(Romans 8) “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus … Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have minds set on what the Spirit desires … You are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.”
Even as I depend on my computer for the activities of daily life, I am also frequently frustrated when my assumptions about what it can or will do prove to be in error. Why do margins or indentations change? How can information I thought I had inserted into a document suddenly change?
In their effort to explain this phenomenon, technology experts toss around the phrase ‘default setting’ all the time. They say with feigned patience, “The computer (or all new works of technology) is just returning to its default setting,”
So, what are ‘default settings’? A basic definition goes something like this: Default settings are controls of a computer or software as pre-set by its manufacturer. Some types of default settings may be altered or customized by the user.
A spiritual application comes to mind here …
When God created us, He declared us good! His perfect default setting.
But then man and woman changed that setting by choosing to set themselves in opposition to God … they sinned. Ever since that point in time, a new ‘setting’ has been a part of our nature: “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and “sin enter the world through one man, and death through sin … because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
But God in His infinite wisdom and love chooses to make possible a new default setting: Christ comes to not just change a few incidentals in our lives, but to make us new creations. He installs totally new controls – the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Too often we think and act as though we must live according to those old settings, forgetting that because of the redeeming life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and through the power of God’s Spirit, we can live and operate as a completely new person.
We are not machines – we are children of a God Who loves us unreservedly and gives us all we need to walk in newness of life with Him.