"Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."
Ouch... Well, my guess is that all you therapists in the pulpits will be staying away
from Paul's words this week.
After all, this might hurt someone's self-esteem now couldn't it?
Of course, these are Paul's words, and according to many of you, his words can largely
be ignored.
How peaceful, I wonder, are those who ignore Paul's words?
What about Jesus' words "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in
me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never
die."
What about He who doesn't believe? What are the implications for those who reject
Christ's claims?
That can't preach though huh? Too judgmental... Might make some squirm... and we
wouldn't want that now would we?
What price is paid by those whose aim in life is to make people feel good rather than
make people disciples of Christ?
I'm curious... are you?
Rick in Va
John 3:16 is one of the gospel passages which most every Christian has memorized. Many
see it as a very positive statement. "God so loved the world.." How nice. But
there is a catch- "whosoever believes.." Yes that does leave out the unbeliever.
This pasage form Romans fleshes out that concept. It is perhaps irresponsible to
preach of the joys of heaven without mentioning the price of admission. It is a
non-negotiable price--and the good news is that it does not require riches, great wisdom,
or a passle of good works. It is, simply to accept Christ as one's Savior and His gospel
as a personal message.
BillCMQ
I'm getting tired of being scolded by people who have no idea who I am, what I believe,
where I have travelled, where my road has been dark, and how the Lord carried me through
all of it!
Rick in Va, you are obviously angry. I will not say it is unwarrented, for I do not
know your story either. But will you please stop directing your anger at people whom you
have never met? Find a way to deal with your rage that can bring healing, not simply more
frustration.
The other Rick
Other Rick,
When one speaks in general terms, why would you get so upset?
And if you quite accurately believe that no one knows who you are then how is that you
can conclude that my words are borne out of anger? Do you know me?
Or is it that your logic can only be applied in a one-way fashion...
Why not deal with the passage, do some exegesis which is what I was attempting to do,
maybe poorly in your view and I'm big enough to handle that criticism, and leave the
psychology to the psychologists. If you're clergy, then 'clerge' buddy, don't
psycho-analyze. I believe the left calls that intolerance...
Rick in Va
Ouch ! and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.... Perhaps after reading the
comments thus far, we can conclude that Romans may be a useful theological text for the
admission that we are under the microscope of God's powerful eye. Surely I wish to fall
not on my sword but on His Grace.
There are two kinds of people in the world–-those who are controlled by the Spirit
(or spirit) and those who are controlled by the sinful-nature (sarx-flesh).
Those controlled by the sinful-nature can’t do squat to please God. No matter how
hard you hand crank that generator you can never produce enough energy to light the bulb.
On the other hand, those controlled by the Spirit please God. How? Why? Because it is
the indwelling Spirit (“the Spirit of God living in you”–vs. 9 NLT) who is
energizing the operation. This is the same energy that raised Christ from the dead and
will ultimately raise us.
More thoughts:
1. Being “in the Spirit” has some mystical qualities. It’s not merely a
matter of following certain principles but of allowing the Holy Spirit the liberty of
uniting with your will so that you are transformed. There is a union of wills and the
supernatural power of heaven takes over.
2. So much of what is called “charismatic” today focuses on possessing the
Spirit. But the focus in St. Paul’s writing is on being possessed by the Spirit.
Either we are possessed by the Spirit or by the sinful nature.
3. Parallel with Galatians 5:16-26 is pretty strong. Galatians functions as commentary
on Romans.
4. When we preach this passage we have to ask ourselves why the church reads it during
these last days of Lent.
5. There is tension in the passage in that most of us find ourselves controlled by the
Spirit sometimes and by the flesh at other times. The very fact that Paul exhorts
Christians to be controlled by the Spirit attests to the reality of our struggle.
-Brad in Turlock, Calif.-
Good one, Brad.
That's what I miss in so much of the Church: the struggle. Oh sure, we struggle to pay
the light bill and such, but mostly we seem to be struggling to maintain the staus quo, or
go back the the Eden we think the past was.
A note to both Ricks:
Perhaps that's something we can all learn again: General comments are not heard by
general people.
Rick in Canada, eh?
Ah, it has been a while since I've been here. Preaching Romans this week because we all
need to know more about what it means to be "in Christ." We probably all have
some in our congregations who have all the moves down pat, but don't know what being
"in Christ" or having the spirit "dwell" in us means - and worse, have
mental images of people whooping and jumping and leaping pews and all that - which is, of
course, not welcome in a "dignified" church setting. What I want to do is get
some of them to see that it is a "mind set" which begins all of this. We have
before us dry bones or the breath of life. Submission is the entrance fee to the Kingdom,
and all to often, our minds are set to control all the facets of our life and not to
submit control to the author of life, and we can only control what we can sense phsically.
The difficulty is to enable our hearers to understand that "leap of faith" into
death to self so that we can be breathed upon afresh, and find that with God in control,
the Spirit dwelling within, we have a greater life than the one we had when we tried to
control it all. Of course, that means that there is a downside - as in - if we try to stay
in control we're going to drive ourselves right out of God's grace and into hell. The
Spirit will not dwell where it is not welcome, and if we do not welcome the Spirit, we are
denying God, and do not belong to God. Now, there are not a lot of alternative for free
agent humans in the spiritual realm. So, if we don't belong to God, we belong to Satan,
and that upsets a lot of folks to discuss that subject. So, we can drive ourselves to
hell, or take the Grace Lines to heaven. (Sorry)
God Bless: Rev. Rick in rapidly warming So. Ga.
Since a good portion of our congregation is computer literate I’m playing with the
analogy of the operating system (DOS) and default settings. When Paul says we are
controlled by the sinful nature is talking about our DEFAULT setting. The unconverted
heart is set to default into a self-centered and self-driven mode. Unfortunately, this
setting is never efficient enough to please God. No matter how far it gets in running a
program it ultimately locks up and never makes it.
OTOH, a life set to default on Spirit-drive gets the job done because it is running on
a superior operating system–the same system that raised Christ. Now, there are times
when we are tempted to over-ride the default and go back to that old familiar dos
prompt–and that is why Paul is writing to the Romans in this way. He’s reminding
them to stay out of the settings file and to run with the program they’ve been given.
For such pleases God.
I know the analogy needs a bit of fine tuning–perhaps even explanation for Mac
users (!). Maybe someone can help me. I don’t want to get overly complicated and
detailed.
-Brad in Turlock, Calif.-
