RFRC: We're not there yet

For so many believers there are remarkable stories of when they met Christ, when He became a real savior to them. I don't happen to think mine is terribly dramatic, but that moment still stands out to me as something life-giving and transforming. It was also something that had nothing to do with me doing enough good and right things, pleasing God by praying or giving enough, or achieving anything special. On the contrary, if anything I was at my weakest--God had systematically kicked away the idolatrous and prideful supports I had used to sustain my self- and worldview: academically, musically, financially. He didn't do it out of spite or anger, but life-giving love:

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.--Hebrews 12:7-11

And of course, such discipline did not end when I was baptized in the Spirit. It continues and I continue, pressing on towards the goal. There is so much to encourage me, in the Word and in the support from my brothers and sisters, but always the enemy works to trip up and discourage.

Being in Christ is a complex thing, and so it seems as Jesus uses so many different analogies to explain what He was establishing on earth. In Matthew 13 He compares the kingdom to a mustard seed and leaven, both things which start out so small as to be insignificant yet have a great impact: the mustard seed growing into a mighty tree, leaven growing and moving throughout a jar of flour until all the flour is leavened and ready to make bread. He compares the kingdom of God with a hidden treasure, one so valuable that when a man finds it, he'll rush off to sell everything he has so that he can afford it--and in the same moment, to a net that is thrown into the sea and drawn out bearing many fish, keeping the good ones and throwing the bad back into the sea. And yet each parable only shows a single facet of the mighty glory of the kingdom of God, slowly rotating the diamond before our eyes; it is here among us, growing and saving and granting life, yet at the same time those of us drawn into it are unsatisfied, longing and aching for the day that our King will return and set all things right. We pray that the eyes of our heart may be on Christ so that when the day comes that all eyes will see His return, we will rejoice at His coming, not fear in the unworthiness of our sin.

But the way to that day of culmination is not a complete mystery, as we see it plotted in the life and works of Jesus Christ. We follow Him in daily life, as we strive to love the people around us whether friend, neighbor, co-worker, stranger, or the guy who just cut us off on the highway. We follow Him in our roles in life, those proscribed by the Scriptures and what we are led to in the Spirit. What weighs most heavily on my mind is what Paul talks about in Ephesians 5:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.--Ephesians 5:25-33

I'm not married, yet the imperative of preparing my heart for this hangs before me--and yet knowing that the best way to prepare myself for that is to simply continue, walking daily with Him and trusting that He will provide each measure of faith necessary to see through. Loving my wife as Christ loves the church...a tremendously tall order. That is not simply following Christ in the way that I interact with the guy at the lunch counter, though certainly that is a part of it. That is giving myself, all of myself with nothing held back, for her sake. Western Christians scarcely can wrap our minds around such a sacrifice except perhaps in theoretical or symbolic terms; perhaps, for example, a man gives up all of his pride for the sake of lifting up his wife and protecting her, showing her deepest love and yet following behind Christ in putting her before myself.

Jesus led out by giving all of himself. He gave up His pride and dignity, descending to the level of a servant, allowing Himself to be turned over to wicked and violent men, men whose very beings were held together because He willed it so, and was mocked, savagely beaten, humiliated, and murdered. And yet He did it out of joy. He continued on the journey set before Him because there was something so much bigger and more beautiful at the end. And it is into that we are called to follow. How can I, a man proven to be wicked, selfish, lustful and arrogant, possibly be able to lead anyone on such a journey?

Only by the grace of God, by the blood of Jesus and the immeasurable joy that He has displayed before the eyes of my heart; I have seen it, and glimpse it in the distance before me. And so there is no room for arrogance. There is no time to stop and show off to all the other people around me, though I will joyfully call to others around me, "Can't you see! Look--there is life, there is the fulfillment of all things before us! Run with me!" There's no arrogance there! To believers who find themselves where I was, holding their beliefs like a weapon against other men...put it down. Look to Christ, and see life, and know that you are called to pray and work for the salvation of your "enemy."

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.--Romans 8:18-25