Most people, when they think about religion, focus on life after death. That’s a part of it, but Jesus offers life abundantly now — not just after death.
(Jesus said,)“…I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” — John 10:10 (LEB)
Paul emphasizes that teaching in this week’s portion of his Letter to the Church in Rome:
So then, brothers, we are obligated not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself confirms to our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer together with him so that we may also be glorified together with him. — Rom 8:12–17
At first glance, we might think that Paul is saying that a believer who sins faces eternal death in Hell. But he’s not. He is saying that believers who sin will not enjoy their spiritual life. They will seem like everyone else, unable to enjoy the Holy Spirit’s presence within them.
In his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Ronald Sider quotes Christian researcher George Barna as saying, “American Christianity has largely failed since the middle of the twentieth century…because Jesus’ modern-day disciples do not act like Jesus.”
We as disciples are called to do what Jesus did and live as Jesus lived. One of my favorite verses is Paul’s exhortation to the saints in Ephesus:
Therefore, I … call you to live worthy of the calling for which you have been called. — Ephesians 4:1 (Mansfield)
This is a consistent reassurance from Paul as well—that following the Holy Spirit’s guidance from within us makes us behave differently, and thereby stand out from the rest of our culture, whereas, following our own desires leads us away from God’s will and leaves us blended into the rest of the world.
We see that Paul guidance is for our current lives by his sentence structure. The line you are going to die (v. 13) is literally, “you are about to die” or “at the point of dying.” And the phrase, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, is in present tense and better rendered as “are putting to death.” Also, you will be living more accurately depicts the Greek middle voice than will live does.
In English, we don’t really have anything like the middle voice in Greek. We have active and passive only, so translation becomes a delicate balancing act for some verbs. Our active voice of will live or will die implies a future “will happen” aspect rather than a “will be happening.” We instinctively apply the will live or will die notions as occurring after this present existence is over. Paul is telling us that it is a state of being we will experience during this life.
Paul also gores one of our culture’s favorite oxen by saying that all those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. By using the demonstrative pronoun, those, in his statement …those who are, Paul indicates that there exist those who are not. American Christians commonly refer to every human being as a child of God. The biblical truth is that they are not all God’s children—we all are his creation, but only those people who are led by the Spirit of God are his children.
No one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. — John 6:44
Believers in Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection are adopted as sons of God (the word used is a legal term for the adoption of sons into a family with full rights of inheritance). Everyone else is not. That doesn’t
sound very tolerant, but the fact is, God is not tolerant. The cuddly “Grandpa” God we created in our own image, who dismisses our sins with a “kids will be kids” style of forgiveness is not the biblical, holy creator who offers forgiveness only to those who sincerely repent and turn to him.
God is the only authority regarding who may enter his kingdom. We all have doors on our homes to enable us to let in only those people we choose, yet we refuse to allow God the same right to his household as we demand for our
own.
By following the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and rejecting our own desires, we are able to enjoy the blissful coexistence with God that is available to us in this life, and which Jesus promises in abundance, as well as the eternal salvation he guarantees.
What a shame it would be to go through our lives here on earth without experiencing the pleasure of being close to God.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. Austin