The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"All Confidence. No Confidence."
"We affirm "no confidence" in the capacity of our humanity to independently live according to God's will. Conversely, we affirm all confidence in the Holy Spirit's capacity to impart the risen life of Christ to enable our members and faculties."
"We… have no confidence in the flesh," declared the Apostle Paul, meaning we do not trust our earthly members and faculties inherited from Adam to serve as the means whereby we perform the Heavenly will of God. (Philippians 3:3).
Why "no confidence" in our "fearfully and wonderfully made" humanity? (Psalm 139:14). Paul answers in his epistle to the Romans:
"If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin" (Romans 8:10).
The death Paul references involves the fact that bodies of born again believers in the Lord Jesus do not yet dwell in the direct presence of God. "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (I Corinthians 15:53). This contrasts with our born again spirits, already united with the risen Christ. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Corinthians 6:17). Life and death concurrently exist in believers, which explains both the opportunity and challenge we presently face in walking with God. "Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh… If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Galatians 5:16; Romans 8:13).
We must have confidence that God purposes to enliven and empower our human faculties to fulfill His will. "The Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken (enliven) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11). Thus, we affirm "no confidence" in the capacity of our humanity to independently live according to God's will. Conversely, we affirm all confidence in the Holy Spirit's capacity to impart the risen life of Christ to enable our members and faculties. He dwells within the "new creature" of our spirits to empower a life of devotion to God and others (II Corinthians 5:17). Every act of obedience by believers involves a resurrection as the life of Christ in our spirits flows into our souls and bodies to empower faithfulness.
Our calling involves the faith of trusting God's promise to enliven, and the humility of acknowledging our native weakness apart from such grace. We can do "nothing" without our Lord's presence and enabling. We can do "all things" through it (John 15:5; Philippians 4:13). Complete confidence. No confidence. These are the twin rails upon which the believer presently journeys as we seek to walk according to "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" that indwells our spirits, thereby overcoming "the law of sin" in our members (Romans 8:2; Romans 7:22).
"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
(Romans 7:25)
Weekly Memory Verse
Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else."
(Deuteronomy 4:39)
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