"Christ Who is Our Life" - Our Relationship with Everything!

[Vine Abider]

Read this in a devotional (below) and was struck by it.  It hit me that if Christ is our very life, as per Colossians 3:4, then He actually is our relationship with everything!  I then realized that this is supported by the fact in scripture that we have been crucified with Him, therefore the old me, who had relationships with everything, is actually no longer a viable entity.  Isn't this quite the thought!?!?

So those in Christ are dead to everything and are alive to God.  I've only heard this like a zillion times, but it's starting to sink in just a little.  This is our salvation, because in the old man (who we once were), we just messed things up - even when we thought we might have done pretty good, what was the ultimate result?  Death and futility.  But we get a new life to live in Christ! 

Here's the devotional . . . what do you think?

"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." ROMANS 6: 11

Christ is our relationship with all things - both positive and

negative. On the positive side, Christ is our relationship with
the Father. He is also our relationship with all the saints, the
members of His Body. On the negative side, Christ is our relation-
ship with sin, the self, the flesh, the world, condemnation, the devil,
and the law. So we must ask ourselves, How are we related to sin?
How are we related to our flesh? How are we related to the world?
Often we have tried to live the Christian life with ourselves as the
source. But we must see that we have no life in ourselves apart from
Christ (John 6:53): Our life is wholly wrapped up with Him. Our
true life has been hidden with Christ in God. "Christ who is our life"
in Colossians 3:4 means that we died to sin in Him. We died to the
flesh in Him. We died to the world in Him. We defeated the devil
in Him. And we died to the law in Him. Praise the Lord!

Our relationship with all these realms is Christ. Even in our
encounters with sins, we need to be a person who reacts exclusively
with the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:17-19). Concerning our sin nature,
we need to interact with what happened on the cross. Christ died to
sin; and in Him we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin. We
are alive to God in Him (Rom. 6:8-11). When we are oriented to
these facts, our partaking of Christ and our participation in Him
become so rich and full. He supplies to us the victory. The victory
over sin and death is just Himself. We do not strive to win the
victory. We receive and participate in His victory!

[AdHoc]

3 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

Read this in a devotional (below) and was struck by it.  It hit me that if Christ is our very life, as per Colossians 3:4, then He actually is our relationship with everything!  I then realized that this is supported by the fact in scripture that we have been crucified with Him, therefore the old me, who had relationships with everything, is actually no longer a viable entity.  Isn't this quite the thought!?!?

So those in Christ are dead to everything and are alive to God.  I've only heard this like a zillion times, but it's starting to sink in just a little.  This is our salvation, because in the old man (who we once were), we just messed things up - even when we thought we might have done pretty good, what was the ultimate result?  Death and futility.  But we get a new life to live in Christ! 

Here's the devotional . . . what do you think?

"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." ROMANS 6: 11

Christ is our relationship with all things - both positive and

negative. On the positive side, Christ is our relationship with
the Father. He is also our relationship with all the saints, the
members of His Body. On the negative side, Christ is our relation-
ship with sin, the self, the flesh, the world, condemnation, the devil,
and the law. So we must ask ourselves, How are we related to sin?
How are we related to our flesh? How are we related to the world?
Often we have tried to live the Christian life with ourselves as the
source. But we must see that we have no life in ourselves apart from
Christ (John 6:53): Our life is wholly wrapped up with Him. Our
true life has been hidden with Christ in God. "Christ who is our life"
in Colossians 3:4 means that we died to sin in Him. We died to the
flesh in Him. We died to the world in Him. We defeated the devil
in Him. And we died to the law in Him. Praise the Lord!

Our relationship with all these realms is Christ. Even in our
encounters with sins, we need to be a person who reacts exclusively
with the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:17-19). Concerning our sin nature,
we need to interact with what happened on the cross. Christ died to
sin; and in Him we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin. We
are alive to God in Him (Rom. 6:8-11). When we are oriented to
these facts, our partaking of Christ and our participation in Him
become so rich and full. He supplies to us the victory. The victory
over sin and death is just Himself. We do not strive to win the
victory. We receive and participate in His victory!

I applaud this thread.

