Quote from Forum Archives on April 29, 2002, 10:03 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

RENEWAL AS A WAY OF LIFE #3/8
THE REFLECTION IN THE LOOKING GLASS
(THE FLESH)
April 28, 2002

TEXT: Galatians 5:13-26

In his follow-on work to Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll wrote Through
the Looking Glass. Both of his stories, which have become well known
through numerous plays and television portrayals of them, are whimsical
portrayals of a child’s dream world. Using very unusual literary styles,
he writes about growing up and rites of passage and all of the confusion
we experience as we move from childhood into adulthood. Along the way, he
poked a little fun at some of the accepted standards of society in his
day. In the story, Alice enters a fantasy world by stepping through a
mirror. In this world, almost everything is backward. That which she once
saw as normal is not normal, and what she regarded as abnormal would
usually end up helping her to return to her home on the other side of the
looking glass.
The Bible acts for us as a looking glass - a mirror. When we approach
God’s Word openly and honestly, actually seeking to hear God’s message
for us and wanting His message to soak into our lives, then we begin to
perceive the reflections of our real selves just like we see our
reflection in a mirror. The difference between God’s looking glass and
Lewis Carroll’s looking glass is that we need not go through the looking
glass to see what we need to see. In fact, it is God who has come through
the looking glass as Jesus Christ into our world which allows us to
perceive our reflection in the looking glass of His Word.
Unfortunately, the reflection we see in this mirror is not a pretty
sight. As I speak about renewal as a way of life, there comes a time when
we must honestly recognize that there are barriers to living lives of
daily Christian renewal. In fact, Richard Lovelace, author of Renewal as
a Way of Life, calls these barriers dynamics of spiritual death. They are
the flesh, the world, and the devil. Even though these barriers to the
renewed life are difficult to separate, they are all important enough to
be treated individually. I begin this morning with the flesh and will
follow up the next two Sundays first with the world and then the devil.
It is proper to begin with the flesh because we, personally, are the
first stumbling block to a life of renewal. Regardless of how we may be
influenced and swayed by the external forces of world and devil, it is
the personal, internal force of the flesh that ultimately prevents real,
live personal renewal and spiritual growth. This is why we do not see a
very pretty picture when we look at our reflection in the looking glass
of God’s Word. We need to ask, therefore, what is “the flesh?”
Some of our modern translations of the Bible attempt to increase our
understanding by using different words or phrases for “the flesh.” The
NIV, for instance, uses the words “sinful nature.” This is exactly right,
but it still leaves us lacking in understanding of the right prescription
if we do not “flesh out” what Paul was driving at. He writes in verse 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.” The sinful nature, or
the flesh, is so pervasive and so invasive and so much a part of us that,
as Paul puts it, we cannot even “do what [we] want.” That’s pretty
frightening. And it is exactly why Richard Lovelace calls it a dynamic of
spiritual death. In fact, he writes, “The flesh is simply one of several
words Scripture uses to describe fallen human nature. Few people in the
world today, and even fewer in the church, think of themselves as sinners
- driven by the ‘passions of the flesh’ [a term used in Ephesians 2:3].
But Ephesians 2 is uncompromisingly negative: apart from Christ, we are
‘children of obedience,’ born with a constant urge to disobey.” (Richard
Lovelace, Renewal As a Way of Life, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1985, p. 66).
This is the very heart of the matter. There is no way around it. The
Biblical portrayal of sin that we tend to focus on is that of conscious
rebellious action. However, a focus on only actions overlooks the
Biblical concept and description of sin in its fullest sense: attitudes.
Our sinful attitudes are our continuing resistance to God’s will which
give rise to actions. In Galatians 5:19-21, for instance, Paul includes
some items which are actions: “sexual immorality, debauchery, fits of
rage, drunkenness, and orgies.” But the list includes more items which
are attitudes or complex patterns of behavior: “impurity, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, dissensions,
factions, and envy.”
The human problem with really understanding our sin, then, is that as
soon as we attempt to define it, we also attempt to change its ultimate
meaning and impact it has in our lives. We replay the scene in the Garden
over and over again. Read along with me from Genesis 3:10-13. Both the
man and the woman have disobeyed God by eating the fruit forbidden them.
They are remarkably and unsuccessfully hiding from God. In response to
the question, “Where are you?” the man answers, “‘I heard you in the
garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ And he said,
‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I
commanded you not to eat from?’ The man said, ‘The woman you put here
with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then the
Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said,
‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”
See the pattern here? Both Adam and Eve knew they had done wrong; they
had disobeyed God. Eve disobeyed God. Adam disobeyed God. Each sinned
because their attitude toward God shifted from loving, willful obedience
- “God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the
middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” - to
willful disobedience - “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was
good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining
wisdom, she took some and ate it.” They replaced an attitude of obedience
with an attitude if disobedience, which led to their action: they ate the
forbidden fruit. Without their shift of attitude, there would have been
no disobedient action. Yes, Adam and Eve sinned when they ate the fruit,
but that was their second sin. Their first sin, which has been known by
the Christian Church throughout the ages as the doctrine of “original
sin,” is that their attitudes changed from “obey God” to “disobey God.”
They realized what they had done. They recognized the full, horrible
magnitude of sin. Truly they did eat from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil because they knew their attitudes and actions had been
evil. “Wait a minute!” we exclaim. “It’s not like they murdered someone,
or molested a child, or kidnapped and tortured somebody. Now that would
