Spiritual Schizophrenia...And Its Cure

All Christians have experienced what we can call "spiritual schizophrenia" on a regular basis. We find in ourselves two voices, two natures; one the old, selfish way of living that the Bible calls "old nature" or "the flesh," and the other that longs to please God and live in a manner that pleases Him, what the Bible calls the "new nature." These two natures fight and war with one another on a daily basis, and we struggle and strive to live by this new nature rather than the old. And this struggle never seems to end, does it? We long more than anything else to "get it right," learning to finally live by this new nature and live a life pleasing to Him after all He's done for us. And if we can't do this...well, He won't be pleased with us, and our relationship with Him will suffer, we're told. And after years of this struggle and pressure to please God...well, I just get tired. Don't you? I can't seem to even remember all the things God asks me to do, much less do them. Once I feel I am getting a handle on my materialism, for instance, my pride seems to be a problem. I try really, really hard to be more humble (can you really try to be humble? Seems like an oxymoron, but I digress...), but as soon as I improve there, I realize I need to be more patient with my kids. So I work on that...only to find I am not sharing my faith like I should. And on and on it goes. If you are a follower of Jesus, I'm sure you can relate. In fact, the apostle Paul did so himself; this very struggle is the topic of Romans 7. As Paul writes in a parallel passage in Galatians 5, "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want" (Gal. 5:17). Over the centuries, this frustration and struggle produced by these two warring natures has been experienced by all followers of Jesus.

But as Paul says in the very next verse in Galatians, "if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law." Could it be that in Christ, God makes no demands on His children whatsoever, and we are hence "free from law"? Could it be that all of our striving and struggling, in light of this new "law of the Spirit of life" ushered in by Christ's work, is all in vain? Paul goes on in this passge to describe for us the "fruit of the Spirit" that can only be produced by "walking in the spirit": love, joy, peace, self control, to name but a few. These attributes and fruits of a "holy life" are exactly that: attributes and fruits, none of which can be produced by our efforts, struggle, or striving. Just as a tree cannot "try" to produce fruit, neither can we.

Further, these attributes become meaningless and vain if they are sought in themselves as ethical ideals or to meet an obligation to God; any righteousness produced by our striving (and there indeed can be some!) is in fact "righteousness by law" rather than "the righteousness of Christ by faith" (Phil. 3:9) that God really desires for His children. Hence, these true fruits of the Spirit can only be descriptions of what real life looks like, and by definition are not prescriptions for how we get life. In fact...might the entire New Testament , and all the ethical "commands" of Jesus and Paul be descriptive of life in God rather than prescriptive commands? Come to think of it, maybe His grace really is all we need! And as long as we continue to misunderstand His grace and fail to recognize that we are already righteous in Christ, mistakingly thinking that God still has demands and expectations of us...we'll continue our ceaseless efforts to “earn” God’s favor and gain points on our scorecard with a God who's no longer keeping score. As Paul writes, "it is [only] God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Phil 2:13)." At the moment we try to get on that treadmill of "getting it right", it becomes a self-righteous effort to accomplish what Christ already accomplished for us at the Cross; at best, this results in a righteousness far from the righteousness that Christ has in mind for us.

So what, then, does such effortless, yet fruitful Christian living look like? How is achieved? Simply asking the question demonstrates our ingrained religious thinking, as we again seek a five point sermon, flowchart, or “cookie-cutter” formula that will release us to Spirit-led living. Just as our forefathers under the law, we would much rather run to a formula, prescription, method, or a human mediator instead of seeking God for ourselves. No man can teach another how to personally know and experience God under the New Covenant (Heb. 8:12), but we are promised that He will freely reveal Himself to anyone who is willing to truly seek Him (Jn 7:17, Heb. 11:6) And as we experience and learn to live in this unconditional, agenda-less Love of the Father, we will increasingly find that through no effort of our own, the fruit of a holy life begins to be produced. This transformation cannot be found through religion, rule keeping, or principles, but only through a personal encounter with Love in the depths of our being. Truly, such a glimpse of His glory with the eyes of faith will make us like Him (1 John 3:2) in a way that religion cannot. Oh, that we would learn to enter that rest that is found in God Himself, and find Him transforming us in the innermost parts through that encounter! May God guide us in this quest, and tangibly demonstrate to us that His grace is truly enough!