The attacks come form the external sources after grace ,,,, spiritual warfare is under way 24-7 I wanted to share what I might help, we live one very asnine culture ,, we are laden in experimental drugs called Ritalin for decades >/ the results are largely nasty... the public believe their kids need be mind controlled so we venue in the world of timothy Leary you pay , they play l... both ways ...
Now we seek to legalize drugs. amazing.... than what ,,,we say do not look nearly naked at the beaches now that's ok, but if you look that is wrong,,, the target is now males God made us who we are , despite the up side down culture can't figure what part is for what, still trying change everything so we moved the lysergic theories to the dress downs cross overs, dress uppers, now the neutering of males identity as being illegal, do not be bold, wow,,,,how messed up it is , mill that will be now we have new things to deal with tv computers, ipads etc etc anything goes so it;s easy ,,,,and radio can be real bad to now wow, the magic or words ,,, so the fall is under way , I added this hope to be able see through the maze a bit for those asking how to stay free, and move by faith hardly religion largely big business , some good faith ere there, , interesting operatives be hide the scene.... lots of money and philosophy , how about real connection real faith you ask,,,?
I love radio, that loaded with bad jokes now , to bad, used to love the old deep historical stuff barley find it now.
That we have art or music list goes on be wise know, walk away form the twisted stuff, it comes so fast so easy , greed and dope greed is huge ,,, like dope... people kill for it , the more you get to know Christ the further we can get away from it all , but we also get attacked new ways.... as so as we move one way the other side slithers in another way , get used the move ,, keep the focus going on Christ ...
The Christian, by the receipt of the Spirit of Christ in faith, is thereby volitionally free to choose to receive and derive character from either God or Satan in the midst of his behavior. In this sense the Christian is the only one who is really volitionally free to choose the receptive derivation of character in his behavior, since the unregenerate are "slaves of sin" (Jn. 8:34,35; Rom. 6:6,17).
We can be temped almost any time ... or tested .... spirit war fare is all day long focus on Christ the rage comes the more you walk by faith more fierce is the Opposition, to do so religion will attack faith their not the same , religion is man talking, faith is God walking in us . one night i was driving listen to radio talk show they were pounding this group for their ole songs out of date country it got down rite nasty as it gets,, wow had turn it off , all medium mix it big bucks either way nuts is big money people are amazed see late night wrestling see men women beat each other senseless , people raging, . We are mere step away from whole sale collapse, i realized I was getting into the win mode not good ,,, warlike that so is all the other stuff be low we might do ..., big money ,,, promoted it could be stopped easily but it;s the case their blame you ahahaha... and we believe it!!the flesh is weak it wants ease stuff etc,,, etc etc, entertainment blood , see on the streets have to change focus at any given time fast .. the dark web is deeply troubling place ,,, the stuff is down rite crazy but lets you see what can be ...
Paul's point in listing these "works of the flesh" is still in the context of asserting that the teleological freedom of the Christian to fulfill God's objective of expressing His character within His creation to His own glory, could never be used as an excuse or pretext for exhibiting such behaviors as here mentioned (cf. 5:13). As noted in reference to the savage behaviors mentioned in 5:15, these actions may have already been reported among the Galatians,
s congregations after the arrival of the Judaizing religionists.
Paul commences his list by indicating, "Now the works of the flesh are evident,..." Referring to them as "works" of the flesh connects them to the self-effort performance "works of the Law" (2:16; 3:2,5,10), as well as with "works of darkness" (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 5:11). Interestingly enough, these behavioral expressions of the patterned selfishness and sinfulness in man's soul will be evidenced in the context of both legalism and license, in both of the extremes that disallow the Christian liberty to love by the Spirit under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
"Immorality" is derived from the Greek word for "prostitute," . It refers to any sexual activity outside of God's intended context of marriage between one man and one woman. It is broader that just premarital fornication, as translated in some versions of the New Testament (cf. KJV).others
"Impurity" expands the concept of sexual irregularity beyond the sexual acts themselves to any act and attitude that is defiling, unclean, or indecent; to anything other than the pure, clean and proper use of our physical bodies as the purity of God's character is expressed in us.
"Sensuality" denotes a lack of constraint whereby our passions, impulses and senses are given free rein to engage in wantonness, debauchery, excess and immoderation. greed .
5:20 "Idolatry" is the inordinate devotion or worship of someone or something other than God, by attributing ultimate worth to such an object. The sexual sins previously mentioned were often integrated with religious idolatry in the pagan worship of Cybele, Diana, Aphrodite, Baal, etc.
"Sorcery" is a translation of the Greek word from which we get the English word "pharmaceutics." Throughout human history drugs have been utilized in religious activities as the medicine-men and magicians have mixed up strange potions in witchcraft and occult activities.
"Enmities" refers to hatred of one's perceived enemies, and engaging in hostile antagonism with them.
"Strife" translates a Greek word that also identified the goddess Eris, the goddess of contentiousness and quarrelsomeness that leads to war. Actions of agitation and provocation that stir up trouble, discord and wrangling are indicated by this word.
"Jealousy" is a translation of the same word from which we get the English word "zealous." It is the boiling fervency of ungratefulness and resentment concerning what others have or do.
"Outbursts of anger" comes from the root of the Greek word meaning "to kill." Uncontrolled fits of passion and rage wherein one's fury and temper are so acute that it could lead to life-threatening action are implied by this word.
"Disputes" are rivalries and altercations caused by mercenary motives when a person attempts to manipulate and use another person for his own personal gain at the expense of the other.business practice politic ...
"Dissensions" are any occasion when people refuse to stand together in unity, and instead stand against one another in disunity and divisiveness.
"Factions" translates the Greek word from which we get the English word "heresies." In its broadest meaning it refers to the sectarian and partisan attitude of wanting to choose up sides in order to engage in conflict.
5:21 "Envyings" is similar to "jealousy," for it refers to the grudging attitude that cannot tolerate another's success or prosperity, and regards the other as their rival.
"Drunkenness" is the Greek word that we now refer to as the drug "meth." It refers to the over-indulgence that leads to being intoxicated and controlled by another substance.
"Carousings" is derived from the Greek word komos, the name of the Greek god of revelry. The quest for and involvement in the uninhibited excess of cavorting and partying is implied by this word.
Paul concludes the list by adding "and things like these," to explain that this is not an exhaustive listing of selfish behaviors, but comprises a few of the behaviors that are representative of the "works of the flesh." We must avoid the systematizing tendency of attempting to arbitrarily place the behaviors mentioned by Paul into classifications and categorizations that tend to be self-limiting. Paul simply lists these actions without any implied grouping.
The attacks come fast and hard , often from media or simply the ole nature gets tackled ,at the right time spiritual warfare all day affair , materialism is huge here junk and more junk our performance will not rescue us only Christ can, in given event till we are anew completely the war rages for our souls ...... to make it fall etc.... the race is is on get back and go the right way, he forgives and strengthens...... hold fast pray for one another kindness , and find a real good friend if needed , stay close to real faith real faith laden Friends ...... a gold mine of power ............
blessed here with few guys close deeply enjoy developed solid faith life with, Gossip is devilish it;s twisted stuff , worthless, stay free . be-wise ...!! choose well God will guide ,
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Stand Firm in Freedom Galatians 5:1-12
Since Christians are sons of the freewoman and sons of promise, Paul encourages them to stand firm in the freedom that is theirs in Christ.
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Paul transitions to the third major section of his epistle in these verses. First, he defended the gospel revealed to him (chapters 1 and 2). Then, he documented that the gospel revealed to him was God's intent from the beginning, tracing his documentation back to the promises of God to Abraham (chapters 3 and 4). Now, he begins to describe and demonstrate the practical behavioral implications of how this revealed gospel is lived out in freedom and love and interpersonal Christian relationships (chapters 5 and 6).
The reality of the Person and work of Jesus Christ is not just barren theology, as so often explained merely in the juridical and forensic categories of an imputed righteousness that effects a right standing or status before God. The doctrine of "justification by faith," so adamantly defended by Protestantism, has been so objectified in logical and legal categories that the practical behavioral implications of the righteous character of Christ, the Righteous One, lived out through the believer have been neglected. Paul, on the other hand, always brings his readers to the practical implications of the Christ-life lived out in everyday behavior.
In this passage (5:1-12), Paul focuses on the freedom that is the privileged birthright of every Christian. H.D. Betz explains that "freedom is the central theological concept which sums up the Christian's situation before God as well as in this world. It is the basic concept underlying Paul's argument throughout the letter."1 In these verses, Paul is making a passionate appeal to the Christians of Galatia to recognize the freedom they have to live by God's grace.
The situation was critical! If the Galatian Christians would not respond to Paul's appeal to live in the freedom of God's grace, they would likely be lost to religious slavery. Paul seems to have regarded this letter as a last chance, "now or never" opportunity to explain the "either/or" choice between religious performance and God's grace received by faith. The dichotomy of the alternatives is clearly delineated - either Christ is all, or Christ is nothing! T. L. Johnson remarks that "this is one of the most strident passages in the entire letter, echoing the either/or language of Paul's opening blast in 1:6-9."2
So keen is Paul that the Galatians should see the importance of the decision they needed to make and the action they needed to take, that his rhetoric becomes heated and vehement. His statements are short, choppy and pointed, like the thrusts of a sword (especially in verses 7 through 12). These words were uttered in the heat of passion as Paul engaged in a last-ditch effort to convince the Galatians to reject the Judaizers.
5:1 This verse serves as the concluding summary to Paul's contrast between the slavery of the bondwoman, Hagar, and the freedom of the free woman, Sarah (4:21-31), as well as the climactic call to action that culminates from all that Paul has previously written in the letter. At the same time it is the transition to the practical implications of the Christian life (chapters 5 and 6), and more specifically to the appeal to freedom in 5:1-12. This could be called the key thematic verse of the entire epistle.
