The Cross, with the shed blood, procured our freedom; whereas, Pentecost activated our freedom after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. The Spirit of our ascended High Priest was made available to humanity to free us from slavery to our impulses. We can now be carriers of His rest. The Holy Spirit contains all of the essentials for overcoming the law of sin.[1] It enables us to be a habitation for God’s agape love which is the fruit of the Spirit, with its elements of peace and strength to deal with our sin nature. This love can’t be in us if we are attached to the things of the world by lust.[2]
Without the resurrection and ascension, there would be no Spirit of Jesus Christ to inhabit us and to be the conduit for God’s love to flow into us. A dead Christ wouldn’t do us any good. Christ became a life-giving Spirit.[3] He revives us in this life as well as in the next. We are told that “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”.[4] This starts while we are still alive on this earth.
What does this newness of life look like for us? Because of the law of sin, we are all born with a weakened willpower. This is what makes us prone to doing the things that we don’t want to do, and to not do the things that we should. [5] The old life is a life of slavery to the law of sin within us which saps our strength and ensures that we don’t have the strength or willpower to overcome our proneness to excesses. The fruit of the Spirit lifts us to a place of peace and strength to overcome the law of sin. Without the Holy Spirit, this is not possible. It is important for us to understand that our own willpower, without the Spirit, is not sufficient; therefore, we yield to the Spirit in order for its fruit to be activated in our lives.
Unconditional trust in God is what moves us from self-reliance to reliance on God. When we realize that our own strength is insufficient, we need to stop trying to use it for overcoming excesses, and humble ourselves before God because this is how we receive the graces of God. We are required to cast all of our care on Him;[6] then we are able to make choices from a position of strength. God does not reject a humble and contrite heart.[7] The principle is simple: A humble and contrite heart is required; and then we can proceed with our other religious activities.
The man Christ Jesus, our High Priest intercessor and mediator, is meek and humble towards His Father.[8] Because of this humility, Jesus can tell us to come unto Him and He will give us the rest that He has from His own humility. He shares His rest with us when we have His Spirit within us. This is the same rest that is called the peace that passes all understanding.[9] It is also the fruit of the Spirit peace.[10]
Because peace is from God, it is a settled peace, and not a fleeting peace that comes and goes depending upon our own understanding or thoughts.[11] This is why we are told to trust in the LORD with all of our hearts, and to not lean on our own understanding.”[12] There is no settled peace without unconditional trust in God even when we ponder thoughts of peace. They are our own thoughts. Isaiah 55:6-9 tells us to “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We can never have God’s peace when we lean solely on our own thoughts because they do not contain the peace and strength to transform us.
The graces from the Father flow into us through Christ when He is within us. His humble humanity enables this. Also, our righteousness by faith comes to us through Him. When Christ’s Spirit is within us, He shares with us His own righteousness by His faith in the Father. We can’t have it in any other way because Abraham and Jesus are the only ones who received this righteousness directly from the Father.[13] We get it through our faith in Christ which brings us His Spirit that contains His faith in the Father and its righteousness. He can then share them with us through His Spirit within us.
Righteousness and peace are now inseparable. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”[14]
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[1] Cf. Galatians 5:16-26
[2] Cf. 1John 2:15-17; 1Peter 1:4; 2Peter 2:19
[3] Cf. 1Corinthians 15:45
[4] Romans 6:4
[5] Cf. Romans 7:14-8:2
[6] Cf. 1Peter 5:5-7; Philippians 4:6-7; James 4:4-10
[7] Cf. Psalms 34:18; 51:17-19; Isaiah 57:15
[8] Cf. Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:24-25; 10:19-23
[9] Cf. Philippians 4:6-7
[10] Cf. Galatians 5:22-23
[11] Cf. 1Corinthians 1:8; Psalms 55:22
[12] Cf. Proverbs 3:5
[13] Cf. Galatians 3:16
[14] Psalms 85:10.
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