Human Nature part 4
What if "sin" ISN'T our default setting? What if it's not something to be overcome, but something to lay aside? What if our nature ISN'T to do "bad stuff" but instead is to love each other with the love that our heavenly Father loves us with? What if we're not under the Law but under grace? What if the work really is finished and we don't have to do anything but receive it and release it? To me that sounds like freedom. Liberty. Abundant life. To me that sounds like truly LIVING instead of just being alive. (Because you guys know I believe to live is to love and to love is to live, right?) I think there's this idea where we have to deny ourselves, and take up our crosses and follow Jesus in order to stop doing "bad stuff" and start doing "good stuff." But if it's good and evil then it's the wrong tree. Neither good deeds nor evil deeds lead to life. It's a straight gate and a narrow way that leads to life... and His name is Jesus. His name is love. Jesus: God in the flesh, love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. That's the ONLY way to live. A life of love. And that's what the cross accomplished. God poured His Spirit out on ALL flesh. He gave us ALL the gift of eternal life (knowing the Father in the context of knowing that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased). He brought love out of the realm of relgion--where WE had put it, by the way--and into the realm of relationship where it belongs. The unregenerated mind hears the lie that says, "Do in order to be," and thinks, "Well that makes perfect sense. Let's try that." But therein lies the problem. Because the harder you try to earn something that is freely given, the more you rob yourself of enjoying that priceless gift. The truth is: You are unconditionally loved by the God who IS love. Not because of what you do, but because of who YOU are, and because of who HE is. Basically God says, "I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it." But before the cross (when sin, or unbelief abounded) we didn't KNOW God loved us. And because we didn't know it we couldn't believe it. THAT'S what a "sin nature" is. It's the inability to believe because you have nothing to believe IN. So God, at the appointed time of the cross, sent His only begotten Son to become sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He TOOK AWAY the sin (or unbelief) of the world by giving the world something (someONE, Jesus, love) to believe in. And He gave us His Spirit--our love receptor--so that we COULD believe in it. He showed us love, and He equipped and empowered us to receive and release that love. He did everything that needed to be done to bring us out of the power of darkness (the bondage of sin and death) and translate us into His Kingdom. He did it all so we could get it all. And that all that we got... was Him. His nature. The love nature. We were made new. Regenerated. From the inside out. No longer do we have to let the world dictate to us. No longer are we slaves to outside forces or circumstances. No longer do we have to simply accept the things that the world offers to us. We are planted on the Rock. We have something to believe in. It's not outside in. It's inside out. The love inside of us overflows out of us. THAT'S our nature. Love isn't something we use to overcome who we "really are" (sinners). Love IS who we really are. Where sin abounded (before the cross) grace much more abounded! The old man and his beast nature was buried when Jesus was crucified, died, and buried. And the New Man with His love nature came forth when Jesus was quickened, raised, and seated. We aren't "sinners saved by grace." We WERE sinners before the cross. Now we are saints. We are His Son(s)!