Tuesday, March 1st, 2022

There is a show on Netflix starring Jerry Seinfeld called “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” whose premise is exactly as the title states. It is a pretty good show! In one episode I watched recently, Jerry drove a unique car whose windshield could fold down, allowing the driver to feel the rush of wind, unabated, as he drove. To this, Jerry remarked, “This is different! This is vivifying!...99% of human activity, we want to feel alive. We want feel alive, but we feel dead.” As is his claim to fame, Jerry was not wrong in his observation. But what is that 1% that we feel most alive? It is when we live on the edge.

When we live on the edge, experiencing danger or doing things our hearts tell us are wrong, we feel a rush and that rush, while fleeting, keeps us coming back for more. Such is the gratification of sin. It reminds me of the time in my younger days when I tandem parachuted from a plane – the adrenaline rush was intense! But was doing this sinful? Of course not. What is sinful was believing that this was what “really living” was! Using it to replace or falsely re-create the joy that Jesus bestows is buying into Satan’s counterfeit way of living. He is the father of lies, and he offers a cheaper, easier, and fleeting way to feel the things God has promised us – but never abide in them.

To go further, why do we mistake these adrenaline rushes as what “really living” is? And why do we feel the need to pursue them? It stems from the fact that our souls and bodies are separate and distinct. Paul made clear in Romans that when we accept Jesus as our savior, we are born again with a new spirit, but that spirit will always be in struggle with the sinful urges of our body while we live within it. Before we are born again, we have the sinful spirit and sinful body we were born with. When living in such a manner, ignorant to the joy and life we can have when born again, we pursue such fleeting moments of “living” because everything else – the 99% Jerry spoke about – reflects the fact that we are dead in sin and the 1% merely masks it. When we give ourselves to Christ, and receive the gift of a new spirit, we live with a new, ever-present, and ever-flowing source of joy. There is nothing that Satan can offer that can compare to that. Today, if you’ve been living in a way where only cheap adrenaline rushes, substances, or dances with danger make you feel “alive,” allow Jesus into your life, accept him as your savior, and you will have life in the most abundant way.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives lifebecause of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because ofhis Spirit who lives in you.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” – Romans 8:1-13

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6