Blogging Bridges: The Nuclear Option

Respectable Sins, ch. 5: "The Power of the Holy Spirit"

There is an intriguing statement in Romans 8:13: "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." It's that phrase by the Spirit that makes the Christian offensive against sin a promising mission - in fact, a mission that will certainly be accomplished.

Bridges uses this verse, and others, to describe what he calls "dependent responsibility." We are responsible to God to take action against the enemy within, but we do so with a dependence on (and I would add, confidence in) God's work within.

We should pause for a minute to realize how mind boggling this is. It is not typical for us to think of our struggle against sin as involving both ourselves and the Holy Spirit. We instead fall into one of two traps: we either think the burden rests solely on us, or we think the work is the Lord's in a way that frees us of responsibility. Wow. God says the two go together. Let's try to live that out.

Now, I titled today's post The Nuclear Option. Here's why:

One thing not emphasized by Bridges, though not absent, is the way the Holy Spirit makes us effective servants of Christ. The Spirit, as we see throughout the New Testament, assures of our salvation and (thereby) leads us to live out our faith with joy and certainty. And the Spirit leads us to exercise our gifts to the glory of God, which includes helping others to see Jesus more clearly.

In short, the Holy Spirit provides a direction for our lives -- and it is the direction of joyful service to the Lord. Part of that service is slugging it out against our own sin, including the "subtle" sins that encamp within us. But another part is the joyful march forward, walking "in newness of life" as "new creations" who are "constrained by the love of Christ."

My thought is this. Sin will be put to death within us not only as we fight against it directly, but especially as we move away from it because we're busy about the mission God has placed us on.

This, then, is the nuclear option: Live for Jesus Christ in very practical ways. In ways that fill up your mind and your time. You won't stop fighting against sin - in fact, you'll be forced to confront sins as you are attempting to live for Christ. But if you're not allowing stagnant pools of (living) water to gather in your life, it's more likely that bacteria won't be growing there.

Jesus told us to "pray for the Holy Spirit" in Luke 11. I try to do this each morning, with the understanding that this means praying for joy and effectiveness in serving him.

Your thoughts?