challenges us to remember why we hope:
“The Christian hope focuses not only on our individual future (the resurrection of the body) but also on our cosmic future (the renewal of the universe). This promise is all the more relevant today in view of global warming and the threat of an environmental disaster. On the whole, however, we Christians tend to think and talk too much of an ethereal heaven and too little about the new heaven and the new earth. Yet the whole of Scripture is shot through with this wider and more material expectation. Scripture begins with the original creation of the universe and ends in its last chapters with the creation of a new universe. And in between, the perspective is overshadowed by this Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” John Stott, Through the Bible, through the Year
For reflection: As you go through your day, pay attention to the world. Think of some things that will be completely different when the new heavens and new earth are our permanent home. How does knowing these hopes really will come true impact the way you live?
