We make the Christian life so complicated.
Men tend to be incurably religious and want to reduce everything down to do’s, don’ts, rules, regulations, prohibitions, liturgies, sacraments, holy days — yadda yadda yadda.
A frustrated Apostle Paul once wrote to the “foolish” Galatian believers, in Galatians 4:9-11: “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? You meticulously observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
The Christian life is about becoming who we already are.
Sounds counterintuitive. It’s about working out what God has already worked in.
If you are a born-again believer, God has already “put in” to you through the indwelling Holy Spirit, all that you will ever need to live the Christian life.
In the following passages, pay attention to the tenses of the blessings. Most of them are past and present tense — that is, they are already true of us positionally as Christians.
From Ephesians 1:3-12:
“… (God) has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things in accordance with the plan of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”
This has been God’s plan from “before the foundation of the world,” in His graceful wisdom, driven by His intense love for us, His precious imagers. Wow.
So, what’s the “rub” here?
Trouble is, we think the blessings listed above may be true for us in the “sweet by and by,” rather than believing that they are already ours in the “here and now.”
Big mistake.
“… the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27
There is a principle that runs through the Bible that can be summarized as “now, and not yet.” That is, we already possess some things, and other things are yet to be revealed and actualized in our lives.
Again, pay attention to the tenses here in Ephesians 2:4-10:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Past: God finds us in our spiritually dead condition. He then makes us alive by His grace and raises us up and seats us (spiritually) in the heavenly places. This all happened the instant we were born again.
Present/Future: Then He proceeds to carry out His “good works” through the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit in us throughout the rest of our lives.
As noted in Isaiah 30:20-21, all we must do is get in step with His “still small voice, “Although the Lord has given you bread of deprivation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”
How About You?
Believer, still wandering in the wilderness of not believing who you are in Christ? Get over it.
As written in Colossians 1:27:
“… the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
4-1-1
Click here for a fascinating AI-generated audio overview of this essay.