Picking up the theme he had alluded to earlier when he referred to "our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus" (2:4), Paul now affirms that, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." He will follow this theme throughout the paragraph to his assertion that "you were called for freedom, brethren" (5:13). Freedom can be a very abstract concept, but Paul is referring to the specific Christian freedom gained for us by the action and performance of Christ, the Liberator, when by His death and resurrection He "set us free" from sin, death, law, etc., in order to be free to function as God intended. Notice that freedom entails both a freedom from, as well as a freedom unto. By the death of Jesus Christ the Christian is set free from all self-effort of performance and productivity to please God, since Christ in His "finished work" on the cross performed everything necessary to take the death consequences of man's sin. By His resurrection to life out of death, Jesus made available in Himself everything necessary to enjoy the freedom unto the functional humanity that lives by the grace-dynamic of the Christ-life. Paul wanted the Galatians to recognize that they were free from the legalistic and moralistic expectations of behavioral conformity that were being foisted upon them by the Judaizers, and free to manifest the character of God by the grace of God unto the glory of God.
Religion often views freedom predominantly as freedom from governmental restriction or the consequences of sin in a sulfuric hell. Like the Jewish leaders surrounding Jesus, they seldom recognize that "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (Jn. 8:32,36). By the dynamic of the life of the risen Lord Jesus, Christians function by the "perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25), for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17). Christian freedom is the freedom to be man as God intended man to be; the freedom to love and serve others (5:13,14,22).
Based on the freedom gained for us by Christ and inherent in Christ alone, Paul admonishes the Galatian Christians to "keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." What Christ did, and Who Christ is, is too valuable to be exchanged for the burdens of religious performance. With an imperative command, Paul calls on the Galatians to act on and by the reality of Christ's action. "Continue to stand firm in the grace-dynamic of His Life. Do not capitulate to the religious legalism of the Judaizers." There comes a time when resolute action is required (cf. 2:5,11,14; 4:30), a time to tenaciously defend the freedom we have in Christ, firm in our resolve to live by His grace. This does not imply that we should take violent offensive means of conflict, but that we "stand firm" in the Lord (Phil. 4:1; I Thess. 3:8), in the faithful receptivity of His activity (I Cor. 16:13), and against all diabolic schemes (Eph. 6:11,13,14). Christians are not called to fight, but to "stand firm."
Christians should not allow themselves to be rounded up in the corral of religion, as the Judaizers were attempting to do to the Galatians. Paul commands the Galatians to avoid being confined, loaded down, and oppressed by the burdensome restrictions of performance regulations. He employs the metaphor of a yoke being placed upon a beast of burden in order to restrict its freedom and cause it to perform as desired. "Don't be a dumb ox, and let those religious slave-drivers put the religious yoke upon you in order to drive you to perform according to their expectations,"
Paul seems to say. That, indeed, is a binding slavery. It is interesting that the same metaphor was used when Paul went to Jerusalem soon after writing this letter. There it was Peter who asked the gathering of predominantly Jewish-Christian conferees (many of whom were demanding circumcision and Law-observance - Acts 15:5), why they insisted upon "placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" (Acts 15:10,11). It was determined that these should not be restrictive requirements placed upon Gentile believers, but that did not seem to stop the Judaizing traditionalists from dogging Paul's steps wherever he went, intent on implementing their agenda to impose Jewish traditions on Gentile Christians. There is, indeed, a sense in which Christians are yoked to Jesus Christ, for freedom must always have a context, but our connection with Christ is not oppressive or burdensome, as He provides the all-sufficient dynamic of His life. "Take My yoke upon you...and you shall find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My load is light" (Matt. 11:29,30).
5:2 Going directly to the specific issue at hand, Paul declares, "Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you." "Look," Paul says, "open your eyes, listen up, and take note of this important point." Directly and emphatically, he appeals to them as an apostle (1:1), as a spiritual parent (4:19), and as a brother in Christ (3:15; 4:31; 5:11) "I, Paul, say to you...". Thereupon he attacks what was a major tenet of the Judaizers' platform, the demand for the circumcision of all male believers in order have the identifying physical mark of God's covenant people, and merit God's pleasure. It was the same attitude as displayed by those who came from Judea to Antioch at about the same time as Paul was writing this letter to the Galatians, proclaiming, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1). The Judaizers in Galatia were apparently advocating the circumcision of male Gentile believers in order to identify with the Jewish heritage as the People of God. It became the foremost and ultimate physical action, symptomatic of the entire Judaizing platform of external performance.
Male circumcision was inaugurated as a physical sign of God's covenant agreement with Abraham. God declared, "You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. ...an uncircumcised male shall be cut off from His people" (Gen. 17:11,14). The Judaizers wanted to bring Gentile Christians back to identification with Abraham, but what they failed to understand was that physical circumcision (like so many activities in the old covenant) was merely a pre-figuring of that which God would do in Jesus Christ to fulfill His promises to Abraham. It was repeatedly emphasized that what God really desired was to cut away the sin from man's heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jere. 4:4), and the prophet Jeremiah explained that one could be circumcised physically and yet be uncircumcised of heart, charging all the house of Israel with such (Jere. 9:25,26). The fulfillment of the Old Testament circumcision picture was effected when Jesus Christ made it possible for sin to be cut away from man's heart by the acceptance of His death and resurrection-life. Paul explains that "in Christ you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (Col. 2:11), a "circumcision that is of the heart, by the Spirit" (Rom. 2:29), constituting Christians as "the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God" (Phil. 3:3).
The identifying mark of the Christian is not a physical seal, but the seal of the Spirit of Christ (II Cor. 1:22; Eph. 4:30).
The Judaizers of Paul's day were so preoccupied with physical circumcision that they were identified as "the party of the circumcision" (2:12). For many Jewish people of the first century, it was not so much a concern for being identified with God's covenant people receptive to God's promises, as it was a mark of superior distinction from the Gentiles, marking racial superiority, nationalistic privilege, religious exclusivism, and ideological imperialism. The Judaizers were willing to admit that God would include Gentiles, but not unless the males engaged in the performance of receiving this physical mark as an essential element of righteousness before God. This was the premise that Paul would not tolerate, for the gospel that he received and preached was that all righteousness came through Jesus Christ alone, by the performance of Christ's "finished work" alone.
That Paul couches his comment in the hypothetical structure, "if you receive circumcision...," seems to suggest that he had reason to believe that some of the male Christians in Galatia had not yet submitted to the demands of the Judaizers, and he was hoping that what he was writing could forestall such. Again, it was not the physical action of receiving circumcision that was the issue, for Paul will indicate that "circumcision or uncircum-cision mean nothing" (5:6), but when such is received with the belief that it is a spiritual act that has significance before God, meritoriously supplementing or enhancing one's relationship with God, or making one more "spiritual," then one indicates that the work of Christ is insufficient in itself, requiring performance supplementation. If a male receives circumcision on the grounds of health, hygiene or cultural conformity such is irrelevant to Paul, but if it is regarded as having spiritual benefit before God, then Paul draws the "either/or" dichotomy: either Jesus Christ is of sole spiritual benefit before God, or circumcision (or any other action) is of some benefit before God, in which case "Christ will be of no benefit."
Essential to the understanding of the Christian gospel is the realization that the Person and work of Jesus Christ, His Being and His doing, are singularly and entirely efficacious for the redemption, regeneration, salvation, righteousness, and sanctification of mankind. Christ will be no part of an equation that adds circumcision or anything else to His Person and work. Christianity is Christ! Christ plus circumcision amounts to nothing of any spiritual significance before God. There can be no amalgamation, admixture or assimilation; no combination, merging or supplementation. To add anything to Christ's Being and activity does not merely lessen or diminish His benefit; it eliminates, negates, nullifies and voids the singular benefit of Christ. Any addition logically implies that Christ's sacrifice and saving life are inadequate, insufficient, incomplete and unfinished. Paul does not indicate that consent to the benefit of circumcision means that one will retain His redemptive and regenerative benefits, but will lack the experiential sanctifying benefits of His saving life.
He categorically explains that Christ will be of no benefit whatsoever. Why? Because Jesus Christ is not a benefactor who distributes certain spiritual benefits! The benefit, worth and value of Jesus Christ is solely in His own Being. There can be no benefit of Jesus Christ apart from His Being expressed in His action. There is no profit in Christ apart from His personal presence and dynamic performance. There is no value of Christ apart from the viability of the vitality and visible expression of His own life. The Being and presence of Christ cannot be detached from His benefits. To attribute spiritual reality and value to anything other than Jesus Christ and His activity alone is to deny Christianity. Christianity is either Jesus Christ singularly and completely, or not at all. Using the economic terminology of "benefit, value, worth or profit," Paul presents the either/or equation: circumcision or Christ, which will you "bank on"? If you put stock in circumcision (or any other act of performance), then the "finished work" of Christ is not finished; He did not really set us free (5:1) from performance; and He died needlessly (2:21). In that case, who Christ is and what Christ did is worthless, useless, and of no benefit or value.
5:3 Paul proceeds to reiterate his thesis by showing the reverse, flip-side of his argument. "I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law." Drawing on the legal terminology of his background as a Jewish lawyer, Paul indicates that he "testifies, witnesses, and is willing to lay down his life" (cf. Acts 20:26; 26:22) to explain the serious gravity of the action that the Galatian Christians are considering. He repeats "again" that anyone who receives circumcision, thinking that such external performance has any spiritual benefit in the sight of God, will of necessity place himself in the debtor's prison condemned to the hard labor of the legal system of performance. Although it is not usually evident in English translation, the word for "benefit" in verse 2 and the word for "obligation" in verse 3 are derived from the same Greek root word having economic implications. If they "receive circumcision" as advocated by the Judaizers, Christ will accrue no value to them, but they will instead accrue the indebtedness of an impossible and futile obligation of subservience and slavery to the performance-system of the Law.
Romans 2:25 must be considered at this point, because it uses the same Greek economic word in conjunction with circumcision: "Circumcision is of value, if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircum-cision." Writing to those of Jewish background in Rome, Paul explains that if the operative system of righteousness before God were meritorious external action of keeping the Law, then the performance of receiving physical circumcision would "count, accrue, have benefit or value" for some advantage before God. But since no man can self-generatively enact or perform the character of God, therefore all men are transgressors of the Law, violating the character of God in sin. Thus the physical circumcision of Jewish peoples done in the context of the self-effort of Law performance is revealed to be but another example of the sinful, uncircumcision of the heart, revealing all men to be sinners before God.
