Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
There is a often used phrase out there to describe those people who are trying so hard to be someone they're not. All too often, people such as this put on a mask to hide whatever insecurities they might have. I never even thought that the christian life could be chock full of posers as well. That is, until I began to realize the truth of Christ Jesus in me. I would bet that until my real identity in Christ was revealed to me, that I was a poser as well. See, I didn't need to hide a inner deficiency to make myself into something I wasn't, I only needed to continue living in that knowledge of life seperated from Jesus. Sure, like any good christian I knew that Jesus was out there somewhere, just not as close to me as He's always been. I was acting like someone I wasn't....I was a poser. The traditional institutional church message had taught me that Christ Jesus had bled and died to forgive me of my sins. Then, after His death on the cross, He ascended into heaven to His rightful place at the Fathers side. There He remained, always watching over me. It is this understanding of Jesus that plagues most christians to this day. For Jesus is holy, perfect and without sin. How could Jesus EVER be in the presence of sinful man? These are the very same thoughts I ran into as I searched to know Jesus the man. Like so many, I wanted a more personal relationship with my Savior. Yet I continued to run into the ages old stumbling block of the seperation of myself from Jesus. I mean, if the pastors taught this it was believable...right? Well, it took one pastor to upend all that I had understood about this man Jesus. One voice fromt the wilderness, if you will. What this man suggested to me didn't seem like the truth of Christ, simply because I'd never heard it before. Yet, I listened. What he related to me shook all I believed in when it came to Christ. Yes, He died for the cleansing of my sins, but there was so much more I'd never even known. The man Jesus had been there all along.
9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8: 9 - 11 NKJV
One of the first things my friend the pastor revealed to me were the very words of the apostle Paul, which testify to the truth of Christ. Indeed, there are more than a few passages, written by Paul, which tell us of the truth of Christ Jesus in us. As Paul writes in Romans 8, our bodies may be dead due to our sins, yet our spirits are alive because of righteousness {Romans 8:10}. Wait, I died? Somehow I think I would have remembered that happening, right? Indeed, this is a question many people ask when faced with the truth of Christ. I died? Yes, I was with Jesus on that cross and perished with Him. Perhaps Paul explained it better in Romans 6 when he claimed that our "old man" was crucified with Him {Romans 6:6}. Even though I don't remember dying on that cross of Christ, I was there. Indeed, the old Scott which I was born into perished on that day. The trouble is, despite this truth of Jesus in my own life, it took me some time to realize who I really was. This is the journey of coming to know the man Jesus on a more personal level. This is the journey I began for myself not so long ago. This will never be a journey of instant revelation, but one of gradual coming to the knowledge of who Jesus really is. He has never been simply words from a book, but as much of a physical reality as I am myself. For those of you who, like me, yearn for a closer relationship with Christ, you don't have far to look too far. For it is not Jesus who tells us that we are seperated from Him. No, that was mans narative all along. We can take heart from another man who walked that road to knowing who Jesus really was. Paul spent a good part of his own life in opposition to the man he eventually gave his life for. Yet, one day on that Damascus road Paul met the man who would change his life {Galations 1:15-16}. This is how my journey began and most likely how the journey of knowing Jesus will began for others as well. When it pleased God, He revealed His Son in me.
20“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."
Galations 2:20 NKJV
~Scott~
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