THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION

MOST OF US DO NOT REALIZE JUST HOW DEEP THE PROBLEM GOES OR HOW INTIMATELY WE ARE CONNECTED TO THE ONGOING PROCESS OF CREATION, NOR OUR COMPLICITY IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE WORLD AROUND US.

At the fall of Man a radical, ontological change took place that bound, not only ourselves, but all of creation, to corruption and death. And to this very day, as it is written:

“the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.”

Through no fault of it's own, all of creation became subject to corruption and death for our sake and suffers along with us, waiting patiently for the manifestation of the sons of God when, along with ourselves, it will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into, “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

We are the key. We are the Crown of creation and, as such, are responsible not only for ourselves, but for the fate of all of creation.

Corruption and death has made it's way into the very fabric of all of creation and everything and everyone suffers from it at a fundamental level that is impossible to be addressed successfully in any superficial manner.

All of our attempts to ‘fix up' the world and make of it a better place to live are in vain unless we go all the way down to the very root of the problem - our initial fall away from and subsequent estrangement from God.

It is the Incarnation of God and His Saving Dispensation towards us that makes this possible, that makes us once again, the children of God, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…”

Heirs of the Kingdom of God and of all that that entails including being delivered, finally, from the bondage of corruption into a new world, a new life and a new kind of reality altogether.

Our expectations have been systematically lowered and, even when we imagine a better life, we tend to imagine something much more parochial and, ‘down to earth’ than what God actually has in mind for us and is offering us - a change of our life and our situation and of all creation - so radically different from what we have become familiar with, that we can scarcely even imagine it!

And, as I've mentioned before, the language of the Bible has sadly become a 'foreign language' that not many of us are conversant in anymore, but for those who are, or are willing to take the time and make the effort to decipher it, here are the relevant verses from the Apostle Paul's letter written to the Romans:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

(Romans 8:14-23)

All the very best to each and every one of you!