Trusting the Life of Christ

Christians are saved eternally by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and we are also called to walk by faith in Jesus today.  Since we are willing to trust Jesus forever, it follows we ought to seek, trust and obey Him today.  The work God has begun in us He is faithful to complete, and we can take God at His word regarding our lives and other believers as well as it is written in Philippians 1:6:  "...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ..."  Though Jesus has not yet returned in glory, His glorious life is in us and lives through us today.

In the book Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness, Cook and Baldwin make a good point of our need to trust the power of the Gospel as well as the life of Jesus in other Christians.  From the perspective of one in church leadership, Cook wrote:  "Besides lacking faith in the gospel, there is among us a tragic distrust of the life of Christ in other believers.  We are scared to death they are going to goof things up, whether through incompetence or moral or spiritual failure.  So we don't release them to minister." (Cook, Jerry, and Stanley C. Baldwin. Love, Acceptance & Forgiveness. GL Regal Books, 1984. page 70)  Later in the same chapter, the authors went into greater detail about trusting the life of Jesus in others:

"Besides a basic mistrust of people's competence, I think I also see among many Christians a tragic mistrust of the life of Christ in His people so far as their moral and spiritual commitment is involved.  Some seem to think we must put all kinds of hedges around Christians to keep them on the "straight and narrow."

I don't understand that.  My people don't want to sin.  They love Jesus and they are trying to follow Him, just as I love Him and try to follow Him.  My people don't need a warden to guard them; they need a shepherd to guide them.  And when they do sin, they need love, acceptance and forgiveness, not suspicion and rejection...

The life of Christ is incredibly tenacious in a believer, and we need to trust it more. I'm sure someone could tell stories on the other side--how believers were drawn away by evil surroundings.  That's where the fellowship of the believers comes in.  That's what the collective gathering of the Body is for--to restore and strengthen one another.  But that restoration and strengthening is so that we can then go back out as lights into the world, not so that we can stay insulated and isolated." (Ibid, pages 72-73)

Reading this passage reminded me we are saved by faith and to live by faith--and this means trusting God is doing a good work in the lives of other people in the church right now.  It is entirely possible to be saved by faith and then lean on my own understanding, to follow my own thoughts or rely on what I see rather than seeking God and yielding to Him in trust and obedience.  Cook pointed out the error of insulation and isolation within church ministry or a church building.  While this can happen, the more common occurrence is insulation and isolation from meeting with other believers as the church, the Body of Christ, and when they fall there is no one around to help them back up.  Online teaching keeps a person spiritually fed, but a lack of Christian fellowship leads to spiritual weakness, dullness and drifting coupled with self-confidence.

When we gather together as Christians, it is a wonderful opportunity God has provided to seek and worship Him together, to examine our hearts, to love and listen to others.  There is opportunity to learn, grow, exhort, rebuke, correct and stand corrected, and all this is edifying for us.  Just being in the same room or speaking in a conversation with other Christians does not mean we have experienced fellowship, for this happens when both or all parties before the LORD are willing to humbly receive from one another and to share with one another from the heart.  This requires humility by the Holy Spirit, transparency about personal difficulties, willingness to share what the LORD is teaching us, and to love one another.  Praise the LORD because Jesus is alive and at work in each one of us, He empowers us to do His will to love others as He loves us.