Friday, August 29, 2008

defined by the flesh

I am not who I used to be, not because of what I do or what someone thinks about me, but because of what Jesus did 2000 years ago. I will not be defined by my flesh. I am not a physical being having a spiritual experience; I am a spiritual being having a physical experience. The cross will have its way in me and I'm resting in that. I am the righteousness of Christ. ~ Jamie Weeks

2 comments:

Tim said...

I may be over analyzing this, but aren't we still both? Spiritual and Physical? I do get what he's saying, but it seems like a dangerous dichotomy to say that "I am not a physical being having a spiritual experience; I'm a spiritual being having a physical experience" We are still physical and spiritual, we have to be both, otherwise we become little more than dualists...
just my thoughts...

ricki said...

Tim - good point. As with any method we choose to describe things we have to be careful not to tilt too far in another wrong direction.

I agree with you but what I liked about the quote is the concept of what really defines me. This built on some recent experiences I've been having. Some great people I know are wrestling with "performance" and "failures" and ... I think the key to their issue is that they fail to see who they are in Christ and to let that flow out into their everyday being.

We need to be careful not to take that to some Gnostic dualism but I would contend we cannot be who we are until we grasp who we are.

reftagger