The Romance of Romans-Part 111

[Michael]

Romans 15 cont'd

Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power
to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As
scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the
rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been
written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can
live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.

Comments:

So to conclude these "Sullivant on Crabb" series of blogs from this
paragraph in Romans 15 (Parts 103-111)...

God has permitted for us to be born into and live within a context of
conflict...spiritual warfare...if you will. The "good fight of faith"
revolves around securing and maintaining a confidence in the depths of
our being regarding his goodness despite the adversity we continually
face. This requires embracing a perspective that perceives that
"resistance" has a divine purpose and a noble end...to build spiritual
and relational "muscles" that equip us both for this life and the age
to come.

From our earliest days we have learned to rely on our own distorted
and sinful strategies of coping with the pain of rejections and
injustices and have developed embedded "styles of relating" that 1)
rob us of the freedom to be the "truest selves" that God has in mind
for us to become in Christ and 2) blind us to the negative strongholds
that are empowering our reactions to people and events that pose a
threat to our self-made and fragile comfort zones. All the while, the
evil one is subtly enticing us to buy in to lies that are camouflaged
as the "best ways" to navigate the dangers of living in a fallen
world.

Genuinely becoming more like Christ then involves 1) welcoming the
Holy Spirit's work to graciously expose these lies (normally through
scripture and wise friends over the years), 2) learning the art of not
over-reacting to perceived threats, but rather, turning to and
trusting God for help, moment by moment, in order to discover the
"space" we need to discern what his love and liberty "look like" for
us like in any given situation and 3) boldly choose to live in this
love and freedom and leave the consequences in God's mighty hands.

This crisis/process journey results in our discovering an
authentically spiritual "way of being" that informs a "way of
relating" and a "way of doing" that glorifies God, honors Jesus Christ
and invites the power of the Holy Spirit to trump the inferior powers
of human culture, our own foolish ways and spiritual darkness.

Romans 15 states that "all the scriptures" have been written so that
we might receive:
1) the knowledge we need to see what is really going on in our great
Father's mind, our fallen world, the war room of our enemy, our broken
and longing hearts, our ingrained over-reactions to life's pains and
the way that Christ's love can win out;
2) the patience that will be required for us to continue to trust God
and his goodness over the long haul of many years despite the
adversity and the adversaries;
3) the legitimate and blessed comfort coming from the good hand of God
that helps to regularly compensate and reinvigorate our hearts that
get so battle-weary.

And so...we are liberated and empowered from within to burn with,
shine and radiate the transcendent life of Jesus Christ and be/become
the person he has planned for us to be. Then we will naturally/
supernaturally do what he has created us to do.