The Romans statement is entirely consistent with what Paul is writing to the Galatians. Paul is not saying that if you choose to live by the Law, you are obliged to keep every detail of the Law. That has already been established as impossible (3:10,11; cf. James 2:10). What Paul is saying to the Galatian Christians is that the reception of circumcision constitutes one's "buying into" the "whole," complete package of an all-encompassing nomistic orientation of self-actuated performance that replaces Jesus Christ, repudiates freedom, and relegates one to the enslaving obligation and condemnation of the Law, without any hope of righteousness (2:16).
5:4 To further amplify his point, Paul continues, "You who are seeking to be justified by law, you have been severed from Christ." The collective group of people in Galatia who sought to become more righteous by engaging in the system of legal performance standards, as advocated by the Judaizers, needed to be aware of the severe consequences of such a choice. Paul had previously pointed out that no one is justified or made righteous by the works of the Law (2:16; 3:11; cf. Rom. 3:20). Here he restates the premise of verse 2 more inclusively by referring to any attempt to be righteous by legal performance (which includes circumcision), and explains the consequences more severely. He wants to make it clear that any attempt to add human works of performance to the reality of the Person and work of Jesus Christ is a complete repudiation of the "finished work" of Jesus Christ. Law performance is not an enhancement of the Christian life, but an estrangement from Christ.
Some might attempt to infer from verse 2 that legalistic acts of performance simply diminish the experiential benefits of the Christian life. This verse denies that possibility by explaining that any works of self-effort regarded as meritoriously righteous before God, create an alienated separation from Christ Himself. Again, this is based on the impossibility of detaching the presence of the Being of Jesus Christ from His "finished work" and the grace-dynamic of His functional work. Any attempt to detract from His all-sufficient function in our Christian lives, is to detach from His Being, from whence comes His function. The Being and the doing of Jesus Christ, His presence and His function, are inseparably united in the ontological dynamic of His life. He offers no benefits, blessings, gifts, or spiritual commodities apart from Himself. He is our righteousness (I Cor. 1:30), or there is no righteousness, and He is not present.
And yet, the preponderance of interpretive comment on this statement of Paul seeks to lessen the severity of its impact in order to preserve static presuppositions of permanence. Over and over again the commentators indicate that the Christian seeking to be made righteous by works is merely severed, estranged or alienated from the sphere of Christ's sanctifying activity, voiding and nullifying what Christ wants to do experientially and behaviorally in their life. Paul's statement is clear the person who is "banking on" righteousness by works is severed and separated from the Being of Christ, from whence comes all His function.
Additional clarification is gained from Paul's further explanation of the consequences of such a choice of alleged works-righteousness: "You have fallen from grace." Severed from His Being, such an apostatizing person falls outside of the dynamic of Christ's activity. Christianity the Christian life is derived solely from God's grace activity in Christ, or not at all! Later in his epistle to the Romans, Paul would use the same Greek word for "falling out" of relationship with God, noting that the people of old covenant Israel experienced God's severity when they refused to stand firm in faith and were cut off.
Grace is the singularity of God's action in Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:17). It is the dynamic expression of divine activity which is singularly served in the "only-begotten Son" (Jn. 3:16,18), Jesus Christ. Grace is not a static condition of redemptive efficacy, or just a threshold function of regenerative sufficiency. Grace is everything God does in and through Jesus Christ. When any man thinks that his own actions can make him righteous, then he is refusing God's grace-activity in Christ.
The dynamic efficacy of God's grace in Jesus Christ must not be statically boxed in epistemological formulations of fixed states of being. Traditional religious expressions of "once in grace, always in grace," or "once saved, always saved," misunderstand the dynamic nature of God's salvific grace in Christ, and lead to meaningless theological arguments about "eternal salvation" and "eternal security," as well as diminishing the consequences of misrepresentative behavior in the Christian. They fail (or refuse) to take into account the severity of the consequences of severance from Christ and His grace-activity that Paul explicitly explains in this verse.
5:5 In contrast to the Judaizers and those subscribing to their attempts to be made righteous by legalistic performance of the Law, Paul inclusively declares that "we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness." "We," genuine Christians who are receptive to God's grace in Christ for all function in the Christian life, are receptive in faith to the grace activity of God by His Holy Spirit. Having received the indwelling Spirit of Christ (3:2), Christians have the dynamic provision of the power of the Spirit (3:5), in order to walk by the Spirit (5:16) and manifest the "fruit of the Spirit" (5:22). By faith we are receptive to God's activity through His Spirit, anticipating and looking forward with confident expectation to the expression of Christ's righteous character in our Christian behavior. Having "Christ in us, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27), we have the anticipatory expectation that the Righteous One (Acts 3:14; 7:52; I Jn. 2:1), Jesus Christ will express His righteous character in our behavior to the glory of God. The anticipated expectation of righteousness should not be objectified into merely or primarily a futuristic hope of arriving at an heavenly state of perfect righteousness with God. Right now, in the present, the Christian can expect that the indwelling Being of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, will actively express His righteous character in our behavior by His grace. Of course, if we fail to "fix our eyes on Jesus" (Heb. 12:2) in order to derive all from Him by faith, and instead focus introspectively on our fleshliness with a sin-consciousness that masochistically attempts to suppress such or "die to self," then we are not expectantly anticipating the expression of Christ's righteous character in our behavior, but have reverted back to performance evaluation and expectation.
5:6 Since the expectant hope of all righteousness is from Jesus Christ alone, received by faith, then "for those in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love." For those who are Christians, "in Christ Jesus" (3:28), having received His Spirit in spiritual union with their spirit (Rom. 8:9; I Cor. 6:17), and abiding (Jn. 15:4-7) in the dynamic activity of Christ as "Christ-ones," the physical actions, the external rites and ritualistic performances have no meritorious significance. The Christian life is not the behavioral performance of "doing this" or "not doing that," whether eating or drinking (Rom. 14:17; I Cor. 8:8) or circumcision. What one does to the male penis is spiritually irrelevant, having no validity or force referent to righteousness. As noted above, this verse can serve as an antidote to an overly broad interpretation of verse 2 which might imply that anyone having received circumcision cannot be a Christian. The physical criteria of circumcision or uncircum-cision are irrelevant when it comes to spiritual righteousness. As Paul will write later in this epistle, "Neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircum-cision, but a new creation" (6:15) in Christ Jesus (cf. II Cor. 5:17). And when one becomes a "new man" in Christ, there is "no distinction between circumcised or uncircumcised, ...but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:11).
What does have validity and meaning for righteousness in the Christian is not the physical criteria, but the spiritual criteria of "faith working through love." Faith is not just consent or assent to propositional statements of a belief-system, but is the receptivity of God's activity in Jesus Christ to dynamically energize His righteous character in loving Christian behavior. When the Christian is available by faith to allow God to "work according to His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13), working according to the power of His Spirit within us (Eph. 3:20), God then willingly works out His character of righteousness and love. Without such outworking of His character, it cannot be legitimately maintained that there is any presence of Christ or faith (cf. James 2:17,18,26). "God is love" (I Jn. 4:8,16), and this other-oriented feature of His character is "poured out within our hearts by the Holy Spirit He has given to us" (Rom. 5:5), but the absence of such evidences that we do not know God (I Jn. 4:8). The importance of this loving expression of God's righteous character will be further amplified later in this letter, when Paul writes of "serving one another in love" (5:13,14) by the "fruit of the Spirit" (5:22,23).
5:7 Paul now commences an impassioned appeal (7-12) to the Galatian Christians that is somewhat disjointed, and even coarse, due to the intensity of his passion for righteousness in Christ. "You were running well," Paul writes, employing an athletic metaphor that he was fond of using (2:2; I Cor. 9:26; Phil. 3:14; II Tim. 4:7). After Paul had left the region of Galatia, he had apparently received reports that the Christians there were progressing and maturing in the process of allowing the Christ-life to be lived out through them by God's grace, without thinking that their self-effort of performance had any benefit before God. Paul's knowledge of their progress does not necessarily imply that he had returned to Galatia to observe such.
"What happened to your progress?" "Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" This rhetorical question (cf. 3:1) was not a search for the specific identity (names and addresses) of those who were interfering and preventing the progress of the Galatian Christians, but was likely an exposure of the diabolic hinderer behind all such religious diversion. Paul knew the general identity of the Judaizers who had infiltrated the Galatian churches, and there may have been one in particular who was the ringleader of the false-teachers, but the singular "who" can also refer to the spiritual adversary who "thwarts" the actions of Christians (I Thess 2:18), and "disguises himself in the false, religious agents who present themselves as servants of righteousness" (II Cor. 11:13-15).
The Galatians were "running well," progressing in the grace-expression of Christ, but someone "cut in" on them and tripped them up by persuading them against simple obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. "Truth" is not merely propositional data, but is personified in Jesus Christ, who is the Truth (Jn. 14:6) that sets us free (Jn. 8:32,36) to function as God intends. The "truth of the gospel" (2:5,14) is Christ, but the Galatians were obstructed by someone persuading them against the single reality of allowing the Spirit of Christ to live out His life in them.
5:8 Religious legalists can be very persuasive as they use their "persuasive words of wisdom" (I Cor. 2:4), but Paul notes that "This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you." "God called you by the grace of Christ" (1:6), Paul said earlier, and now you have been persuaded to desert Him. God is constantly "calling" us by the impulse of His Spirit to be receptive to His activity in and through us, and to participate in the freedom that is ours in Jesus Christ (5:13). Whatever He calls us to, "He also will bring to pass" (I Thess. 5:24), for His calling is an effectual calling that provides His divine dynamic to "perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish us" (I Pet. 5:10). But if we resist this grace provision of God in Christ, then the antithetical persuasion of diabolic hindrance will attempt to counter God's work in the Christian. We either derive the character of our behavior from God (ek theos), or we derive character from Satan (ek diabolos). "Whatever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23).
