The Spiritual Man

A number of projects are off my plate, so it looks like clear sailing for a few days.

Yes, I would say I have an answer. But you see, my views allow me an answer. Prior to that, I had no answer. And yet, I believed I should have an answer. It should make sense; albeit spiritual sense. And I don’t like to jump to our heavenly status because I don’t believe that is what John is talking about. I think he’s defining who we are in a real way. Just as Paul does when he says ‘It is not I’. We are to live on the ‘other side’ so to speak. We are to regard ourselves as saints, not sinners. Not because it makes us feel good but because it’s so. If we aren’t saints, then what has Jesus died for? There’s justification and sanctification. The two are completely different. Most Christians are big on justification a.k.a. my sins are washed away. But they’re very light on sanctification; the process of becoming Christ like. And that’s far more important because that’s how you become ready for heaven in the vein of ‘The Great Divorce’. Not some pretend way like we’re all getting better but a very concrete ‘I am God’ like transformation. We are to be the righteousness of God, here and now. I think the law is part of the shadow and can do nothing to help us here.

Christians have to shy away from any kind of strong statements regarding their sainthood. Living in relation to the law prevents it. In the back of their minds they think they’re not doing too well because there’s a bunch of things they think they should have done and/or didn’t do or vice versa. That is the byproduct of living under the law. It’s continually second guessing and a general malaise about your condition. That’s not how we are told to be. Jesus came “so that they (we) may be one as we (Jesus/Father) are one.” (John 17:11-16) and “We have the mind of Christ.”(1 Cor. 2:16) Just a couple of the 100’s I could pull up. I think all of these statements need to be taken very seriously and not written off to some spiritual mode that doesn’t exist or won’t until heaven.

I acknowledge the validity of the law and that it not being rescinded in any way shape or form. But like everything else the context is everything. Jesus came to fulfill and did fulfill the law. No one will be justified by works of the law. The law simply mirrors our sinfulness. I think that the “until everything is accomplished” is referring to his death and subsequent resurrection. Just prior to giving up his spirit he said, “It is finished”. To me, that was the end of the law’s usefulness in the context of the Holy Spirit being sent to ‘mop up’. From then on it’s new covenant, Spirit, mind of Christ etc.

I think the law is the embodiment of all that Moses handed to the Israelites from God. Instructions that pretty much cover the aspects of life at the time. The current moral codes we live by are all based on the law, whether accurately reflective or not. Pierre Trudeau, as Justice Minister under Lester Pearson, removed the connection between the Canadian legal system and it’s scriptural basis in 1968. From that point on it’s been a slippery slope into anything goes. So I take the law to be any rule, because I believe they all derive from God’s laws given to Moses.

Part of the confirmation of this is the enormous pains historians go through to predate some other historical legal system to the one from the Israelites. The most famous probably being the Code of Hammurabi, which they date to around 1780 BCE. With the exodus incorrectly dated to around 1220 BCE they think it predates the Ten Commandments by about 560 years. But with Velikovsky’s redating, based on historical evidence (Ages in Chaos), 600 years were incorrectly removed from the chronology rendering the revised date of 1800 BCE for the Exodus, which is prior to Hammurabi’s code. (This, not coincidently, matches up to the fall of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, which produced the pyramids) My view is that the historians want to say the laws come naturally (evolve?) and thereby diminish the reality that God handed them down to Moses. I would have to do more research but the prejudice is real and was repeatedly driven home at Wycliffe. I suspect most legal systems are predicated on the Old Testament Law. My interpretation of the meaning of “The Law” is exceptionally wide sweeping based on it being the derivative of almost all moral and legal systems on earth. (Mohammed being tutored by a Christian missionary when he was 14) Thus the final definition is “external criteria for lifestyle” which best refocuses the mind onto the still quiet voice of the spirit inside us. And that is how I think Paul sees the law; simply a “written code” that is set up as a standard for us to meet. That is not a spiritual perspective. We don’t look at written codes, but to Jesus, the pioneer of our faith who fulfilled all the requirements to all written codes.

I would therefore not regard the law as simply being that of not associating with Gentiles. The woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter was serviced. When she said “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master table” Jesus relented. His initial response was “what is meant for the children is not thrown to the dogs”. So although the Jewish/Gentile division was crystal clear, in a moment Jesus overrides it. I guess it’s similar to picking ears of corn on the Sabbath or as Jesus analogizes “if your mule falls in a well on the Sabbath, don’t you pull it out?” So the Jews of the day, and to this day, twist and turn the law to serve their selfish interest. The law is a shadow of the real attitudes of God. The law is an imprint of God’s purity but it’s not the real deal. Like the difference between watching a pro’s swing then trying to do it, forget it. The rule really was not to associate with Gentiles, but Jesus did it all the time. What gives? The Roman centurion’s faith was greater than Jesus had seen in all of Israel!

