Facing Jesus and Reality

Last week I wrote about spiritual reality:  that we have already been given "every spiritual blessing in Christ," and that we can learn to live in those blessings every day, by perceiving and focusing on that reality.  In this pattern of life, when God speaks to us, we actually hear his will for us and are ready to respond. 

The Triune God said "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us" (Gen. 1:26), and we were created as relational people, so God could have a mutual relationship of love with us.  We are, at the core, spiritual beings (1 Thess. 5:23) so having a spiritual connection with God should be a natural part of life.  The Holy Spirit, who is our guide and helper (John 14:16-17) has come to help us perceive and live within that.

Some think that, if they "get more of the Holy Spirit" then they will achieve mastery over life, sort of like a Jedi in Star Wars.  But that's emphasizing our self-will, when in fact, it is God who gives us both the idea of pleasing him and the strength to follow, Phil. 2:13.  Our life with God is a matter of becoming quiet before God and surrendering our will to his; placing ourselves before God, deliberately, day by day, through practical, useable tools of spiritual development.

These tools are not mysterious matters that can only be practiced by monks in a cave somewhere in France.  They are exercises any of us can do, nearly anytime or anywhere, to experience a deeper Christian life:  "And this is the secret: Christ lives in you" (Col. 1:27).  Human life gets chaotic and broken because we neglect this spiritual journey we are on with Jesus.  Wholeness, the repair of our thinking and our emotions, can only take place as we surrender our self-will in the only truly safe place there is:  the arms and heart of the Father, as we are brought there, in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit's guidance.

We're going to continue exploring, slowly and one little piece at a time, what that spiritual journey is like.  This is not something any of us achieves in a short time, dear reader, so as we journey together with Jesus, let's allow him to lead us one step at a a time, being patient with the process and with ourselves.  I believe we will both find spiritual riches as we go.

Grace and Our Reponse

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of grace.  I can join with John Newton who said, at the end of his life, "I know only two things:  I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior!"  If life has taught me one thing, it's that my own performance is sadly lacking, and I am in constant need of God's grace. Even when I do something good -- or avoid doing something sinful -- my motives are still not 100% pure.  So if my acceptance with God is by performance, and I want to show him my hard work and obedience, then his answer is going to be, "Sure, but what about all the other times?"  But if my standing with God is by his grace, then his grace covers all my sins (as well as my utter lack of perfection in my works).  And the perfect life of Jesus, the only perfect human, provides full righteousness for me in place of my brokenness.

That's why Paul, the apostle of grace, preached the wonders of grace, in spite of being fully trained in law-keeping in his Jewish upbringing and being obedient to all the details of the law.  He tells us in Galatians 2, "We know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law."  

Then in verse 20, he says "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  How can we do that along with Paul?  First of all, by trusting completely in Christ to be our salvation, not trusting our own efforts.  Next, by paying attention to what it means to be "in Christ" -- focusing on letting Jesus Christ do in us what he tells us is important.

With "Christ living in me," I'm responding to God's grace in Jesus Christ, to who he is and who I am now as his new creation.  Here are some examples:  generosity, the complete opposite of stealing; respecting another person, rather than lusting or following that lust into sexual sin; speaking graciously and generously rather than gossiping or lying; forgiving, rather than being angry over our hurts; and being content, rather than being jealous of what others have.  These are all modeled for us in the life of Christ, and repeated in the rest of the New Testament.

So, our response to God's grace is to focus on the person, the actions and words of Jesus Christ himself.  Being filled with Christ motivates us to surrender our own human will and be filled with him instead, saying yes to the voice of the Holy Spirit and doing good instead of following evil.  It all starts with a person -- Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God become flesh for us -- and it continues in us as we learn to be filled with him instead of with ourselves.  May we all learn to focus on him and overflow with his grace.