Abiding and Moving Out

This time of year many offices downtown are getting an overhaul. Old employees are being replaced with new ones (much to the chagrin of some of my friends who worked for the old administration). Carpets are getting ripped up and replaced, furniture is getting moved and Obama is changing the curtains in the White House. Now on the one hand I’m incensed at what seems to be a frivolous and costly aesthetic overall at tax payer expense. It all started with Andrew Jackson. He was eager to erase the Federalist-elitist stench away from the John Quincy Adams White House. But that’s a history lesson for another day…

As Obama was being sworn in Tuesday the cameras panned over the White House and showed moving vans parked outside. Movers were efficiently removing Bush’s furniture and bringing Obama’s in. I was impressed by the ease of this transition. I’m sure that when the Obamas came home all of their furniture neatly placed around the Presidents’ living quarters and young interns were at their beck and call to move anything that was out of place. (Although apparently the staff was out to lunch when Dick Cheney decided to move some boxes on his own, only to end up wheelchair-bound) What kind of message would it send to the American people if Obama left everything the same in the White House? What if he did move into the Oval Office without changing the curtains? Maybe it would send the message that he’s the first fiscally responsible president in a long time; from a practical standpoint I’d be impressed. But even today our nation’s morale hinges a lot less on practicality and a lot more on pomp and circumstance, metaphor and symbolism. If we’re looking to the President to usher in change he can’t keep the White House looking the same. When Bush moves his stuff out, Obama has to move his stuff in.

I submit to you the following verses and you’ll see where I’m going with this:

First, heed the words of Romans 6: 10-14 – “For the death that He died He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace.”

-- Grace is the new administration. It’s time for a change. Just some more Scriptural backup:

Romans 8:10 “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Romans 13:12-14 – “Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light…But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

2 Cor. 5:21 – “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

So here’s what I’m getting from this. Under sin our old nature was governed by lusts, temporal pleasures and all those things that the Bible is telling us to cast off. Why? Because we have a new nature! But even as someone who has been a follower of Christ for a long time, it’s still easy to live according to that old, carnal nature. And when that happens I'm living according to a nature that is actually not in me anymore! God has imputed a new spirit onto me. God has changed the administration. Why then do I often live according to those things that govern the carnal mind?

Perhaps if we’re not daily replacing the old stuff with new stuff we’re not going to have an effective transition. Maybe we have a new president, but if he didn’t replace the Bush cabinet with an Obama cabinet how far would that promised “change” go? Or if Obama just emptied out Bush’s cabinet and didn’t replace them at all then we’d just have Obama – and the new puppy - in the executive department. Great. But here’s the thing - if we’re going to make a complete transition of our hearts then we need to fill our minds and our hours with new things - things that are godly. We need to fill our minds with the words of Scripture and our time with service and spiritual disciplines.

Essentially, Christ needs to abide in us, all day, every day. “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire (read: godliness) and it shall be done for you. By me the My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples.” –John 15: 7-8