I know a girl who- even having a deep relationship with God, having experienced his forgiveness and been surrounded by the truth of who He is and how worthy He is of obedience – I know a girl who still struggles with sin.  The Christian life can sometimes feel like fighting a losing battle as we struggle against long-held habits and try to do what is right.  Maybe in 2010 we can consider a new way of thinking as we step into our daily lives.

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” 

-Galatians 5:24-25

The issue then isn’t my beating myself up over all of the things I am not doing or the things I am doing poorly; the issue is my learning who this person is who God keeps insisting I already am.  Notice these words from the letter to the Philippians: “Let us live up to what we have already attained.”  There is a person who we already are in God’s eyes.  And we are learning to live like it’s true.  This is an issue of identity.  It is letting what God says about us shape what we believe about ourselves.  

-Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis, pp. 139-142

But letting what God says about me shape what I believe about myself is easier said than done, right?  Especially considering how often I fall short, screw up, and fail.  As Paul wrestled with this idea, he cried out “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”  This image can really help us trade our old identity for the new one that is offered.

In ancient Rome, the body of death was a form of punishment for a convicted murderer.  The corpse of the victim was chained to the back of the culprit, and the murderer would eventually die due to the weight and decomposition of the body.  It must have been a torturous existence, however long it lasted, trying to live with a dead corpse on your back.

This picture shows how absurd and even grotesque it is for Christians to live while we are still lugging around our old sinful selves.  When Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, the first thing He said was “Unbind him.”  Can you imagine if Jesus would have raised Lazarus and left him all wrapped up in the stinky grave-clothes?  Do you see how absurd it would be for Lazarus to have shown up for dinner the next week still wrapped up in stinky cloth?  This is the point that Paul is trying to make.  God has raised us with Christ, so let us drop the body of death, shed the grave-clothes, and step into who we really are.

I like to think of keeping in step with the Spirit as a radio.  The waves are always there.  Right now in my room, Taylor Swift is singing “You Belong With Me” and something poppy from The Glee soundtrack is going, and Damien Rice is under it all doing his half sing/half whisper thing.  I don’t have three stations going at once; in fact, I don’t have any music on at all.  But the waves are there, the songs are there, the music is there.  To tap in, I just have to turn on the radio.  

If we turn to God and make our hearts receptive to what His work, our new identity will start to seep out into our daily lives. We will begin to see ourselves acting in ways that we normally wouldn’t, and the Fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control – will start to grow.