5:9 Employing another metaphor that was probably in the form of a proverbial saying, Paul warns the Galatian Christians about tolerating the Judaizing intruders, by saying, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough." The persuasive action of the infiltrating false-teachers is likened to the pervasive, penetrating and permeating action of leaven. The fermentative process of leaven working in the dough was often identified with the contaminative and corruptive process of evil. The tiniest portion of leaven begins the process that will eventually permeate the entire lump, and in like manner the slightest form of perversion advocating legalistic performance or preferential priority can corrupt the presentation of the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. Christians must be spiritually discerning about the subtle and pervasive influences that deny or fail to present the singularity of God's grace in Jesus Christ for everything in the Christian life. Sometimes in our quest to be tolerant, non-judgmental and non-discriminatory, we become undiscriminating in an epidemic of tolerance that fails to detect the insidious humanistic and diabolic premises that are contrary to God's grace, allowing the church to be infected with relativistic pluralism that denies the singularity of Christ with disastrous consequences. Paul's objective in using this proverbial metaphor was obviously to encourage the Christians of Galatia to take action to terminate the persuasive and pervasive influence of the Judaizers. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul also used the same proverb to address the infectious situation of an incestuous relationship that was being tolerated in the local church. He wrote: "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump..." (I Cor. 5:6,7). Likewise, Paul was advocating that the Galatians "clean out" the leavening influence of the Judaizers, just as he had indirectly advised them to "cast out the bondwoman" (4:30). In contemporary terms we might use a correlative statement such as, "A little cancer can kill the whole body," evidencing the necessity of taking action to excise the contaminative and corruptive influence of the cancerous cells.
5:10 Paul was still optimistic that such action could be effective in the churches of Galatia. "I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view..." Paul is persuaded that the Galatian Christians are genuinely "in the Lord," and "confident that He who began a good work in them would perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). Thus persuaded of the preserving work of Christ in their lives, Paul was confident that God's grace would cause the Galatians to be spiritually discerning (cf. Phil. 3:15) and allow the Lord to "direct their hearts" (II Thess. 3:4,5), so that they would form opinions and "set their minds" (Col. 3:2), not on the false premises of the Judaizers, but on the singular gospel of grace and liberty in Jesus Christ. Adopting such thinking would allow them to "stand firm in their Christian freedom" (5:1), and take the action necessary to expel the Judaizing agitators.
Paul was also persuaded and convinced that "the one who is disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is." Paul's use of a singular subject, "the one," could refer to the collective whole of the Judaizing contingent that had invaded the churches of Galatia, for he had previously referred to a plurality of disturbing persons (1:7), and would do so again in three sentences when he wrote of "those who are troubling you" (5:12). On the other hand, as noted in verse 7, there may have been a singular ringleader among the false teachers who was more prominent that the others. Regardless, whether individually or collectively as one, Paul was convinced that anyone who would distort the gospel (1:7) of Christ would have to face the condemnatory judgment of God's divine retribution of damnation (cf. 1:8,9). In that "those who believe in Christ are not judged" (Jn. 3:18), Paul must not have considered these false teachers to be Christians, having previously referred to their kind as "false brethren" (2:4). In Paul's mind such a cursed destiny awaited anyone, "whoever he is," without exception, who would purposefully pervert the gospel of the singular sufficiency of Jesus Christ and the living out of His life by the grace of God.
5:11 This statement of Paul may seem somewhat disconnected and interjected as a non sequitur of personal complaint, but in the intensity of his concern Paul may have failed to carry through his thoughts in careful logical transitions. Even so, the theme of circumcision (5:2,3,6), being the culminating act of accepting and identifying with the legalistic system of the Judaizers in contrariety to the gospel of grace, was the issue that Paul was addressing as antithetical to Christian freedom, and the flashpoint that had him so incensed with righteous indignation.
"But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?" Apparently the claim had been made by the Judaizers that Paul still advocated the rite of circumcision as he necessarily had when he was involved in the Jewish religion. Perhaps they were attempting to imply that Paul, based on his Jewish heritage, was sympathetic with their emphasis on male circumcision, and that because of his brief ministry in Galatia he neglected to explain the importance of such. Then again, they may have charged that Paul "still preached circumcision," but did so inconsistently by advocating such for Jews but not for Gentiles, similar to the later occasion when one of the Galatian young men, Timothy, was circumcised as a cultural and religious accommodation of sociological convenience and expedience (Acts 16:3). These were false and illogical claims made by the Judaizers. The gospel that Paul preached (2:2) was Christ (I Cor. 1:23) alone, and did not include circumcision, for it was even reported that he told the Jews "not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs of the Law of Moses" (Acts 21:21). Paul reasons with an "if...then" logical syllogism: "If I still preach circumcision (which is not the case), then why (it would be completely illogical) do I continue to be persecuted by the Jewish religionists for the very reason that I have repudiated their legalistic customs (including circumcision), and by the Judaizing faction of "the party of the circumcision" (2:12) because I refuse to allow circumcision as a supplement to the grace of God in Jesus Christ?" Such an argument is contrary to reason, Paul maintains. The Judaizing faction was a persecutive group, Paul had already implied (4:29), but they themselves avoided persecution at the hands of the Jewish religionists by advocating circumcision (6:12).
Paul continues with another "if...then" syllogism that takes his argument to the core of the redemptive and restorative message of the gospel. "If (as is not the case) I still preach the necessity of circumcision, then (as a logical consequence) the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished." Paul's preaching of "Christ crucified" was a scandalous stumbling block to the Jewish peoples (I Cor. 1:23; Isa. 8:14;28:16; cf. Rom. 9:33; I Pet. 2:8), not only because they could not conceive of a crucified Messiah in place of their expected triumphant, nationalistic deliverer, but even more so because the crucifixion of Christ on the cross was proclaimed by Christians to be the singular basis of redemption and the "power of God" (I Cor. 1:18) for salvation unto righteousness. As such it was the abrogation of the old covenant Law as having any benefit of righteousness (2:16,21; 3:11), for the "new covenant in His blood (His death)" (Lk. 22:20; I Cor. 11:25), allowed the Law of God to be dynamically enacted in men's hearts by the indwelling presence of the life of Christ Himself. When Jesus declared "It is finished!" (Jn. 19:30) from the cross, He was proclaiming that He was doing and would do everything that needed to be done before God. As the representative Man, He accomplished and completed all the performance required on behalf of all men. There is nothing more man can do, apart from simply receiving God's grace in Christ by faith. There is absolutely no basis for any pride of performance-righteousness before God, as religious legalists inevitably advocate. Therefore, the "finished work" of Jesus Christ, set in motion at His death, is the scandalous stumbling-block for all Jews, Judaizers and religionists. The performance of circumcision or any other deed has no benefit before God. So Paul's argument is, "If (as is not the case) I preach the necessity of the performance of circumcision, then the stumbling block of the cross (which is the declaration that there is no performance that man can do that has any benefit before God) would be voided, nullified, wiped out, and abolished." Impossible! Unthinkable! If so, "Christ died needlessly" (2:21), in an unfortunate, meaningless martyrdom.
5:12 The thought of the cross being a meaningless event of history, which is where the Judaizers' teaching logically leads, is so abhorrent to Paul that he reacts with a very human mutilation-wish for his Judaizing detractors. "Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves." Paul would be the first to admit that he was not perfect (Phil. 3:12), and this was not the most loving solution that Paul could have wished for his enemies (cf. Matt. 5:44; Lk. 6:35). But Paul was so appalled by the thought that Christ's work was all in vain, the logical conclusion of the Judaizers' teaching, that he reverts to the sarcastic irony of hyperbolic over-statement. He had no use for these religious bloodhounds, whom he elsewhere describes as "dogs, and evil workers of the false circumcision" (Phil. 3:2).
"Those Judaizers who are stirring you Galatian Christians up with their unsettling and destabilizing advocacy of circumcision; I could wish that those knife-happy proponents of cutting off male foreskins would just go all the way and cut off their entire organ; that the knife would slip and they would emasculate themselves in a total castration." Now, admittedly, there have been some translations and commentaries that have attempted to interpret these words in a figurative manner in order to avoid such a "delicate" sexual subject, suggesting that Paul simply wanted the Judaizers to "cut it out," to cease and desist from their advocacy of circumcision. Not likely! There is little doubt that Paul was suggesting a physical "cutting off" (cf. Mk. 9:43,45; Jn. 18:10,26) of the Judaizers' genitalia.
Some correlative cultural background information might be pertinent to Paul's thinking. In Jewish thought, it was clearly stated that "no one who is emasculated, or as his male organ cut off, shall enter the assembly of the Lord" (Deut. 23:1). It has been suggested that Paul was thinking that if the Judaizers were "cut off" genitally, they would be "cut off" from God's people, self-emasculated and self-excommunicated, and thus so totally discredited that they could no longer trouble Christian people with their false-teaching. Speculation, at best! Another observation notes that in the religion of the Greek goddess, Cybele, which was practiced in the Galatian region, the pagan priests ceremoniously emasculated themselves by self-castration, allegedly as an act of self-defeating devotion. Some have suggested that Paul was indicating that if the Judaizers wanted to really be religious, they should go all the way and make the "radical cut" like the priests of Cybele. Not very convincing!
As might be expected, Paul has been charged with being coarse, crude and vulgar for making the very earthy comment in this verse. Many have questioned whether he was being vindictive, vengeful, malicious, cruel and unloving. But we must not forget that Paul was passionately determined to defend the integrity, purity and singularity of the gospel of Jesus Christ against those who were equally determined to desecrate and destroy that gospel by their performance supplements. In a similar manner, Jesus Himself said that "whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. 18:6; Mk. 9:42; Lk. 17:1,2).
Paul was so desirous that the Christians of Galatia should understand that they "were called to freedom" (5:13), that it was for Christian freedom that Christ endured everything, including death on a cross, to "set us free" (5:1), he was willing to defend that freedom by any means to encourage them to "keep standing firm" (5:1) in Christ alone. He is very forceful in drawing the "either/or," "all or nothing" alternatives of the singularity of Jesus Christ. There comes a time when if we are unwilling to draw the line between truth and error, between the freedom of grace in Jesus Christ and the bondage of religious performance, then there will be no lines of demarcation, and anything goes in the religion of relativistic pluralism in which man's reason and self-effort reign supreme, deified as the gods of humanism.
