THE DOOR IS CHRIST
31/05/24 08:10
I had a friend who after hearing a teaching would say, ‘But don’t we already know that?” As it happened, he didn’t. But what he did know was ‘words’ because he lived a religion of ‘the letter’ that is without life. Real life in Christ is a state of oneness of being. Superficiality is an obsession with positions and behaviours defined as words.
ATONEMENT NOT A WORD
The atonement is not just a word. It is the life lived by Jesus Christ with us and for us. It is the person of Christ and His life lived in us. As Believers we live well when we participate in this life rather than in religious propositions and beliefs. We do this by agreeing with Christ that He has included us in His Life – which is to say in the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Adamic separation has been undone and we and God are one in Christ.
ATONEMENT IS A LIFE
“It is Christ atoning who concerns us here. Therefore, even when we begin with his incarnation, and with his birth at Bethlehem, we are beginning right away with the atonement, for his birth, as the beginning of his incarnate person, is one end of the atoning work, with the resurrection and ascension as the other end.
WITNESS TO HIMSELF
“When we begin with the person of Christ, it is the Christ who has revealed himself to us that we are concerned with, the Christ whom we know through his own word, as well as through his own work.
LIVING WORD
“We are concerned with the Christ who is the word, who utters the word and whose word is identical with his saving work. Revelation and atonement are thus inseparable, Christ revealing and Christ reconciling, for the speaking of the word and the working out of the atoning deed are done within the one person of Christ, and [we] partake of the unity of his deity and humanity in that one person. At every point it is in that perspective of Christ's wholeness that we are to consider Christology and soteriology.” (1)
It may be seen that the kingdom of life Jesus has given us is more than a religion. It is union with God in His Person. This is why we shortchange ourselves when we adopt legalisms and contract as non-gospels. Thus, mission is more than church planting. It is planting people in Christ so that they are rooted in Christ rather that in the superficialities of religion.
On this theme Leanne Payne wrote, “His “divine energy,” moving through us who believe (most often when we are the least aware of it), brings life where before unbelief and death have been at work.” This is how we act as agents of kingdom life rather than agents of religion. As ordinary folks we impart Christ’s spirit and life, because we are alive, in all our interactions with others.
PLANTING WHAT?
There’s more to church planting than planting boxes of religion. Authentic planting means planting people in the union with God that is theirs in Christ.
MANIFESTATIONS OF CHRIST
Don’t expect to be whole and holy in the fig leaves of religion – or in the law. Our inner life becomes healed as we live what is ours – oneness with Christ. We become healers as whole persons as we invite the Lord to be us by incarnation.
“Christ empowered and commanded His followers to heal because He knew that all, in their exterior relationships and within themselves, are broken and separated. In order to gain wholeness and the opportunity to mature as persons, we must acknowledge and deeply repent of the separations in our lives. The primary separation is between the self and God, out of which issue the separations between the self and other selves, the self and nature, and the self and one’s “deep heart.” (3)
In Christ you have a healing life. You undo separation because you are not separated in misguided religion. You are being healed in your being and are one with God and in yourself in Christ. This is the ministry of those who have entered by The Door.
(1) Thomas Torrance. The Incarnation. P 37.
(2) Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (p. 36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
(3 )Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (p. 37). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
ATONEMENT NOT A WORD
The atonement is not just a word. It is the life lived by Jesus Christ with us and for us. It is the person of Christ and His life lived in us. As Believers we live well when we participate in this life rather than in religious propositions and beliefs. We do this by agreeing with Christ that He has included us in His Life – which is to say in the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Adamic separation has been undone and we and God are one in Christ.
ATONEMENT IS A LIFE
“It is Christ atoning who concerns us here. Therefore, even when we begin with his incarnation, and with his birth at Bethlehem, we are beginning right away with the atonement, for his birth, as the beginning of his incarnate person, is one end of the atoning work, with the resurrection and ascension as the other end.
WITNESS TO HIMSELF
“When we begin with the person of Christ, it is the Christ who has revealed himself to us that we are concerned with, the Christ whom we know through his own word, as well as through his own work.
LIVING WORD
“We are concerned with the Christ who is the word, who utters the word and whose word is identical with his saving work. Revelation and atonement are thus inseparable, Christ revealing and Christ reconciling, for the speaking of the word and the working out of the atoning deed are done within the one person of Christ, and [we] partake of the unity of his deity and humanity in that one person. At every point it is in that perspective of Christ's wholeness that we are to consider Christology and soteriology.” (1)
It may be seen that the kingdom of life Jesus has given us is more than a religion. It is union with God in His Person. This is why we shortchange ourselves when we adopt legalisms and contract as non-gospels. Thus, mission is more than church planting. It is planting people in Christ so that they are rooted in Christ rather that in the superficialities of religion.
On this theme Leanne Payne wrote, “His “divine energy,” moving through us who believe (most often when we are the least aware of it), brings life where before unbelief and death have been at work.” This is how we act as agents of kingdom life rather than agents of religion. As ordinary folks we impart Christ’s spirit and life, because we are alive, in all our interactions with others.
PLANTING WHAT?
There’s more to church planting than planting boxes of religion. Authentic planting means planting people in the union with God that is theirs in Christ.
MANIFESTATIONS OF CHRIST
Don’t expect to be whole and holy in the fig leaves of religion – or in the law. Our inner life becomes healed as we live what is ours – oneness with Christ. We become healers as whole persons as we invite the Lord to be us by incarnation.
“Christ empowered and commanded His followers to heal because He knew that all, in their exterior relationships and within themselves, are broken and separated. In order to gain wholeness and the opportunity to mature as persons, we must acknowledge and deeply repent of the separations in our lives. The primary separation is between the self and God, out of which issue the separations between the self and other selves, the self and nature, and the self and one’s “deep heart.” (3)
In Christ you have a healing life. You undo separation because you are not separated in misguided religion. You are being healed in your being and are one with God and in yourself in Christ. This is the ministry of those who have entered by The Door.
(1) Thomas Torrance. The Incarnation. P 37.
(2) Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (p. 36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
(3 )Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence (p. 37). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
