Here are the characters of our story
The computer hardware ... keyboard, hard-drive, RAM ... represent your body, brain
The operating system represents our spirit
This is not a perfect analogy!! For ex, don’t have a good representation of our soul in this
This is NOT perfect. So you may disagree with some or a lot of it ... but just a way I was thinking of last week to describe our new identity ... after Marc’s illustration of the house, and talking to George after class
I knew that when we sinned, we died ... so I just assumed it meant that my spirit ... my operating system ... went out
But why do we struggle? This left me feeling confused ... not sure why I struggled, or dealt with temptations.
So as a teenager, I felt like it was more about something I didn’t do ... not dedicated enough, try harder ... did I say the right prayer? Perhaps I lost my salvation? ... maybe rededicate my life ... or rededicate my rededication from the previous week ... maybe I needed to serve as a missionary ... maybe I needed the baptism of the Spirit ... maybe I needed to speak in tongues ... all ME focused (which is funny, because ME focus is the HEART of SIN)
Because I had this model which said God “turned me back on” and thus I shouldn’t really struggle anymore!
A two-headed monster ... two operating systems ... one for Windows (sin) and one for Mac (God)
And you can’t run Mac software in Windows. So, I was always in conflict with each other.
NIV and a bad reading of Rom 7 made me think this was what happened in salvation
So to me, sin changed the operating system
Then salvation put a new operating system among the old one ... so I was this two-natured person ... and this explained why I struggled
Then one day I would die, and not only be rid of the body, but also this 2nd nature
This seemed to make sense, and it sure explained why I struggled.
But it didn’t match scripture ... which declared I was a new person, old things had passed away ... nor the multitude of scriptures which talk about flesh, body, members of my body ...
The problem seemed more about the hardware, than the software ... more about the hard-drive or RAM than the operating system (for a Christian)
(1st)So, first one seemed off because this idea of “death” didn’t seem to make sense
(2nd)The 2nd one didn’t fully explain my new identity in Christ
(3rd)Here is how I’ve been teaching the last weeks ... not only was our operating system changed, but the WHOLE COMPUTER was as well. We no longer had MAC OS, but Windows ... we also changed from a Mac body to a Dell body ... different hard drive, different RAM
This computer not only ran slow, but the keys would stick ... the hard drive made funny noises, the computer would run hot, the screen would quit working, it took forever to boot up, and most importantly ...
(4th)The BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (explain) ... not only was the whole computer not working, but the OS would crash a LOT ... this to me is what happened to mankind when he sinned ... his OS changed ... his hardware changed ... and he DOESN’T WORK ... his whole life is nothing but crash after crash after crash ... just when he thinks he has it figured out, BSOD
Here is the key in salvation (click)...what happened to us in Christ (click) ... we got a new OS!
Here is the miracle of salvation ... a MAC OS in a DELL computer!!
We ARE a new creature, the HS does reside in us.
But, we still live in the OLD computer.
Am I a two headed-monster? NO!
Am I a Windows computer? NO! If your turned off the power, you would THINK this was a Windows computer! But it isn’t!!! I just live in a Windows body, but I REALLY AM a MAC computer!! (e.g., Hackintosh)
Here is the rub ... the hardware still shows issues ... it still can grow hot, it still has a hard-drive/RAM that needs to be cleaned up from the old OS ... it has stuck keys (like letter J ... like our emotions) ... it has keys that are of NO use for the Mac!!!
But it is a NEW computer. This is a new creation! (Remind what new means) This isn’t just the latest Dell computer! This is something RADICALLY different!!!
Now, why does this computer “struggle” to be the MAC it REALLY is?! Because it lives in a Dell body ... that overheats, and whose hard-drive/RAM sometimes still thinks it is a Dell/Windows computer!
There are some files on the hard-drive, you would think means it is a Windows computer. But it isn’T!!!