The "stumbling block of the cross" (5:11), the thesis that man cannot do what is necessary before God, is indeed scandalous today in light of the prevailing humanistic theses of human potential and self-help. Christian religion adapts itself into evangelical humanism when it advocates that performance of any kind moralistic behavior, keeping the Ten Commandments, commitment, dedication, ecclesiastical programs, etc. have any efficacy in the sight of God. Then, as Paul says so clearly, "the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished" (5:11); and God forbid, "Christ died needlessly" (2:21).
When Christians attempt to add anything to the "finished work" of Jesus Christ and the dynamic of Christ's life functioning in their lives by the grace of God, then they ever so subtly negate the benefit of Christ. In Paul's day, in Galatia, the addition-issue was circumcision and the observance of the Mosaic Law. Today, the supplemental issues are different, of course. If we were to take Paul's statement in verse 2, "If you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you," and rewrite the statement by inserting contemporary performance-issues, we might be able to see more clearly how this presently applies. "If you insist that a Christian believer believe in a particular form of baptism, ...speaking in tongues, ...a doctrine of "once saved, always saved," ...a particular millennial theory, ...two conflicting inner natures, etc., then Christ will be of no benefit to you." "If you insist that a Christian refrain from drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, wearing certain clothing, going to movies, dancing, etc., then Christ will be of no benefit to you." "If you insist that a Christian be a contributing member of a particular kind of institutional church, attending three times a week, participating in the programs, tithing a certain percentage of their income, and you regard such as essential to Christian salvation, fellowship, or righteousness, then Christ will be of no benefit to you." This little exercise begins to expose some of our religious tendencies to add performances to the singular efficacy of God's grace in Jesus Christ.
Paul simply wanted Christians to "stand firm in freedom" by deriving all from Jesus Christ alone, apart from any supplemental additions of human performance. The "finished work" of Jesus Christ is the singular sufficiency of the Christian life, as God's grace-dynamic energizes His righteous character received by faith. There is absolutely nothing that can be added to Jesus Christ by man's performance in order to effect Christian living. To supplement is to supplant.
knowing the differences !!!
Spirit and Soul
"There was one mistake into which the early assembly was never in any danger of falling. In those early days men never thought of Jesus Christ as a figure in a book. They never thought of Him as someone who had lived and died, and whose story was told and passed down in history, as the story of someone who had lived and whose life had ended. They did not think of Him as someone who had been but as someone who is. They did not think of Jesus Christ as someone whose teaching must be discussed and debated and argued about; they thought of Him as someone whose presence could be enjoyed and whose constant fellowship could be experienced. 1 corinthins 1-4 kj3 or young's literal
Their faith was not founded on a book; their faith was founded on a person."a huge differnce!!!
Before we consider how
"spirit-union allows for soul-rest," we need to note how important it is to
distinguish and differentiate between spirit and soul - between spiritual and
psychological functions. Christian religion, down through the centuries, has
often failed to make the distinction between spiritual and psychological
function. What they end up with is a mish-mash of psychological spirituality or
spiritualized psychology.
If soul and spirit are synonymous, then psychological principles should be able to resolve the problems of mankind. Sigmund Freud is our savior - God forbid! (or as J.B. Phillips worded it, "what a ghastly thought."2)
That is why so much of what is called "Christian counseling" is nothing than a veneer of Christian and biblical terminology laid over the mush of secular psychological principles. Not at all helpful for Christian living.
It is imperative that we
differentiate between spiritual and psychological function, or we will never
understand spiritual realities, and never participate in the practicum of
Christian behavior and "rest." Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, saying, "
Now may
the God of peace sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and
soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring
it to pass" (I Thess. 5:23,24).
These are clearly differentiated
functions that need to be "set apart" in order to realize God's holy intent in
our lives. These verses in I Thessalonians 5 have recently been dismissed as but
Paul's "sign-off" of his epistle, which cannot be viewed as having any doctrinal
import.3 Apparently, in this view, "all
scripture is not inspired, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness" (II Tim. 3:16). Another New
Testament verse to be considered is Heb. 4:12 - "the Word of God" (this is not
the Bible, but the living expression and revelation of God, Jesus Christ, the
Word of God who was from the beginning and IS God. Cf. Jn.1:1,14), is "living
and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the dividing
of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge
the thoughts and intentions of the heart." The Spirit of Christ is able to
pierce into our inner being and distinguish, and cause us to discern, between
our deepest spiritual intentions and the psychological thoughts that do not
always coincide with our spiritual intents.
I cannot over-emphasize how
important it is for Christians to understand the difference between spiritual
function and psychological function. Without this distinction the Christian life
will remain ambiguous. When spirit and soul and body are distinguished, this has
often been called the trichotomous or tripartite understanding of man's
constitution. It is probably best to avoid such terms, For they leave a wrong
impression. Trichotomous means, "cut in three," and tripartite means "three
parts." A human individual is not cut in three parts, compartments, or
partitions. A human being is a functional whole, who functions at three levels:
spiritual, psychological, and physiological.4 To
differentiate the spiritual and the psychological function of man is not an
attempt to cut man into separate parts, but is a necessary distinction for
understanding how God has created man to function.
https://www.christinyou.net/of the life of the risen Lord Jesus in the believer.
Confusion over the meaning of these terms, and misunderstanding of the reality implied by these terms, has resulted in gross misrepresentations of the same, even by those who would claim to be Christians engaged in Christianity. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that we re-evaluate the reality of Christianity.
Followers of Jesus were "first called Christians in Antioch" (Acts 11:26). Perhaps it was initially a label of derision or derogation, but King Agrippa seems to have used the term as a neutral designation of one believing in Jesus Christ (Acts 26:28), and Peter employs it as an accepted reference to those identified with the name of Christ (I Peter 4:16). Immediately thereafter the over-all phenomenon of persons identifying with Jesus Christ was generalized as "Christianity." Ignatius and Polycarp, disciples of the apostle John, used the Greek word christianismos in the late first or early second century, and later writers used the Latin word christianitas.
Semantic variations of meaning have proliferated through the centuries unto the present. "Christianity" is defined as one of the world's religions. It is analyzed historically as the events of its adherents and institutions through the centuries of almost two millennia. "Christianity" is often used synonymously with "Christendom," although the latter term is often used pejoratively of institutionalized Christian religion. In his Attack on Christendom, Kierkegaard complained that everyone in Denmark considered themselves to be "Christians" because they were born into the state church and baptized as infants, concluding that "if everyone is a Christian, then no one is a Christian." Witch-hunts, inquisitions and political wars have been conducted in the name of "Christian religion." Many have subsequently rejected "Christianity," offended or injured by its multitudinous religious aberrations and injustices. Still others (as we shall do in this study), reserve the term "Christianity" for the spiritual reality of the function of the living Lord Jesus in Christians.
The mere usage of terminology is not our objective, though, since language is in constant flux. Rather, the questions are: What was the initial and Biblical understanding of what it meant to be a Christian? What do the Biblical writers imply to be the essence of Christianity?
Although the term "Christianity" is not found in the Scriptures, we will consider it to be indicative of everything that Jesus Christ came to be and to do. The entirety of the revelation of God to man is constituted and comprised of the person and work of Jesus Christ. In and by His Son, God enacted everything necessary to restore mankind to His divinely intended function, reinvesting man with the spiritual reality of the presence and function of deity within humanity. When Jesus thus dwells and reigns spiritually in those who receive Him by faith, the kingdom that Jesus so often referred to becomes operative. The resurrection-life of Jesus becomes the spiritual empowering of the Christian's life and participation in the ecclesia of the Church. Such a spiritual, gospel reality of "Christianity" can only be defined as the dynamic life and activity of the living Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ!
C.S. Lewis explained that
"in Christ a new kind of man appeared: and the new kind of life which began in Him is to be put into us."1Earlier John W. Nevin had written,
"A new order of revelation entirely bursts upon the world, in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the absolute truth itself, personally present among men, and incorporating itself with their life. He is the substance, where all previous prophecy, had been only as sound or shadow."2God's self-revelation of Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ, involves an integral and indivisible oneness. The singular unity of the Godhead self-communicates Himself to man in the homoousion union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this divine triunity there can be no bifurcation or trifurcation of independent function. God acts as unified oneness. When he acts He does what He does because He is who He is. His Being is expressed in His activity, and His activity is always expressive of His Being. He never acts "out of character."
His actions are never detached from the manifestation of who He is in Himself; they are never static, disconnected actions separated or severed from the expression of His Being. All that God has to give is a self-giving of Himself His Being in action. He does not reveal or offer some "thing" about Himself. He cannot be thus parted or sectioned. Nor does He extend some commodity or product distinct from Himself. God reveals Himself and acts in grace (Jn. 1:17) by the power of the Spirit in His Son, Jesus Christ. "No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son will to reveal Himself" (Lk. 10:22). The self-revelation of God in the Messianic Son must always be understood in their essential oneness of divine Being, as well as the integral unity of their Being and action. God reveals Himself in the Son. He gives Himself to man. Jesus Christ reveals the gospel in Himself. He gives Himself to man as God.
The failure to maintain the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the unity of their Being and action always leads to aberrational understandings and expressions of Christianity. The history of Christian religion (as distinct from Christianity) is replete with man's attempts to divide the persons of the Godhead into distinct functions, and to sever Christ's work from His person. This latter disjunctive dualism is the more subtle and the most prevalent throughout what is called "Christian history." Christianity is conceived of as some "thing" established apart from, and distinct from, Christ Himself. The gospel, the Church, the kingdom are regarded as separate entities offered, extended, established, effected or dispensed by Jesus Christ, independent of Himself. T.F. Torrance correctly identifies such "detachment of Christianity from Christ"3 as the result of epistemological dualism, noting that
"fundamentalism is unwilling to acknowledge the identity in being between what God is toward us in His revelation in Jesus Christ and what He is in His living Being and Reality in Himself."4Examples of such "separated concepts" of fundamentalist dualism should be instructive, if not convicting:
The historical Jesus is often remembered as the historical founder of a religion, the history of which can be documented and analyzed. The life of Jesus on earth, and the specific events thereof, are memorialized. The story is borne from generation to generation in special commemorations: "Happy Birthday Jesus" (Christmas) and "Remember the Resurrection" (Easter). How does this differ from the celebratory remembrances of George Washington's Birthday and the call to "Remember Pearl Harbor!"? When Christianity is falsely conceived of as an historical society for the memory of and/or worship of an historically detached founder, there is a disjunctive dualism between Jesus Christ and what is called "Christianity."
