I know that I am far from this state in myself. Every day I am aware of how far I am from holiness in myself. There are so many instances of this that it is impossible to number them. My judgement of others, my thoughts and actions which area far from the thoughts and actions of Jesus, who is my exemplar and the one I am to mirror.
Praise God that I am not seen in this way by my Father. It is only as I am clothed in Jesus that I can stand before Him. Jesus alone is the Holy and righteous One. He alone can be with the Father in His own right and strength. He alone is holy.
That is why I am so grateful for the great mystery of faith. I am in Him and he is in me. This indeed is a great mystery and I can only accept it by faith. Early in my Christian walk is was even more difficult to understand, but now I am able to accept it without question and begin to understand the real nature of this.
It is all about Jesus.
That is the beginning and end of faith. I have died and Christ now lives in me.
What a statement. To accept the reality that baptism symbolises is the point at which I become a new creation. I am in Christ. I am part of His Body, His Church. Alone I am nothing, in fact I am dead. But in Christ I am alive and alive forevermore.
To someone outside of this faith this is a nonsense. But God's ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts.
This is one part of the new life which is supra logical. It is not illogical, but it is above logic. It can be comprehended only by faith, but faith that is the assurance and confidence that the writer to the Hebrews speaks of.
Hebrews 11:1 NIV
[1] Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
This is the only way I can be Holy. It is not that I can do whatever I like. It has an element of striving for proper thoughts and actions. But ultimately it is about Jesus and the fact that I am dead within myself, but alive IN HIM. This really is the fulness of life.
No comments:
Post a Comment