There are two kinds of Christianity.
1. The Christian “religion.”
2. The Christianity we find in the New Testament.
The Christian religion is built on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Christian religion can be studied using the same categories of thought used to study any other world religion.
It can be analyzed just as Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism are analyzed. The difficulty with the Christian religion (like all religions) is that it makes its adherents think that they have now found the real knowledge of good and evil.
Regrettably, there is a great deal of pharisaism in the Christian family today. The Bible teaches the highest possible moral values. But the Bible is fundamentally not about morality. Following the Lord Jesus Christ involves living out the highest moral values. But following Jesus is fundamentally not about morality.
Conversion to Christ involves a moral transformation of life. But conversion is not fundamentally about morality either. The most moral unsaved person on the planet needs Christ just as much as the most immoral one. It is Christ, not religion, that saves us.
Christianity, therefore, is not fundamentally about morality. And it has nothing to do with the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Those who live by the life of Christ (the Tree of Life) do not act as though they are morally superior to others. While they stand separate from the defilements of sin and the world, they embrace those who are wounded, hurt, confused, and defiled by them. So on the one hand, believers are “set apart from sinners,” but on the other hand, they are the friends of sinners.
To wit, Christian leaders have been telling God’s people that they must “be like Christ” for the last six hundred years (at least). The well-known book by Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, was published around 1418.
Some 480 years later, Charles M. Sheldon’s book In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? was published. Ever since then, Christians have been trying to “do what Jesus did.”
But this “gospel” hasn’t worked. The reason? It’s an instance of asking the wrong question.
The question is not “What would Jesus do?” I believe it’s “What is Jesus Christ doing through me … and through us?”
Jesus made pretty clear that we cannot live the Christian life. Instead, He must live it through us.
Jesus Christ lived His life by an indwelling Father. In the same way, we as believers can live the Christian life only by an indwelling Christ.
But the question before the house is . . . how?
Check out my Webinar on this topic. It’s Part 1 of a series of in-depth talks on the subject of how to live by the indwelling life of Christ which became a full-blown course a few years ago and that many of you have taken.
I call the Webinar The Missing Ingredient of Today’s Discipleship. Anyone can view it from anywhere in the world.
There’s Always That Thing . . .
I think the question “What is Jesus doing through me and through us?” is closer to the right question. However, John 5:19-20 prompts me to ask “What is Jesus doing and asking me/us to join him in doing?” That question keeps the focus on Jesus who equips and enables us in His dunamis to join him in glorifying the Father by doing what the Father is doing.
That statement is popular in missional circles, but it’s essentially the same question I asked because Jesus acts through human beings. His vehicle for expression is His body. That part about living by His indwelling life is often missing in these conversations. See “Jesus Now” for details, http://jesusnow.tv
What is Christ doing through me? That’s great. Love it.
Amen and Amen! So often new believers get fed the line of living like Jesus, but with the “how” missing. And at some stage we realize that trying to live that life is simply impossible. But what happens then? I am afraid that the majority of Christians just kind of stop trying… we start to live exactly like the world and look, talk and behave exactly like the world around us. We hate hearing the message that this is not what God called us for; we become comfortable in our “little” sins. But then there is this tremendous message of hope and freedom: to live “in Christ”, have His Spirit living in and through us as we give up on our own abilities. So sad that we so often hear (and preach) the gospel that only Jesus can forgive our sins and “save” us (from what?), without also realizing that only Jesus can free us from the power of sin and from ourselves.
I really, really like this paragraph. A perfect, short description. That’s it in a nutshell.
“Those who live by the life of Christ (the Tree of Life) do not act as though they are morally superior to others. While they stand separate from the defilements of sin and the world, they embrace those who are wounded, hurt, confused, and defiled by them. So on the one hand, believers are “set apart from sinners,” but on the other hand, they are the friends of sinners.”
Greg, I agree. The paragraph you quoted also stood out to me as the irresistible nature of God’s life. As we eat (Tree of Life) and drink (River of Life) of Christ, we express His irresistible and beautiful life in our lives.
My wife and I recently went to see the movie “Risen,” and my favorite scene was when the resurrected Jesus, his disciples, and the unbelieving, but seeking Roman tribune Clavius were with him in Galilee. Clavius was asking one of the disciples if he had believed that Jesus would rise again.
The disciple replied honestly that he had had his doubts, which prompts Clavius to ask him why he had even followed Jesus then.
At this point, their conversation is interrupted by a woman shrieking at her discovery of an unclean leper in the village courtyard looking for food.
Others follow her discovery of disdain by shooing, beating, kicking, spitting on, and chasing the leper away.
Amazingly though, Jesus walks to the leper, who has just been completely rejected by the people, and Jesus goes and kneels by him.
Not just BY him, though.
RIGHT next to Him. Completely within his personal space. Jesus basically envelops him. Completely wrapping himself around the leper.
He cradles and strokes his face. He holds him tight. Jesus pulls him into a warm and loving embrace.
Then, Jesus tells the leper to go if he believes.
The disciple who had been conversing with Clavius finally responds by patting him on the back and saying, ‘That’s why.’
That’s it. That is why I follow Christ. I am the leper.
It is in the intimacy and comfort of the loving arms of my Savior who sees me, the diseased and broken leper.
He sees my need for Him, but also sees me as worthy (though not deserving) of salvation.
He sees my need for purpose as He tells me to go in faith. Here I reflect upon and affirm Brennan Manning’s quote, “My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.” Amen and Praise our Lord!
See the Risen trailer scene here: bit.ly/1MtLBr9.