When Jesus is portrayed as merely a religious or theological teacher, then the content of His teaching becomes an ideological belief-system distinct from His person. Even when Jesus is correctly identified as the mediatorial representative of God (I Tim. 2:5), the High Priest of God (Heb. 3:1; 8:1), the Son of God (Jn. 11:27), the rational formulation of doctrinal and theological propositions can be formed into systematized constructs of interpretation that stand alone from the living presence of Jesus Christ. Christianity then becomes a theological society for the explanation of and debate of theological truths in propositional and sentential precision, with no reception and experience of the person of the risen Lord Jesus.
Jesus can be proclaimed as the Savior of mankind, as He is within evangelical preaching, but when the Savior is detached from the process of salvation a transactional dualism results. If Jesus is but the benefactor of the benefits of salvation, then He is but the source of commodities, "goods," services, products or possessions that are dispensed, conferred or endowed by one who is dualistically distinct from that which is delivered. The spiritual Deliverer becomes but a religious dispenser.
Those that advocate a behavioristic morality or "Christian ethic" that divorces the doing of good from the dynamic of the God-man, Jesus Christ, create a disconnected dualism that encourages and expects behavior that conforms to the codified rules and regulations by means of employing procedures, techniques and behavioral formulas, rather than deriving divine character, the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22,23), from the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9).
Such moral "works" may be enacted for personal spirituality or for the social good and betterment of mankind at large, but when engaged in apart from the outworking of Christ's life, they remain disengaged from the reality of Christianity.
A fragmented dualism also results when Jesus Christ is not held in organic union with the Church, the Body of Christ. Jesus is not the "Head of the Church" only in terms of being an hierarchical head of an organizational institution. Neither is He the "head" in the sense of being the fountainhead and founder of a religion that bears His name. His headship is not merely instrumental in the establishment of a corporate ecclesiasticism that would serve as the depository, conservatory and dispensary of grace and truth, as if these could be dissected from the divine action of God in Christ.
Protestantism is particularly guilty of the dissassociative dualism that transfers the expressive agency of the Word of God from Jesus Christ (John 1:1,14) to the impersonalized instruction of God in an inspired book. Engaging in the biblicism of devotion to a canonical formulation, and employing various forms of interpretation, Protestant fundamentalists have developed a book-religion that often deifies the book in Bibliolatry. William Barclay notes that,
"There was one mistake into which the early Church was never in any danger of falling. In those early days men never thought of Jesus Christ as a figure in a book. They never thought of Him as someone who had lived and died, and whose story was told and passed down in history, as the story of someone who had lived and whose life had ended. They did not think of Him as someone who had been but as someone who is. They did not think of Jesus Christ as someone whose teaching must be discussed and debated and argued about; they thought of Him as someone whose presence could be enjoyed and whose constant fellowship could be experienced. Their faith was not founded on a book; their faith was founded on a person."5In accord with that opinion, Juan Carlos Ortiz writes,
"We need a new generation of Christians who know that the church is centered around a Person who lives within them. Jesus didn't leave us with just a book and tell us, 'I leave the Bible. Try to find out all you can from it by making concordances and commentaries.' No, He didn't say that. 'Lo, I am with you always,' He promised. 'I'm not leaving you with a book alone. I am there, in your hearts.' ...We just have to know that we have the Author of the book within us..."6In addition to the above dualistic tendencies, we might also cite the theological dualism that has been invasive throughout the centuries of "Christian theology" in the propensity to objectify the work of Christ into external categories unattached to the personal presence of Christ by His Spirit in the Christian. When the work of Jesus is cast into legal, forensic and judicial categories that posit the transference of penalty that issues forth in the declaration and imputation of justification in the heavenly courtroom, apart from the spiritual and experiential presence of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ (I Jn. 2:1), making us righteous (II Cor. 5:21) and manifesting the character "fruit of righteousness" (Phil. 1:11) in our behavior, we have once again divorced theology from the dynamic divine Being of the God-man, making it less that "Christian theology."
B.F. Westcott advised over a century ago:
"According to some the essence of Christianity lies in the fact that it is the supreme moral law. According to others its essence is to be found in true doctrine, or more specially in the scheme of redemption, or in the means of the union of man with God. Christianity does in fact include Law, and Doctrine, and Redemption, and Union, but it combines them all in a still wider idea. It establishes the principle of a Law, which is internal and not external, which includes an adequate motive for obedience and coincides with the realisation of freedom (James 1:25). It is the expression of the Truth, but this Truth is not finally presented in thoughts but in fact, not in abstract propositions but in a living Person.7The divine revelation cannot be detached from the divine reality of the living Lord Jesus. The revelation of the gospel is the revelation of Himself. The "good news" is Jesus! The gospel revelation of God in Christ is not a differentiated philosophy with fragmented principles of belief and behavior. German martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote,
In this then lies the main idea of Christianity, that it presents the redemption, the perfection, the consummation of all finite being in union with God.8
Christianity is historical not simply or characteristically because Christ standing out before the world at a definite time and place proclaimed certain truths and laid down certain rules for the constitution and conduct of a society. It is historical because He offered Himself in His own Person, and He was shewn to be in the events of His Life, the revelation which He came to give.9
"Christ is not a principle in accordance with which the whole world must be shaped. Christ is not the proclaimer of a system of what would be good today, here and at all times. Christ teaches no abstract ethics such as must at all costs be put into practice. Christ was not essentially a teacher and legislator, but a man, a real man like ourselves. It is not therefore His will that we should in our time be the adherents, exponents and advocates of a definite doctrine, but that we should be real men before God. ...What Christ does is precisely to give effect to reality. He is Himself the real man and consequently the foundation of all human reality."10French author, Jacques Ellul, concurs,
"There are no such things as 'Christian principles.' There is the Person of Christ, who is the principle of everything. If we wish to be faithful to Him, we cannot dream of reducing Christianity to a certain number of principles, the consequences of which can be logically deduced. This tendency to transform the work of the Living God into a philosophical doctrine is the constant temptation of theology, and their greatest disloyalty when they transform the action of the Spirit which brings forth fruit in themselves into an ethic, a new law, into 'principles' which only have to be 'applied.'"11The divine work of God in Christ has been dualistically objectified and historically detached from the living person of the resurrected Lord. Based upon those historical and theological objectivities of the restorative action of God in Christ, the spiritual work of God in Christ by the Spirit must be subjectively unified in the experience of men who are receptive to such in faith. Despite the tendency to shy away from such, due to mystic excesses and such ecclesiastical abuses as internal infusion and divinization that have arisen throughout the history of "Christian theology," there must be a balanced explanation and presentation of the objective and subjective, epistemological and experiential, historical and personal work of God in Christ. Apart from the experiential work of God in man, Christianity soon degenerates into merely static historical remembrances, theological categorizations, biblicist interpretations, moral conformations, liturgical repetitions, etc., as noted above. On the other hand, apart from the historical and theological foundations, Christianity easily degenerates into sensate subjectivism, emotive ecstatism, ethereal mysticism, temporal existentialism, charismatic enthusiasm, etc. Thus the importance of our quest for a balanced Biblical understanding that integrates the external and internal by maintaining an integral unity of the eternal person and work of Jesus Christ.
In his book entitled Christianity is Christ, W.H. Griffith Thomas concluded that,
"The Christ of Experience cannot be sundered from the Christ of History, and the appeal to experience is impossible unless experience is based on historic fact. The history must guarantee the experience in the individual. ...If we lose our faith in the historic fact of the Christ of the Gospels it will not be long before we lose our faith in the experience of the Christ of today.12Indeed, the intrinsic unity of the physically incarnated Jesus and the resurrected, ascended Jesus poured out in the form of the Spirit of Christ on Pentecost, continuing to function in every age and unto eternity in the expression of His own Being, must be maintained unequivocally as the essence of Christianity.
"...the central truth of Christianity (is) that the Holy Spirit brings to bear on our hearts and lives the presence and power of the living Christ, and thereby links together the Christ of History and the Christ of Faith. ...thus the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to Christ is the very heart of Christianity.13
"Christ is essential, Christ is fundamental, Christ is all.14
As the particular purpose of this study is to call Christian theology back to a personalized understanding of the unified work of Christ in His ever-present spiritual Being, we shall proceed to consider the divine reality of the internalized presence and activity of the risen Lord Jesus by His Spirit. In considering the subjective and experiential implications of the life of Jesus Christ in Christians, we must maintain the integral oneness of His Being and action by noting both the ontological essence of the indwelling Being of Jesus Christ in the Christian, as well as the dynamic expression of the functional activity of Jesus Christ in and through the Christian.
The "bottom-line" reality of what it means to be a Christian is expressed by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans. "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9), for "the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16). Apart from the indwelling presence and witness of the ontological essence of Christ by His Spirit, one is not a Christian and not participating in Christianity. "Christ in one" constitutes a "Christ-one," i.e. a Christian. This is the radical new reality that God made available in the new covenant, the essential presence of the very person, life and Being of the Spirit of Christ; the self-conveyance of Himself to the spirits of receptive humanity.
In this restoration of the Spirit of God to the spirits of men (cf. Gen. 2:7), so that men might function as God intended in His creative design, there is effected a spiritual union whereby we become "one spirit" with Christ (I Cor. 6:17). This is not a psychological union whereby we keep Jesus in our thoughts and consciousness, nor is it a moral union whereby we are obliged to seek to conform to Jesus' example. Rather, it is a spiritual union whereby deity dwells and functions in man; Christ in the Christian. Jesus illustrated this spiritual condition to Nicodemus in the analogy of a "new birth," a spiritual regeneration whereby one is "born of the Spirit" (John 3:1-6).
