Being Versus Doing Part Penta

Before you read this post, read the first comment by my buddy Jimmi (aka Joshua) on the last post, Being Versus Doing Part Quatro (yes, he's the guy who compared Anne Lamott to Bruce Springsteen -- please offer him some grace). Jimmi makes some deeply profound points in his thoughts.

The best thing Jimmi says is that the starting point is the cross. I take no exception to this observation and deeply agree with it. How I view the cross is very important and is the starting point for all belief. I jive with all that, to a point.

Jimmi puts it like this:
"I think the point is that it is not us acting out our AM-Devotional Truths by will-power, and it's not us tapping in to our wishy-washy emotions. Instead, it's God grace allowing us to come along for the ride.
So, I guess my argument is that there is a difference in evangelizing, being married, doing funerals and counseling, when your brain is tuned to the “belief” of the all-encompassing grace of God vs. an emotion or passion.
Can the Spirit use passions? Yes. Does He? Yes. But, is that the starting point for our actions? Depending on how we define our words...I'm inclined to say "no". Because our passions should spring from our belief in the cross."

I'm falling back again on my Reformed leanings here, but I don't think that how I view the cross or what I believe about the cross is nearly as important as how the cross views me, because it is in that view that my identity is formed. There's a reason why Jesus died, because He loved me. It is in the reception of that love that my identity is formed and I am made new, not in an act of my will to believe anything (John 1:12).

When I am a new creation in Christ, when God births me again, I become more and more who Jesus made me to be. My identity in Him is concretely made manifest by who I am as I "work out my salvation with fear and trembling (Phillippians 2:12,13)". I'm not ignoring the battle between old man and new man, nor am I advocating a new Gnosticism, but I am saying that I believe that "our spirits bear witness with God's Spirit that we are the children of God born of water and of blood (Romans 8:16)". And that means that what my spirit feels matters and I believe that what my spirit feels comes from a place of deep redemption.

"The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)."
There is a difference between soul and spirit. I am still thinking this through, but I'm coming to a belief that the spirit is the place of regeneration where the fullness of my positional, soteriological blessings in Christ are held. The soul, for lack of better terminology, is the place where sanctification begins as a practical outworking of my new identity as my mind, will and emotions are made subject to my redeemed spirit.

And so, the more that I am deeply aware of my identity in Christ in my redeemed spirit, the more I am released to be, feel and know all that Jesus has for me.

I hope the Eagles win on Sunday.