It should have taken Israel 11 days to go from Egypt to Canaan. It took 40 years. Even then most of them didn’t make it in. It should have taken me a few years at most to understand what it has taken nearly 40 years to understand. Good thing God is patient.
When I first heard the gospel I didn’t believe it. I was raised an atheist and even the concept of God, let alone the details of Christ’s coming to save a lost world, seemed not only distant and irrelevant, but to be honest, it sounded like religious fantasy. However, God repeatedly pounded the gospel against my brain from a variety of angles, eventually things began to make sense. I believed and received what believing brings – forgiveness of sins and the indwelling life of Christ.
The pieces of the puzzle came together. At first everything was foreign and unreal. Then it became interesting but still unclear. Eventually knowing the truth of the gospel became a survival issue. My life as an atheist wasn’t working so well and the promise of a Savior sounded increasingly appealing.
A similar process has happened with regard to living the life I entered 38 years ago. The puzzle was complex and the pieces never seemed to fit, but when my desire to understand how this life is to be lived moved beyond the pursuit of a curious theological concept to an issue of personal spiritual survival, the pieces started to fall in place. Had I been more receptive and less self-centered I believe lights would have flashed a lot sooner than they did. If they had, if I’d been more open than I was, I could have saved myself and many other people (including my family) a lot of pain. But I believe that as long as we are still alive, hope is an ever present reality. “Seek and you will find” is absolutely true as long as the seeking is somewhat desperate and we’re open to the possibility that what we find will be our undoing.
To understand what God is after we have to start at the end and work backward. For example, we have a huge advantage over the Old Testament saints in understanding the purpose of the Law because we’re looking back with 20/20 hindsight. We see the Law fulfilled in Christ. In Him it all makes sense. For the Old Testament believers everything was “partial” not full (Hebrews 1:1). They got glimpses but until Christ came, they couldn’t see the totality of God’s plan (John 1:14-17; Hebrews 1:1-2).
The same is true regarding the Christian life. If we try to understand this life simply by reading or hearing information about it our understanding will at best be limited. This was the experience of the disciples prior to the resurrection. They listened to the Lord’s teaching, but what He taught never fully registered until the Spirit came and “led them into all truth” (John 16:13). As Paul said, the early disciples knew Christ “after the flesh” in His humanity, but now that He is resurrected they, “no longer know Him in this way” (2 Corinthians 5:16). The veil has been lifted by the coming of the Holy Spirit and we are able to see Christ in glory – in fullness (2 Corinthians 3:6-18). We now know exactly what God had in mind for the Christian life, because we see that life expressed in the Son of Man. Christ is the Christian life – “for me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21) but more on that in a minute.
In 1 Corinthians 15 we see Paul’s breakdown of God’s original plan in creation. Humanity is divided into two categories: “In Adam” and “In Christ”. Adam represents the head of a fallen race. “In Adam all die . . . the first man is of the earth” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 47). Christ as the second Man represents the first born of a new race(literally, species) of humanity (Romans 8:28). In Him all shall be made alive; “The second Man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:22b, 47b). As Jesus said, “You are from beneath, I am from above. . . Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again” – i.e “born from above” (John 8:23, 3:7).
Two humanities: one from beneath (in Adam) and one from above (in Christ). When we come to Christ we are removed from the Adamic race (the “old man”), and joined to Christ, the “new man” (Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 3:1-4, 9, 10; Ephesians 2:15). There are two races or species of humanity on this planet. All those in Adam make up the fallen race and all those in Christ comprise the new humanity created in His image. Jesus Himself is the “first born” of this new race which draws it’s life, character, purpose, image and destiny from Him (Romans 8:29-31). Though we still retain the flesh (the hold-over in our “members” of the fallen race, Romans 7:23) we are now a completely new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We would not have known Who Christ was had God not directly intervened in our lives and by spiritual revelation shown Him to us (Matthew 11:27). The same is true of who we are in Christ as part of His new humanity. The empirical implications of this come only by spiritual revelation. If it’s just information to us we will not experience its reality, we will only know ‘about it’ in our minds. Once we see by revelation who we are in Christ we can enter empirically into that reality just as we entered into salvation upon seeing by revelation Christ as Savior. All things spiritual are supernatural, they are miracles, whether in the new birth or in living by the Spirit in the Christian life (cp. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14).
