The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Life With An Atheist"
I live with an atheist.
I do not refer to my wife Frances, of course, and certainly not to our beagle Ellie, godly creatures as they both are. I rather reference my flesh, that is, the members and faculties I inherited from Adam in my original physical birth (and inhabited by what the Apostle Paul referred to as a "law of sin" - Romans 7:22).
"The flesh lusteth against the spirit… in my flesh dwelleth no good thing" (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:18).
Left to itself, our earthly humanity, "fearfully and wonderfully made" as it is, does not flow with the current of God's grace and truth in the Lord Jesus (Psalm 139:14). If we wonder as believers why we still find ourselves so susceptible to temptation, sin, and facing life as if God does not exist, the atheist with us provides the answer.
"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Romans 7:25).
Thankfully, the Apostle Paul tells us that another part of us, the very heart of us - "I myself" - exists as an ardent theist - "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). Our spirits, united to the Spirit of Christ, flow with His current of faith in God's existence, presence, involvement, and working in all things. This wondrous gift of grace forms within us the desire - delight - to glorify the Lord Jesus, perform God's will, and seek to be a blessing of Christ to others (Philippians 2:12). Thus, the Christian life involves the spiritual theist we are, in conflict with the earthly temple - the fleshly atheist - in which we live.
Which is greater? By an infinite measure, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" in our born again spiritual selves transcends "the law of sin" in our flesh (Romans 8:2). However, we can live as if the reverse is true. Through unbelief, we can allow the atheist to hold sway in our thinking, attitudes, words, actions, and relatings to God and people. The Apostle Paul referenced this in his forthright rebuke of the Corinthians: "Ye… walk as men" (I Corinthians 3:3). That is, the Corinthians lived as if they were nothing more than human, rather than human as indwelt and empowered by the divine. They walked in a practical atheism, as it were, ignoring the presence of God in their innermost being by walking after the flesh that, left to itself, will always lead us to act as if our Lord does not exist. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die" (Romans 8:13).
Any thought, emotion, or physical sensation that does not factor the presence of God as the very Life of our lives originates in the atheist with whom every believer lives. The fleshly culprit will be with us until our Lord's return, or until we make our way with Him through the valley of the shadow of death (I Corinthians 15:51-54). Far more importantly, the theist we are in Christ will be who and what we most deeply are for eternity. He is so now, and the truest, deepest delight of every born again believer flows with the strong current of truth that "God is" (Hebrews 11:6). We may or may not walk accordingly. Nothing, however, changes the truth of the theist we are, or the atheist with whom we presently live.
"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
(Romans 8:9-13)
Memory Verse
Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."
(Psalm 100:3).
7285
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