YES TO CHRIST
12/01/21 15:15
People who love life are unwittingly fans of Jesus Christ. Karl Baath wrote, “Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is Himself the way.” We may consider this the ‘way’ of life to the full. ** When Paul spoke of Christ our life he was not referring to anything religious. He meant the vicarious humanity of Jesus for us all in every possible way. Thus, Jesus is not only our eternal life. He is our present life. Grace is incarnation. It is His life as ours.
The fact is that life is a Person: Jesus Christ.
ROUTINE MEDIOCRITY
Some people do not know themselves because they are entirely a construct of what they do. Possessing a church routine of one’s own has some value but is not necessarily a relationship with God. It may take us some maturity to come to this realisation, but it’s something we must mature into if we are to come to know ourselves, know God and know life in increasing fullness. If eternal life is to know God, present life is to know His Son. ‘Knowing’ in this sense is oneness with God – something we do not have to work at but something to which we can agree.
‘Things we do’ may count as some kind of a relationship with God but this can be a beggars relationship – a contract we are doing to earn God. The truth, is many of the churched have no relationship with God. But what they do have is a relationship with church. We can have a relationship with religion that mostly smothers the relationship we could be having with God. You have access to union with God. Live in it.
God is not somewhere else. God is in you and with you.
JESUS
Life simply is – and it is so with God. The human face of God is Jesus Christ. Life is defined by nothing outside itself. It comes from relationship, which means from the trinity. Jesus is not a Just a person among many. He is defined by Himself – who is life and the life of all. You can have all of Him by saying ‘yes’ to His invitation. He speaks to all in countless ways – through the Spirit of Life.
COMING ALIVE
Jesus is often working harder at drawing us into a life-giving relationship with Him than we are ourselves. God is Relationship. We are talking the trinity who so enjoyed their lives together that they chose to share it with beings like themselves – the sons and daughters of God.
The trinity are similarity in difference, which explains much about us. It’s the template for marriage, family and the community of the saints. This indicates that we need a personal relationship with God as Family if we are to do any good at relating to ourselves and others. Legalism and religion suffocate genuine relationship abandoning us to formulae and superficial notions that are external to our hearts and spirits. Oneness with God which is ours already, is the key to oneness with us.
Jesus has achieved this: ‘I in them and you in me--so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me’ John 17.23 NIV.
RELATIONSHIP
Once I would have thought I had a decent relationship with God. Following my marriage collapse in my late thirties, I was prompted to re-examine my relationship with myself and with God. I had spent most of my life as a champion of the church. But when the bottom dropped out of my world, I realised that I did not know Jesus personally. What I had known was a version of Christianity and a law-based one at that. God cannot be known as God is through the law. Nor can He be known as He is through the more subtle issues of the knowledge of good and evil. He is known as He is through His Son, who is also the Door to our knowing the trinity and our being interwoven into their being. He is not far away. Jesus is you.
Godliness is union with God. Live in your inheritance.
NEVER DULL AND NEVER STAGNANT
You can have a cheerful and adventurous life with Jesus. He is both whole and holy, yet not some pious git like some who take His name. He is more human than many who live from the masks of religion and He enjoys your company. By skilful enterprise the trinity have graced us into their fellowship and through Jesus provided a new and living way of knowing God and being who we really are.
ROBBERS
‘All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them’ JOHN 10.8 NIV. All who come instead of Jesus Himself are thieves and robbers. You will never be your true self in Adam, in Moses, in the law or in religion. You can manufacture a false self, a kind of paper mache likeness from your achievements both religious and secular. But this is not the real you and cannot be the real you until this you is dead and the real you is Jesus. The real you is the new creation you flourishing in your new covenant oneness with God.
NEW CREATION LIFE
As a result of the cross and the outpouring of Holy Spirit the Fall has been undone. The influence of Adam has been set at naught and Christ has become your life. God has not given us a new system of morals and ethics to live from. By the Spirit He has come in our flesh to be who we are designed to be and who we want to be in our heart of hearts. If there is a key text that expresses genuine relationship with God it is this one: ‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV.
A STATE OF BEING
You have been woven into God. Father has been woven into our being through Jesus and Holy Spirit. You are already one with God. He does want you to be holy and to be whole and because of this He has received you into His life and the life of the trinity. You belong. Your task is to live from where God has placed you – in Himself. This is the key to overcoming degrading habits and foolish courses of action. You are actually a son of God twice over. You were created a son/daughter in the beginning. You were redeemed and certified as a daughter or son by the cross, resurrection and indwelling Holy Spirit. Holiness is not nearly so dull and contrived as at first appears. It happens because Jesus is our life and He is expressing Himself as us.
THE WITNESS
Having said this there are people who may not know Jesus by name or realise that their love of life is Him in them witnessing to Himself, to their individuality and their joy of living. One day they will see Him face to face. They will laugh and say, ‘I suspected it.’ Jesus will say, ‘I know you did.’
Life is not contained in stances, poses, positions or religion. Nothing can contain real life. God is simply it. You are in life when in fellowship with God – interwoven in the trinity.
Being interwoven into God has nothing to do with institutionalism or religion. It has everything to do to saying ‘yes’ to life which is saying ‘yes’ to Jesus Christ, even if we do not know Him by name. The fact is He knows you. He shares His being with all who love life and people. Love is God and comes from God.
** Life to the full is important. To have some life is not really living. Jesus offers life without limit. It’s who He is and what He represents. There are philosophies and distorted gospels – ‘other gospels Paul calls them that offer half-life’s and meagre life’s in the name of God. Jesus represents healing – not disease, which is what you have in non-gospels and fields of tares.