A New Default Setting

“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.” Romans 8

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 alter? In their effort to explain this phenomenon, technology experts toss around the phrase “default setting” as though they think I understand! “The computer (or all new works of technology) is just returning to its default setting,” they say with feigned patience.

So what do these terms mean? A basic definition goes something like this: Default settings are controls of a computer or software as preset by its manufacturer. Some types of default settings may be altered or customized by the user.

A spiritual application comes to mind.

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 I think and act as though I must live according to those old settings, forgetting that because of the redeeming death and resurrection of Christ, and through the power of God’s Spirit I can walk as a new person.

We are not machines but children of God who loves us unreservedly and gives us all we need to walk in newness of life with Him.

Question: How can keeping the analogy of the “default setting” help us to direct our daily actions?

by Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission

When God created us, he declared us good! His perfect default setting.

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