Paul's Passing Thoughts

Christians speak and write much about seeing the Bible with “new eyes,” etc. The mystical and spiritual seems to legitimize all that we say and teach.

I didn’t realize the extent to which I functioned as a Christian mystic until I was exposed to Dr. Jay E. Adams. I found his common sense practicality applied to Scripture liberating. His principle of definitive knowledge as a starting point is a principle I have never swayed from. He had simple quips that would fill the hopeless with hope in a matter of seconds:

“I’m having a nervous breakdown—I’m losing my mind! ‘No, you are not having a nervous breakdown. Obviously, your nerves are working quit well, we just need to see what God’s word says about bringing your nerves into proper use.’”

“We can’t go there, that will open up a can of worms! ‘Perhaps, but if we deal with one worm at a time, the can will eventually be empty, and the more empty the can is, the better off you are.’”

…or something like that, close enough.

Christians don’t need more spiritual bumper stickers to live by, they need better definitions of words. We are in a day when biblically specific word use has never been more important. When we read our Bibles, we need to make sure that we really know what the words mean specifically, and we need to be biblically specific in our communication when referring to it.

Until very recently, I always read the word “flesh” in the Bible as synonymous with evil/sin. With that presupposition intact, it led to the conclusion that “weakness” is also synonymous with evil as well.

This is not the case. Let’s think about this. The “’holy’ angels” are weaker than God, no? This obviously does not make them sinful. Being weaker than God is not sin.

This is also the definition of “flesh,” “members,” “body,” etc., in the Bible; it’s “weak” (specifically defined as such many places in the Bible), but not inherently evil. How do we know this? Because our bodies can be used for holy purposes:

Romans 12:1 – I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 6:13 – Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Throughout the Bible, the problem of sin is defined as sin that resides in the body, but the body is not sin. Notice that Paul tells us to not “present” our bodies TO sin. We are to offer our bodies to God as a living sacrifice, not to sin. The body cannot be both. God is a master, and sin is also biblically defined as a master, the body can be used to serve either.

To the degree that we have improper understanding of biblical words, we are blinded to the truth of Scripture. To the degree that we are biblically ignorant, we are enslaved.

paul