A comma between hope and future reality (P1)
We have always known, believers or not, that faith has the power to move mountains. Even a little is enough, a mustard seed.
People make this idea so much their own that they end up believing they can move objects, achieve anything with their mind or with the power of words, and so they go outside every rule, above all outside the biblical concept. To put it simply: out of their minds.
Here is an example:
Apart from the irony I wanted to draw from the film Ricomincio da Tre starring Massimo Troisi, I want to start from a concept that is very clear for those who already know the verses quoted below, and a bit convoluted for those reading it for the first time, because I understand that the apostle Paul's way of explaining can come across as convoluted. For a broader and extremely beautiful picture, you could start by reading chapter 5 of the letter to the Romans, where the apostle speaks of justification by faith with a clear idea of the beginning of sin and of Grace, but I leave it to your curiosity to go and read it.
I want to focus on chapter 7 of this letter to the Romans, reading together verses 7 to 25, in a concept which, as I said, is confusing and intricate to say the least, but which has the power to draw the reader into wanting to understand its meaning:
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law; for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said: "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetousness; for without the law sin is dead. Once I was alive without the law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life and I died; and the commandment, which should have given me life, turned out to condemn me to death. For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did what is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! It is sin that became death to me, so that it might be revealed as sin, bringing about my death through what is good; so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold as a slave to sin. For what I do, I do not understand: for I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good; then it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, no good thing dwells; for the will is present in me, but the way to do good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, that I do. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. So I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin.
Letter to the Romans 7:7-25
I know you are thinking that you did not understand a thing, but that is exactly the challenge: to go deeper in the reading to grasp what Paul feels when he describes his resignation to sin, but also the awareness of what he does in Christ.
In these verses Paul recognizes his sin. What does his sin consist of? It consists in being born a sinner, now aware of living in a sinful world, where the flesh was born in sin and where his mind is free from an earthly concept, that is, sinning like everyone else.
If we think of a drug addict, a thief, a murderer, we would see sin in them, people who chose to sin willingly, and we would be ready to judge them as such. On the other side of the judgment there is us, perfect beings, others humble in recognizing themselves as sinners, but, I would add, not fully aware of being sinners. Many of us believe we are perfect, yet we know that perfection does not come from us, but we hide behind the good rules that deep down we believe we keep, because we think the rules start from the 10 commandments. So, being respectful toward our parents, not stealing, not blaspheming, our sin is, according to our mental logic, cancelled. The other group instead admits to being sinners, as if to justify themselves, but stays forever in sin because, they say, it is life that forces them to be so. These people do not accept or choose a personal change for their life.
So I go back to Paul's argument, which states that a world without law is a world without sin. So if there were no commandment to honor your father and mother, whatever attitude we had toward our parents would be justified. Since there is a law, a commandment in the biblical sense of the word, we know we must treat our parents well, otherwise we sin by failing the law. The result is: once the law is made, sin is found. In this Paul recognizes that covetousness was sin because the law declares that coveting is sin. Paul also realizes that he cannot be the righteous one in the middle of sin, because in spite of himself he would end up sinning. This does not mean that Paul sins, but in a life made of so many rules, laws and commandments, sin is the order of the day.
If we think we do not break the laws currently in force, I can say with certainty that we break them every day. Only the night, made of sleep, probably keeps us from breaking them.
Ok, we are not drug addicts, thieves, murderers, we do things by the book, we pay our taxes, we do our good deeds every day, but then in the car we curse at that pedestrian, we constantly go over the speed limit because they would like to make us drive at 20 km/h, but our car can handle that stretch at 80 km/h because it is stable, with good brakes, with good handling. There you go, these are simple examples of sin. There is a law that sets a limit, you go over it, you are in violation of the LAW of the highway code. Breaking a law is sin, and in this case it is punishable with a fine.
We may not be drug addicts, but we are still sinners, of something else, but sinners. Biblically there is another commandment we know very well, and it is to love one another. The moral is that we are no better than others, whether they are extremely dangerous or "righteous" like us.
Hoping that Paul's concept is a little clearer now, we understand that the apostle is wrestling with the human factors and with the life he would like to strive to live spiritually, while aware that vulnerability comes from his mind, which he must protect. He refers to his mind because it is his clarity about his life's goal that makes him aware of the path, of the mistake and of the salvation that moves him forward in hope.
Going back briefly to chapter 5 of the same letter to the Romans, between verse 1 and verse 8, we read:
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained {, by faith,} access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God; and not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces patience, and patience, experience, and experience, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still without strength, Christ, at the right time, died for the ungodly. One will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good person someone would dare to die; but God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Letter to the Romans 5:1-8
What is clear? That through Jesus Christ we have peace with God, but this peace is also something that grows in our life.
I hope this article was interesting and that it can make you question your life.
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Thank you! Read the second part (you can find this article among the other reflections in the archive).
