Walking in the Spirit,
Part 1
Easter 4
April 29, 1998
There are many images with which the Bible evokes the change that our Risen Lord makes in the lives of those who are His. St Paul’s writings, especially, are full of them. For example, from Colossians: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Or, from Romans: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Later in the same chapter, he writes: “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” In another place he writes, “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Speaking about himself as typical of all Christians, he says, “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” All of these expressions and more get at the fundamental Christian conviction that when we embrace Jesus in faith something in us is put to death, so that something new can come to life.
There are several descriptions of that old thing that dies. It is called the old man or the body of sin or simply sin; it is also called the flesh. In our series of Lenten sermons I called it the old, false self. All of these words point to a way of life that comes to an end when we become Christians—the way of life characterized by self-centeredness. I don’t mean by this that the old life which dies is necessarily mean and selfish. It can be and often is. By self-centered, I mean a mode of life that is lived out of one’s own center, for one’s own self, out of one’s own resources. It is a life centered around one’s own choices, one’s own convictions, one’s own preferences. We are familiar with this: it sounds like consumerism. Even at its best, this way of life is doomed to frustration, because the individual self cannot really be the source of its own life, it cannot function well as its own center or frame of reference. It was never meant to. And at its worst, self-centeredness leads to all of the evils and wounds of the world that we know only too well. There is no way of tinkering with this self that can heal it, though there are many therapies and self-help plans which treat a few symptoms. It simply has to die as a principle by which to live.
What takes its place, for the Christian, is Christ himself, made present by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Christian no longer lives for himself but for Christ, that is, his inner center has been relocated. His life revolves no longer around himself and his own concerns, it revolves around Jesus and His will. The Christian lives out of a new center, on the basis of a new life-principal: the indwelling Spirit. Paul expresses this admirably in Galatians: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” Or, as another translation put it: “If the Spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct its course.” More literally, it says: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” In this text is contained much of what I want to spend the rest of Eastertide talking with you about.
Belonging to Christ means that at the heart of ourselves, whence arise our passions and desires, the old self-centeredness has been killed with Christ on the Cross. He himself takes over in that center. He does it by means of the Holy Spirit who lives in and animates the lives of those who belong to Him. The Christian literally lives by the Spirit. Our principle of life is the indwelling Spirit, which means the same thing as to possess Jesus in the heart. But once we have died and risen with Jesus, that is, once the old self-centeredness has been put to death, and the Spirit-centeredness has come to life, we discover a remarkable thing. We ourselves are still alive, what is essentially us is more alive than before, renewed in the Spirit, focused on Jesus. We have found our new, that is, our true self. What is more, we have a new task, a new agenda for living: to cooperate with that indwelling Spirit, by which we become disciples of Jesus.
The Spirit who lives in us now makes Jesus’ own life real in us, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to live a Christ-like life. Part of our renewal in the Spirit is a renewal of the powers of our human nature. All of the old natural endowments of our souls are lifted to the level of the Spirit, and the abilities and energies we need to live for Christ are infused into our lives. These are the gifts that the Spirit gives to each of us. This giftedness is what makes for our common life and enables us all to live on the level of the Spirit, as those who have put on Christ.
Perhaps it has been a while since you reflected on exactly what has been given to you in Christ through the Spirit. If we don’t know what it is we have to work with, how will we ever become all we were meant to be? I hope to focus on all of those spiritual gifts which are the inheritance of each and every one of us through our Baptism, by which we are enabled to live the spiritual life. In the weeks ahead I want to think with you about the characteristic Christian virtues, those qualities of life that are supposed to be common to all believers. I want to look at the ordinary commandments of God and the ordinary Christian duty for which our spiritual endowment fits us. I want to look at the normal ways in which the world around us and the remnants of our old nature still tempt and test us. And finally, I want to look at the life of good works to which we are called in the Church. But today, as we begin, I want to look with you at what the Spirit has given us in our baptism that fits us for the life to which Christ has called us.
It would be very discouraging to try to live the Christian life, if we were not convinced that we have already been given everything we need to do it. We look at our Lord’s own life and we say, “Sure, he was able to live the life of perfect righteousness, after all he was not only human, and sinlessly human at that, but divine as well.” Of course, our best efforts will not procure for us a perfection like His, at least in this world. But Christ has generously endowed us with the same spiritual abilities that He himself possessed. This is the seven-fold gift of the Spirit.
