The Christ Life

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 6: 19 - 20 NKJV 

I've been giving a lot of thought recently on just what it means to live the Christ life.  Indeed, living the Christ life is a catch phrase uttered in church by sometimes well meaning pastors, but I do believe that there is truth to this thought.  Although it is a difficult thing to wrap our mortal minds around, we who have accepted Christ Jesus are already living the Christ life.  For if we are to accept the words of the apostle Paul, the very Spirit of Christ Jesus now dwells within us {1 Corinthians 6:19}.  Indeed, it is Christ Jesus Himself whom Paul claims already dwells within us.  So, what does this mean as far as living the Christ life?  Well, are we indeed seperate from He who is within us?  Do we now live for ourselves, or do we now live AS Christ Jesus who is in us?  Indeed, we may continue to live our lives in the very same way, but something about us has changed.  Not physicaly, but in our spirit, which is indeed our very likeness of God {Genesis 1:27}.  As Paul tells us, however, we were purchased at a price.  That price being the very life of Christ Jesus.  This is why Paul stakes the claim that we are indeed no longer our own, but are now under the ownership of God.  Now, before someone raises a stink about the very concept of being "Owned" by someone, we do well to remember that God was simply reclaiming what was His from the begining.  For God indeed created us and the universe, so I believe that makes us His very creation.  This is how it was from the begining when God formed us from the dust of the ground {Genesis 2:7}.  Are we foolish enough to believe that we ourselves are the masters of our own environment and person?  For we are not independent, but created and dependent on our heavenly Father.  

"If you love Me, and keep My commandments.  I will then pray the father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells in you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orpahans; I will come to you."

John 14: 15 - 18 NKJV 

Therefore, the Helper whom Jesus Himself told us about, has come to reside within us.  Indeed, that Helper is Jesus Himself.  And so, the case that I present is that we who have accepted Jesus are already living the Christ life.  We do not need some pastor to ensure us of what it is we already have.  Which begs the question, just what is the Christ life?  What is it that we who now walk as Jesus are living?  For is Jesus is indeed within us, everything that we see, taste and experience we now do AS Christ Jesus who is in us.  This is indeed a bombshell experince for those who are, as I was, enslaved by pornography.  For once Christ Jesus has come to dwell within us, it is not only our own eyes which are viewing those images on the computer screen or magazine, but the very eyes of Christ Jesus.  Make no mistake, it grieves Him that we would engage in this behavior.  For it is Jesus who only wants the best for us.  It is Jesus who gave Himself to pay the price to bring us back to Himself.  For we are not our own, but are under new ownership.  To live the Christ life is not simply a catch phrase, but the reality of living each and every day as Jesus.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who 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."

Galations 2:20 NKJV 

~Scott~