During the Avengers movie, Bruce Banner revealed the secret on how he was able to manage his anger. It was right on the spot!!!
When Tony Stark and the Avengers were trying to provoke him, he wasn’t changing to the Hulk. Loki’s main weapon was to leverage Bruce Banner to anger so he could destroy the Avengers and the SHIELD Headquarters.
It was in the last part when Bruce revealed how he was able to manage his anger. And what he said reveals a lot about how the law and how we cannot change apart from the gospel.
Bruce Banner said before turning to the Green Monster , “You want to know my secret to controlling it? I’m always angry.“!!@@!!”
Romans 7:5 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
Bruce was controlling his anger by trying to be civil. He never dealt with the issue of anger, he was just delaying the inevitable. That is what sin does. Once we live our life in view of the law, our sinful passions are aroused. Strong words coming from the Apostle Paul.
It means the way for me to overcome anger is not through some anger management techniques. Anger management just means I control it on on my own. That the solution is found in me. I manage my problems. The question is how can you solve your problem if you are the problem. You need a greater power to help you overcome sin and the only solution given in Scripture is Jesus.
Romans 7:6 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
The Hulk was not solving his problem. He was just managing it. The problem with managing it is that once we face a trigger to our sin, or if nobody is looking then we go back to our sinful ways. Jesus died for our sin – and because of his death and resurrection we have been released from the power of the law. We can now move in His grace to transform us to Christ likeness.
