The Utterness of Christ being All

A portion of St. Patrick’s Lorica:

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

How wonderful. . . what tremendous values to come into when Jesus Christ is such a focus, when He is all. It reminds of Colossians 3, “Christ is all, and in all,” and Ephesians 4, “. . . that He might fill all things,” and Colossians 1, “. . . that in everything He might be preeminent.”

There is an absoluteness, an utterness, about Him that calls for an abandonment of all that we are and have in ourselves in this world. How unique and apart from what we are is the Lord Jesus. . . and what promise we have in Christ that we can be like Him.

And yet, how often is there a holding back and a holding on to what we are. . . how much living in the flesh in the pursuit ofow often is there sin and a holding backing the pursuiti Christ? How easy to get comfortable and fall back into the flesh. . . to walk with the Lord, lose sight of Him and go on anyway, on our own, apart from Him. How often we miss the way when Christ is not all.

The call of God to His people in this world is to be a spiritual people, to be alive in Christ and to leave behind the things of the flesh. There is a living according to the flesh and a living according to the Spirit. How utterly apart these are and how often God’s people try to do both. There is death at the heart of things when we live according to the flesh. . . how things do fall within when living according to the flesh. How much is there a stop to growth and going on in the Lord when living in the flesh.

Romans 14 says, “. . . whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” There is possible a living in Christ in this world, a living on the resources in Christ received in faith. Sin is not just the wicked things that are done. . . it’s living from our own resources apart from Christ, looking to oneself to make it thru things, trying to get thru this world to God on our own, thinking that we are sufficient in ourselves. . . it’s the wicked thing we are in ourselves.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet will he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John 11) It is possible in this world to believe in Christ and not live in Him... it is possible to have received from the Lord and not live according to Him. . . to believe in Him and yet be unfaithful. What frustration, what failure, to know the Lord and to sin, to not live from faith. . . what a sense of death hangs over things. Thanks be to God for His mercy and forgiveness when we sin and for His grace that cleanses us and makes a way forward in Christ. And yet there is the promise of Jesus of living and believing in Him, of being faithful, and never knowing that sense of death that touches us when we sin and live apart from Him. Abundant life in Christ is possible in this life now.

How blind to try to follow Christ in the flesh when the call of Jesus is the utter renunciation of ourselves, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9) In following the Lord in this world, there is a way forward in the utter renunciation of what we are in ourselves apart from Christ. . . to learn the lesson that the Apostle Paul did, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” (Romans 7). There is life and growth in abandoning whatever hope or strength or resource we see in ourselves and fleeing to Christ. How much life in the Lord Jesus is found in turning from ourselves and abiding in Christ alone! How much peace and hope in Christ when we remain faithful to the Lord. May Christ be all to us and in us. . . may His Spirit lead and guide us into greater and greater measure of Christ as we follow.

The work of God is faith in Christ

Life in Christ is meant by the Lord to be not the hard thing we so often make it to be. Living in this world as Christians becomes very difficult apart from Christ. There is a block to things. . . even the simplest things become laboured and confused if we try to sustain a Christian life in this world apart from a living union with the living Christ. How much frustration there is about things when thru the resources of the soul alone one tries to follow Christ. . . how much desperation and scrambling to get on top of things, to be right about things, and often even more so even as the Spirit testifies that the way forward is not the way chosen. How rebellious is the soul apart from Christ.

The promise of Christ is that there is a way forward that is without confusion and those struggles that we find as we seek to follow Him on our own resources. The testimony of those persecuted for their faith is that in spite of opposition and hardships and troubles in this world, that there is peace and joy in the midst of things for those who remain faithful. . . that despite the hardest of circumstances there is a life in the Lord Jesus that means peace and hope and a going on with the Lord and a going thru to God. It is only found in Christ. . . He who offers, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 28) There is a peace about things as one faithfully follows Christ thru all things the Lord leads one into.

Apart from a living union in Christ, it is so easy to fall back on our own resources and strike out on our own, to follow what we think best, to do things for the Lord, all the while apart from Him. . . knowing the Lord isn’t necessarily following Him. How much of our lives here are taken up with trying to do things for God apart from Christ? And at the end of all the efforts. . . how utterly frustrating, how little fruit and of no real account with the Lord.

Missions work has become so much more than God intended or has blessed. In the hands of men, there are missions organizations, programs and colleges and degrees. . . with the intention of being a work for God. Having seen in the Bible a goal, something has been taken up for God but apart from Christ. Not that there is no spread of the gospel thru His Church. . . the testimony and faithful witness of Christ in His followers has meant new disciples and an increase of the Kingdom in this world. But Missions often becomes a thing more of man than of God. Paul wrote, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. . .” (2 Cor. 1). The simplest, most uneducated, follower of Jesus - although persecuted and suffering – who yet remains faithful, who can love their persecutor, who remains true in Christ and to Christ, has a testimony and impact in this world that no degree can give.

Men asked Jesus what they should do to be doing the work of God. Jesus’ answer was, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6) The work of God is that Christ would be received in His people, that in a genuine way, what is true about us, at the heart of what we are, is Him. The work of God – the work of His Spirit in manifesting Christ – is that He would have something true of Himself in this world, in a people who bear His image, who in an ever-increasing way are transformed into His likeness and come into fuller measures of Christ.

The work of God in this world has become about so much more that is other than what God intends. Receiving Christ and bearing witness to Him as we follow Him and are faithful in our lives here is the work of God. There is a triumph in Christ now as we faithfully follow the Lord thru all things.