It is extremely important to keep in mind that the presence of the risen Lord Jesus in the Christian is not to be divided from the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. The dissolution of the ontological essence of Jesus Christ from the Holy Spirit creates a defective trinitarian perspective of God that has plagued "Christian theology" for centuries and remains a serious misrepresentation even in evangelical explanations. The Holy Spirit is not a substitute for Christ, nor is He a surrogate of Christ, but must be understood to be indissolubly one with Christ. Paul adequately reveals that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Holy Spirit can be referred to interchangably (Rom. 8:4-11) as the triune God, who is Spirit (Jn. 4:24), functions within the Christian. Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, noted that
"the being and work of Jesus Christ in the form of the being and work of His Holy Spirit is the original and prefigurative existence of Christianity and Christians."15The indwelling presence of the ontological essence of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the spirit of a Christian constitutes the divine reality of a "new creature" in Christ. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature" (II Cor. 5:17). This is not an assumed identity wherewith to engage in role-playing of Christian living, but a new spiritual identity as a "new man" (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10) in Christ. The deepest sense of one's identity is in identification with the spiritual being that constitutes one's spiritual condition.
Here, again, we confront the dualistic detachment evident in Christian religion, that posits a separate and innate essence of human being with a self-generated capability to create or assume personal identity, nature, spirituality, character, image, life or immortality, independent of God. Only in spiritual union with the ontological essence of Jesus Christ can the Christian derive these spiritual realities, contingent upon and indivisible from Jesus Christ. Our spiritual nature as Christians is not an inherent human nature, but has been converted from a nature identified with wrath (Eph. 2:2) to "partaking of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4) in unified coalition with the spiritual nature of God in Christ. We are not essentially spiritual, for that would be to deify man since only "God is Spirit" (Jn. 4:24); but we derive our spirituality from spiritual connectivity either with the spirit of error or the spirit of truth (I Jn. 4:6), the spirit of the world or the Spirit of God (I Cor. 2:12). Our character is not a conspicuous feature of personality in accord with social mores and values, but is determined by the essential impress of the character of the spirit that indwells us. The image of God in man is not comprised of innate features of human creatureliness, nor of disjoined reflections or representations of God in man, but the reality of the spiritual presence of God which allows for the visible expression of the character of God in our behavior when we have been spiritually renewed to such image in Jesus Christ (Col. 3:10). Even the essence of our personhood is not evaluated by the personality characteristics of mental, emotional and volitional function, but by our oneness with the Person of God in Christ who by His trinitarian homoousion is the perfection of relational interaction in loving interpersonal relationships.
The entirety of who we are and what we do as Christians is derived from and contingent upon our spiritual union with the Spirit of Christ. This is not based upon an instrumental or causal connection with Christ whereby some "thing" other than Christ is extended to us, but is a personal and relational union whereby Christ Himself becomes the essence of all divine and spiritual realities in us.
"Christ is our life," explains the apostle Paul, for "our life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3,4). Spiritual life is conveyed not by heritage or performance (Jn. 1:13) or purchase, but through the figurative analogy of "new birth," being "born from above" (Jn. 3:1-6) or "born of God" (Jn. 1:13). The life that we receive in Christ is not separated apart from Jesus, nor is it a part of Jesus that can be partitively appropriated. Jesus is the spiritual life that we receive and participate in. "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (I Jn. 5:11). "I am...the life" (Jn. 14:6), Jesus said, and "I came that you might have life" (Jn. 10:10). Concerning this eternal spiritual life, W. Ian Thomas explains,
"Jesus Christ and eternal life are synonymous terms, and eternal life is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. ...If you have eternal life at all, it simply means that you have the Son, Jesus Christ..."The spiritual life that we experience in Christ is the very resurrection-life of Jesus Christ. The historical event of Jesus' physical resurrection from the dead, allowed the risen and living Lord Jesus to invest His resurrection-life in all Christians by the Spirit. "I am the resurrection and the life" (Jn. 11:25), Jesus explained. In explaining The Mind of St.Paul, William Barclay wrote,
"Eternal life is not a peculiar feeling inside! It is not your ultimate destination, to which you will go when you are dead. If you are born again, eternal life is that quality of life that you possess right now... He is that Life!"16
"To Paul the Resurrection was not a past fact, but a present power.Lutheran professor, Karl Paul Donfried, comments similarly,
"If Christ is risen from the dead, it means that it is possible for the Christian to live every moment of every day in the presence and the fellowship of the living Christ. It means that the Christian approaches no tasks alone, bears no sorrow alone, attacks no problem alone, faces no demand alone, endures no temptation alone. It means that Jesus Christ does not issue his commands, and then leave us to do our best to obey them alone, but that he is constantly with us to enable us to perform that which he commands.
"To Paul the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was neither simply a fact in history nor a theological dogma. It was the supreme fact of experience. It meant that all life is lived in the presence of the love and of the power of Jesus Christ."17
"The early church did not ask its followers to simply imitate or observe some static principles of Christianity, but rather to so comprehend the significance of the Christ event that they could dynamically actualize its implications in the situation in which they lived. The freedom for this actualization and application to the concrete, existential situation can only be comprehended when one recognizes that these early Christians were not worshipping some dead prophet of Nazareth; rather, essential to their very existence was the conviction that this Jesus was raised from the dead by God, was now the Lord of the church, and present in its very life. It is this presence of the Risen One that both compelled and allowed the early church to engage in such vigorous and dynamic teaching and proclamation."18The resurrection-life of the risen and living Lord Jesus is the ontological essence of Christianity. The continuum of His Life in a perpetuity that "cannot die" (Jn. 11:26), allows His eternality to be expressed in immortality. Jesus "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (II Tim. 1:10). Such immortality of life is not inherent to man's humanity for "God alone possesses immortality" (I Tim. 6:16), nor is it a futuristic reward to be presented, but is inherent in the eternal resurrection-life of Jesus Christ. The Christian participates in and enjoys the perpetuity of eternal immortality only in spiritual union with the living Lord Jesus.
By these spiritual realities of the Christian's spiritual condition in regeneration we have sought to document the ontological essence of the indwelling Being of Jesus Christ in the Christian. "Do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?", Paul queried the Corinthians. To the Colossians, he explained that the spiritual mystery of the gospel is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
To keep the divine Being and activity integrated and unified, we proceed to consider the dynamic expression of the functional activity of Jesus Christ in and through Christian behavior. The spiritual condition of the Christian, constituted by the indwelling presence of His life, allows for the self-expression of His Being in Christian behavior. The essence and expression of Christ's life were conjoined by Paul when he wrote to the Galatians, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
The life of Jesus Christ within the spirit of the Christian is not just a deposit to guarantee future heavenly benefits. Such a static and detached understanding of the Christian life encourages Christians to "hold on," wait, and endure the pathos of the present, because the past is forgiven and the future is assured. It misreads the gospel as a heavenly fire-insurance policy for the avoidance of hell. The objective of participating in Christianity and the Christian life is not just to avoid hell and get passage to heaven, but to allow the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ by His Spirit to function in human behavior to the glory of God on the way to heaven (if such is to be perceived merely as locative and future). Regeneration of spiritual condition is but a crisis with a view to a living process!
Christian living is not generated, produced or manufactured by the Christian in response to, or appreciation of, Christ's redemptive work or spiritual presence. Jesus' physical behavior and ministry on earth was not generated by His own initiative (Jn. 8:28; 12:49), but by the divine presence of the Father abiding in Him and doing His works (Jn. 14:10), and likewise the Christian life is not self-generated by the initiative of the Christian, but is enacted by the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ through the Christian. Thomas Merton explained that "Jesus creates it (the Christian life) in our souls by the action of His Spirit."19 The dynamic of God's grace in Jesus Christ is the impetus of the Christian life.
As previously noted, Christianity is not morality. The Christian life is not human and religious attempts to implement a theory for living a good and moral life by conformity to behavioral rules and regulations. It is not even the attempt to put into practice the moral teachings of Jesus. Rather, the indwelling Christ-life is to be dynamically expressed in the behavior of a Christian. C.S. Lewis explains,
"the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."Neither is the Christian life an attempt to follow Jesus' example and "imitate His virtues."22 Contrary to the classic inculcations to the Imitation of Christ (Thomas a Kempis) by walking In His Steps (Charles Sheldon) in order to be Like Christ (Andrew Murray), the Christian life is not an attempt at duplication. Methodist pastor, Maxie Dunnam, explained that,
"...when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being 'in Christ' or of Christ being 'in them,' this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them..."20
"(the) Christian idea of 'putting on Christ'... It is the whole of Christianity. Christianity offers nothing else at all. It differs from ordinary ideas of 'morality' and 'being good.'"21
"...to see the patterning of lives after Jesus as the essence of Christianity misses the point. This has been the major failure of the Christian Church since the second century on. To emphasize following Jesus as the heart of Christianity is to reduce it to a religion of morals and ethics and denude it of power. This has happened over and over again in Christian history-the diminishing of the role of Jesus to merely an example for us to follow."23Ortiz admonishes Christians to,
"Stop trying to copy the Jesus of nearly 2000 years ago, and let the living Christ flow through your character. You are an expression of the glorified, eternal Christ who lives within you."24The Christian life is not an imitation of Jesus' life, but the manifestation of His life and Being in our behavior. The Apostle Paul was desirous that "the life of Jesus should be manifested in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11).
Explaining to His disciples their inability to reproduce the Christian life, Jesus indicated, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5). There is nothing that a Christian can originate or activate that constitutes or demonstrates Christianity, that qualifies as Christian behavior, or that glorifies God. "I am the vine, you are the branches" (Jn. 15:5) was the analogy that Jesus utilized to illustrate the necessity of allowing His life sustenance to flow through the Christian's bodily behavior, whereby the Christian might bear (not produce) the fruit of His character. The character of Christ lived out in Christians is the "fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal. 5:22,23).
The fruit of Christ's character is also the "fruit of righteousness" (Phil. 1:11; James 3:18). The divine character of righteousness (I Jn. 2:29; 3:7) personified in "the Righteous One" (Acts 3:13; 7:52; 22:14;I Jn. 2:1), Jesus Christ, allows the Christian to "become righteous" (II Cor. 5:21) and "be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19), as "Christ becomes to us...righteousness" (I Cor. 1:30). The understanding of righteousness must not be objectified only in "positional truths" of declaration, imputation, reckoning and reconciliation, with no practical implication of our bodily members being "instruments of righteousness" (Rom. 6:13) in the conveyance of Christ's character.
