“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” Romans 6:22 ESV
Reflection: how can we experience the presence of God in this fallen world?
If you work for a corporation in most western countries, you know that you have to follow along with the corporate policies in order to keep your job. Try to speak against their policies, and you might find yourself in a difficult conversation with your boss. And, if you continue to speak against their policies, you will probably need to find yourself another employer. However, if you want to climb the corporate ladder, not only do you have to align with the corporate policies; you have to “embody” them. To express them, live them. Preach them to your co-workers and employees. In a way, you have to identify with and “become” the company you represent. Now, if these are policies that you agree with (or don’t care about), then this is of course fine. But, if they go against who you are, you have a difficult choice to make. Your success in the company, or follow a different path.
This idea of “embodying” something, or someone, is actually very biblical. Because, as we read in Romans, and in many other biblical references, we are as humans “vessels”. We express what we have been influenced by. You might think that you are free, expressing yourself, right? But in reality, you are expressing what you have heard. What you believe in. Think about it. Let’s say you have just learned about some new, very interesting idea or “fact”, by a friend, a teacher, or even on the news. You start talking about it; you might even try to convince others of your recent discovery. It might be something good and uplifting, something juicy and gossipy, or even something scary. But it is not something you came up with.
A bit scary to think about how easily we all can be manipulated, and used as a vessel.
As a Christian, our source of expression is (must be) different than the world. We seek to understand the will of God, so that we can express Him and His will. In the letter to the Romans, Paul talks about how we no longer are slaves to sin and darkness, but have been set free, to become slaves for God. Oxymoron at first glance, but once we understand that God is only good, that “slaves for God” actually means freedom, we only seek to please God. Jesus explained the greatest commandment this way “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”” Matthew 22:37-40 ESV
Paul explained that there is a shift, a transformation that happens when we surrender to God. When we decide to follow Jesus and make Him Lord of our lives. “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.” Romans 6:13 ESV. We use our “members”; meaning our body, mind and spirit, to express the will of God. As God is not physically present in this fallen world, He works through us, His people.
Although we live in a fallen world, we can experience His presence in true believers. This is the fruit of the Spirit. We can sense their selfless love of wanting to please God, as they put themselves aside and become instruments for God’s goodness and righteousness, according to His Word and His will. We feel “uplifted”, spiritually speaking, in their presence. So if you are a follower of Jesus, you no longer live for yourself and your own selfish desires. You live to express God’s will in this world, as a vessel for Him. As His hands, feet, mouth and so on. What an honor, that He can use us to express Himself, His desires and His will to this world!