Freedom of the Life-Giving Spirit

"And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death." Romans 8:2 NLT

So lately I've been using the New Living Translation for my daily reading. It's amazing how something as simple as a different translation can make the same verse you've read many times completely new again. This verse popped up as the Verse of the Day on my bible app. Usually I skip right over that and go straight to my reading plan, but for the last few days I've paused to read it before carrying on. Gotta love how the Spirit moves.

We all know this phenomenon bible scholars have dubbed The Trinity - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The first two, The Father & Son, we hear about a lot. We have a relationship with them. But what about the Spirit? We know he exists and counsels us...for me he's that voice (or gut) that prompts us to do (or avoid) something. We give God the glory when we listen to that voice and things work out amazingly. We feel guilt when we ignore that voice and things don't go the way we were hoping. But have we actually stopped to consider the true roll the Spirit plays in our life?

That verse really struck me this morning. I've been a disciple of Christ for almost half my life and have read that scripture innumerable times but today the idea of the Spirit being life-giving and that he really does free us from the power of sin really his me in that: 1) sin is real and has a very real power over us and 2) the Holy Spirit has an all-surpassing power over that sin - but only when we let it.

The analogy that just popped into my head is that of a high performance car, let's say a Ferrari or Lamborghini. God giving us the Spirit is like our new Father-in-law giving us that car on our wedding day. It's SO COOL, but up until then we've only ever driven and automatic beater, like a hand-me-down Tempo. Or maybe it was a bit spunkier, like a souped up Civic. Either way it has nothing on this amazing six gear race car!

 So you start out this new life in your new car. You learn to drive stick and are doing pretty good. You're getting a feel for the car and when to shift gears. You've learned that there is more to life than coasting along in "D". Life is good. You've even made use of those higher gears 4th and 5th. But something just doesn't seem right. You know that while, for the most part, you're cruising around with no issues except maybe the occasional stall (which happens when you try to go from a dead stop in 3rd gear - trust me, I know. but that's another story lol), that you're missing something. Dad is excited for you and wants to hear about how things are going with this amazing gift. Things are going well but, honestly, aren't much different than before. How do you think he feels knowing that his present hasn't made that much of an impact on your life? You look around and see his other kids putting around. Some are pretty much where you are, but others are excelling. And then you look in the history books and see the AMAZING things his children have done in the past and think why am I not like them?

Which brings us back to the verse in question, Romans 8:2. I propose that the reason we are not like them is because we are not using the gift God gave us, the Spirit, to it's fullest power. We need to learn how to get that car into 6th gear. We need to learn to harness that power to really, truly defeat the power of sin in our lives. The Spirit is a gift that has the potential to free us completely from sin. I say potential because this is something that is up to us to USE. Yes, our sins have been forgiven. But that doesn't mean that sin doesn't still have a power over us, that Satan doesn't have a foothold somewhere. Maybe not like before. If we are driving around in 3rd gear, great. But we are only using half the potential that is there! Are we really relying on the Spirit? Trusting the direction he's giving? Asking him for help? Believing that we really can be in the Spirit and that sin will be left at the side of the road until we decide to get out of the car and pick it up?

I've had an epiphany of sorts today. I've only been using two thirds of what's been given. It's time for me to get out of 4th and work my way up through 5th to that elusive 6th gear in the Spirit - and leave sin eating my dust.