2023-07-06 A Meditation on the Spirit of the Law

“4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” (Ro 7:4–6 ESV)

In an instant all life follows a path of compulsion; suddenly teams are shown to the light of day, all expansive possibilities for life are exchanged for flashpoints and signposts of what God hath wrought; things are now a little… cozy. He hath wrought a seed, hidden and yet effective, like the mustard seed so small, that good people—by faith, and faith in each other—brought about in a more calm and peaceful day. In an anticipatory day. In a day when we could be within earshot of each other, and speak the good word of a Risen Cause and Loving Savior. See? These people aren’t so bad. All of us have motivation when addressed with respect and with cause, with a mission. In a day prior to that looming spiritual combat, that worry and at times paranoia. We see and call such a time, judgment. We mourn with those who mourn, and celebrate with those who celebrate.

Special circumstances arise and dispel; the agents of the Crown pursue a word in season, and the converted soul is then endowed with a Gospel for all hours. All times, this Word is valid: that we live not by the letter of the law, but by the Spirit (Ro 7:6). We live, unto untold Giftedness and Special Circumstances; we are more fashioned, not less. We are more engaged, not less. We are more shadow figures, not less. We are fresh as those who Belong by a Guiding Creator’s story of evolution.

Not plundered, not exposed, not dismantled: the shadowlands life is akin to the word Jesus gave, to be “Wise as serpents”, and “Innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16). We are mesmerizing, half hidden from society’s more vulgar viewpoints, half flashing forth with light and clarity. Stylized, treated as something Special, we know the “written code” has no power to save the soul. It may have power to harass and to inspire frustration. It may have the power to flatter into worse sins. It may react and bring about its very opposite, by ponderous thinking through signs of observance.

Those signs of observance are a crutch, a false reassurance. No, we have very little by way of empty assurance; the saved soul knows a lifestyle of Trust, of Speaking (for so we are called to do), of plain foot race unto Salvation historically understood: Salvation takes place in the details and histories of our lives. Salvation is reserved for those who say, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner” at day’s end, not those with self-flattering claims. We are weaned, birthed from, brought unto the light of day in fullness and all warts and sensitive areas bearing the new heat of day with calm and repose, unself-conscious, A-okay in our skin, seen but not decoded. Our code is rampant to speak, unafraid of an enemy’s dismantling discovered insights: no, our hope is that we share with all people, God’s goodness and Grace.

And then the Crown, the headship being more than a Person, being a Person with a retinue and an aura of lightning and cloud, being an ethos agreed upon by sane and relevant takers. The relevant movers and shakers know of a Royal called Jesus who will peer in, but also of democratic self-determination and capitalistic ideals within earshot; these He honors. We are socialists for the love of the brethren, and capitalists in honoring One Man’s endeavor, fittedness, certitude, quality of thought and plain persistence of deed.

The letter kills but the spirit gives life. To say, “Thou shall not” is to tempt the flesh; the flesh yearns for the parent who forgives, to whom our own prodigality is a cause for mirth and celebration upon our return. We struggle under rubrics borne in frustration, the variants of the Ten Commandments post breakage upon Moses finding the people in sin. His anger later was proven insufficient to save; we needed Mercy. We need a Revision of the Word: revised in contemporary jokes and variants, the meaning of things like “Thou shalt not covet”. Because that in itself is a haven in our hearts that is attacked and reversed and unseen and looked over and lacks staying power, bedrock power, power to convict. Instead, we yearn to be “good people” by instinct and by unformalized guide rails.

So we rise to the Word that has Inspired, has given Spirit not Letter, has fashioned us elite and hidden, reserved for a plain-spoken Day, testifying to all who will listen; speaking sound words of Testimony to all who will hear, and meanwhile by some pragmatics of life the enemy is further divided from us; they are following a false or mocked up tagline, a false report, a hacked or reluctant communication; and then lose sight of the Judgment that has already taken place, that already each party is set on their course: for some, “My yoke is easy and my burden light”; for others, “It is not within your self-chosen range of decisiveness to make sufficient haste in the needful direction”; “A stronger turn is needed; at each juncture you are choosing a little less than what is needed”; “Can you please make the artful lunge, that we not lose our way?”.

That is, to have the imposition of Law artfully lifted from our weary shoulders, is to be a gentle evolved asset amongst reptilian, scaly and toughened beasts; and aren’t such reptilian defenses the sane and winning hand? It inspires us and makes us Special, as those consigned many of us to die or be discouraged utterly, to be hurt to the utmost. Yet we have a hospital, and prayer, and the urgent Call to Rise Up. In this light we take a moment to give thanks: it was no easy journey. It was never a given, at least at the time of our fighting, that we would emerge feeling still Saved. But in a sense it was a given, that we knew our experience of that Word in season had staying power. We knew of a delayed Judgment because our fellow or gal “in the flesh”, “in the mentalism”, “in the Spirit”, has post-evolutionary right to life and to postponed judgment; stark differences between the reptile, dinosaur, and Man (Ge 1:28), and sharp embrace and teamwork among Man: the modern-day more sensitive souls and bodies beyond the reach of what lame efforts some make to kneel before evolutionary claims and false premises.