Highland, I am reading “Center Church”, by Tim Keller. He writes and explains how those of us who submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit are changed from the inside, out! Our desires are renewed and our life is regenerated through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
He writes:
“Without the power of the Holy Spirit, our hearts do not really believe in God’s delight or grace, so they operate in their default mode (performance-mode). But the truths of the gospel, brought home by the Holy Spirit, slowly but surely help us grasp in a new way how safe and secure, how loved and accepted, we are in Christ. Through the gospel, we come to base our identity not on what we have achieved but on what has been achieved for us in Christ. And when the gospel, brought home to our hearts, eats away at this sin-born neediness; it destroys the inner-engines that drive our sinful behavior.”
Highland, the power of the Holy Spirit has changed me in just this way! I remain in awe and so grateful of what He has done in me and continues to do in me! I, firsthand, can attest to the fact that I was eaten up with a need to strive for acceptance and I was just downright needy! But, praise be to our Lord who, by His Spirit, has regenerated my heart - I now take up my rest and identity in Christ Jesus! This passage from Titus best captures the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart:
“... be submissive to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.
But when the goodness of God and His love
for mankind appeared,
He saved us —
not by works of righteousness that we had done,
but according to His mercy,
through the washing of regeneration
and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
He poured out this Spirit on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that having been justified by His grace,
we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
This saying is trustworthy.”
All of my religious efforts to perform and earn the favor of God, and others, produced only anxiety, jealousy and pretentiousness. This passage above sums the “new creation” we become through the work of the gospel.
First, this passages charges believers to live in submission to and in accordance with the Holy Spirit that indwells us.
Next, Paul’s explains the fruit from our lives while under the rule of sin. All of the “fruits” Paul mentions speak to the efforts of our sinful-nature to encounter and gain personal power and pleasure; all the while, the appetite of flesh is unable to quenched. Hence, the ceaseless striving of our flesh to gain enough power to feel in control or to experience enough pleasure to be comforted. The outcome: ‘detesting one another’ - meaning that we are eaten up with jealousy over others because of what we seem to think others have found (pleasure; power). Our existence then equates to our cravings and we rot within our own coveting of those whom we secretly detest.
Then, Paul writes and explains the renewing work of the gospel. Paul tells us that God, compelled by love, offers us salvation - not out of pity, but out of His mercy. Knowing that we destroy ourselves through seeking our own godship, He displays His Lordship through mercy, offering us rest from our striving and desperate neediness. Rest is not found in a new way for us to try and live, perform or act, rest is found in the one act of Jesus; everything that we seek to do to feel “right” and ends up wrong, Jesus makes right for us through His willingness to lay down His life, that we might know life through Him overcoming sin and death.
Finally, Paul highlights the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit places within us what we spend our days searching to find - as Keller states what it is above: a securing love. A love that causes us to know a sense of belonging to the One who made it all, Who is worthy of all honor and glory. A love that makes us feel safe because He holds everything together in a world that moves like mad. A love that results in our rest. A love that disarms our need to seek godship through sinful efforts because, through the work of the gospel, we become the son or daughter of the the Most High God.
I love you, Highland,
Rob