PASTOR'S CORNER

It sure is beautiful outside. The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, and the birds and bees are singing and humming. It's quite relaxing when you think about it. Too bad I have to avoid it like the plague. Literally. I must wear a mask every time I go outside right now. I have allergies. Some years they are not so bad, and some years they are horrible. This is one of the horrible years.

Why? Why should my body react to tree, grass, and weed pollen like some kind of horrific disease that must be resisted at all costs? Why must I love all things green and growing when they hate me so much and work so hard to kill me? It' s like my body is wired to reject the good and pleasant things, and instead craves the oppression of the mask and indoor air filters! This is, admittedly, a pretty silly issue in the grant scheme of things, but it reminds me of something more serious the Paul expressed in Romans, where he desires to do "good" and avoid "evil" but still fights temptation, or the inability to perfectly live up to the purity of Jesus:

"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me." (7:15, 19-20)

Not exactly Paul's most eloquent line! Here we see Paul express a continuing puzzle for the faithful. Those who desire to follow Jesus Christ also claim the desire to do good and avoid evil. In fact, if we trust that Jesus is truly Lord, we must embrace what He embraced, and reject what He rejected. Yet still we struggle with sin and temptation. It's like our bodies are wired to reject what is good and beautiful, and is drawn to the artificial, unsustainable, or harmful!

When we truly repent of our sins (that is, to have a change of mind about sin) and agree it is wrong and to be avoided, and if cry out to Jesus for forgiveness, we are, by God's grace, granted just that. Our status changes. Before we were almost "allergic" to good, although we still experienced some. In Christ, we become allergic to sin, despite still experiencing some of it. We still live in a sinful world, within a corrupt mortal body. As he later says, "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (7:25) Jesus has come to separate us from our sins, so that they may no longer separate us from Him! By His goodness, we are not condemned for the sins we now reject! This does not mean sin is acceptable, or that we are permitted to choose evil. Repentance is a dramatic change. If I now claim sin (by God's definition of sin) is wrong, how can I go on choosing to harm myself and others? It means God is patience and merciful as I learn to live in goodness and love.

Thank God for His mercy, that He is patient as we learn a new way to live! We may be dead to sin, but sin is not yet dead in this world. So, we continue to be exposed to sin and its effects on us. Yet, as we reject that same sin, and seek Christ, the Spirit of God works in us, cleansing and transforming us so that each day, we really do become more like Him. One day this awkward "in between stage" will be left behind, and we will truly and completely be free of all sin and sinful effects!

Let us set our hearts on godliness, on things of the Spirit, in the Spirit of God, and not resign ourselves to the presence of sinfulness or evil in our lives, which is passing away. Seek God. Seek Christlikeness, and we will know forgiveness and transformation.

Pastor Evan Elwell

Pomeroy Church of the Nazarene