Within a short while after our Lord departed to His Father's Throne, men, even the best of them, strayed from the true reveltion of Jesus Christ. Some tried to enforce the Laws of Moses, and some tried to enforce philosophy on the Church. Other's, seeing the danger made doctrines about what is allowed and what is not allowed. Man has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of GOOD and EVIL. The fruit has become one with man. He loves laws.

But the inspired Apostle, in Romans 7, is emphatic. Man cannot keep Laws. the greatest and most spiritual Laws are in the Covenant made at Sinai. But they cannot be met and so can only sentence the Law-man to death. Christianity have studied, debated and formulated laws since the first Church at Jerusalem. And the results are for every man to see.

The REAL Christian Walk is not by regulation. It is by the Person of Jesus Christ entering, dwelling and spreading INSIDE a man. God's plan was that man would eat of the Tree of LIFE. the principle of the Two Trees is the same. Eat the fruit and you will have a inner source. One unto death and one unto LIFE. But what LIFE? THE LIFE THAT CHRIST LIVED!!! Our Lord Jesus did not come to give us more of Moses. He came and lived the perfect human life motivated and energized by the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him. Then, when this life, which includes His encounter with death and resurrection life, was lived experimentally, Christ's deity ensured that it was eternal. Then, telling us that it was "expedient" for Him to go away, He prayed the Father to send Him back as the Holy Spirit. Why? So that His FULL HUMAN EXPERIENCE would become ours IN Christ.

Romans 7 establishes a dreary outcome - men under God's Laws headed for death. "O who will save me from this body of DEATH???" The answer is forthwith in the opening verses of Chapter 8. "ANOTHER LAW!" Not one of regulation, but of experience - the Law of LIFE IN Christ Jesus. From His incarnation to His glory on God's Throne - all BECOMES OURS. The Christian receives this LIFE at rebirth, and God's purpose is for the man, infused with Christ's perfect life, to learn to apply it. The soul and the flesh of man clamor for their old way. So God only has one request of man. Deny your "soul-life" and crucify your flesh when it clamors. The rest is done by Him. Paul's striving was not the Law. It was; "Christ IN YOU the hope of glory"!  (Col.1:27). In Philippians 3 it was "to know Christ and the power of His resurrection" and to the Galatians Paul writes that his profound hope is "Christ FORMED in you" (4:19).

[Vine Abider]

18 hours ago, AdHoc said:

I applaud this thread.

Within a short while after our Lord departed to His Father's Throne, men, even the best of them, strayed from the true reveltion of Jesus Christ. Some tried to enforce the Laws of Moses, and some tried to enforce philosophy on the Church. Other's, seeing the danger made doctrines about what is allowed and what is not allowed. Man has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of GOOD and EVIL. The fruit has become one with man. He loves laws.

But the inspired Apostle, in Romans 7, is emphatic. Man cannot keep Laws. the greatest and most spiritual Laws are in the Covenant made at Sinai. But they cannot be met and so can only sentence the Law-man to death. Christianity have studied, debated and formulated laws since the first Church at Jerusalem. And the results are for every man to see.

The REAL Christian Walk is not by regulation. It is by the Person of Jesus Christ entering, dwelling and spreading INSIDE a man. God's plan was that man would eat of the Tree of LIFE. the principle of the Two Trees is the same. Eat the fruit and you will have a inner source. One unto death and one unto LIFE. But what LIFE? THE LIFE THAT CHRIST LIVED!!! Our Lord Jesus did not come to give us more of Moses. He came and lived the perfect human life motivated and energized by the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him. Then, when this life, which includes His encounter with death and resurrection life, was lived experimentally, Christ's deity ensured that it was eternal. Then, telling us that it was "expedient" for Him to go away, He prayed the Father to send Him back as the Holy Spirit. Why? So that His FULL HUMAN EXPERIENCE would become ours IN Christ.

Romans 7 establishes a dreary outcome - men under God's Laws headed for death. "O who will save me from this body of DEATH???" The answer is forthwith in the opening verses of Chapter 8. "ANOTHER LAW!" Not one of regulation, but of experience - the Law of LIFE IN Christ Jesus. From His incarnation to His glory on God's Throne - all BECOMES OURS. The Christian receives this LIFE at rebirth, and God's purpose is for the man, infused with Christ's perfect life, to learn to apply it. The soul and the flesh of man clamor for their old way. So God only has one request of man. Deny your "soul-life" and crucify your flesh when it clamors. The rest is done by Him. Paul's striving was not the Law. It was; "Christ IN YOU the hope of glory"!  (Col.1:27). In Philippians 3 it was "to know Christ and the power of His resurrection" and to the Galatians Paul writes that his profound hope is "Christ FORMED in you" (4:19).

