Galations 2: 20 NKJV
I overheard a radio pastor recently long for that day when he and his fellow believers would walk each day side by side with Jesus. His statement really did not make me stop and consider the alternatives of a life without Christ. See, I already know the advantages of living a life in Christ. I thought, as I listened to this pulpit pounder, that I would have loved to have a discussion with him about the Jesus that I now know. I assume that it would be a similar discussion to the ones I've had with a friend of mine as I came to see that truth of Christ in me. I mean, who wouldn't desire to walk side by side with the one who gave His very life for them? The one who loved them first? However, when I hear a fellow christian make the statement that "I wish that I could walk with Jesus," I already know that they have yet to realize the truth of Christ Jesus. That was my life before I came to know Jesus on a more personal level. I would take in sermon after sermon on how, if I lived my life in a righteous way, that I would someday walk side by side with Jesus. To most christians, being with Jesus is the end goal of a life well lived. If we carry that weight, tote that cross and deny ourselves, then eventually we will somehow "earn" that right to walk with Christ. That's exactly the road I was on as a young believer. To me, I was to toil my life away on earth while Jesus, sitting at the Fathers side, awaited the day when I would finally earn the privilege to be with Him. I made the comment more than once in the presence of a christian friend that this path, this walk towards righteousness that I was on seemed to be a never ending road. It seemed that I could walk the road of life forever without ever knowing Jesus on a personal level. For each few strides I would make in His direction, I would lose ground as I fell into my own bad behaviors. It was in these times when I would hear most pastors explain to me that I needed to "be more like Jesus." So, in order to live a life with the end goal of being with Him I needed to be like Him? There were plenty of times when I felt as if I would never come to know Jesus. Yet, I found out that it wasn't the journey I was on that was the issue, but that I had been given the wrong map in the first place.
6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
I believe that the most crucial mistake that christians make in their desire to know Jesus is how they see Him. As I said, in my early christian life the institutional church doctrine of the day has taught me that there is a seperation between myself and God. We are to trust that God in in heaven with His Son by His side looking down upon His children here on earth. To me it seemed believable. I mean, we're taught that God cannot be in the presence of sin {Isaiah 59:2}. It is our own sins that has driven a wedge between ourselves and our Lord. How is it that I, being a sinner, could ever be good enough to walk with Jesus? Well, it is BECAUSE of Christ that we are able to walk with Him. It is because Christ became sin on our behalf that we no longer carry the sin burden which we for so long have dragged behind us {2 Corinthians 5:21}. Yes, in our original condition we would have no chance of attaining the righteousness of God that we would walk with Jesus. However, God already knew this, and He has provided that escape for His children from the chains and slavery of our sin {Romans 6:6}. With our sins (and our old sin nature) nailed to that cross with Jesus there is now nothing standing in our way of walking with the man Jesus. Well, I will correct myself, there is but one thing stopping each and every christian from knowing Jesus on a more personal level as I have. This is the realization of who it is that Jesus truly is. He is not seperated from Gods children but alive each and every day in those who trust in Him {Galations 2:20}. When we know who He really is, we can walk each and every day with Him.
~Scott~
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