NEW TESTAMENT. NEW BIRTH. NEW YOU
26/04/23 14:22
Our celebration of Easter is done. But Christ our life is an Easter Life. Growth comes through loss and gain comes through starting again. Jesus expressed this truth about life when He said, ‘For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it’ Mark 8.35 NIV. We start again in Jesus Christ. In Him there are infinite new starts which is our maturation as sons and daughters of the Kingdom.
THE MISER DOES NOT SAVE
It is apparent that those who cling to what they possess by way of attitudes and beliefs are not as blessed as those who seek life and truth for its own sake. An addiction to our mental stuff suffocates opportunity and shrinks the mind.
CROSS APPEARS LOSS BUT IS GAIN
“Martin Luther was right, Christianity is not a theology of glory, but a theology of the cross. But to choose the way of the cross over the way of glory is a hard lesson to learn.” (1) We may not overtly be glory seekers. But we may seek an identity and a status in tradition and belief that numbs us to life and to truth.
‘Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God’ John 3.3 NIV. There are people who have given their entire lives in service to God who have only ever seen the Kingdom through a keyhole because the gospel they promoted was not Christ’s gospel.
SPIRIT AND LIFE
Jesus called the undiluted, un-encumbered non-insulated oneness that is ours in nakedness with Christ, spirit and life. There is no substitute for it in religion. The genuine article is simply incarnation – union with God. Richard Rohr calls this living in the ‘naked now’. Jesus calls it ‘Me and My Father are one.’ This oneness is yours.
Our loss may be our throwing out our room of rubbish and repenting of substitute gospels. Our gain will be a life that is not ours that grows in us and becomes us.
The Easter life is our agreeing with Jesus that He is our life; that we died with Him at His cross and that we have risen with Him to life in His Spirit as new creation sons and daughters of God. This is our Easter Life.
(1) Zahnd, Brian. The Unvarnished Jesus: A Lenten Journey (p. 10). Kindle Edition.
