Felix Culpa

John 1:14-18 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’”) Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side —he has revealed him."

The Latin expression felix culpa derives from the writings of St. Augustine regarding the Fall of Man, the source of original sin: “For God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist.”

If you are like I am, then you know the struggle very well to be the love our faith teaches us and not be the sin our flesh demands.  We all have those little (or big) things that we do (or want to do) and thoughts that grieve the Holy Spirit.  The struggle is very real and though we have definitely been changed through the grace of Jesus Christ, we are still human and experience the battle of the flesh vs. the Spirit.  Sin and the urge to sin doesn’t entirely go away.

If we automatically were transformed and never struggled with sin again, then we wouldn’t need Him anymore.  He wants us to come to Him when we are struggling, to repent, and to feel His grace cover us.  I am in no way saying that it is OK to sin and to glorify those behaviors, thoughts, or urges.  I am simply saying that we are still imperfect humans with the Holy Spirit living inside of us.  Since we surrendered to Christ, we now have Wisdom through the Holy Spirit and through Scripture that shows us when we are wrong and why we are wrong.  Our hearts have been changed and our eyes have been open with new understanding.  We also know that we should not glorify any behaviors, thoughts, or urges that grieve the Holy Spirit.  Even though we may still struggle and even fall at times, there is something beautiful in knowing that we are forgiven and that Christ took our punishment for us- so in the end, Christ still has the victory over evil!

In Romans, Paul expresses the conflict of sin within the believer.  Romans 6 states,

"Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives."(Romans 6:1-4)

His victory over evil is our victory over evil.  His victory over all evil is beautiful.  One of my favorite bands Kings Kaleidoscope stated it like this:

And still I’m a wicked, wretched man, I do everything I hate

I am fighting to be god, I seethe and claw and thrash and shake

I have killed and stacked the dead, on a throne from which I reign

In the end I just want blood, and with his blood my hands are stained

See the God who reigns on high, he has opened his own veins

From his wounds a rushing torrent that can wash it all away

Grace upon grace, upon grace upon grace