"... He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and movement... In Him we live and move and have our being..." ...by Him, through Him, and for Him all things were created... and in Him all things hold together..." (Ac.17:25, 28; Col.1:15-18)
When we think of Christianity a majority explanation will communicate a standard set of pre-established statements of belief. Another expression might be of the importance of intellectual understanding of the concepts of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Humanity, etc. Technically we call this "intellectual ascension," inciting us to correct belief conviction and confession. It is another way of trying to make sense of Christian faith. Others might seek to do a comparison between other religious systems of belief, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, Animism and a long list of other "isms." To make the revelation of God Father, Jesus and Spirit "fit" in a system is to deform the revelation and have the pretentious assumption to contain the infinity and eternity of God therein.
But Christianity according to Jesus is not just another religious system, comparable or otherwise, it is a new and unique existence. Jesus is presented as being the Head, Source, Centre and Reason for all of life. We can talk of God being source of all life in creation but we need to consider that equally God Jesus-Christ is the source of redemptive life. The One who said "I Am Life" (Jn.11:26-26; 14:6) is the definition of life itself and that is more than being the guardian of something or simply the Giver/Provider of life. So when Paul says to the Colossians that in Christ is found fullness of life, he is pointing us to this existential reality.
When Acts and the epistles speak of Jesus as " resurrected from among the dead" (Ac.3:15, 4:10, 17:3, Ro.6:9, 1Co.15:20, Ep.1:19-20, etc.), when Paul refers to Jesus as "the firstborn from among the dead" (Col.1:18) we pick up that in Christ there is a new existence created through the resurrection of Christ and then through our resurrection in the present, we are brought into this new existence - a new humanity. In the same way that Peter refers to Jesus as the "pionneer of life" (Ac.3:15), so Paul referring to Jesus as the "firstborn" is likewise in Jewish idiom and Biblical thinking understood as the beginning, the initiator, creator of a new thing. Jesus therefore through death and resurrection is the first in this new form of existence - modelling the way for believers to experience the same existence. Yes there were other resurrections in the New Testament (Lazarus - Jn.11; Tabitha - Mc.5; Widows son Nain - Lk.7; others at Jesus resurrection Mt.27:52-53). This resurrection is into a new existence where eternal life, the permanent indwelling presence of Father, Jesus and Spirit is foundational. It's where the Three reproduce in us through transformation or regeneration the sharing of the divine nature in us (2Pe.1:3). Paul in Ep.1:18-19 says the same all powerfulness of God that resurrected Christ from the dead is at work in the believer. Romans 6 explains that through death, burial and resurrection "in" Christ we live in newness of resurrection life.
When Jesus ministers to the people He encounters, it is clear that He is not religious with them, never does He preach a systematic set of beliefs or convictions. He reveals and brings people to encounter the Father, Himself, the Spirit and the taste Kingdom life. It is existential, it is experiental, not based of the post-truth of what I feel or want or need but on the basis of revelation of who He is and the encounter with that truth that leads to divine ministry creating in us the nature and substance of this wholly different existence. Jesus met deep human need with revelation and experiences of the "new existence". It was just a taster of what he would accomplish permanently. We, therefore, live out of Christ and the power of His resurrection. (Ac.17:18).
The challenge is found in being liberated from the chains of a religious understanding of Christ that only produces in us religious thinking, relating and acting. The consequences are widespread : the mentality and approach to faith in Christ in a mindset of observance, adherence, obedience to a code of rules and practices with the assumption that these lead me to God often leave a sense of emptiness and lack; the way I perceive church as structure and ritual observance to uphold duty and obligations of tradition; what we preach, teach and lead others to in terms of rules to obey; hunger, frustrations, expectations because of the divide between what we read in the BIble and what we actually exprience of truth, and many other concerns... These deprive us of the existential fullness of Christ and fullness of life in Him. Neither religion nor law, nor any other rule can bring you into this reality.
I'm so grateful to be part of God's movement for over 15 years of rediscovering these truths, paying the price of incomprehension, rejection to experience God in such depth - absolutely worth it without a shadow of a doubt!
But Christianity according to Jesus is not just another religious system, comparable or otherwise, it is a new and unique existence. Jesus is presented as being the Head, Source, Centre and Reason for all of life. We can talk of God being source of all life in creation but we need to consider that equally God Jesus-Christ is the source of redemptive life. The One who said "I Am Life" (Jn.11:26-26; 14:6) is the definition of life itself and that is more than being the guardian of something or simply the Giver/Provider of life. So when Paul says to the Colossians that in Christ is found fullness of life, he is pointing us to this existential reality.
When Acts and the epistles speak of Jesus as " resurrected from among the dead" (Ac.3:15, 4:10, 17:3, Ro.6:9, 1Co.15:20, Ep.1:19-20, etc.), when Paul refers to Jesus as "the firstborn from among the dead" (Col.1:18) we pick up that in Christ there is a new existence created through the resurrection of Christ and then through our resurrection in the present, we are brought into this new existence - a new humanity. In the same way that Peter refers to Jesus as the "pionneer of life" (Ac.3:15), so Paul referring to Jesus as the "firstborn" is likewise in Jewish idiom and Biblical thinking understood as the beginning, the initiator, creator of a new thing. Jesus therefore through death and resurrection is the first in this new form of existence - modelling the way for believers to experience the same existence. Yes there were other resurrections in the New Testament (Lazarus - Jn.11; Tabitha - Mc.5; Widows son Nain - Lk.7; others at Jesus resurrection Mt.27:52-53). This resurrection is into a new existence where eternal life, the permanent indwelling presence of Father, Jesus and Spirit is foundational. It's where the Three reproduce in us through transformation or regeneration the sharing of the divine nature in us (2Pe.1:3). Paul in Ep.1:18-19 says the same all powerfulness of God that resurrected Christ from the dead is at work in the believer. Romans 6 explains that through death, burial and resurrection "in" Christ we live in newness of resurrection life.
When Jesus ministers to the people He encounters, it is clear that He is not religious with them, never does He preach a systematic set of beliefs or convictions. He reveals and brings people to encounter the Father, Himself, the Spirit and the taste Kingdom life. It is existential, it is experiental, not based of the post-truth of what I feel or want or need but on the basis of revelation of who He is and the encounter with that truth that leads to divine ministry creating in us the nature and substance of this wholly different existence. Jesus met deep human need with revelation and experiences of the "new existence". It was just a taster of what he would accomplish permanently. We, therefore, live out of Christ and the power of His resurrection. (Ac.17:18).
The challenge is found in being liberated from the chains of a religious understanding of Christ that only produces in us religious thinking, relating and acting. The consequences are widespread : the mentality and approach to faith in Christ in a mindset of observance, adherence, obedience to a code of rules and practices with the assumption that these lead me to God often leave a sense of emptiness and lack; the way I perceive church as structure and ritual observance to uphold duty and obligations of tradition; what we preach, teach and lead others to in terms of rules to obey; hunger, frustrations, expectations because of the divide between what we read in the BIble and what we actually exprience of truth, and many other concerns... These deprive us of the existential fullness of Christ and fullness of life in Him. Neither religion nor law, nor any other rule can bring you into this reality.
I'm so grateful to be part of God's movement for over 15 years of rediscovering these truths, paying the price of incomprehension, rejection to experience God in such depth - absolutely worth it without a shadow of a doubt!
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