So I think the original law was not even the law we think it to be. It was meant to be guided by the greater attitudes of love, compassion, and understanding but not to be diminished in severity. The law has an intent, and we need to understand that intent so that it can be meted out with justice in the different contexts that the rule violations take place. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they violate “honour thy parents” when they allow people to take all their money and give it to the synagogue. There’s nothing wrong with giving your money to the church, but not when it obviates your responsibilities elsewhere. To reiterate, I think ‘the law’ is the broad code of behaviour handed down through the generations.

Although definitions are pedantic by nature, they end up being extremely critical because they are the foundation for the thoughts that later build on them. I would take issue with your paragraph which again shows the heart of the difference in our definitions of law and freedom from it. You state:

When he dies in Christ he is raised into the life of the spirit. Paul is obviously talking about the death and resurrection of the spirit not the body. This is why he goes on to state the war that goes on within him. The resurrected spirit trapped in the sinful body. Christ renews the spirit now and offers us new bodies when our cursed one dies. Thus our spirit is free from the law yet our bodies are still subject to it.

As previously stated, I don’t believe there is a war going on in Paul as you ascribe to him. The Epistles show nothing of this inner conflict as handkerchiefs are taken from his hands to heal those afar. Jesus speaks to him directly. He is not plagued by doubt and concern of his sinful nature. He is dead to it. He is alive to God in Christ. We are to be like Christ, not a ‘spirit trapped in a sinful body’. Did Christ’s sin nature, because he took on the mantle of manhood through conception and birth, hinder his pure expression of the Godhead - Not. We are to be like him. As Paul said he suffered like us so he can empathize with our situation. ‘He who knew no sin, became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God”

I believe your dichotomous presentation of the Christian is necessitated by a perspective of the law I do not share. Also, it is not by coincidence that Watchman Nee begins his tomb ‘The Spiritual Man’ with Chapter 1 – Spirit, Soul and Body. His first Biblical reference is 1 Thess 5:23 “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Nee goes to great pains to qualify this aspect of the make up of human beings. He says the definition of a two part human is from fallen man and regards “it as issue of supreme importance for it affects tremendously the spiritual life of a believer.”

When you seek to qualify “the death and resurrection of the spirit not the body” I am left to wonder, what of the soul? The true battle ground is in the soul where the mind, will and emotions reside. The body pulls one way, the spirit the other but the ‘prism gate’, so to speak, is what determines our final lot on earth and in heaven. Whether the spirit is given rule over our souls and thus our bodies is whether we allow him to or not. If the spirit is trapped, it is because our mind/will/emotions force him there, not because the body is under sin and death. And because the Spirit is love, he will submit to our will whether we are conscious of our quenching or not.

Re: Dangerous Place.
A number of kingdom truths have been confirmed in me. There is a marked difference when I discuss issues with others around me, especially if they’re kingdom related. I’m basically on the nut for these things and I often hear Hebrews 10:26-31 ringing in my ears:

“For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. A man who has violated the Law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

I think this only applies to those who’ve been convicted and tasted the kingdom, then fall away. I think the Annanias and Sapphira situation was an example of people who had been exposed and absorbed a certain level of spiritual truth but turned their backs on it. This is a level of spiritual consciousness that most Christians do not attain. They are still thinking in terms of doing good and bad which is all pretty grey anyway. But the light of the kingdom has shone brightly for me. The good/bad have not applied for many moons. I have a relationship with a friend so real I can taste it. There is not shred of information that does not fit perfectly into his divine creation. For me to deny any of these realities slots me into Paul’s diatribe. Appropriately I do not respond to his message with fear and cowering but with awe and wonder. I will be judged and God is my refuge. If I am turned away I will have deserved the fate which the perfect judge has rendered. So while my conviction (faith) is a wonderful gift and gives me great confidence in all my dealings, there is a dark side that will constantly loom until the day I shed my mortal body. This situation does not exist for most Christians. They do not have enough faith that would warrant such a sentence. They will be sentenced, but it would be mild by comparison if I were to turn on what I know to be true. The danger is not in the subjectivity that is actually a refuge of ‘forgive them for they know not what they do’. The danger is in the overwhelming objectivity where I do know what I’m doing, or better said do know ‘the mind of Christ’.

So while the danger is real, that is not where I look. My eyes are set on Christ and his fathomable work on the cross where he freed me from wrath, sin, law and death to serve him in the new Spirit of life. He will keep me until that day.