Luke

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BodyLife: The Three “L”s. (#3, Light)

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Our three “L”s form a nucleus of Spiritual identity.  They speak to the essential Life of Jesus Christ, God’s Love shared in us and the Holy Spirit’s Light to guide our glorification in Jesus producing His fruit. 

In our last discussion of Christ’s Life in us, we described our created center in the knowledge of Jesus, receiving supernatural resources to grow God’s grace. Love, Life and Light are all part of our singular wholeness in Christ but each contributes qualitatively to our culture of Jesus’ grace in us. We want to now turn to  “Light” and see how God illumines our  natural soul and uses His word of truth.

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Grasping Love by Faith

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“Love is layered throughout this passage and the dominate theme.  But none of our core samples of love are the same. In fact, this prayer passage itself suggests God’s diversity. The further away from the center of God’s fullness, the love textures become more dimensioned with reason and truth. They all have love in them but the closer we get to God’s fullness, the more dense is the love surrounding ‘fullness’.”  -GN

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,  …  …  …

May have strength to comprehend with all the saints
What is the breadth, and length and height and depth,
And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
That  you may be filled with all the fullness of God.    - Ephesians 3:14-19

We are continuing our look at this passage illustrated in the life of Elijah.  God exposed the breadth, length, height and depth of agape love through  power from where Elijah was standing inside the cave.  Watching God’s display,  protected by the cave, didn’t persuade. Elijah had just been God’s own instrument of power before Ahab and all Israel.  The wind, earthquake and fire may have been a reminder but not a revelation for Elijah. But it wasn’t God’s power he saw, it was His love. Fear had griped his heart driving him into the cave but he left  the cave in faithful submission to the lover of his soul.

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In Christ Jesus - Feb 1

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This isn’t our last probe into being “filled with the fullness of God.”  But we must start “drilling up” to the love of Christ surpassing knowledge (Eph. 3:14-19). The way Paul puts it, love is a condition for being filled with the fullness of God. But first, we want to be realistic about what Paul means by  “filled with all the fullness of God”. We won’t leave our discussion with all the answers but perhaps we can measure its meaning within our understanding.  As we journey in faith, God is ever increasing our capacity to receive more grace (Romans 5). So, since we are not removed from God’s spiritually organic activity, “being filled with all the fullness of God,” we focus our soul’s attention in other directions as God maintains His work within us. Let us not forget, it is God working within us, to will  and do according to His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). His faithful work in us continues while our mind is otherwise engaged (Philippians 1:6). This is pictured for us in 1Kings 17ff as we probe this remarkable man Elijah. 

After about two years alone with the birds, the brook and God, Elijah is now ready to be strengthened in his faith and tempered for Ahab at Zarepath. First, the widow who did not have the resources to do what Elijah required. Exhausted of resources, the widow submits to God through Elijah and proves God’s faithfulness. Second, bringing back to life what God  had already promised to sustain. God seals Elijah by putting divine power into Elijah’s hand for use restoring life into the widow’s son.  God affirms Elijah showing His power to others through him and allowing Elijah to experience God’s reality in God’s service of love and judgment.

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In Christ Jesus - Dec 7

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Our life in Christ operates in two scriptural modes. One is grace, the other is faith. Grace is God’s love to us and faith is our response. It is God’s power making them effective. 

We launched our In Christ discussion from a verse platform written by Paul to the saints in Corinth,1Corinthians 1:30:

And because of him (God) you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption,

We observed these “carnal Christians” are in Christ Jesus. This relationship in Christ Jesus brings a wisdom defined as righteousness, sanctification and redemption.  We identified these “wisdoms” being associated with the work of the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus the Son, operating in our life. Spiritual wisdom is God’s grace cultivated by our faith.  Grace is a spiritual capacity but faith is our soul’s ability to receive and apply it. 

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In Christ Jesus - Nov 23

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Our life in Christ operates in two scriptural modes. One is grace, the other is faith. Grace is God’s love to us and faith is our response. It is God’s power that makes both effective. 

We have been drilling down the terms in 1 Corinthians 1:30 giving us an In Christ Jesus focus. We considered wisdom from a human point of view, i.e., being able to discern God’s truth.  Then, we considered righteousness as the vital 2 Corinthians 5:17 union of a believer with God. Righteousness is God the Father’s nature birthed into each of His adopted children. Last week we reviewed sanctification as God’s purpose for us in Christ Jesus and our own purposeful commitment making His righteousness in us visible to others. Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Now we come redemption, the third term in our verse. The verse puts it this way. “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom of God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.” Jesus Christ became to us the wisdom of God. Wisdom is made known to us through righteousness, sanctification and redemption. This is God’s wisdom coming through Jesus Christ because we are in Him. Our wisdom focus is from our human perspective but the verse’s concern is righteousness, sanctification and redemption in Christ Jesus. 

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In Christ: Prologue

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My ministry “niche” has been identified by a local Pullman pastor.  

I didn’t take offence, but I did give it some later thought.  How easy it is for us to put physical form to spiritual character. But the message I distilled from his comment has more to do with the shape our gospel takes in our mind because we dimension the Spirit.  When we do this, it takes us immediately out of faith into spiritual management.

This was a constant problem for the disciples and Jesus’ response? “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:22-25), “Is your heart hardened?” (Mark 8:17)  Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23b).

The Bible was not written to defend the deity of Jesus, or to prove the trinity. It is not intended as a thesis for theological debate. It is God’s own living Word from Creator to creation. More specifically, it is written to those whom God loves.

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Milt to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 7

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We are remiss exiting this spiritual anatomy discussion without connecting to scriptural teaching about the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). We tend to focus exclusively on being “individual members of it.” 

Jesus Himself makes the point for us in John 17:21,

“That they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Our connection to the Body of Christ seems secondary because we are insecure about our primary relationship in Christ. Grace is a relationship! The “Body” is interpreted as the church, where we gather to satisfy social needs while becoming spirituality religious. Nurturing a relationship with a living Person is not a religion.

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Milk to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 6

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We are exploring scripture’s framework for our spirituality. Being “in Christ” conveys meaning it sometimes take years to understand.  We acquire spiritual senses not possessed by natural persons when we become  2 Corinthians 5:17 Christians. Seeing ourselves spiritually helps discern natural things of the “flesh” so we can deal with them spiritually.

The scripture speaks not only of spiritual growth in naturally polluted habitats, but also our hope and glory in Him. Hope and glory are often thought of as waiting for us after physical death. While this is true, it isn’t the whole scriptural story. 

Hope and glory are linked like two companions always traveling together. It is like having spokes in a wheel, one is always there with the other.  Spiritually speaking, glory has to exist before hope can exist. Scriptural glory comes out of God’s existence while hope is man’s expectation of God’s glory. Glory is of God while hope speaks of man.