Tag: mortification

Living the Christian Life

In the Wednesday morning bible study we looked at something I labeled Spiritual Deterioration or Development. How does one grow or destroy the spiritual life?  It’s not a typical Lutheran topic. In fact there are factions of Lutherans today who would say that it is not a necessary topic. It’s a quirk of Lutheran ministers that we are all looking for our Luther at Worms moment.  Our chance to shout “Here I Stand” in the defense of the gospel. There is a greater demand for works righteousness scolds than the supply, so they often get made up.  But for clarity’s sake the topic is out of the third article of the creed.  The first is The Father and creation, the realm of academics and sensitive young men.  The second article is Christ and Justification, the realm of the broken and he dead and the start of the spiritual life.  The third article is the Holy Spirit and Sanctification, the realm of the Church Militant.  The academics and the sensitive young men can ponder concepts and those more Luther than Luther can end the creed in the 2nd article and pretend history stopped in 1521.  But preachers need to be able to teach.  Especially questions like “How do I actually live this?”

The first general statement about the spiritual life is that there is no neutral gear. One is either in drive or in reverse. The cause of this is largely this fallen world. While one can actively turn their back on Christ in a variety of ways, the fallen world has many structures that will lead you away passively.  The lack of a spiritual leader or shepherd is one.  Moses goes up the Mount and when he comes down the camp is worshipping the golden calf. Worldly success the bible warns leads to trust in it over the providence of God. “It is easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter eternal life (Luke 18:25).”  And there are several things that you might think you have put your spiritual life in neutral, but in reality it is going backward: evil associations, shallowness, emptiness of life, lack of spiritual insight are but a few.

While there are many ways one can passively see the spiritual life slip away, the development of the Spiritual life is active.  Unlike your justification which is the work of Christ alone, given to you by grace alone and received by faith alone, your Sanctification is something that you co-operate with the Holy Spirit in.  Luther’s word picture of this comes in the catechism on Baptism.  “The Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and the new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God is righteousness and purity forever.” And it is that catechism image that frames my answer to “How?”

How does one overcome temptation, sins and evil desires? Before venturing a simple answer a reminder is worthwhile. While the Roman church might hold up the saints as being perfect in this and John Wesley held out perfect sanctification, Lutherans have always held onto the phrase simultaneously sinner and saint.  You are Holy right now because the Holy Spirit dwells in you. because Christ has washed you in his blood. You are a saint.  And the fundamental act of every saint is repentance, the admission that they are a sinner.  “Blessed are the poor in Spirit.” I tend to think of the Spiritual life more like baseball.  If you hit .300 you are on your way to the Hall of Fame.

So, how does one overcome or at least stay above the Medoza line (.200)? It’s about spiritual maturity, putting away childish things. By attempting to live the Christian life we become more cognizant and aware of our weak spots.  When we pass through the trial we can the recognize the path that lead us there. And when that path comes up again,  and it will come up again, we can not walk it.  I think this is what the Bible means when it talks about mortifying or killing the flesh (Romans 8:13, Col 3:5), Luther’s drowning the old Adam.  We can become mature in the Spiritual life such that we know nothing good lies past certain decisions and we can put them away. But Spiritual Maturity is not all defense.  As you put away childish things you also strive for Christlikeness (Eph 4:13). We can do this by imitation.  Paul imitated Christ and urged the Corinthians to imitate him (1 Cor 11:1). We can do this by practicing the virtues like courage and love.  For me, we know when these opportunities are before us.  As Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “God has laid out in advance good works for us to walk in.” We might not always recognize Satan’s bad paths, but the good is usually immediately recognizable. It is just hard. Both for the immature because they might still be bound to the ways of the flesh and for the mature because they might recognize that path as the way to the cross. But this is the imitation of Christ and the saints.

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A Thought on Travel

“Wherever you go, there you are.”  I tend to think about that aphorism anytime I have to travel. For some reason I couldn’t remember where it comes from this time, so I made the mistake of googling it. It appears that there has been a popular book by that name recently. So, all the current links google served up were from some Western Buddhist wannabe. But the original place I remember it from is Thomas A Kempis in his “The Imitation of Christ.” His larger context was The Cross.

“No one is so touched with a heartfelt sense of the Passion of Christ, as the man whose lot it has been to suffer like things. The cross, then, is always at hand, and everywhere awaits you. You cannot escape it, run where you will; for wherever you go, you take yourself with you, and you will always find yourself.”

A more modern translation of that runs:

“So, the cross is always ready and waits for you everywhere. You cannot escape it no matter where you run, for wherever you go you are burdened with yourself. Wherever you go, there you are.”

I usually hate travel.  Unless I’m going to some all inclusive beach resort, the effort and expense of travel just never seem worth it. I’m not unmoved by the Romance of it. I’d love to go to Constantinople. The problem is that Constantinople doesn’t exist.  And even Istanbul doesn’t exist as it is in my conception. I’m convinced that travel is on so many people’s lists of dreams to do because they are running from the cross. They have bought into the simple Jimmy Buffet transaction – Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude – without contemplating He Went to Paris, or even better “Hell, it could be my fault.” We think we can run away from the cross.  Yet wherever we go, there we are. Whatever we thought we were escaping, we bring it with us. But what is it we bring?

When Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34),” we often take this as a call to some form of the ascetic life. We look at the cross as doing something that our authentic selves does not want. But that is the way to works righteousness, or maybe even worse, to the perennial martyr. What it really means is crucifying the Old Adam. It means mortifying the sin that lives within our members. For it is only then that we meet our true self.  For Jesus’ invitation is followed by the saying, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mk. 8:35 ESV)”  We can travel around the world sucking the morrow out of life, and we shall lose it. For wherever we go, we are like poor Marley’s ghost, adding links to the chain of who we think we are.

But wherever we are, at whatever age, or place or spin of fortune’s wheel, there is a cross. Christ chose the cross.  He set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). And it is only through the cross that the true Christ was shown.  “This man is the son of God (Mark 15:39).” It is in picking up our cross that we for the first time know who we are. Who is the person we have stopped running from?  What have we accepted as the call of love in our lives?

Wherever we go, we are burdened by our sinful nature. It used to be standard reading – Pilgrim’s Progress.  The initial picture of Christian on his pilgrimage is carrying this heavy bag.  And he thinks that bag is everything. It is only at the cross that the bag falls off and Christian knows himself. His pilgrimage is just beginning.  His travels are extensive. But from that point on it is himself.  And his walk is heavenward all the way. We imitate Christ when embrace the cross, when we attempt to live the call of love in our lives and stop running from it.