Humility and Sin: Learning to Live with Freedom

"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath now made me free from the law of sin, which once led me captive" - is neither the annihilation nor the sanctification of the flesh, but a continuous victory given by the Spirit as He mortifies the deeds of the body. As health expels disease, and light swallows up darkness, and life conquers death, the indwelling of Christ through the Spirit is the health and light and life of the soul.

It is not sin, but God's grace showing a man and ever reminding him what a sinner he was, that, will keep him truly humble. It is not sin, but grace, that will make me indeed know myself a sinner, and make the sinner's place of deepest self-abasement the place I never leave.

Being occupied with self, even amid the deepest self-abhorrence, can never free us from self. It is the revelation of God, not only by the law condemning sin but by His grace delivering from it, that will make us humble. The law may break the heart with fear; it is only grace that works that sweet humility which becomes a joy to the soul as its second nature.

Not to be occupied with thy sin, but to be occupied with God, brings deliverance from self. (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 8)

LEARNING FREEDOM

For most of my life I have been trying to learn how to live best in captivity.  How can I make this slavery as bearable as possible?  Weren't the Jews told to settle down in the cities of their exile?  I am also in exile in this world.  Perhaps it's best to just make the best of it.  Unfortunately, that is just my problem.

God has not removed the law of sin yet.  It is still alive and well in this life.  What he has done is supersede that law with another: the law of the Spirit of life.  The freedom I experience is not merely a future hope, otherwise no one could say they were set free, but only that they will be set free someday.  The freedom I experience is not an all-at-once sort of exchange, either.  If that were so, then I would be simply "freed" from the law of sin rather than being "hath now made. . . free" as Paul writes.

I suppose the best way to describe this freedom is that the chains are cut, but I am still like a freed slave in the South during the Civil War or like Pilgrims given leave to make a colony in the New World. The journey lies ahead of me even though freedom is mine.  I am free, but I must learn (and sometimes fight) to be free.

The Israelites' journey through the wilderness into the Promised Land gives a vivid picture of freedom.  At times they longed for their slavery back in Egypt.  Such longing buried them in the wilderness.  They may have been set free, but they never lived as free.  Perhaps my deliverance is a lot like theirs.  Maybe I am not so much doubting that the Red Sea of sin was split open for me and God fought for my soul against this "world with devils filled," but that I do not want to live in the freedom into which he has brought me.  I do not need someone telling me I have been set free so much as someone who will show me how to live free.

SIN FACES AWAY FROM GOD

The law of sin is the tendency to withdraw from the race, complain and die in the wilderness, make the "best" of this life.  The law of the Spirit of life is "continuous victory" over that temptation to "Curse God and die" or "Eat, drink, and be merry."  God does not remove the law of sin because it is merely the opposite of the law the Spirit of life.  They face opposite directions, one toward God, the other toward my self.

Murray points out that the law of the Spirit of life is evidenced by humility.  Humility is the right response to the law of the Spirit of life.  It performs two actions.  It denies the self.  When I live according to this law, I turn my back on living by the effort and power of my unaided, uncontrolled self.  Instead I embrace God through the Spirit.  I trust him.  I live for his aid and his control (which is not controlling).  The law of sin does the opposite.  Under that law, I deny God in how I live and trust my own resources to get me through.

Lord, I find myself so easily trying to manage my own sin and my own life.  Somehow I find I get so busy with trying to live my life without you, trying to make it all work.  The issue is not how good I am, but how good you are.   It is not about how bad I am, but about how you have loved me even in my badness.  Let me find the humility that empowers me to live with your grace.  Let me dispense with the false humility that drives me to despair.  Amen.

One of the best indicators of which law rules my life comes in the question, "What preoccupies my mind?