"Having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 5:10), Paul explains. Christians live by "the saving life of Christ."25 That is why Paul could also say, "for me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). Salvation is not simply a static event of regenerative conversion, but is the dynamic expression of Christ's life that causes us to be "made safe" from misuse and dysfunction, in order to function as God intended by His presence and activity in us.
All of the deeds or works of Christian living are but the outworking of Christ's activity. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). We allow for the outworking of Christ's work by recognizing that "God is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12,13). To claim Christian faith without any of the consequent outworking of Christ's character and activity, is to evidence the invalidity of such faith (cf. James 2:14,17,26).
Christian ministry is likewise, not something that the Christian does to serve Jesus. "God is not served with human hands, as though He needed anything" (Acts 17:25). Rather, we recognize that the "same God works all things in all Christians" (I Cor. 12:6). Together with Paul we affirm that "we are not adequate to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is of God" (II Cor. 3:5). This is why Paul declared, "I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me" (Rom. 15:18).
God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian.
Some would object that this thesis is a form of divine determinism that impinges upon man's freedom of choice, but such is not valid for man is definitely responsible to exercise the choice of faith that allows for the receptivity of God's activity in him, both initially and continually. Others would object that attributing all Christian activity to Christ encourages passivism and acquiesence, but notice the words of Paul, "I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me" (Col. 1:29). God is an active God, always acting out of His Being and character, and those available to Him will inevitably be involved in active expressions of the Christ-life.
Continuing then, the entirety of this divine, spiritual reality of Christ's presence and function as Christianity, must be understood not only individually in the life of each Christian (as we have been doing), but also collectively or corporately in the whole of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The ontological essence of Jesus Christ collectively embodied in all Christians comprises the Body of Christ, the Church (Eph. 1:22,23; Col. 1:18,24). Not only is Christ in us individually, but He is "in us" collectively (cf. I Cor. 3:16), and we are "in Him" together (cf. Eph. 1:13). "We are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28), irrespective of race, gender, age, nationality, education, intelligence, personality patterns, doctrinal opinions, or denominational preferences. Dietrich Bonhoeffer expressed the singular essence of the Body "in Christ" in these words:
"The Church is the real presence of Christ. Once we have realized this truth we are well on the way to recovering an aspect of the Church's being which has been sadly neglected in the past. We should think of the Church not as an institution, but as a person, though of course a person in a unique sense.26Swiss author, Manfred Haller, also sees the singular unity of Christ and the Church.
"Through his Spirit, the crucified and risen Lord exists as the Church, as the new man. It is just as true to say that this Body is the new humanity as to say that he is God incarnate dwelling in eternity.27
"The Church of Christ is the presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit. In this way the life of the Body of Christ becomes our own life. In Christ we no longer live our own lives, but he lives His life in us. The life of the faithful in the Church is indeed the life of Christ in them."28
"Christ is the essence and nature of the church by the Holy Spirit. He is her content, her structure, her fullness, and she is for her part Christ's fullness."29As the ontological essence of the Church, the living Lord Jesus is also the dynamic expression of all that transpires in the Church His Body. Jesus Christ in each individual Christian relates to Himself in another Christian, allowing for interactive interpersonal relationships that comprise a loving social community. Early observers of the Church, of Christianity, marveled at how the Christians "loved one another." In the expression of Christ's character of love, they ministered together in the spiritual giftedness of Christ's functional service to one another, as was the intent of the Church's functionality.
"In modern parlance, church is an institution, a form of Christian community, a set of people believing in Christ (or at least having some concept of God) which convenes regularly. When we talk about church, we immediately picture a number of people who, on the basis of some common understanding or arrangement, have formed a Christian association. ...When Paul thought of the church, however, he thought of Christ. The idea that the church could be anything beyond the embodiment of Christ never crossed his mind."30
"Christ and the church are one single reality! The body is not an attachment to Christ; it embodies Him. It gives expression to Christ the whole Christ and it carries Him within it. In the church, in the body, Christ Himself lives and acts and speaks. The church is the corporate Christ Christ in the saints through the Holy Spirit. This indwelling Christ is her nature and structure, her unity, truth and certainty; He is everything to her. And Christ is in every member!"31
"Christ and the church are absolutely and indivisibly one. The church is utterly absorbed in the experience of the risen and present Lord. The inner reality and presence of Christ stamps her indelibly. She is directed by Him and held together by Him, and the very length and breadth of her is the person of Christ Jesus. Her authority is His, her mind is His mind, and her holiness His holiness. She has nothing of her own."32
"The church has only this task: to embody Christ, manifest His nature, demonstrate God's love to the world and proclaim His Lordship over all things."33
Jesus promised that the Church, thus functioning by the presence and activity of His life, would overcome all odds. "Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it" (Matt. 16:18). B.F. Westcott observed that "the history of the Christian Church is the history of the victories of the Risen Christ gained through the Spirit sent in His name."34 "We see a Divine Life manifested...from age to age through a Divine society."35 The conclusion of James Denny was that, "without Christ there would be no Church and no ministry at all; everything we call Christian is absolutely dependent on Him."36
Have we not sufficiently documented that Jesus Christ is the singular essence and expression of the gospel, of the revelation of God, of Christianity, of the Church? Everything "Christian" is derived from the Being and activity of Jesus. All of Christianity is contingent and dependent on Him, and expressive of Him. Christianity is Christ!
When Jesus announced to His disciples, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (Jn. 14:6), He was declaring that all was inherent in Him. He is the modality, reality and vitality of God, and thus of Christianity and the Church. He does not just teach us the way of God or guide us to the divine way, but His very Being is the way of God's self-revelation to man, the modality of spiritual union with God and proper human function. He does not simply teach truth propositions about God apart from Himself, but His very Being is the self-authenticating Truth of God, the reality of Christianity. He does not offer us an historical example of life or a commodity of "eternal life," but His very Being is the self-expression of the living God, the dynamic vitality of Christian life. He could just as well have said, "I am Christianity!"
How important is this integration of Christ's person and work, the integral oneness of His being and action? Is it really of serious import to insist that the unity of His essence and expression be maintained? Should we endeavor to challenge the traditional dualistic detachments of "Christian religion," and upset the religious status-quo that separates Christ from that activity that goes by His name?
This author believes that it is imperative that we address the issue of the detachment and disjuncture of Christianity from Christ, for such a perversion constitutes a disintegration of the gospel, the revelation of God in Christ. The issue at hand is but another form of that initially addressed by Paul in his epistle to the Galatians, when he confronted the Galatian believers who were being duped into denying that Christianity was constituted in the life of Christ alone without any encumbrances of additional belief or action. Paul accused those who succumbed to such disconnected accretions of a circumscribed ritual, of "deserting Christ, who called them by His grace, for another gospel which is not good news at all, but a distortion worthy only of damnation" (Gal. 1:6-9).
If the homoousion issue of the integral oneness of the Trinity was important enough to address at the Council of Nicea in the fourth century. If the sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura, sola Christus issue of the singularity of the redemptive efficacy of Christ's justifying and sanctifying work received by faith was important enough to address in the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Then, the issue of the integral oneness of the ontological essence and dynamic expression of Jesus Christ in Christianity and the Church is certainly timely and important enough to address in the twenty-first century.
The disintegration of Christ and Christianity in contemporary "Christian religion" allows the ontological essence of Jesus Christ in the Christian individual to degenerate into an obliging endorsement of history or theology. The dynamic expression of Jesus Christ in the Christian individual is diminished to the dictated exercise and effort of moralism and ethics. The ontological essence of Jesus Christ in the Church collectively is reduced to an organizational entity of ecclesiasticism. The dynamic expression of Jesus Christ in His Body is replaced with the determined enterprise of religious planning and programs. Christianity is thus mutilated and mutated by man-made "Christian religion" which has no value before God (cf. Col. 2:23).
Consider the serious logical consequences of allowing Christianity and Christ to be thus divided, divorced, and disintegrated. Without the recognition of the ontological and dynamic connection and union of Christ and Christianity, there is an inevitable deficient and defective understanding of the Trinity, of God's action in the Christian and the Church through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (Acts 3:14; 7:52) is separated and severed from the dynamic expression of Christian righteousness, with the subsequent insistence on pious performance of Christian living, then the efficacy of the death of Christ is denied and the cross is but a redundant, superfluous and unnecessary tragedy of history (cf. Gal. 2:21). When "Christian religion" mutates Christianity into mere morality generated by the self-effort of human ability, then "the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished" (Gal. 5:11), as the "finished work" of Christ (Jn. 19:30) is left unfinished, to be completed by human commitment and ability. When Christianity is conceived of as anything less that the ontological presence and dynamic activity of the living Lord Jesus, then some separated and detached entity is formed and formulated, whether it be in thought construction or ecclesiastical construction, and such construct becomes the object of idolatry. These are serious abdications and aberrations that must be addressed and challenged.
Though some have called for a "new reformation,"37 such could merely imply a re-forming of the existent theological belief-systems or ecclesiastical constructions, which would be inadequate. What we need is a complete restoration of the recognition of the reality of the risen Lord Jesus as the essence and expression of Christianity, which constitutes the restoration of humanity to God's functional intent by the indwelling function of Jesus Christ in the Christian.
The affirmation that Christianity is Christ, that "Christianity is the divine,"38 is not merely advocacy of another variant epistemological ideology or the defense of a more precise orthodox belief-system. This is a call to return to the reality of the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ as the ontological essence and behavioral expression of Christianity. There will, without a doubt, be some theological objectivists who will attempt to pass off this integral Christocentric emphasis as perfectionistic idealism or subjective mysticism. They will insist on the retention of detached cerebral and eclesiastical objectivities which deny and disallow the real and vital spiritual experience of the living Spirit of Christ, for themselves and for others.
John R.W. Stott vividly portrays pictures in words when he writes that "Christianity without Christ is a chest without a treasure, a frame without a portrait, a corpse without breath."39 Are we content to sit idly by and allow "Christian religion" and its empty, sterile theology misrepresent Christianity in such a lifeless and fallacious manner? Now is the time to unashamedly affirm that "Christianity is Christ," and to witness such personally by allowing the resurrection-life of the living Lord Jesus to be "manifested in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11) by the grace of God unto the glory of God!
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