Yes and AMEN - source is everything! Our we sourced in our old life?  We have the ongoing freedom of will to chose that - even though that old life is really dead through baptism into the death of Christ.

Read this in the same devotional for today: "The cross is a fact that transfers the source of our lives." That really stuck out to me . . .

"And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh."  2 Cor 15-16  This is really about source!

[Vine Abider]

6 minutes ago, Tony the student said:

Brother, you have been given a new level of maturity in Father God and Jesus. Rejoice. I say again, Rejoice in the Lord.

Amen.

Thanks for the compliment, but I think He's just got me with those who know Him in such a way . . . hoping some of the riches they've seen and experience will "rub off" on me too!

[Alive]

20 hours ago, AdHoc said:

I applaud this thread.

Within a short while after our Lord departed to His Father's Throne, men, even the best of them, strayed from the true reveltion of Jesus Christ. Some tried to enforce the Laws of Moses, and some tried to enforce philosophy on the Church. Other's, seeing the danger made doctrines about what is allowed and what is not allowed. Man has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of GOOD and EVIL. The fruit has become one with man. He loves laws.

But the inspired Apostle, in Romans 7, is emphatic. Man cannot keep Laws. the greatest and most spiritual Laws are in the Covenant made at Sinai. But they cannot be met and so can only sentence the Law-man to death. Christianity have studied, debated and formulated laws since the first Church at Jerusalem. And the results are for every man to see.

The REAL Christian Walk is not by regulation. It is by the Person of Jesus Christ entering, dwelling and spreading INSIDE a man. God's plan was that man would eat of the Tree of LIFE. the principle of the Two Trees is the same. Eat the fruit and you will have a inner source. One unto death and one unto LIFE. But what LIFE? THE LIFE THAT CHRIST LIVED!!! Our Lord Jesus did not come to give us more of Moses. He came and lived the perfect human life motivated and energized by the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him. Then, when this life, which includes His encounter with death and resurrection life, was lived experimentally, Christ's deity ensured that it was eternal. Then, telling us that it was "expedient" for Him to go away, He prayed the Father to send Him back as the Holy Spirit. Why? So that His FULL HUMAN EXPERIENCE would become ours IN Christ.

Romans 7 establishes a dreary outcome - men under God's Laws headed for death. "O who will save me from this body of DEATH???" The answer is forthwith in the opening verses of Chapter 8. "ANOTHER LAW!" Not one of regulation, but of experience - the Law of LIFE IN Christ Jesus. From His incarnation to His glory on God's Throne - all BECOMES OURS. The Christian receives this LIFE at rebirth, and God's purpose is for the man, infused with Christ's perfect life, to learn to apply it. The soul and the flesh of man clamor for their old way. So God only has one request of man. Deny your "soul-life" and crucify your flesh when it clamors. The rest is done by Him. Paul's striving was not the Law. It was; "Christ IN YOU the hope of glory"!  (Col.1:27). In Philippians 3 it was "to know Christ and the power of His resurrection" and to the Galatians Paul writes that his profound hope is "Christ FORMED in you" (4:19).

Great suff and Amen!

Could you explain the phrase that I put in bold type?

[AdHoc]

18 hours ago, Alive said:

Great suff and Amen!

Could you explain the phrase that I put in bold type?

Quote

He prayed the Father to send Him back as the Holy Spirit. Why? So that His FULL HUMAN EXPERIENCE would become ours IN Christ.

The scripture I refer to is John 14:15-23;

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him

My hope is that we enter into the revelation of this Word and do not turn it into a treatise on the logic of the Triune God. In the gospel of John the overall purpose of the Son of God is to achieve what Adam failed to do - that is, let man eat the fruit of the Tree of Life. God does this by a man taking in the fruit by mouth and letting the LIFE of the fruit permeate the eater (John Chapter 6). By default then the man becomes the House or Temple of God, for John reveals that its them is Bethel - the House of God in Chapter 1. Thus, when our Lord predicts His departure in the flesh, He does not leave the believer empty. In verses 15-17 He promises "Comforter" - the Holy Spirit. This "Comforter" will be ever present and even IN the saint (v.17).

