My theology is in the middle of another paradigm shift. I am not sure how many more of these I can take within a few short years. Read Romans 6 in house church on Wednesday night and had an epiphony of sorts over how I view freedom, the law, sin, and death. Heavy stuff for St. Patty's day. Glad I got to chill with some green beer and good friends.
I have an unformulated idea of freedom. Complete and utter freedom. A freedom in which we are free from not only the consewuences of the law, but free from the law itself. I have to apologize for not having my Bible in front of me. And I know I could easily look up verses with the click of the mouse, but being pressed for time, I will just write from the cuff (Lord forgive me). But I after studying through Romans, I am trying to wrap my mind around what Paul is saying in Romans 6. "Continue sinning so that grace my increase...Are you crazy, man?!" I could see that line of reasoning making sense from a position of grace being poured out every time we confess and recieve God's forgiveness. But through the cross, grace can not increase. It already had it's fulfillment in the cross. We can never experience more grace than we already have and are. Because of that, I see Paul arguing for us to offer our whole being as tools of righteousness.
Paul asks us a probing question, "What benefit did you recieve when you walked in darkness?" In asking he is getting us to see the benefit in walking in the Spirit instead of walking in sin. He recognizes that we still have a choice. Even though we have now been dead, barried, and raised with Christ, we sill have a choice to walk in sin or in righteousness. But we are dead to sin? How can this be?
I am picturing a complete freedom in Christ, not merely from sin, but from the law. Forgive me for saying this, but if I follow Paul in his arguement here, we are free to sin. Sin no longer has the death grip it once did, we are free in every sense of the word.
Therefore, Paul pleads with us in light of this freedom to not use it as a means to gratify our sinful desires, but to use to run as fast as can into the glorious arms of the one that saved us.
"Won't you fly high free bird yea."
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What the hell are you talking about? This doesn't even make sense! Maybe it was the green beer while reading the Bible.
ReplyDeleteGod gave Adam and Eve the rule to not eat from one tree, the tree of good and evil.
God gave Moses 10 rules to deliver to the people. These rules and other laws are what I live by.
We are NOT just "free to sin" or "free to break the law". Most people have the mindset that they are obligated to follow the law. And if they are Christians, they are obligated to follow the "Thou Shalt Nots" of the Ten Commandments and other principles and teachings of Christ.
Yes, Christ saved us from our sins, but we have to save ourselves from sinning!
I feel your confusion. It's not simple truths I am diving into here. I would point you to my blog post for today in which I try to dispell some of the confusion, bu probably add a lot more. I would also question your last line on "we have to save ourselve from sinning." I would ask,how are we in a position to do that? While we were dead in our sin, God came to save us. If it were possible for us to merely keep ourselves from sinning why did Christ come? What did he save us from? If we have the power over our own sinfulness, what is the point of the Holy Spirit empowering us to walk in obedience? What is the point of mutual confession and accuontability among the church? What is the point of the saints spurring each other on? Just look at your "name". Of course if you fought the law, it won. We cannot ever win in that fight. That is why Christ came.
ReplyDeleteI am also wondering what you are refering to in your quote, "free to break the law." This is not a quote from my blog post. In fact, I would agree with you that we are not free to break the law. Those who are under the law apart from Christ are slaves to the law and therefore not free to break it, and those who are in Christ are no longer bound by the law and thus the phrase "free to break the law" doesn't make sense. Our freedom as Christians comes from Christ and Christ alone. We are free from the legal code itself. That is what Christ nailed to the tree.
I would also agree with your first line, "We are not just free to sin." That is what my whole post is about. We are free to "run as fast as we can into the glorious arms of the one that saved us."