A RIPPER OF A LIFE INCARNATED WITH GOD
21/06/22 09:12
There is living water and stagnant water. Our attempts at holiness are often spasmodic and our stints at personal revival short lived. We may talk of grace and often construct our own ‘graces’ in the form of religious behaviours, sabbaths, church routines and works of charity. These have droplets of good effect but are never rivers of spirit and life. What they do is insulate us from the direct oneness with Christ that is our possession. Religious behaviors often suffice as self-made ‘graces.’ And virtue signalling to the self and others. Pieties but not always Godliness in the real sense – because real Godliness is Christ in us.
Jesus is our rest and the only true rest for human restlessness. The self, hidden in Christ is revealed to the self and the world in peace, contentment and grace. This living way is not presumptuous but the one way of enjoying who we are and as a result ministering life.
THE REAL GRACE
Jesus said, ‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20. This is the day we leave religion behind and get re-born. Reborn out of the knowledge of good and evil, which is religion and born into union with God which is life, growth and maturity as sons and daughters of God.
Thomas Torrance writes, “In Jesus there was provided for mankind a way of response to God which issued out of the depths of its existence and as its very own and in which each human being was free to share through communion with Jesus. Thus in Jesus the final response of man toward God was taken up, purified through his atoning self-consecration on our behalf, and incorporated into the Word of God as his complete self-communication to mankind, but also as the covenanted way of vicarious response to God which avails for all of us and in which we all may share through the Spirit of Jesus Christ which he freely gives us.” (1)
OUR GRACE AND OUR LIFE
Jesus is Christ our life and our response to God. He is the absolute Grace and the means by which we do become holy in our flesh – which is to say in our being, rather than on our surface presentation.
There is a baptism in the Holy Spirit that is less about the gifts and all about living the oneness with Christ that is our treasure. Richard Rohr puts it so well. “We can recognize people who have had a second baptism in the Holy Spirit. They tend to be loving. They tend to be exciting. They want to serve others, and not just be served themselves. They forgive life itself for not being everything they once hoped for. They forgive their neighbours. They forgive themselves for not being as perfect as they would like to be.” They live their life in the New and Living Way.
(1) Thomas Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, p 71.
Jesus is our rest and the only true rest for human restlessness. The self, hidden in Christ is revealed to the self and the world in peace, contentment and grace. This living way is not presumptuous but the one way of enjoying who we are and as a result ministering life.
THE REAL GRACE
Jesus said, ‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20. This is the day we leave religion behind and get re-born. Reborn out of the knowledge of good and evil, which is religion and born into union with God which is life, growth and maturity as sons and daughters of God.
Thomas Torrance writes, “In Jesus there was provided for mankind a way of response to God which issued out of the depths of its existence and as its very own and in which each human being was free to share through communion with Jesus. Thus in Jesus the final response of man toward God was taken up, purified through his atoning self-consecration on our behalf, and incorporated into the Word of God as his complete self-communication to mankind, but also as the covenanted way of vicarious response to God which avails for all of us and in which we all may share through the Spirit of Jesus Christ which he freely gives us.” (1)
OUR GRACE AND OUR LIFE
Jesus is Christ our life and our response to God. He is the absolute Grace and the means by which we do become holy in our flesh – which is to say in our being, rather than on our surface presentation.
There is a baptism in the Holy Spirit that is less about the gifts and all about living the oneness with Christ that is our treasure. Richard Rohr puts it so well. “We can recognize people who have had a second baptism in the Holy Spirit. They tend to be loving. They tend to be exciting. They want to serve others, and not just be served themselves. They forgive life itself for not being everything they once hoped for. They forgive their neighbours. They forgive themselves for not being as perfect as they would like to be.” They live their life in the New and Living Way.
(1) Thomas Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, p 71.
