God Without Religion_ Can It Really Be This Simple_ - Andrew Farley [38]
The context of Jesus’s statement about taking up our cross is so that we can save our life and not forfeit our soul. Clearly, Jesus’s comments relate to salvation. So the question is: When do we get put on a cross? When are we crucified by following Jesus to his cross? The answer from Scripture is clear—at salvation. At salvation, we die with Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20), and this act needs no repeating.
There’s no New Testament passage that implies we need to die to sin further (after salvation) or that we need to die to self at all. In fact, we actually see the opposite—our once for all death to sin is emphasized:
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6:10–11)
Our job is to recognize our one-time death to sin as being real. That way, it can have tangible effects in our thinking right here and now. If we fail to see this miraculous exchange as having already taken place, we’ll live under the delusion that we’re no different from a lost person. We’ll end up thinking of ourselves as “sinners saved by grace” rather than grasping the radical truth that we’re now saints by nature.
Spiritual Schizophrenia?
So if we’re going to look for a reason why we still sin, we’d better not resurrect the old self in our theology. To do so goes against God’s Word. And consider this: if you don’t believe your old self is dead, buried, and gone, you’re going to try to kill off “half of you” somehow. Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:25). Having two opposing identities at war with each other is a spiritual schizophrenia we can’t stand. We’re meant for something simpler. We’re meant for something better. We’re meant for the truth.
We are new.
There’s one obstacle to us buying into this spiritual exchange of personhood as real and actual: the fact that we still sin. So some say our death with Christ is only positional (“heavenly”) truth. Others say it’s only progressive truth (becoming true, little by little). I guess we’ll say whatever we need to say to explain why we still sin. After all, how can this heart surgery be anything more than progressive or symbolic if we still wake up every day and struggle?
Fortunately, there’s an answer. It comes straight from the pen of the same apostle who informed us we’re new. Paul tells us we’re new, and then he tells us why we still struggle. And why we still sin as new creations in Christ is one of the most powerful discoveries any Christian can make. Over the next few chapters, we’ll look to God’s Word to make that discovery.
But first, let’s talk politics.
17
In the United States, when a new president comes into office, he or she inevitably inherits problems created by the previous administration. It just comes with the territory. If the economy is spiraling into a depression, it could be due to the previous administration. If the unemployment rate is high, it might be because of the previous administration. If we’re at war and things aren’t going well, it may have something to do with the decisions made by the previous administration.
When most presidents come into office, they replace the previous cabinet with new staff. That way, old ways of doing things are eradicated, and the new president starts with a clean slate. The last thing a new president wants is old thinking in the White House.
No, it’s time for change in Washington.
Although prior administrations have an impact on a new presidency, the American people don’t like the blame game very much. The way we see it, a president is hired to fix our country’s problems, not to throw the blame on the previous administration. They’re gone. They’re out of office. Some effects may be left over, but that’s no excuse to dwell on the past.
Similarly, we have inherited the effects of our old self’s presidency. Former choices have resulted in patterns of thinking and strategies for living stored in the