
Of Grace and Gentle Crucifixion
I feel like my corrupted flesh genuinely loves God as much as it can, in it’s own antithetical way.
And my fleshly love is antithetical by definition, because it is based on legalism.
Legalism cannot receive or give love, because it’s foundationally backward in its approach to the entire essence of what love really is.
Of course, genuine Love is never received or produced through fear, shame or pride (all self-centered)… as the basis of our motivation and power to love…
So praise God that His answer is His grace, received and basked in…by the power and doing of the Spirit — for, in, and through us — according to His Word….
Amid all of this, we simply, honestly and humbly accord with Him, doing even that by His own work in us, to will and to do…
In this way, the flesh is crucified…
And that is so, because in this way we withdraw our faith from our flesh, though it persists in desperately and failingly trying to perform the already disproven lie that it’s a god…
Plus, we are re-created on the inside, with a nature that is born of and intact with God’s Divine nature, provided and sustained by the Holy Spirit of God within us.
Our corrupted flesh, is no longer our identity or our source. And soon it will be replaced with an eternal body that matches the new internal nature…
In the meantime, it’s in the atmosphere of grace that I am inherently not trusting myself, but rather trusting God, because that’s the very point and nature of a grace-based relationship with Him.
So now my Identity and my Source are no longer founded upon my flesh, but God, to whom I now live by grace through faith for all things, progressively…
And He cannot and will-not fail to be perfectly faithful to ALL His promises.
Now, the flesh becomes simply a body, which is increasingly God’s instrument…And I progressively, willingly grow to trust only Him to tame it…and use in the accomplishments of His loving-will through me…
Such a relationship is grown in a climate of trust, which thrives by living amid God’s unconditional love for, in, and through us…
And through our struggles, we are being sanctified, as we progressively see that we can trust nothing other than God — for anything and for everything, progressively…
Now everything in life simply becomes a matter of receiving and giving gifts…
Everything is grace to and from us now, for we are not under the law but under grace. And grace gives us the gift of freedom; from slavery to the law, and also from being slaves of sin.
All this is ours, by the same finished work of the cross that places us securely in the freedom of Christ as our All in all. We simply, directly receive grace for everything God wills for us, amid His unconditional Love as our eternal Source.
And all of this is on the same basis of grace through faith…in every facet of our sanctification, now that we are no longer under any condemnation of law…
Now, we live according to the Gospel in all things, and according to Romans 8:28–39
Admittedly, I’m still learning and growing in all of this…
Sometimes it seems that I’m growing quite slowly, but even then, God is always performing what my own understanding cannot see;
but which the faith of Elisha is ever more clearly apprehending by the power of the Spirit…