Christ Himself has entered our spirit and has given to us His own life. He didn’t come only that we would be forgiven but also that we would have life (and that abundantly) – which presupposes that we did not have life until He gave His life to us (John 17:20-23). “He that has the Son has life, he that does not have the Son does not have life . . . “ (1 John 5:12). Again, it’s wonderfully simple. There are two humanities. One has life, one does not. One is destined for the Second Death (eternal separation from the life of God) and the other already has eternal life within them in the Person of the One Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).
God’s original intent in the creation of Man was to indwell this newly created humanity and become within them the Source of His own image. Christ, as the second Man, fulfilled this role perfectly. He was the exact image of the indwelling, invisible Father within Him (Hebrews 1:3). The Father literally “communicated” Himself in His Son; “. . . the Word (communication) of God became flesh and we beheld . . .” (Hebrews 1:2; John 1:1; 14). This is why Jesus could make statements like, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9) and “He that believes on Me, believes not on Me but on the One Who sent Me” (John 12:44). To see the Son living in complete dependence on His Father was to see the Father living in and through the Son, “The Son can do nothing out from Himself” (John 5:19). From the miracle of His birth to the miracle of His resurrection, the Son of God was dependent upon His Father for all things. His life was explained not by His own power, but by the power of the Father in Him. Jesus was a Man “approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and sighs, which GOD DID through Him . . . “(Acts 2:22).
“As the Father sent Me, so now send I you” (John 20:21). We are to be to Jesus what He was to His Father – completely dependent on Him for all things so that He can live His life through us as the Father lived His life through the Son. “For we who live are always being delivered unto death (abandonment of the self-life) for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest through our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). 'Glory’ is the outward expression of the presence of Christ within us. “For me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).
This is the Christian life. Christ living His life in and through us. This is why the “yoke is easy and the burden is light” (Matthew 11:30) and why only those “who have ceased from their own works have entered the rest” (Hebrews 4:10). Only Christ can reproduce His own life. It’s His responsibility, not ours. It’s His life, not ours (“It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me. . .”).
We need also to consider for a moment the incredible power of failure. Complete personal failure is absolutely indispensible in moving us from Law to Grace; from self-reliance to dependence on Christ. Whether we go all the way back to Abraham, Jacob, and David or jump ahead a few millennia to Peter’s three denials it’s always the same. Until we know in personal experience that we have nothing to contribute to this life but failure, we will never wholly trust in Christ. As along as we think we can help God in living this life we will produce only Ishmaels. God did not need our help in saving us and He doesn’t need our help in living the life He’s brought us into. “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of Laws or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3).
Faith doesn’t begin until we end; and we won’t ‘end’ until we are convinced in the deepest part of our soul that only Christ can live the Christian life. Fortunately, that is exactly what He has promised to do! He never asked us or expected us to live for Him – His appeal to us has always been that we would trust Him to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. When they asked Him “What shall we do that we might work the works of God”, He responded, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him Whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29). Ours is meant to be a walk of faith. “The just shall LIVE by faith” (Romans 1:17; Habakkuk 2:4; Galatians 3:11). If you have any doubt as to whether we are to live by faith as over against sharing the load with God, take some time to read through Hebrews 11 and notice how the Spirit cites miracle after miracle to purposefully and emphatically declare our utter helplessness and God’s complete sufficiency. How can we think we can live HIS life?! We can mimic that life and in so doing give the world a picture of noble commitment to the teachings of Jesus (i.e. WWJD), but live His life? Impossible!
There is no other way to salvation than through faith in Christ; there is no other way to live the life we’ve entered than by faith in Christ. We had nothing to do with the first; we have nothing to do with the second. We begin by faith; we walk by faith. “For it is God Who works in you BOTH TO WILL AND TO DO of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Once these things began to register in me, one question that came to mind was: If Christ is to live His life in me and my part is simply to trust Him to do so, then why all the commandments in the Bible addressed to His people?
