GLORY TO GLORY IS YOU COMING ALIVE
05/04/23 07:40
In coming to Christ, we do not become sinless. But we do become better people growing away from self-centredness to Christ-centredness and the emergence of the true self.
An obsession with sin and the overcoming of it will not make us over comers. On the contrary it will deny us the individuality and the life that could have been ours if we had made Christ our life as His Mission Statement urges. We can, if we are not astute, pursue an intellectualised/moralistic demeanour and as a result never approach the potential of our true selves. There is no whole person advancement in this kind of pursuit. To pursue a whole person development via the law is an oxymoron. Only Christ our life can make us alive and ignite us with our true glory – the glory of the real self.
THE RELIGION ILLUSION
We can deny this, mistake the parts for the whole and live Christian instead of incarnated. Richard Rohr’s use of the words ‘the naked now’ indicate an unadulterated living in the person of Christ minus reliance on religious amendments and addition. Then, again we can kid ourselves that we are holy/whole persons by adopting a formulated morality that distinguishes our community. But this is a self-made, false grace that stunts our lives and embeds hypocrisy.
OUR INHERITANCE
What does Paul mean by Christ our life? “By the death of Christ, Christ comes to dwell in me. Instead therefore of living a life of incessant struggle (Rom 7) against an external law, the Living Christ takes up His abode in the heart and becomes the fountain of all actions, the prime motivation of all deeds and thoughts. The Righteousness of God results as a spontaneous outflow radiating from the indwelling Christ.
WHY CHRIST IS OUR LIFE
“This confidence in the nature of our new humanity and the outworking of sanctification may be deemed triumphalism. Yet it must be emphasised again that this confidence is a boast in God, not our own human efforts, as Paul was proud to do (Gal. 6:14; Rom. 15:17; 2 Cor. 12:9-10). It is confidence in God’s victory rather than resignation to powerlessness that surely most glorifies God. This confidence reflects the triumphal tone of the Biblical witness (Rom. 6:14; 8:31; 1 Cor. 15:57; 2 Cor. 4:8; Eph. 6:10-13; Phil. 4:13; Col. 2:15; Jas. 4:7; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1 Jn. 5:4).
IN ADAM OF IN CHRIST – TAKE YOUR PICK
“Christ’s resurrection power is greater than the sin that held sway over our old human nature. As Paul proclaimed, although all die in Adam, so in Christ all are made alive (1 Cor. 15:22). Christ’s victory is greater than the powers of evil so that as co-heirs with Christ (Gal. 4:7) we are described as ‘more than conquerors’ (Rom. 8:37) and God leads us in ‘triumphal procession in Christ’ (2 Cor. 2:14). (1)
Adam/Moses equals law/knowledge of good and evil and a stagnation in the past. Christ our life means growing into life to the full, into life/spirit itself and the surpassing of merely dead men walking.
(1) Alexandra Radcliff - The Claim of Humanity in Christ: Salvation and Sanctification in the Theology of T. F. and J. B. Torrance (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 222)
