Main scripture, 2 Cor. 3:7-18 -- the old covenant versus the new. Here are some contrasts between the old, based in the law, and the new, built on Christ:
Law, leading to death, vs. the Spirit giving life, v. 7-8
Little glory of the old vs much glory of the new, v. 9, 10
Condemnation from the law vs right standing with God in Christ, v. 9
Fading glory vs eternal glory, v. 10, 11, 12
The new person, v. 16, who is being made more and more like Christ, v. 18
This new life by the Spirit was promised long before, by the Hebrew prophets in many places. Here are a few:
Of Christ himself in Isa. 11:2
Of all people, Isa. 11:9 and Habakkuk 2:14
Of even Egypt, Isa. 19:21
Of Israel, Ezek. 11:19, 36:26, 27, and chapter 37
Is this new life an event, or a journey? It's often spoken of in Scripture as both. Today we'll look at primarily at the journey aspect.
Example: Abram, Gen. 12:1 -- God called him out to a place he hadn't even shown him yet, but the real journey was one of the heart as you see Abraham growing in his faith and his ability to follow God throughout his journey.
For Christians, there is the truth of a new person given to us by Christ already, but that change takes time for us to figure out and learn how to live out every day. See 2 Cor. 5:14-17. We know we have died to our old life, but that old self with its focus on possessions, power and prestige keeps coming back to haunt us.
How do we deal with that old person, the one who isn't really telling the truth about our new person in Christ? Here are some quotes from David Benner, a Christian writer who makes a lot of sense to me, in his book Sacred Companions:
“The essence of Christian spirituality is following Christ on a journey of personal transformation. The distant land to which we are called is not heaven...The distant land is the new creature into which Christ wishes to fashion us— the whole and holy person that finds his or her uniqueness, identity and calling in Christ."
“I begin to love God when I know — not simply believe — that God loves me."
“God doesn’t want me to try to become more loving. He wants me to absorb his love so that it flows out from me."
I think these ideas would help us all. Don't you?
The reason we need spiritual formation is, I believe, that we weren't formed right in the first place, by a society ruined by sin, even by loving parents who still had their own issues to deal with, and by our friends and our experiences in school and the workplace. Not many things in our lives were as they should have been, and those things all left their mark on us. Because Jesus lived a perfect human life, give us his own perfection, ("the new person has come", 2 Cor. 5:17), but it takes time for even Jesus' perfect work to have an effect in our imperfect thinking.
Our life with Jesus is a little like building a Lego (tm) toy set. Without clear instructions, the house or car or whatever can take bizarre shapes and not turn out as the designers intended. If we have put the parts together in the wrong order, it takes unplugging and rearranging them, in order to make the creation turn out the right way. And no matter how good a builder -- and I believe Jesus is an expert! -- it still has to be done one block at a time, not all at once.
That's why our spiritual journey is a journey of many steps and many years. But we walk hand in hand with Jesus, and he knows where he is leading us. Our place is to follow him like Abraham did, and sooner or later we'll get to where he wants us. In the meantime we get to have some great adventures in learning to follow, and even when we make mistakes, none of them cuts us off from him. So let's keep going, one step and one building block at a time, shall we?
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