LIVING THE FULL LIFE
12/08/24 08:04
When we care about the reputation of Father and are meticulous about the nature of Christ and passionate about the Good News He brought us in Himself. When we have not made an idol out of ‘our perspective’.. then we will not live to pump up our own ‘gospel’ or accommodate ourselves to distorted teachings about Christ and His Way for the sake of some supposed identity and status we imagine that we have as a member of a faith group. We will know that it is more important to open people to all of their inheritance in Christ than just to keep our institution ticking over.
NO INVERSION
We will not hide in membership of the Body of Christ in order to perpetuate a version of Christianity that turns the gospel on its head with a christ who leads to the law instead of the law that leads to Christ. We will not spend our lives trying to make the best out of lies in order to make them some kind of approximation to the truth. Because we have too much respect for God and we care more about people than our corner of ‘specialness’.
LIES BE GONE
Jeff Turner observes that “When Jesus arrived on the scene He did so with a passion .. for He came not only to locate a lost humanity, but to redeem a lost reputation. He simply could not have men speaking wrongly about His Father’s character and nature. He could not tolerate the false ideas being promoted by clueless theologians.” (1)
MILL STONE
Neither could Jesus tolerate people being held captive as lesser children of a lesser god of the kind that was being promoted by ignorance and a sense of entitlement. When Jesus said It would be better for such imposters to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble’ (Luke 17.2) He was taking about blind guides who preferred their status and influence over their responsibility to liberate the less able from specious doctrines and outright lies. All true messengers live to liberate the disadvantaged into the fullness of God’s gift of Himself to them.
NOT AN AUSTERE LEGALIST
“Jesus had heard their words concerning the One He knew most intimately, and He saw the pain that they created in the souls of those who really only wanted to know that they were loved. And so He came to reveal to humanity the truth that their Heavenly Father was not the cold and unfeeling judge that some had made Him out to be. He came to show that Yahweh was much more than a smug, Heavenly bookkeeper, keeping careful records of all of our wrongs, while snubbing our best attempts at serving Him. Jesus, the eternal Son, came to give God a face.” (2)
God’s Face is Christ. As the informed Church of the pure in heart we live to set captives free from humbug and open their door to Christ who is their life.
So are we with Him or with ourselves?
(1) Jeff Turner, Saints in the Arms of a Happy God. P56
(2) Ibid.
