LIVING GRACE AND TRANSFORMATION
11/03/24 07:53
There was a church that had ‘accountability’ going as a thing. The idea was that pairs of men would enter a bond of accountability to a friend in which both in openness would monitor each other’s life and hold them accountable to integrity and morality. It sounds good but it is not so much. It’s a reliance on an externality – a measure steeped in works/self-effort that sidelines the importance of Christ expressing Himself in us. One suspects that this was mainly about sexual morality – a one eyed view in which the sin of killing the earth through over-consumption and materialism denudes the earth of life by turning life into money. It’s the spirit of mammon.
THE LIVING WAY
There is a way to be whole and holy as Jesus is. This is Christ come in our flesh. We enter this living way by repenting of the false way of moralism/legalism and living Christ our life – which is Christ incarnated in us.
WE SHARE IN HIS LIFE
Alexandra Radcliff writes, “[Andrew]Murray perceives that, as both God and man, Jesus was able to fulfil both sides of the covenant. He also perceives that the atonement is not a mere external transaction that effects a retrospective forgiveness of sins but involves our intimate inclusion in Christ’s death so that we are prospectively liberated to share in Christ’s holiness: [We share in His life].
CHRIST’S LIFE LIVED IN YOU
“We know what the death of Christ means as an atonement, and we never can emphasize too much that blessed substitution and blood shedding, by which redemption was won for us. But let us remember, that is only half the meaning of His death. The other half is this: just as much as Christ was my substitute, who died for me, just so much He is my head, in whom, and with whom, I die; and just as He lives for me, to intercede, He lives in me, to carry out and to perfect His life.”
By the Spirit of Christ imbued in our being, Jesus becomes us. He imparts His life/character to us so that we become fully human, fully alive and remade in His image. Holiness and a holistic life become ours not through the law/self-effort but by our choosing to live the eucharist, rather than just celebrate it. Those who eat Christ live because of Him. – they become His life.
THE LIVING WAY
There is a way to be whole and holy as Jesus is. This is Christ come in our flesh. We enter this living way by repenting of the false way of moralism/legalism and living Christ our life – which is Christ incarnated in us.
WE SHARE IN HIS LIFE
Alexandra Radcliff writes, “[Andrew]Murray perceives that, as both God and man, Jesus was able to fulfil both sides of the covenant. He also perceives that the atonement is not a mere external transaction that effects a retrospective forgiveness of sins but involves our intimate inclusion in Christ’s death so that we are prospectively liberated to share in Christ’s holiness: [We share in His life].
CHRIST’S LIFE LIVED IN YOU
“We know what the death of Christ means as an atonement, and we never can emphasize too much that blessed substitution and blood shedding, by which redemption was won for us. But let us remember, that is only half the meaning of His death. The other half is this: just as much as Christ was my substitute, who died for me, just so much He is my head, in whom, and with whom, I die; and just as He lives for me, to intercede, He lives in me, to carry out and to perfect His life.”
By the Spirit of Christ imbued in our being, Jesus becomes us. He imparts His life/character to us so that we become fully human, fully alive and remade in His image. Holiness and a holistic life become ours not through the law/self-effort but by our choosing to live the eucharist, rather than just celebrate it. Those who eat Christ live because of Him. – they become His life.
