The Life of Christ

"It was one of the immeasurable evils which the Roman Catholic Church inflicted on Christendom, that it held constantly before the eyes of the Church the exhausted, suffering, agonized form of Christ on the Cross - fastened the thought and imagination of Christian men on the extremity of His mortal weakness - and so deprived them of the animation and the courage inspired by the knowledge that He is now on the throne of the Eternal.  A similar loss may be inflicted on ourselves if our thoughts are imprisoned within the limits of the earthly life of Christ, and if we do not exult in His resurrection and in His constant presence in the Church.  The historic Christ is the Object of memory; the present, the living Christ, is the Object of faith, the Source of power, the Inspiration of love, the Author of salvation.  Christ must be infinitely more than an august and pathetic tradition to us.  He is the Contemporary of all generations."

- R. W. Dale, His Part and Ours by Baxter, pg. 92

I must ask myself:  is my life a demonstration of one who exults in Christ's resurrection and His constant presence in the Church?  This is a subjective question due to the fact my answer depends entirely upon my limited view of the life provided by Christ.  Perhaps I live as if He remains upon the cross.  Christ then is nothing more than one who suffered.  Suffer He did, and more than I can ever know.  But He did more than suffer and die:  He rose glorified, breaking the chains of death which bound His mortal body by His righteous power.  Some would say the cross is the emblem of Christianity.  But there is no sign or representation needed when you can have the substance in the risen LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.  Jesus Himself must be our all in all.

Understand that we cannot receive from Christ unless we first receive Him.  We cannot receive forgiveness, peace, joy, or salvation until we repent and our faith is placed in Jesus alone.  Man is quick to receive from God, but is reluctant to give himself to Him.  The rich blessings and bounty found in Christ cannot be separated from Him.  Yet the misconception that man can enjoy eternal benefits from God without Christ is emphasized weekly from pulpits all over the world ad nauseam.  Preachers rarely explain why we have a need for Christ.  Instead, they focus carefully on what we need from Him.  Receiving is emphasized over believing.  Believing is often limited to our brains where faith does not tread.  We must trust God and give ourselves completely to Him.  We can try to receive things from God all day long, but the offer is only to those who receive Christ first.  That qualifies and enables us to receive from God because we are in Him and He in us.

Every man, whether he regards God or not, is wholly blessed by God.  Yet as followers of Jesus Christ, when we see His perfection we see our great lack.  We are struck with our lack of devotion, confess we are prone to wander and sin, and fail to continually walk in the victory Jesus has purchased with His own blood.  There is a way we can live which is devoid of God's power.  But Jesus is more than a "friend next to ya:"  His power is within us due to the Holy Spirit's regenerating presence.  Can we walk in newness of life if the old man is free to roam?  Can we walk in holiness when we refuse to crucify ourselves with Christ so we too may die to self and live for God?

Galatians 2:20-21 says, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  On the jobsite the other day I heard two high school buddies reminiscing about their days of youthful hedonistic conquest.  One man kept repeating, "Those were the days, you know?  Those were the days."  The longing was as Lot's wife, whose head turned back towards Sodom.  God offered her a new life outside of that den of iniquity and death, but there was a draw within her that caused an almost involuntary urge to look back with affection.  Our life before Christ was no life at all.  Without Christ our emblem might as well have been a skull and crossbones set aflame by hell.  Now to live is Christ, to die is gain.  Is this just a cute catchphrase or the absolute truth?  Our life is now bound up in our risen LORD and Savior, Jesus.  Let us not seek to simply receive from God, but give ourselves completely to Him.  It is in giving ourselves that we can receive.  It is after we receive that we can walk in His strength and power.