Category: Christ in You

No Longer a Follower

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 37

One of the upshots of understanding “Christ in you” is that I no longer consider myself a Christ-follower.  The word follower implies that there is some kind of distance between me and Jesus.  Jesus is up ahead and I am following at a distance.  Seeing ourselves as followers feeds the erroneous message we have been taught that my behavior determines my closeness to Jesus.  When I am doing well, I am moving closer to Jesus like a good follower would.  And when I am doing poorly, I am falling behind with an increasing distance between me and my Savior.  But does this line of thinking make any sense when Christ has promised a bond so close that He is literally living inside us forever?

Now I know most folks use the term “Christ-follower” to identify as a believer and I am not all bent out of shape if people keep using this term.  I just want you to think about the subtle implication that the word “follower” supports; the idea that there can be some degree of separation between you and God.  I know I am repeating myself, from several of my previous posts, but it cannot be said too often.  There is no separation between you and Jesus.  Your bond is unbreakable.  Your bond is unshakeable.

You know, I find it interesting that in all of the apostles’ sermons in the book of Acts and in their subsequent letters, there is no call to “follow Jesus”.  After the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit came to live in God’s children forever, we are not instructed to “follow Jesus”.  Paul, in all of his writings, never commands believers to “follow Jesus”.  I think this is significant because there is no more following when Christ lives in us.

We are instructed to “imitate Christ”.  But I see this as a completely different focus than “follow”.  There is no distance implied in “imitate”.  Imitate is simply an encouragement to look like Christ, in your attitude and actions.  It is living into our new identity as His beloved child.

So if Christ is not up ahead of us, as a teacher to be followed, where is He?  “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I IN YOU” (John 14:20).  “God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

If we keep thinking of Jesus as outside of us, then we will think we have to do something to get to Him, to stay with Him, and to follow Him. But if we think of Him as He is, happily at home inside us, then we will look for Him there. And the sheer beauty is that when we look for Him there, we will find Him. We will find Him in us full of life and love and joy; a life, love, and joy that we have the pleasure of expressing as He lives His life through us.

I like how our friend Ralph Harris summarizes this thought, “Christ is the one who came to us and who stays with us.  There is no following at a distance, no matter how small.”

Rhonda’s Holy Spirit Story

I have seen “the Holy Spirit will guide you” at work in a person very close to me; my wife, Rhonda.  Rhonda believed the gospel as a high school student in Markle Indiana.  While attending a revival meeting at the Markle United Methodist Church, she heard the clear call of God’s invitation.  She believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Rhonda was born again.

But Rhonda had no one to share this journey with her.  She had no one to explain what came next.  She was on her own in finding her spiritual bearings.  And her first introduction to serious study of the Bible was not much help.  Looking back, Rhonda says, “The Bible is where my trouble began.”  Why would someone say that?

One of Rhonda’s first classes in her freshman year at a Christian college was an overview of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.  These books are a fine introduction to the Bible, but an awful introduction to living the Christian life.  Which of these complicated commands were required to be followed?  Studying these books, and the Bible in general, as a new believer was very confusing to Rhonda.  And the joy of her conversion began to fade.  But the one thing she remained sure of was that God was with her and in her.

Again, no one was there to explain the difference between the old and new covenants.  No one was there to tell Rhonda that not all of the Bible was written for her to follow as a new covenant believer.  No one was there to exalt the supremacy of Christ and His magnificent promise to live His life through her by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Spiritual maturity seemed to come down to following a particular set of spiritual disciplines with an uncertain promise of success.

Years of attending Bible churches only added to the guilt and confusion of what Rhonda was missing.  Rhonda is a doer.  Rhonda is a servant.  Rhonda is a lover.  But we in the Bible church movement have elevated Bible study, and outlining, and parsing, and compartmentalizing, and memorizing as the highest goal of the Christian life.  If that doesn’t fit your personality, or giftedness, or learning style, you are looked down upon as less than; something is wrong with you.  You are not trying hard enough.

Rhonda will tell you that she has learned many things through Bible study, but study is not the primary driver of her life of love and service to others.  The Spirit is the one who was and is leading Rhonda.  The Spirit is sending folks into Rhonda’s path to love and serve.  And the Spirit is the one who empowers Rhonda’s sacrificial love.  I have seen it so powerfully up close as her partner in service and as the biggest beneficiary of the Spirit’s force in her life.

Rhonda is very fast at knowing the right thing to do as situations arise.  But she still felt under-prepared biblically and would say to me, “I don’t know where in the Bible to find this, but I know it is the right thing to do.”  I would reassure her, “Finding support in the Bible doesn’t matter.  You are DOING the will of God.  The Spirit inside you is coming out in beautiful ways, and we all are blessed by that.”

When Rhonda was fully captured by the grace message, the guilt and pressure of “it’s all about Bible study and understanding” came off.  And in a beautiful twist, she actually found a new joy in the overarching message of the Bible.  Understanding the place of the old and new covenants, seeing our total forgiveness, embracing our complete acceptance, and believing our “no separation” from the Father made the Bible less confusing and a fascinating picture of God’s unending love for us began to fall into place.

