LIVE THE GOSPEL OF JESUS AND PAUL
28/04/24 08:42
Signs, wonders, healings and prophetic ‘words’ may herald the Gospel or testify to it. But they are not that Gospel. The essence of that Gospel is our reconciliation to Christ; our union with God that is actual and living in Jesus. This union is ours due to the atonement effected by Christ’s cross. It is real in our lives because we are incarnated with Christ, with Father and Holy Spirit.
CHRIST SEEKS YOU OUT
Christ comes to us via many ways in church and out of it. Timothy Keller observed that, “Ruth Bell [Billy Graham’s wife] had been raised by Presbyterian missionaries in China. She could not remember a time in which she did not believe.
Throughout her years as a child, she was receiving one Christian belief after the other, and she always embraced in faith what she could know and understand at the time. At some point she knew enough of the gospel to put her faith in it, but she could not remember exactly when that occurred.
“I have had ‘crisis’ experiences but my salvation did not happen to be one of them, for I cannot remember the time when I did not love and trust Him. In fact my earliest recollections are of deep love and gratitude that He should love me enough to die for me.”
“When Luke, the author of Acts, recorded these case studies of conversion, he was inviting us to look at what was common to them all. They were not all dramatic. They did not all follow some fixed set of steps. In every case the how of conversion was different, but the what—the result —was the same. Each person was changed from the inside out. And so we should read Paul’s story not to learn how Jesus reveals himself to every person, but to learn about the profound life changes that always occur after he does.” (1)
CONNECTING VINE
Jesus is the Vine who has undone our separation in Adam and joined us to God in Himself. He has included us in His life in God and more. Jesus lives in us by the Spirit as do Father and Holy Spirit. They have made their home in us. We are never alone and are blessed by their transforming influence in our lives. We become the fruit of His Vine. Our life in God includes the gifts – but it is less about the gifts and more about being healed, whole and gracious people as the expression of Jesus. As Bill, George or Mary we are the expression of Christ in the world. Hidden in Christ we are made more us than we could ever be in religion or career.
(1) Timothy Keller. Hope in Times of Fear. The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter.113
CHRIST SEEKS YOU OUT
Christ comes to us via many ways in church and out of it. Timothy Keller observed that, “Ruth Bell [Billy Graham’s wife] had been raised by Presbyterian missionaries in China. She could not remember a time in which she did not believe.
Throughout her years as a child, she was receiving one Christian belief after the other, and she always embraced in faith what she could know and understand at the time. At some point she knew enough of the gospel to put her faith in it, but she could not remember exactly when that occurred.
“I have had ‘crisis’ experiences but my salvation did not happen to be one of them, for I cannot remember the time when I did not love and trust Him. In fact my earliest recollections are of deep love and gratitude that He should love me enough to die for me.”
“When Luke, the author of Acts, recorded these case studies of conversion, he was inviting us to look at what was common to them all. They were not all dramatic. They did not all follow some fixed set of steps. In every case the how of conversion was different, but the what—the result —was the same. Each person was changed from the inside out. And so we should read Paul’s story not to learn how Jesus reveals himself to every person, but to learn about the profound life changes that always occur after he does.” (1)
CONNECTING VINE
Jesus is the Vine who has undone our separation in Adam and joined us to God in Himself. He has included us in His life in God and more. Jesus lives in us by the Spirit as do Father and Holy Spirit. They have made their home in us. We are never alone and are blessed by their transforming influence in our lives. We become the fruit of His Vine. Our life in God includes the gifts – but it is less about the gifts and more about being healed, whole and gracious people as the expression of Jesus. As Bill, George or Mary we are the expression of Christ in the world. Hidden in Christ we are made more us than we could ever be in religion or career.
(1) Timothy Keller. Hope in Times of Fear. The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter.113
