LIVE YOUR COLOURED LIFE
05/09/24 11:08
We might have a high-definition TV but if we only use standard definition channels, we will not enjoy the potential of our set. Possessing a fine piece of technology does not ensure that we get the best from our asset. Similarly, we may purchase a new BMW. But if we do not consult the instruction and service manual our enjoyment of the vehicle will be disappointing.
We might be a Television set. But if we remain black and white when the world has HD colour we are sub-standard. As a Believer you can be a black and white TV or a colour TV. One is religion. The other is Kingdom.
HOW GOOD?
We have a life in Christ that we enter when we believe that He is our Saviour. His salvation comes in the context of a gospel that some call the Good News. But the news will not be all that good if our gospel is distorted and our christ is not the Christ of God. Jesus warned us using the words ‘false christs’ and ‘paddocks of tares’. Meaning an attachment to christs who are not a Real Christ and immersion in a gospel that is not the Gospel of Jesus and the apostles.
TRAVELLING IN FIRST OR COACH
We become part of the Body of Christ by believing in Christ. In this sense all belong. But some belong better than others. They have a better quality of belonging because the Gospel in which they believe is Christ’s Gospel and not some perversion of it.
One does not have to possess a detailed theology of the Gospel of grace to participate in Christ’s grace. Some will find in heaven that their theology was cock-eyed. Nevertheless, they had a relationship with Christ because He embraced them as they were. Everyone does not have to be a theologian to enjoy a relationship with Jesus. Yet if our theology is Jesus’s theology and Paul’s theology, we will enjoy a better relationship ln our life journey than one that is based on distortions and lies. Truth matters because truth is both life and the quality of life.
THEOLOGY
This is why the gift of theologian is just as important as the gift of signs and healing, given that proper theology will position us in the Greater Healing of our Reconciliation in Christ. It is possible to heal limbs yet live a sub-standard life in a bent gospel in which case we promote a crippled spirit even though we have healed a leg or two. This is case of ‘physician heal yourself’.
Theology is to do with who God is, who we are in Christ and the logic and application of our salvation. To be a good theologian is to be apostolic in that the promotion of the fullness of Christ’s life is a function of a lived union with God* and a mission to multiply the inheritance of oneness with God that is already ours. Good theology uncovers the foundation of our life in God. It rectifies distortions that are subtle heresies and exposes us to the fullness of our life in Christ.
DOCTRINE OF JESUS AND THE APOSTLES
Christ derived theology establishes the meaning and consequences of the cross. Good theology is never reductionist or legalistic and is always bigger on the inside than the outside. The best theology extols the vicarious humanity of Christ and is an authentic expression when Christ is the theologian’s life.
LIGHT OF THE WOLD
Good theology does not provide ‘new light’ but it does uncover ‘the glory in the face of Christ’ that has been improperly understood. It exposes the basics and the certainties of our reconciliation, casts Father in an excellent light and encourages us to enter the fullness of the grace that is ours in Christ our life.
Life-giving theology flows from an incarnated life. The best theology ensures that we not only know Christ as He is but that we know the Gospel as it has been given to us by Jesus, the apostles, the Church Fathers and the theologians of the Reformation. It enables us to be a high-definition colour television rather than a black and white TV. It enables us to minister spirit and life rather than something and nothing to fill a religious space.
* Jesus was the Chief Apostle in the authority, spirit and life of oneness with His Father.