This computer really is “saved” ... it has been released from its old OS ... but, it sure would be nice to get rid of this old hardware that doesn’t always seem to cooperate with the new OS (click)
This is the reason we need a resurrection ... a new body ...new hardware ... to finally (click) get back to the original design, the original blueprint ... and then our salvation has come full circle
(1st click) (2nd click)
He lives in a body that has been programmed for the “old” world ... a world of a Windows OS that crashes all the time, a world of stuck keys, overheating computers ...
If he isn’t careful, he might still think he is a Windows computer! That he is just an old Windows computer saved by grace. He isn’t!! He isn’t even a Windows computer ANY MORE!!! He is a MAC COMPUTER! Go to Walmart and buy a Windows game and try to run it ... it WON’T WORK!!!
And yes, sometimes frustratingly, he is a MAC computer in a computer body that wants to believe it is still a Windows computer. A body that still has stuck keys and overheats. And this can be frustrating! Because deep down, he knows he is a Mac, and he is meant to be so much more than stuck keys.
Now, there are some things we can do to this computer NOW! We can replace the hard-drive/RAM ... but many things are TOO HARD to replace ... because we really want to replace the whole hardware. So while I can replace the RAM (renew mind), I can’t replace the chassis (body). This is Resurrection (3rd click)
So we can renew our minds, and know of victory in Christ NOW. But often, it will come with great conflict against what our programming/emotions want. Our body doesn’t always work with us.
Not “Sin” made me do it ... for me, I prefer to think of sin as the disease of body, soul, spirit ... this independent self has
This isn’t our “nature”. It is the aftermath of training our body to attempt living the Lie.
“The Word says that Satan “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). What is “light” in the Word? Truth! He can come at you as “truth,” as “revelation,” as “insight into reality.” But how? It’s simple. He gives you a thought in your mind and disguises it to seem as if it is your thought. You say, “How could he do that?” By speaking to you with first-person singular pronouns (I, me, my, myself, etc.)!
When the power of sin speaks to your mind, it does not use the pronoun “you,” but the pronoun “I.” Instead of experiencing the communication, “Why don’t you go ahead and give her a piece of your mind!” it will be served up to your mind as, “Well! I have a good mind to tell her off! By George, I’m going to do it!” And you often wind up “doing the very thing you hate.” You grab the idea and convert it into action. You sin! Yes, you did the evil thing, but the genesis of it, the origin was the power of sin, not your mind. Let’s go to the diagram again to explain how this spiritual warfare transpires in you.
You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. Eph 2:1-3
“Satan has agents through which he works to accomplish his goals, including the world (system), the flesh, and (the power of) sin. Let’s place the flesh and sin in their biblical locations in our diagram. Employing our definition of “flesh” as “the old ways,” we will place these green highways in the brain. These are the memory traces, the habit patterns, the software in your computer. If you are deceived into staying locked in on this software, your brain will play the same program over and over.
This is what happens when we let sin (“me as center”) reign in our bodies. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 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. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Rom 6:12-14
I have drawn a full circle from the devil, who is in authority over the power of sin in the believer’s body, through the flesh in the brain, into the mind to: 1) deceive the believer, who then 2) chooses with his will to 3) set his mind on the deception, which 4) results in heightening the emotions, which 5) increases the pressure on the will, which 6) chooses to “do the very thing I hate.” This behavior then cycles back through Satan, and he thus keeps the believer under his domination. But remember: We do not have to act on these thoughts that are now foreign to us. We are no longer under sin’s control.
Are you a Windows computer? Or a Mac computer?
You can’t walk in any victory if you think you battle against yourself ... that you have two natures. If you have a “sin nature” then isn’t sin just “natural”?!
Think of Rom 6:1 “Should we continue to act like a Windows computer now that we are a Mac? By no means! How can we who died to the Windows OS go on living in it?”
Rom 6:13 “No longer present your computer hardware to sin as instruments of a Windows OS, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from a PC world to a Mac world, and present your hardware to God as parts of a Mac computer”