Life in the Spirit
The flesh is weak, vulnerable.
We don’t like being weak and vulnerable. So life according to the flesh is reactive. We recoil from pain. We retaliate to protect ourselves.
The Spirit resists the reactiveness of the flesh. As can be seen in the Spirit-filled Jesus, the Spirit revels in vulnerability. It neither recoils nor retaliates; the Spirit returns good for evil, and loves persecutors.
Life in the Spirit is more vulnerable than life according to flesh. Life in the Spirit is more fleshly than life according to flesh.
Flesh is creaturely weakness and limitation. Spirit enables flesh to come into its own. Spirit makes us joyful in creaturely limitation; in the Spirit we embrace vulnerability.
The Spirit makes us at home in our flesh.
The Spirit makes us truly human.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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