be evil! They ate a piece of fruit, for cryin’ out loud. That’s not evil.
Oh, sure, they were a little disobedient, but let’s cut them some slack.
After all, everyone makes mistakes.” This thinking shows us how much like
Adam and Eve we really are. The point is not that they ate a piece of
fruit. The point is that they disobeyed God. That is the evil they did.
Disobeying God is evil! Adam and Eve knew that. They knew the reality of
not only their actions but also their attitudes.
Consider their responses to God: “The serpent deceived me…” “The woman
you put here with me gave me some of the fruit.” Interesting. There is
truth in each of their statements. The serpent did deceive. The woman did
give the man the fruit. God did create the woman. All truths. Yet, when
used as petty attempts to deflect the responsibility for their sin, they
are all lies. The truth is that God told the man, “Don’t eat that fruit.”
But the man ate that fruit. The truth is that God told the woman, “Don’t
eat that fruit.” But the woman ate that fruit. Disobedience. Evil. Sin.
The flesh. The reflection we see in the looking glass of God’s Word is
not a pretty picture.
Jesus confronted the same attitudes over and over and over. One standout
example is Luke 18:9-14, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax
collector. “To some who were confident in their own righteousness and
looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:” Interesting how
it starts out, isn’t it? Sort of grabs us from the beginning. “Two men
went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank
you that I am not like all other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers -
or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of
all I get.’” I’m sure he wasn’t an evildoer as he claimed. I’m sure he
did fast and give a tenth, which would have been signs of righteousness.
I’m even sure he was thankful to God, like he said! So what’s wrong with
his prayer? Why will it shortly turn out the way Jesus tells us it does?
Because the Pharisee’s attitude is clearly one of disobedience to God. He
lacks humility before God. The Pharisee has sinned, not because he has
done bad things according to him or us, but because he has a disobedient
attitude toward God. The Pharisee, like his ancestors Adam and Eve, is
evil. This is a hard lesson to learn, is it not? “But the tax collector
stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his
breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’” There! He said it
himself. He’s a sinner! He, too, like his ancestors, is evil. But he does
not try to shift the blame or play the comparison game. Instead, he
confesses, which is of the Spirit not the flesh. Jesus tells us, “I tell
you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
When we look into the looking glass of God’s Word, we see God’s world,
His kingdom. We see how He has made it, and how He has made us in it. We
see how He has created us to worship Him and adore Him and love Him. We
see how this fulfills our every need. And we marvel at all God has done.
Or we should.
But then, we see our reflection. We see, when we are honest, what we do
to disrupt God’s work and His very kingdom. We see our compulsion not to
believe God and our compulsion to rebel against Him. We see, and feel,
the war between the flesh and the Spirit. We see our sinful nature in all
of its ugly brutality, and it is not a pretty picture. And it is more
than we can bear. So we try to avoid it and slap a band-aid over our
sinful nature by saying, “But I’m not bad! I don’t do evil things! I’m an
upstanding citizen and give to charities. I even come to church on Sunday
morning!” And then we miss the point.
Lovelace writes, “’Walking in the flesh,’ then, does not necessarily
produce violent or rampant immorality. Thoroughly respectable
non-Christians can be walking in the flesh all the time simply because
their lives are determined by a delicate balance of natural drives,
uninfluenced by any desire to please God. Their basic motivation may
simply be to hang onto respectability, a need based on the desire for
self-esteem and the affection of others… But their lives may be more
righteous in outward actions, though not in motivation, than those of
most Christians. It is unsettling for Christians to recognize that parts
of their own behavior may be made up of this ‘dead goodness.’ In reality,
all the righteousness we achieve in ordinary history is a mixture of
divine and human motives, which is why Scripture says that ‘all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags’ (Isaiah 64:6).” (Richard Lovelace,
Renewal As a Way of Life, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985,
pp. 75-76).
So what is left for us? What can be said about us? Are we left without
hope? When we look into the looking glass of God’s Word, we discover,
miraculously and amazingly, that we have been given hope. There is a cure
for our evil. Paul writes, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” In one of his
video series, Carpe Diem, Tony Campolo asks the question, “Who is the
most evil person who ever lived?” I’m certain we can easily come up with
some names of evil people we have learned about. Tony’s answer to this
question may trouble you. His answer is, “Jesus Christ.” He bases his
answer on Jesus’ purpose and action on the cross. On the cross, Jesus did
what we cannot do. He took our sins so that they could be nailed to the
cross. On the cross, Jesus became what we cannot become. He became the
very disobedience, the very sin, the very evil that God so much despises
and became the One who was punished for our disobedience, our sins, our
evil. In that moment in history, Jesus became the most evil person that
ever was or ever will be as he paid the price for us. When we see our
reflection in the looking glass of God’s Word, it is not a pretty
picture.
Perhaps Tony Campolo overstated his case. I’m certain that not many of us
think of Jesus as the most evil person who ever lived. But, then, most of
us do not think of Jesus as he is really revealed in the Bible, either.
At any rate, the looking glass of God’s Word does, in fact, give us hope
beyond measure. Paul knew what he was talking about when he wrote about
the attitudes and actions that make up the fruit of the Spirit: “love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control.” Guess what? “Against such things there is no law.” But
these attitudes and actions are not gained because we have the power to
will them. Scripture tells us that over and over; we do not have the
power to conjure them up. Only God does. And He gives us the power.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with
its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in
step with the Spirit.”

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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