WE WERE BLIND BUT NOW WE SEE
Paul’s story is our (i.e. Authors) story. We were very religious for many years. We changed churches and denominations several times, but we were always religious. As we look back, we can now say with shame that we were very religious. We thought we were spiritual, but we were just plain religious.

While we would say that we were blinded to the reality of Christ as the fulfillment of The Law and the mediator of the New Covenant, we can also see upon review of our history that God was indeed goading us like he goaded Paul. We didn’t know a goad when we saw one then, but now we basically see them as doubt. Religious people will rarely confess doubt, but we are not religious anymore, so we will confess our doubts openly with the attitude that says we don’t understand God perfectly.

We wondered why the churches we knew were so weak and ineffective. We wondered why people did not appear to change and had no testimony except for the one when they say they were saved. We saw poor leadership in pastors and elder boards who caused great hurt for people in the church — especially pastors. We saw the needs of people in spiritual pain ignored for lack of faith that God might heal them. We saw all the same failings that most church-goers see in their churches. And we grieved for those who were stuck in church even though the church did nothing to educate them or minister to them except in the most superficial ways. And we were angry because that was the way it was and there was no sign that things would ever change.

That is basically how it progressed for us. While it may sound ungodly and insensitive, that is how we hope it will progress for our readers also because that, more or less, is what must happen. They must get disgusted with empty religion, cry out to God, get set free from religion and become New Covenant disciples. We might be wrong about this, but we don’t think any of that will happen, however, unless they understand the mysteries and symbols of the Bible.

Rigid, literal interpretations of the Bible will not lead anyone to deep spiritual truths. Literal interpretations lead people to a form of godliness that has no spiritual power. God is not as simple as a  few bullet points on a doctrinal statement or as a church service that is repeated week after week.. Anyone who represents that God can be reduced to a dozen or so doctrines and another dozen or so religious practices (i.e. baptism, confirmation, communion, Lord’s supper, regular mass or church, prayer, tithing, etc.) has a small and wrong view of a big God. These are all religious artifacts of Old/First Covenant religion. They are the physical efforts of people who are trying to act out in their flesh what should be spiritual realities. If the spiritual reality existed in them they would find no need to act it out in the flesh. They would know that God knows the condition of their hearts and they would not need or want to try to convince themselves or others about that condition by acting it out in some religious way.

But awareness of that flesh and spirit conflict will not come unless people understand the meaning of mysteries and symbols. These are the spirit side of the equation. The Biblical symbols are the physical, or natural representations of spiritual truths.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See this link for a discussion of the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle found in the Bible.

People who cannot get below or behind the natural facts to the spiritual truths that they represent, will be stuck in the natural (i.e. the flesh). Or, to make the same point in other words, they will not mature spiritually if they are content with the limitations of what can be seen, heard or touched with their natural, fleshly capabilities.

If we stop a moment to think about it, it makes sense that God, being a spiritual being, should be primarily concerned with spiritual things. Natural things of the world and flesh are a part of life, of course, but God is trying little by little to wean us off of the stuff of the world in favor of stuff of the Spirit.

It is a stark reality that we must die to the world of religion before we can become alive to the Spirit. Religious people know this truth, but they tend to think that the stuff of the world and flesh only includes things like money, sex, power, pride, and so on. They rarely consider that religion, all religion, is also deeply rooted in the world and flesh.

Because religion can be seen, touched and heard, it is of the world and the flesh. It is not of faith. No matter how it may be clothed with fine-sounding spiritual words and activities, religion is still only laws created by and managed by people — not God. And because this is true, religion must die in the hearts of religious people so that God can recreate them by writing his laws on their hearts.