Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Jesus paid the ransom for many, we know that or at least have heard that before hence John 3:16. The beginning of the Galatian verse tees up a question, "what does being crucified with Christ mean"? Stay with the verse and we see Paul say that he no longer lives in the body but it is Christ in him and Paul's effort here is simply faith. However, faith is never that simple, especially in this world with credit and pending bills that need to get paid, diseases, relationship strains, job happenings, etc... The faith component of this scripture can be explained by the topic or conversation of faith muscle. What or how do you build it? I believe that has been addressed on this blog before so you can check the archives for that. What I feel led to discuss today is the living in the body verse not living in the body.
To live in the body is to see things through one lens, your own. This view is limiting and can be selfish (most often is).
To live outside the body is to see things through multiple perspectives. Often we can equate this to watching a movie where multiple characters are being developed. However to take it higher or further is to see things through God's perspective which is like watching a parade from the Goodyear blimp except you see the start, finish, and all the actions in between all at the same time because you operate outside of time. Oh what an advantage it is to be God!
I mentioned these to drive home the fact that our goal is to have faith in the process even though we can't see the end, we can trust that the end will be good for us (not always what we want but it's always best). During the process if we truly have faith then the old man (how we used to be) will no longer be throwing his temper tantrums and it will be the new man who will exude Christ-like reactions that will bring glory to His name. How many times have you marveled over somebodies Christ-like reaction (ex: Colt McCoy in last years championship game)? The goal is for us to have people in our lives see more of Jesus in us and less of our old selves. That is when we truly are becoming a contagious Christian. For 2011 let's push to crucify more of that old man and embrace more Jesus.
1 comment:
good perspective, Benjamins.
it is almost always the case that we see things as they were and not as they are. Monday morning quarterback is a very easy position.
I have a leadership book that talks about a dance floor analogy. When you are on the dance floor and concentrating on yourself and your partner, you pretty much have no idea about your surroundings. You have tunnel vision on the task at hand. Then there is the perspective of being up on the balcony and looking down on the dance floor as a whole. You see many couples and scenerios going on. It tends to slow things down as well.
Thanks Jules
Post a Comment