The commandments in the Old Testament are “a ministry of condemnation” (2 Corinthians 3:9), a burden Peter says that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear (Acts 15:10). The Law simply exposes sin, “. . . by the Law is the knowledge of sin”, (Romans 3:2). It exposes sin and condemns it, but gives no help in overcoming sin. But the “Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the Law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2) so that “. . . the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk . . . after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). Again, our only hope of righteousness is “not by power, nor by might, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6). It’s always been by faith in Him, not faith in us. How could we “rest” if it were up to us?
The commandments are simply instructions to the newly born Christian on how to move forward in the will of God. Though we are born again, we are born as babies and it will take us a lifetime to mature. We learn, we trust, we move by His direction in His power. That’s all we can do. The commandments were not addressed to the flesh but to the seed of Christ in us; “. . . he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Our old man, the flesh, cannot please God(Romans 8:8). But the new creation (which we are) is indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit to express the life of its Creator. The commandments are simply a child’s schooling in understanding and expressing the nature of its Source of life. It is in this new man that we are “made partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This seed is that which is born from above and cannot sin (1 John 3:9), but it is young and lacks maturity of understanding. We are little children before we are young men before we are fathers (1 John 2:12-14). We are to grow in grace and knowledge unto a perfect (mature) man. The Christian life flows and develops perfectly under God’s hand and guidance until that which He has begun is completed. The new man in maturity is “Christ formed in us” (Galatians 4:19).
The breaking of the outer man (the flesh) through failure, suffering and pressure is not meant to harm us but to release the inner man – to bring that which we are in Christ to ascendency over the world, the flesh and the devil. It is child training (Hebrews 12:5-11) and is designed to bring us into the freedom of righteousness, away from the slavery of sin. Just as Paul was given a thorn in the flesh and Jacob was touched in his thigh, pressure keeps us in that position of helplessness and dependence on God that allows Him to sustain us in grace and spiritual ascendency above those things which would pull us away from a walk of faith. Every step Jacob took reminded him of his weakness and great need for God. Prolonged suffering can be a preventative to the resurgence of the flesh – a protection against losing our spiritual momentum through pride or sin. God’s strength is actually perfected in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-12), “. . . when I am weak, then am I strong”. When the outer man is weakened the inner man is strengthened (see also 2 Corinthians 4:16).
As mentioned earlier, faith can’t begin until we end. God must bring us to the end of our selves, not in theory but in real personal experience so our dependence on Christ also becomes more than mere theory. When our dependence on the Lord becomes complete our confidence in ourselves is nil. He is the only One Who knows what it will take to get us to that position before Him – the place where we can honestly say, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me. . . I live by faith” in Him. I can do nothing out from myself. Complete renunciation of the self-life brings complete faith in God, which allows God access to us so He can “do of His good pleasure” without restriction or controversy on our part.
One of the incredible benefits of realizing our helplessness through weakness is freedom from self-condemnation and guilt. As one author put it, “Nothing marks so decidedly the solid progress of a soul, as that it is enabled to view its own depravity without being disturbed or discouraged . . . peacefully reaping the profit of our humiliation . . . when we have no sense of our need, we have no curative principle within; it is a state of blindness, presumption and insensibility . . . we must not be discouraged by our weakness.” As I’m sure you’ve noticed in the Bible, those who saw God did not have their self-esteem boosted: “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6) “Woe is me, I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips . . . (Isaiah 6:5), “In me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing” (Romans 7:18). This is not a problem for those who know they have been crucified with Christ and are now new creations in Him. They will become what they have not been – like Christ. It will take a lifetime of learning and walking in complete dependence upon Him for everything; resting in Him to work within us to do all His will.
The glory of this life is that it is His life. If we want we can learn of Him and trust Him for living just as we learned and then trusted upon hearing the gospel. “As you have, therefore, received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. . .” (Colossians 2:6). “Faithful is He that called you, Who will also do it!” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
Some people will let Him “do it”; others are determined to help. Some have entered into rest (having ceased from their own works) others through unbelief have not. It always ultimately comes down to who we trust, who we depend on, both for salvation as well as for living post-salvation. He has given us His life, His Spirit, His victory. Why would we choose less than simply taking Him up on His offer? It may take us a great deal of time, experimentation and personal failure to learn all we need to know to walk fully in Him,
But when we end,
faith begins
and the adventure starts!
No comments:
Post a Comment