Having, then, a great Chief Priest, Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, we may be holding to the avowal. For we have not a Chief Priest not able to sympathize with our infirmities, but One Who has been tried in all respects like us, apart from sin. We may be coming, then, with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may be obtaining mercy and finding grace for opportune help.
To the Hebrews 4: 14-16, Concordant New Testament
There was a phrase a good friend of mine would use whenever he signed off on his weekly updates. That phrase is "Live Jesus." I was pondering these words this week as I thought of how many of us see our own relationship with our Lord and Savior. For many, Jesus is simply that 911 call they make whenever their lives are in chaos. Still, others save their conversations (prayers) with Jesus until they need something from Him. Now, I pose a simple question, how would you feel if one of your children only talked to you when they needed something from you? You'd be hurt, right? And rightly so. Yet in Jesus we have a different situation entirely. For the prevailing attitude in most of mainstream Christianity is that Jesus is somehow separated from us. That He sits at Gods side in heaven and watches over us each day. Nothing could be further from the truth. For to live Jesus is to recognize the truth of our union with Jesus and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}. To live Jesus is to realize that we have died to our old nature, but are now alive in Christ {Paul to the Romans 6:10}. To live Jesus is to be in Him each and every day. My first revelation of this truth came from the words of Paul in Galatians. Paul speaks to his own knowing of the living Christ in him {Paul to the Galatians 2:20}. Of course, anyone who knows the scriptures knows that Paul wasn't always this way. For the man Saul, raised in the traditions of the Jewish religion, was a persecutor of Jesus until He was revealed to him on that road to Damascus. For Paul this was his own "Come to Jesus" moment {Paul to the Galatians 1:15-16}. From this point onward, we see Paul speak to the living Christ. As I mentioned, the prevailing attitude, spoken by mainstream church theology, is that there is a disconnect between ourselves and Jesus. But the truth is that we live within Him.
With Christ have I been crucified, yet I am living; no longer I, but living in me is Christ. Now that which I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith that is of the Son of God, Who loves me, and gives Himself up for me.
Paul to the Galatians 2: 20, Concordant New Testament
I have heard very few believers refer to their own lives in Christ. In fact, I did not begin to notice this phrase until I was aware of my own life in Him. Call it an awakening or simply the Fathers revelation, I'm now aware of my life in Him. However, most of mainstream Christianity continues to be blinded to this truth of our lives in Christ. Jesus is not simply that lifeline which we turn to when things go haywire. When things go bad, we're THERE in Christ with Him. I think that this might be the major stumbling block to many who cannot fathom that they could not be in union with Christ. The fact that Jesus could be with us in such dire circumstances. Why would He put Himself through that? Well, because of His love for us. It is because of the love of the Father that Jesus became sin that we would be free from it {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}. It is because of the Fathers love that Jesus was dispatched not to judge, but to save the world {Johns Account 3:15-16}. In reality, we were never meant to walk in this world alone, apart from the Father. The fact that we have been created in His own likeness testifies to the fact that God has always been with us {Genesis 1:27}. It is the lie of the deceiver, spoken in the garden, that falsely claims that we have been separated from God {Genesis 3:4-5}. That our lives are under our own control. Nothing could be further from the truth. To live in Christ is to be in Him each moment of our lives.
~Scott~
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