DOUG EICHER
NOTEBOOK
The Clay Corpse7/31/2021 In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no beauty, no order, and no life. There was only a desolate wasteland; a watery abyss hung on nothing. The world was completely without form and without purpose. The beauty and wonder we take so for granted: the wind in the trees, the sound of the birds, the stars on a velvet sky; all but distant memories of things that had not yet been. Chaos and disorder reigned. A thick darkness hung over the face of the deep.
But there was another in the darkness. It was he whose mind and heart were moving with the most creative of loves. It was he who did not fear the darkness, but saw it only as a canvas on which to paint profound beauty. It was his voice that separated the light from the darkness and brought land from the deep abyss. It was his hand that hung the stars in their places and scattered the seeds of life onto the barren ground of this new world. It was he who brought this beauty from chaos; this life from death. And it was he who formed out of this damp, new earth the crown of his creation. It was his hands that shaped every line and curve of this creature that was to bear his image, and it was his breath, this “ruach”, this wind of heaven, that animated this clay corpse to life. In his letter to church in Galatia, Paul strikes a stark comparison with the way of life these people had taken for granted and this new way of living in light of what God was now doing in the world. He begins by addressing the utter futility of looking to old religious practices and traditions for new life. He explains that to depend on these practices for any sort of character change was actually to invalidate the sacrifice of Jesus and to make it of no value. He tells these believers that they were called to freedom, and then he proceeds to explain exactly what that meant. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Paul explains that this new freedom in “christos” is of a different species entirely than that of which they would have been accustomed. The world around them valued power above all else, especially when it came at the cost of others. For them, to be free meant to be able to use others for your pleasure and your purpose. Paul, however, explains to the believers that their freedom means something entirely different. It is not the freedom to abuse or extort others for their own pleasure; it is, in fact, exactly the opposite. It is the freedom to care for others at the cost of themselves. No doubt, Paul recognizes how ludicrous this idea must seem to his recipients, especially when framed in the context of the Greco-Roman world around them. He knows that this is not a natural inclination, and so he goes on to explain exactly how this was meant to happen. Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul anticipates the impending resistance of this idea from his recipients. He acknowledges that this new way of living is not natural and is, in fact, in conflict with all of human DNA. But that’s the entire point: it is not the human heart that is responsible for this resolve. In fact, it is the human heart that will do its best to fight this new life. There is another present in the equation when it comes to the desires of the believer. It is the most profound of cognitive dissonances that exists in the believer: two warring entities housed in the same body. He goes on to list a litany of practices that would have seemed almost common-place in the culture to which his letter is addressed. He initially poses a pretty hopeless scenario: all of the inclinations and desires that come naturally to the human psyche are actually at war with the new tenant that has taken residence in their hearts. But it doesn’t end there. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. Paul goes on to list the habits and desires that come naturally to this new, Spirit-controlled person that is being birthed within them. In the same way that selfishness and the lust for power come naturally to the old creation, self-sacrifice and humility are the tender of this new creation of God in Christ. Paul tells them that the way to bring peace to this war within their hearts is to “live by the Spirit”. It is to have their passions and desires publicly and shamefully executed and buried, so that this new life can roll away the stone. In Genesis, at the beginning of all things, we see God place his new creation in a beautiful new world and give them just one assignment. He tells them to be “fruitful and multiply.” He tasks them to keep the world that has been placed in their charge and to bring it under their rule. He gives them authority over every aspect of this new creation, and essentially tells them to go have a great time. He never explains every aspect of what this command means or exactly how to carry it out. He simply tells them to enjoy this new role they’ve been given within the wide berth of their responsibility to care for this newborn cosmos. They are free to do whatever they want, but all of their actions are to be filtered through the lens of this assignment. With every action and new initiative of the humans is to come the question: how does this lend to the completion of the task they’ve been given? his letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells the believers that they were dead in their corruption and sin. He tells them that they were slaves to their passions and desires; simply walking corpses preoccupied only with self-pleasure and indulgence. They were without form and without purpose. Chaos and disorder reigned. A great darkness hung over the face of the deep. But then, just as in the narrative of Genesis, we see that there was another in the darkness. Paul goes on to explain that God, who is “rich in mercy”, brought beauty from the disorder and chaos. He brought life from death once again. He called this new humanity, this “new creation”, from the most humble and filthy of origins and animated them by his Spirit to bring this new life to the world. As followers of Jesus, we have been given freedom. We have been resurrected and set free by the sacrifice of Jesus to live within the wide berth of this task we’ve been given. We haven’t been given a long set of religious practices and difficult instructions, we have only been given this one command: to live in light of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and to tell the whole world about it. As a result, all of our thoughts, actions, and desires are to be framed within the context of this assignment and are to be given or not given space within our lives depending on their usefulness to the finishing of this task. God has created this new humanity from the decaying soil of our own sin and has given us the task to be “fruitful and multiply”; to make disciples and, as NT Wright puts it, to allow what has happened to us to happen through us. We are called to allow his kingdom to come into the world through the doors of our twice-born hearts, and to carry out his will on earth as it is carried out in heaven. We are called to live both in grateful response to this freedom and in anxious anticipation of the day when this vast ocean, of which our resurrected hearts are only the tiniest of drops, spills over to flood the whole world.
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