But then in verse 18, our Lord Jesus presents Himself as the Comforter, and the One Who will abide "IN" us. Then, in verse 20 it is revealed that the INDWELLING Lord Jesus will Himself be indwell the Father. Verse 23 confirms then the logical outcome - Both thr father and Son ABIDING with the believer. Independent of trying to understand the Triune God (which I believe the human intellect is not capable of) the plain language, among other things, says that BOTH the Holy Spirit and Jesus are "Comforters" and BOTH will, in that day, INDWELL the believer. But there is a catch!

John 7:39 says;

39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

This verse present problems because the word "given" is supposed. It does not appear in the original. The verse is actually;

39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

At first reading this rendering defies the rest of the Bible. "The Holy Ghost WAS NOT YET ... ". In this form it plainly means that the Holy Ghost did not exist YET - a supposition that defies His eternalness and eternal co-existence with the other Two of the Triune God. The answer is found in taking the whole verse as a unit. It was not the holy Ghost that was NOT YET. It was "the Spirit THAT THEY SHOULD RECEIVE. The Holy Spirit needed something more before He could be given. What? The EXPERIENCE of the resurrection and its implications!

The word "glory" in the Greek means, "made apparent". The wages of sin is death, so when our Lord was resurrected, it immediately "made apparent" that God accepted His death as having put away every last sin ever committed. This was Christ's glory spoken of in John 7:39. The Holy Spirit needed the EXPERIMENTAL resurrection to be added to His Person before He could deliver Himself into the spirits of men. This powerful verse shows that before Jesus, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, had to go through, and add EXPERIMENTALLY, the whole of His perfect HUMAN EXPERIENCE to the man He was going to INDWELL.

The average Christian Assembly does not go this far or this deep. Jesus is taught as our lucky charm for when we experience difficulties, and/or our new Lawmaker to replace Moses. He is not taught as the ALL-SUFFICIENT-ONE indwelling the Believer to permeate the believer with a LIFE that met all God's needs and wants. This LIFE is divine life with human life with the glory of His full and perfect experience of a man subject to God.

The usual exposition of John 14 is a sad graveside comfort. But it is NOT THAT. It is one of the most profound prophecies ever made. The Father's House is never heaven. It is severally the Tabernacle, two Temples, Christ's Body and/or the Church. Our Lord Jesus must complete (prepare) the solution to sin and sins, and He must complete His human experience which included death and resurrection. And that is what He did - exactly. He went to death, experienced Hades, and was raised by the Father. He then tells Mary that He has not yet ascended to His Father, but that He was about to do it. Then, He returns to His disciples that night and breathes the Holy Spirit into them. Jesus is COMPLETE experientially, is ALL-SUFFICIENT for His disciples LIVES, and He has set aside all obstacles to man hosting an INDWELLING God to make the Church the Father's House. He thus completed the prophecy of John 14 in about 4 days.

[Alive]

1 hour ago, AdHoc said:

He prayed the Father to send Him back as the Holy Spirit.

I have been In Christ long time and have never heard anyone articulate this. May I suggest that our members will find it puzzling.

[FJK]

Matthew 4:4 "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."  (KJV)

Jesus was God.

Every word, every single word he spoke, not with some of them more important than others, not just some of them, but every word.

Think about this.

[Vine Abider]

1 hour ago, Alive said:

I have been In Christ long time and have never heard anyone articulate this. May I suggest that our members will find it puzzling.

I am waiting on @AdHoc's response on this too.  I have some thoughts, but will wait to hear from him . . .

[AdHoc]

1 hour ago, Alive said:

I have been In Christ long time and have never heard anyone articulate this. May I suggest that our members will find it puzzling.

I agree. I might get some backlash because of it. You've been very fair to ask first - without disagreement. But what do you think of this passage?

10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Ro 8:10–16)

The question is, Who dwells in us believers? And the question will be, in John 14, Who did our Lord pray for ... and Who came to dwell in man?