The list comes from the prophet Isaiah, where he describes the Messiah, the shoot from the stump of Jesse. In order to be fit for the task of rescuing his people, the Messiah, the Anointed One, must be endowed with all the elements of divine power he will need. In your translations of Isaiah 11, you will find six gifts listed. The old Greek version of the Bible, and the Latin Vulgate based on it, listed seven, and that is where the Church picked up the idea of the seven-fold gift of the Spirit and used it ever since in her teaching. The gifts are these: Holy Fear, Godliness, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, and Spiritual Strength. Christ our Lord is fair with us—he fits us for the vocation to which he has called us. We are to share in his messianic vocation, to be his own people, his saints, ransomed for God from every tribe and language and people and nation; made to be a kingdom and priests serving our God. The Spirit gives us the inner dispositions of the soul by which we can live into our divine vocation. Each of us who has been baptized has these inner abilities or dispositions within us. For some, they are gifts which have hardly been utilized; for others, they are a regular part of daily life.
The first is Holy Fear. The Bible is full of references to the fear of God. Sometimes it refers to the panic of a person who realizes that he has offended God. Mostly it refers to the inner disposition of the righteous man who lives out of a deep reverence for God and the things of God. This reverence, or Holy Fear, is one of the Spirit’s gifts. By it we are enabled to appreciate God’s holiness. Through it we learn to abhor sin and anything which offends against God’s will. It underlies and makes possible a true love of God. It is the beginning of wisdom. Holy Fear is in short supply these days. We live in an irreverent world, often even in the Church. But where there is no real fear of God, no deep reverence for Him and his will, there is little of the spiritual life. Remember, this capacity for reverence is already implanted within you. You don’t have to acquire it, it is already there. You only need to let it come out to full expression.
Another gift is godliness, or piety, a devotion to God and his will which springs from reverence. This attitude is the basis for a way of life in which every act of daily life can be made into an act of worship, since every act springs from a devotion to God. By this gift we have a strong sense of our relatedness to God, of our duty to please Him, and a desire to order all of life towards his Glory.
The next four gifts go together and build on each other. They appear to be intellectual gifts, but they are as much the fruit of love as of thought—they are the fruit of meditation as much as of learning. These are spiritual endowments of every Christian. The first is wisdom. This is a spiritual taste for the things of God. It is a capacity to enjoy God, to find pleasure in his will and purposes and presence. It is not a matter of feeling so much as a deep spiritual intuition. The wise person senses where God is to be found and responds to him. Understanding is the gift of spiritual comprehension. It is an intuitive appreciation of the mysteries of the faith, an apprehension of the truth of the Gospel. Knowledge is the gift of seeing how the world is related to the things of God, how all of life fits into the plans and purposes of God. Finally, counsel is the gift of practical spiritual wisdom, an intuitive appreciation for how the will is to respond to God in present circumstances. This is insight into what makes for holiness, how our thoughts and words and deeds can be in accordance with the will of God. This is also a social gift, a kind of spiritual tact, for managing life in the Body of Christ.
Finally, there is Spiritual Strength. This is the power to live our lives in obedience to God. Knowing that we have the inner ability to please God and do his will is the basis for peace and joy. We know that we can trust in God’s power to work his will in and through us. On the basis of spiritual strength we can be sure of our ability to endure and persevere.
As I said, we all have these gifts in us already. No one here need fear that the Spiritual Life is beyond his or her capacities. God does not require anything for which he has not given us the resources. Not a single one of us here this morning is without these gifts of the Spirit. Some of us, to be sure, have not activated them much. They depend on maintaining an open relationship with God and we can de-activate them by serious sin. Repentance is called for in that case. Others of us may have struggled along to live the life of the Spirit and been frustrated because we have not learned to trust in this rich endowment of the Spirit who dwells within us. How do we learn to trust in them? We approach them indirectly. That is, they are activated in us as we seek God himself and place ourselves at his disposal. In other words, they come to life through our worship and prayer, meditation on Scripture, in silence and solitude. As we open ourselves to the Spirit in a willing and active passivity, these gifts will come to life. As we use them, they will grow stronger in us. As we apply them in an active life of practical charity their power in us develops. We also learn to depend on them as we persevere in struggling with the opposing spirit of the world, worldliness. The spirit of the world around us is deadening to these spiritual dispositions. As we seek to put Christ first and his will, loving our neighbor according to our Lord’s commands, we will be forced to rely on these capacities, and the Spirit will more and more bring them into full development.
We are called to be holy people, people whose lives are shaped by the working of the Holy Spirit within us. This is the process of our sanctification and all the endowments and capacities and abilities that we need to be holy have already been planted in us. So, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Let us pray. Almighty God, who sent your Holy Spirit to be the life and light of your Church; open our hearts to the riches of your grace, that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in love and joy and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.