Rhonda now shares her story to encourage you.  Listen to the Spirit inside.  Love one another.  Serve one another.  Encourage one another.  You have what it takes to make a difference in the person’s life that God brings into your path today.

Looking for Jesus

Here is a brief reminder of the simplicity of the gospel.  CHRISTianity is all about Christ.  It’s in the name.  Jesus is the gospel.  The gospel is Jesus.  The gospel is grace and truth.  Jesus is grace and truth personified.  The grace of the gospel is Jesus.  The good news of the gospel is Jesus.  Why am I pounding this point?

As I survey the evangelical landscape, I fear that we have relegated Jesus to being just a puzzle piece in our doctrinal mosaic.  He is an important piece, but just a piece nonetheless.  He is the Son of God who lived among us, died for our sins, rose again, ascended, and sits at the right hand of the Father awaiting His return to our planet.  And as He sits neatly in our doctrinal puzzle, we argue, theorize, and condemn each other over things that have nothing to do with the gospel message of Jesus.

Maybe the puzzle piece Jesus that we have created is why the world is not paying Him much attention.  But this Jesus the world yawns at is not the Jesus I know.

  • My Jesus is alive!
  • My Jesus lives in me.
  • My Jesus is living His supernatural life through me.
  • My Jesus lifts my eyes above the waves when life becomes overwhelming.
  • My Jesus wraps me in His arms of compassion when I fail.
  • My Jesus secured my once-for-all-time forgiveness.
  • My Jesus provides every ounce of goodness, kindness, and patience that I display and experience.
  • My Jesus mends my broken heart.
  • My Jesus heals me.
  • My Jesus drives away my fears.
  • My Jesus infuses me with power to do the right thing.
  • My Jesus infuses me with power to do the next thing.
  • My Jesus leads, assures, calms, provides.
  • My Jesus loves me with an everlasting love that I can feel.
  • My Jesus is my life.
  • My Jesus did not come to make bad people good, He came to make dead people alive and I am a living testimony of that.

Saying “My Jesus” may sound possessive or braggadocios, but my God spoke about my Jesus many years ago, long before His coming.  “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine” (Song of Songs 6:3).  I belong to Jesus.  And if you have believed His gospel message, you belong to Him as well.

This is the Jesus that I invite you to find.  He is waiting for you!!!

Your Separation Has Ended

One of the most common things I hear from believers who haven’t yet been captured by the grace message is that they have a feeling of God as being far off.  They see God as being “out there”.  Their experience is feeling and seeing God as a distant God.  As a lady recently shared with me, “God has a lot of people to pay attention to.  I am probably off in a dusty corner of His world.”  Why would someone feel that way?

There is a myriad of reasons a person may feel that way.  I can think of at least two.  First, we have been taught, very erroneously in my view, that even after our conversion there is a separation between God and us.  We are separated from God by our limits and His limitlessness.  We are separated from God by being “down here” while He is “up there”.  We are separated from God by our sin.  But the message of the New Testament is that nothing – not our sin, not our doubts, not our fears, not even His Godness – can separate us from the love and presence of God.  (Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 10:19-22.)

Second, when we bring an Old Testament mindset into our new covenant lives, we create a distorted view of God’s changing presence or distance.  The idea of separation is at the heart of the old covenant relationship between God and His people.  The keeping of the Law was a tenuous avenue to connect and close the distance.  God was at various times far off or came close in the history of Israel.  God showed up to be worshipped.  God showed up to warn them.  God showed up to get His people out of trouble.  And God sometimes showed up to punish them.  God’s character never changes, but His interaction with His people under the old covenant was often a shifting shadow.

Bill Vanderbush, in his book Unveiled Horizon, summarizes it well, “The old covenant was filled with the perspective of distance and separation from God and revealed in an endless list of activities that man could do to try to get close to Him.  The new covenant is filled with a perspective of reconciled union and reveals the unfathomable lengths God has gone to, to make His righteous redemption the very core of our identity as sons and daughters.”

Yes, the new covenant is the answer to “your separation has ended.”  All of the distance between you and God was erased at the cross.  God has now joined with you in your spirit.  “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him … Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit WHO IS IN YOU, whom you have from God?” (I Corinthians 6:17,19).

Our friend, Max Lucado, once said in an interview, “Two hundred and sixteen times in his epistles, Paul talks about Jesus or God living inside us.”  I haven’t done the math myself, but this is a number we should not just fly past.  It is a beautiful picture of our united identity.  He is in you!!!  Your separation has ended!!!

Christ in You

Jesus said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I IN YOU” (John 14:20).

“God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

If we keep thinking of Jesus as outside of us, then we’ll think we have to do something to get to Him, to stay with Him, and to follow Him.  But if we think of Him as He is, happily at home inside us, then we’ll look for Him there.  And the shear beauty is that when we look for Him there, we will find Him.  We will find Him in us full of life and love and joy; a life, love, and joy that we have the pleasure of expressing as He lives His life through us.  He is the one who came to us and who stays with us.  There is no following at a distance, no matter how small.