Trained In Judgement

I had a “problem” with Romans 5 for a while! It was one of those passages you put in the “mystery box”, hoping to understand it some day, because it just didn’t make sense. It bothered me because, it clearly shows that the work of Christ is greater than the fall of Adam, but that would mean that everyone goes to heaven and that can’t be, so into the “mystery box” it goes! Then, a friend of ours came back from America for a visit and we always try hooking up with him, so he can share some stories and experiences with us. Anyway, we got to chatting and he was going in the Romans 5 direction and everything in me jumped with a “Yes! I knew it”, but my mind was reeling and all the scriptures of hell and judgement came to mind… and therein lies my problem, I’ve been trained in judgement…

When we hear somebody say, “Everybody is saved” or “Everybody is Born-Again”, the first thing we think about, or at least I did, is the implication it has on heaven or hell! We immediately switch to “oooh, scary, that’s universalism!”, because we’ve been taught that the gospel is about “populating heaven and plundering hell”. Our evangelism is scare tactics to make people think about where they’re going to spend eternity and “if you had to meet God today!”. We teach people that they have to receive Jesus if they want to be saved, when the gospel is that Jesus has received them! He has taken away our sin, all of ours and all of it, while we were unable to believe, repent, live holy or reach out to others! That’s what Romans 5 is about, it’s about our inclusion in the life of Christ, how this life is given to everybody, they either believe it or they don’t! We think we’re reaching out to people when Jesus has already reached them, through His incarnation, His life, death and resurrection! So, what’s the message? “You’re forgiven, You’re reconciled, You’re included, You’re home, believe!” He did it all by Himself, thank you very much! (Let’s all stand and give Him a hand). By the way, the faith isn’t even ours! “Faith comes…”

This might be old news to you, but I’m in constant ecstasy about this truth! He planned it all along… to adopt us in Christ!

He didn’t just save from sin, He saved us into Himself, into His life with the Father! This is so liberating, so fresh…. this is the best news ever and in the words of John Crowder, “I’m only sniffing the cork”

Personality

I have been teaching at our youth services recently, about our union with God through Christ. This post was inspired during my last message, so big ups to Ground Zero Youth, who continue to draw out the treasures in us!

This is the big idea: We limit our experience and knowledge of God to our Adamic nature! We still think of ourselves according to Adam and not according to Christ. We think in terms of limitation and not in terms of fullness.

We say stuff like “some people are like this” and “some people are like that”, which is true to an extent, but this is ultimately based on our  (adamic) humanity and not in the work of Christ! Yes, everybody is different and with absolute good reason, but the effect and application of the work of Christ is the same! WE have been given a new nature, we are new creations and that is why it is important to have the gospel rewrite everything we think we know about ourselves! WE are like HIM, but our expressions of Him will differ.

I guess the point I’m struggling to make is that, we should allow the gospel to work it’s way through us and not limit our experience and knowledge of God to our personality or our natural understanding! WE should embrace His work completely and it’s repercussions what ever it might mean, so that our humanity can rightly display His divinity!

Jesus is the How and Where, the truth about God and the truth about Man and He is the Life that vitalizes our Humanity!

Possessed

In yet another conversation I had recently, my friend Thinus made a great comment, simply saying, “God wants to live through us!”. Wow, the thought that He is part of all my endeavors, not just the ones deemed spiritual, is overwhelming. He supercharges everything I do with His life. I think we can miss it sometimes, because it’s unseen and it doesn’t move to the rushed measured rhythms of performance. Couple this to the previous post about “embracing our humanity” and you have an explosive idea in need of expression.

He wants to live through me…. My mind, my expressions, my gifting, my body infused with His person! Delicious, absolutely delicious!

Our slave mentality wants to respond, “what can we do?”. We want to do great exploits for the Lord, but has it ever occurred to us that we ARE His great exploit! We ARE His workmanship in Christ… who DO good works!

My prayer is that we would allow God to enjoy us and to enjoy His enjoyment of us! We are fearfully and wonderfully made!