On the Frustration of Reading St. Paul
Exegesis is a very dangerous thing. It really should be left to the experts and the doctors in the law.
Romans 8: 8-11:
He is the grand master of totally twisty slippery convoluted rhetoric.
The Math seems to add up such that: If you have the Spirit of God in you, then you please God!
If you have the Spirit of God in you, even if you die, that Spirit is alive in you and you will be raised up from the dead, just like Jesus was raised up, by the same Lord and the same Spirit.
But then Paul can't just stop there, he just has to go on to say something like that those who do not have the Spirit of God do not belong to God. This end of the equation would seem to imply that those poor bastards are big time losers. Their lives are incapable of pleasing God, are incapable of righteousness, and every Mother's son of them are doomed to some big juicy death deader than dead!
Yes, there is a positive side to this passage. If the Spirit of God lives in you, then even the consequences of sin, which can harm you (and others), will not be victorious over you. God will overcome the consequences of sin and death in you and will raise you up just like Jesus, to a new and glorious life.
Rigorists will inexorably tend to remember that helpful little phrase, "By their fruits, ye shall know them." This will tend to move toward a living tradition of interpretation that suggests--however subtly--that those who keep and embrace the law and maintain moral, material, and doctrinal purity are those who harbor the Spirit of God in their breasts!
And I absolutely believe, God Save Me, that Paul certainly had those people, and that point of view, in mind when he wrote those lines and all those other lines just like it, that seem to flow from his pen like water gushing from a fire hydrant.
It is altogether possible, but I do not have the strength of character to really believe it, that Paul did not mean to include those rigorists only in his vision of God's Soverign Mercy!
It is completely possible that Paul means to announce the comfortable and good news that once God has come into your heart--however divided it may still be--nothing, absolutely nothing can ever finally wrest it from him, snatch you away from the love of his embrace, separate you from his sovereign will to heal and save.
If that is what Paul means to say in this passage, then he could be a bit more straightforward about it.
We are supposed to read/hear this passage and be assured of God's concern for us, of our future life and happiness with God! However much I want to find that assurance here, I find a nagging subtext that says, Yeah, but only for the deserving, only for the good. Not for you!
Is it better to think that Paul is a PUTZ, or that the number of God's elect does not include you!
Neither is really acceptable. But I've always thought Paul was a shithead, even though I've also loved him.
And I hope to God, that God's mercy is bigger than my littleness, wider than my fear!
I hope that your Lent is happier than mine!
Romans 8: 8-11:
Brothers and sisters:I find St. Paul absolutely infuriating!
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ
does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you,
the One who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit dwelling in you.
He is the grand master of totally twisty slippery convoluted rhetoric.
The Math seems to add up such that: If you have the Spirit of God in you, then you please God!
If you have the Spirit of God in you, even if you die, that Spirit is alive in you and you will be raised up from the dead, just like Jesus was raised up, by the same Lord and the same Spirit.
But then Paul can't just stop there, he just has to go on to say something like that those who do not have the Spirit of God do not belong to God. This end of the equation would seem to imply that those poor bastards are big time losers. Their lives are incapable of pleasing God, are incapable of righteousness, and every Mother's son of them are doomed to some big juicy death deader than dead!
Yes, there is a positive side to this passage. If the Spirit of God lives in you, then even the consequences of sin, which can harm you (and others), will not be victorious over you. God will overcome the consequences of sin and death in you and will raise you up just like Jesus, to a new and glorious life.
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.And how do we know what that is! How do we know what that feels like? What is it that we can look to, to recognize the Spirit of God dwelling in us?
Rigorists will inexorably tend to remember that helpful little phrase, "By their fruits, ye shall know them." This will tend to move toward a living tradition of interpretation that suggests--however subtly--that those who keep and embrace the law and maintain moral, material, and doctrinal purity are those who harbor the Spirit of God in their breasts!
And I absolutely believe, God Save Me, that Paul certainly had those people, and that point of view, in mind when he wrote those lines and all those other lines just like it, that seem to flow from his pen like water gushing from a fire hydrant.
It is altogether possible, but I do not have the strength of character to really believe it, that Paul did not mean to include those rigorists only in his vision of God's Soverign Mercy!
It is completely possible that Paul means to announce the comfortable and good news that once God has come into your heart--however divided it may still be--nothing, absolutely nothing can ever finally wrest it from him, snatch you away from the love of his embrace, separate you from his sovereign will to heal and save.
If that is what Paul means to say in this passage, then he could be a bit more straightforward about it.
We are supposed to read/hear this passage and be assured of God's concern for us, of our future life and happiness with God! However much I want to find that assurance here, I find a nagging subtext that says, Yeah, but only for the deserving, only for the good. Not for you!
Is it better to think that Paul is a PUTZ, or that the number of God's elect does not include you!
Neither is really acceptable. But I've always thought Paul was a shithead, even though I've also loved him.
And I hope to God, that God's mercy is bigger than my littleness, wider than my fear!
I hope that your Lent is happier than mine!
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