A Forked Process

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. – Galatians 5:16-18

As high and holy as the Law is, as perfect as it is as a revelation, the Spirit is higher and holier.  The Law is derived from the Spirit and not the other way around.  The Law is descriptive where the Spirit is creative.  A level does not lay a beam straight; it just lets you know when it is straight.  We are at liberty, not because we are lawbreakers, but because we embody the Law:  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

There are decisions we have to make, based on imperfect information.  We can pray as long and as hard as we like.  We may have peace about what we do, yet it may not work out as we expected.  These things happen because we live in a fallen world with fallen fellow travelers who sometimes make stupid choices.  On the other hand, I think I always know when I let the old man have his way.  It’s rare – so rare I can’t think of an example – where I genuinely thought my motive was purely spiritual, and it somehow violated God’s Law. 

I am generally skeptical when I or anyone says that he had no idea that operating out of the flesh would lead to a bad outcome.  Just as an example:  do you know how much trouble it is for two married people to commit adultery?  And it’s almost as tough for a single and a married person – at least if the married one doesn’t want to get caught.  It’s not like you can go out on the town or just meet indiscriminately.  You have to think about it, plan it, and work around roadblocks.  It's quite a lot of trouble.  I attribute my own record of fidelity at least as much to laziness as virtue.  So, when someone tells me that something “just happened”, I tend to think that person is fooling himself or herself and/or trying to fool me. 

We are or should be aware of the battle that goes on within us, the incessant warring of the flesh and spirit.  I do not ever remember that not being the case in my own life.  Sometimes it seems I have the situation under control, and sometimes I feel like the Bayonne Bleeder.  What round is this?  Perhaps for some who never heard or thoroughly rejected the Gospel a false peace may be possible -- so long as they stay on their side of a DMZ, which is probably why militant atheists are militant.  For the rest of us, only a surrender to the dominion of the Spirit offers us any hope for lasting tranquility and a satisfactory resolution to our internal conflict.  It doesn’t stop the old man from offering his opinions and telling us that we be fools for not letting him run things.  But the more we live under the Spirit and the more we listen to the voice of the new man, the more at home we become, for he is aligned with the Law, and things stay where we put them.