July 13, 2010
Been There
When we’re trying to explain our thought process or our point of view we often ask one another, “Do you understand where I’m coming from?” The question can take on a whole different meaning and requires a different answer if it comes from a believer. We come from darkness to light, weak to strong, lost to found, death to life…“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17 NIV) Rejoicing certainly is in order when we pause long enough to remember where we’ve come from.
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Gail;
-----The verb tense in this expression is particularly useful. We have come from darkness to light, from death to life. We have been reconciled to God, changed in accord with who God is. Our spirits have been made alive and given a new nature in accord with His. And thank God, this is now what we are. For only those who are like Him will be admitted into the eternal life with Him. But we have been made like Him only in our spirits. Although we long to be also perfected in our hearts and minds, they remain imperfect until the day He chooses to retrieve them also from this current condition of imperfection in which we still physically exist.
-----This sets us up with a choice to be made daily. We have neither learned total imperfection nor total perfection in our thoughts and behavior. The collective mindlessness towards God that operates in the world’s social systems and cultures beckons us to behave in its accord. Having grown up in it and still living amongst it, many of its patterns have been engraved upon our personalities and characters. A spirit reconciled to God and created anew does not automatically and immediately remove those patterns from our psychological makeup. Even Paul recognized this, “Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.” (Philippians 3:12) But it is just this pressing on that is the coming from. For within us our spirit, being conjoined to the Holy Spirit, beckons for a new behavior to match its position of reconciliation to God - its new nature. We have not completely walked out of misbehavior because we have not completely lived the new behavior. So every day we must make the choice to continue walking in accord with the Spirit, rather than in accord with the surroundings of our physical location. For where we have come from today is where we must go on from tomorrow. Until He brings the rest of what we are out of imperfection to match the reconciliation of our spirits, in knowledge and behavior, we will continue to be coming from darkness to light.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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