If Christian faith says ‘done’, and if Christian religion says ‘do’, then which one would require a guide?
But if you’re going to join the ‘done’ crowd (not much of a crowd, to look around at the American Christian landscape), you won’t need a guide. For done means… done. “It is finished” , actually means …it is finished.
“Oh, that’s just your justification.” Now you just cant’t live any way you want.” I beg your pardon, I actually can live any way I want.
“Not as a Christian, you can’t!”
Sorry…wrong answer. You certainly can live any way you want as a Christian, and indeed you already do. (live anyway you want)
Each of us lives our lives exactly as he or she desires. We haven’t suddenly stopped our ‘sinful activity’ for a more righteous way of going about our daily lives.
You might have stopped (or cut down) cursing after you became a Christian, and that is a good thing, but you still commit a smorgasbord of sins in your daily walk with Christ.
“So what? What does that have to do with the price of eggs in Alaska, Mrs. Calabash?”
Just this… you want to walk and live in the Spirit of God? Then you don’t need a roadmap, the Spirit is the One who is driving. You want to take the wheel… then you’ll need a map, a compass, and a fuel gage. The Holy Spirit can crawl in the backseat and take a nap, while you focus on your endeavor.
If the Spirit of God cannot motivate you to live as God desires, then no guidebook will do the trick.
I’ve said this before, here on this blog and elsewhere, ‘you already know what to do’.
You know exactly what to do …you (and I) just flat out refuse to do it.
But the One who did do it…still does it!
He still works His love and forgiveness in us. He still still comes to us, does He not, in His Word and sacrament. He is not relegated to some act He did …way back there. He is not locked onto the pages of a book, with ink long ago dried.
Either the Word of God is living and active (as the book of Hebrews says)…or It is not.
If It is not, then you’d better get a hold of that guidebook for living, and you’d better get busy!
– Steve Martin
“Can we throw out the map, then? NO! There are clearly delineated thornbushes on the map that we ought stay out of. And we need to keep the map and refer to it often to realize that we are lost (because of our unwillingness to trust the map maker), lest we delude ourselves that we are headed in the right direction.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 18 Comments »
The Old Adam Lives! 