The trapdoor...

If God is crucified flesh for Paul then everything is a disguise: weakness is really strength, wisdom is really foolishness, death is really life, religion is often slavery and sin itself is actually for Paul the trapdoor, that's my word, the trapdoor into salvation.

We looked for an omnipotent God and we lost faith when God appeared to be weak and not in control.

So the truth in paradoxical language lies neither in the affirmation nor in the denial of either side, but precisely in the tug of war between the two. Now hold on to that...


The human and the divine co-existing at the same time is real religion. This creates honest people. People who don't waste time proving they're right, superior, or saved.

They spend time on a journey falling deeper into the mystery of God where they feel safe enough, secure enough, and loved enough to admit such things.

That is how one gets into the mystery of freedom, and why this notion of freedom is so scary.

Richard Rohr, from Great Themes of Paul


[God] said to [Paul], My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 Corinthians 12.9-10 NIV)


Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned - for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5.12-21 NIV)


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

(Romans 8.1-4 NIV)

I have deliberately used the NIV translation here, where the Greek word "sarx" is translated "sinful man" or "sinful nature" according to context, which brings out the meaning of the writing. Strong's G4561, σάρξ "... 4) the flesh, denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God." Otherwise, translating "sarx" simply as "flesh" tends to a Gnostic-style dichotomy of flesh=bad, spirit=good.

But of course Paul also says, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Romans 6.1-2)

I was so struck by this, since of course it is the hidden power-source of one of my own key verses from Paul, Romans 8.28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

If I look back over my own rather tattered life, I can see so clearly that the real progress, if that's the right word in the context, the beginnings of actually following Christ, came not despite my own weakness and fallibility, but because of them. Praise be to Christ!