The Romance of Romans-Part 111

Romans 15 cont'd

Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.

Comments:

So to conclude these "Sullivant on Crabb" series of blogs from this paragraph in Romans 15 (Parts 103-111)...

God has permitted for us to be born into and live within a context of conflict...spiritual warfare...if you will. The "good fight of faith" revolves around securing and maintaining a confidence in the depths of our being regarding his goodness despite the adversity we continually face. This requires embracing a perspective that perceives that "resistance" has a divine purpose and a noble end...to build spiritual and relational "muscles" that equip us both for this life and the age to come.

From our earliest days we have learned to rely on our own distorted and sinful strategies of coping with the pain of rejections and injustices and have developed embedded "styles of relating" that 1) rob us of the freedom to be the "truest selves" that God has in mind for us to become in Christ and 2) blind us to the negative strongholds that are empowering our reactions to people and events that pose a threat to our self-made and fragile comfort zones. All the while, the evil one is subtly enticing us to buy in to lies that are camouflaged as the "best ways" to navigate the dangers of living in a fallen world.

Genuinely becoming more like Christ then involves 1) welcoming the Holy Spirit's work to graciously expose these lies (normally through scripture and wise friends over the years), 2) learning the art of not over-reacting to perceived threats, but rather, turning to and trusting God for help, moment by moment, in order to discover the "space" we need to discern what his love and liberty "look like" for us like in any given situation and 3) boldly choosing to live in this love and freedom and leave the consequences in God's mighty hands.

This crisis/process journey results in our discovering an authentically spiritual "way of being" that informs a "way of relating" and a "way of doing" that glorifies God, honors Jesus Christ and invites the power of the Holy Spirit to trump the inferior powers of human culture, our own foolish ways and spiritual darkness.

Romans 15 states that "all the scriptures" have been written so that we might receive:
1) the knowledge we need to see what is really going on in our great Father's mind, our fallen world, the war room of our enemy, our broken and longing hearts, our ingrained over-reactions to life's pains and the way that Christ's love can win out;
2) the patience that will be required for us to continue to trust God and his goodness over the long haul of many years despite the adversity and the adversaries;
3) the legitimate and blessed comfort coming from the good hand of God that helps to regularly compensate and reinvigorate our hearts that get so battle-weary.

And so...we are liberated and empowered from within to burn with, shine and radiate the transcendent life of Jesus Christ and be/become the person he has planned for us to be. Then we will naturally/supernaturally do what he has created us to do.