The Spirit and Salvation

I had 3 goals this morning: Go for a Run, Get Dressed and Read Romans.

I've started one, will do another and have completely given up on the idea of having my nose frostbitten while I watch thick clouds of my breath being released into the winter air.

After reading a collection of articles in the New York Times, and feeling redeemed as a conscientious participant in the global community, I climbed into my window with a cup of Costa Rican coffee and opened up to Romans 6, where I had left off the following afternoon.

Flashback to September 29: sitting in front of the class, defending my research on Romans 6:2–4, I vehemently opposed my professor, insisting that there was no rite of baptism in the passage, only a recognition of the Spirit. I insisted that one is able to know that the Spirit is alive and active in one's life, even if, in the moment, a person feels "unspiritual" or "unsanctified." We can look back at our lives and testify to the work of God within us.

And so, reading through Romans 6, 7 and 8, I keep reflecting on the Spirit as Paul talks about it almost as much as I have lately.
Rom 7:6 "So that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."
Rom 8:2 "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."
Rom 8:9a "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you."

And so it so clear that Paul has a high pneumatology, seeing the Spirit as that which brings us new life. That which brings us hope.

I think that's a fairly uncontroversial point.

Rom 8:9b "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of God does not belong to him."
Rom 8:14 "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."
Rom 8:16 "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."

How are we assured of our salvation? Paul does not say that you reflect on the day you said "the sinner's prayer" or the day you were baptized or confirmed in the Church. Paul does not say that there is any particularly physical moment in which you know you are Christian. Paul says you know you are Christian by the action of the Spirit. If you don't have the Spirit, you aren't a Christian. If you are not led by the Spirit, you are not a son of God. If the Spirit isn't proclaiming your sonship along with your spirit, you are not a child of God.

Rom 6:2–4, I still contend, is not about a rite. There is no water in this passage. For there to be water, Paul would need SOMEWHERE to say that we know we are saved by a particular memory.

He doesn't.

And maybe all of this comes out of my recent Kierkegaardian obsession with the incompetence of the physical church and the limited nature of "true" Christianity. Maybe it all comes out of my recent attack on the need for assurance and our self-centered reading of soteriology.

Or maybe I'm on to something.

Here's my big point: On the days I am unconfident in my faith, in those times where I feel God is distant from me, I should not look back to the day when I was 8 years old and laid on my bed talking to God for the first time (although it is a sweet moment). When I feel distant from God, I instead need to go back to those moments in which I am sure God was real. Those moments where I knew that God was leading me or comforting me or assuring me. I go back to those moments, and desperately ask God to assure me again.  Because salvation is not about my doing. Its about God's action and participation in my life.

And with that extended sidetrack, I'll go back to my window, gaze out at a city still sleeping, and hope that at some point, I actually get dressed.