The Lord has been teaching me that this life is not me trying to please God through perfect religious performance; it is a living connection with God in Christ. Christ became identified with me and took me with Him to the cross, grave, hell, resurrection, and to the very throne of God. I am with Him there now. He did all this so that God could be imparted through the Holy Spirit to every man. And man could take God with Him into this life. Christianity therefore is living this life in and through Christ.
Jesus can't just be a part of your life; He is your life. Paul says this in Colossians 3:4, "When Christ who is our life..." Too many believers make God a category in the resume of life. When they are asked about religion they check a box or when things get tough and all resources exhausted they turn to Him. I know because I used to work at making Jesus a part of the whole. God did not send His Son to the Cross so that He could be a part of the whole, but so that we could become part of the whole life of God in Christ Jesus. We are grafted in to His life.
Paul said that he was crucified with Christ and that he was no longer the one living but Christ was living in and through him. A great error is thinking that we have solely invited Christ into our lives; when the truth is that He has invited us into His life. We are a part of the whole now because of the Finished Work of Christ. That means that we alive to God and and His life in partnership with Him and He with us.
Our faith is connection with Christ. We are hidden in Him and as He is so are we in the world. As He has brought us into His life we need to bring Him into ours. Letting Him have our fears as we take His joy; letting Him have our despair as we received His hope. This is what fellowship means to share life with Christ.
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