The most profound and revolutionary teaching in the Bible is, I would suggest, "Christ in us, the hope of glory". That is to say, the doctrine that Christ is present within the Christian through the Holy Spirit. This is most explicit in the writings of Paul ("not I, but Christ in me" etc.) although it is present throughout the New Testament.
About one year ago, God led me to a little book entitled "Its as Simple as This" by Norman P Grubb. God especially spoke to me, so I believe, through Norman's testimony of a spiritual crisis which he experienced while on the mission field in Africa in the 1920s. He became painfully aware that his attitude toward the African people was not that of Jesus. Being a godly man, he took his Bible and retired for a time to the forest to pray, desiring that God would enable him to love as Jesus loved and to become more like Jesus. God answered him, but not quite as he had expected! God directed him to Galatians 2:20, a verse which he must have read many times before and, as a Bible-believing Christian, accepted as a theological doctrine. However, God opened his spiritual eyes to a greater understanding of the teaching of this verse; a revelation of the implications of having Christ live in and through him. He, Norman Grubb, could never love as Jesus loved in what he might have called his "natural self". But God already reckoned him as dead from the day of his conversion, while at the same time being brought to new life by the Spirit of Christ within him. If Norman wanted to be like Jesus, all he had to do was cease trying to live from his old dead self and allow Christ to live and act through him - in effect, to let Christ within be his real "Self"!
The spirituality of the Western church is often expressed as the "imitation" of Christ. Eastern Orthodoxy tends to stress the Light of God shining through one. Norman's teaching, in this respect, is somewhat more like that of the Eastern church. He sees the Christian as a "container" of Christ's presence in this age. The container does not imitate its contents; it holds and displays (if transparent) its contents. Suppose you are shopping for jam in the supermarket. You pick up several jars and examine their contents until you find what you seek. But you do not make the purchase because of the jar. The jar is only the container and of no importance in and of itself. You would only notice it if it was covered in something opaque and then only for the negative reason that it would have failed in its role of giving clear vision of its contents.
Think about this as a parable of the Christian as the container and Christ within as the Contents and how we should function in displaying Christ to the world. But God has shown me how this has ramifications far beyond personal spirituality. I have written a short article "Christ in Us and the Kingdom of God" which is posted at daffydd.simplesite.com and which I humbly ask that you would prayerfully read. I would like, if God is willing, to have these thoughts brought before as wide a Christian audience as possible, as I believe that God has led me to write this. It may be copied, and these copies may be added to or subtracted from if you feel led by God to do this. I make no claim to originality. I am only a container!
Blessings to all who love the Lord.
About one year ago, God led me to a little book entitled "Its as Simple as This" by Norman P Grubb. God especially spoke to me, so I believe, through Norman's testimony of a spiritual crisis which he experienced while on the mission field in Africa in the 1920s. He became painfully aware that his attitude toward the African people was not that of Jesus. Being a godly man, he took his Bible and retired for a time to the forest to pray, desiring that God would enable him to love as Jesus loved and to become more like Jesus. God answered him, but not quite as he had expected! God directed him to Galatians 2:20, a verse which he must have read many times before and, as a Bible-believing Christian, accepted as a theological doctrine. However, God opened his spiritual eyes to a greater understanding of the teaching of this verse; a revelation of the implications of having Christ live in and through him. He, Norman Grubb, could never love as Jesus loved in what he might have called his "natural self". But God already reckoned him as dead from the day of his conversion, while at the same time being brought to new life by the Spirit of Christ within him. If Norman wanted to be like Jesus, all he had to do was cease trying to live from his old dead self and allow Christ to live and act through him - in effect, to let Christ within be his real "Self"!
The spirituality of the Western church is often expressed as the "imitation" of Christ. Eastern Orthodoxy tends to stress the Light of God shining through one. Norman's teaching, in this respect, is somewhat more like that of the Eastern church. He sees the Christian as a "container" of Christ's presence in this age. The container does not imitate its contents; it holds and displays (if transparent) its contents. Suppose you are shopping for jam in the supermarket. You pick up several jars and examine their contents until you find what you seek. But you do not make the purchase because of the jar. The jar is only the container and of no importance in and of itself. You would only notice it if it was covered in something opaque and then only for the negative reason that it would have failed in its role of giving clear vision of its contents.
Think about this as a parable of the Christian as the container and Christ within as the Contents and how we should function in displaying Christ to the world. But God has shown me how this has ramifications far beyond personal spirituality. I have written a short article "Christ in Us and the Kingdom of God" which is posted at daffydd.simplesite.com and which I humbly ask that you would prayerfully read. I would like, if God is willing, to have these thoughts brought before as wide a Christian audience as possible, as I believe that God has led me to write this. It may be copied, and these copies may be added to or subtracted from if you feel led by God to do this. I make no claim to originality. I am only a container!
Blessings to all who love the Lord.