Is Christ your Lord or your Life?
All Christians know Christ as their Savior. Several know Him as their Lord. How many know Him though as their Life?
Jesus is our Lord and Savior. There is no doubt about that. But look at the way the apostle Paul described his Christian life.
21 For to me, to live is Christ
For Paul, Christ was his Life. Do you know Christ as your Life?
JESUS IS LIFE
The apostle John testifies that Jesus is life.
4 In him was life (John 1:4)
31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12)
Not only did the apostle John tell us in his own words that Jesus is life, but Jesus Himself also declared that He was Life.
25 “I am the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25)
6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6)
This is the reason that the apostle Paul could declare that for him to live is Christ. Christ was Paul’s life because Jesus is Life.
THE PARADIGM SHIFT
What does it look like to have a paradigm shift of understanding Christ as your Lord and Savior to coming to know Him as your Life?
Charles Trumbull shares his journey of coming to experience Christ as his life in his book Victory in Christ.
“I have always known that Christ is my Savior, but I had looked upon Him as an external Savior, one who did a saving work for me from outside, as it were one who was ready to come close alongside and stay by me, helping me in all that I needed, giving me power and strength and salvation. But now I know something better than that!
At last, I realized that Jesus Christ was actually and literally within me; and even more than that, that He had constituted Himself my very life, taking me into union with Himself – my body, mind, and my spirit – while I still had my own identity and free will, and moral responsibility. Was not this better than having Him as my helper, or even than having Him as an external Savior; to have Him, Jesus Christ, the Son of God as my very own life?
It meant that I need never again ask Him to help me as though He were one and I another; but simply to do His work, His will, in me and with me, and through me. My body was His, my mind His, my will His, my spirit His, and not merely His, but literally part of Him; what He asked me to recognize was, ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.’ Jesus Christ had constituted Himself my life…
Do you wonder that Paul could say with tingling joy and exultation, ‘To me to live is Christ’? He did not say, as I had mistakenly been supposing I must say, “To me to live is to be Christ-like,’ nor ‘to me to live is to have Christ’s help,’ nor ‘to me to live is to serve Christ.’ No, he plunged through and beyond all that in the bold, glorious, mysterious claim, ‘to me to live is Christ!’ I had never understood that verse before. Now thanks to His gift of Himself, I am beginning to enter into a glimpse of its wonderful meaning.”
Charles Trumbull, Victory in Christ (pgs 26-28)
For us to begin to experience Christ in this way, we must move past Jesus being our helper.
We must move past Jesus being an example that we copy and imitate.
We must move past knowing Jesus just as our Savior or Lord.
We must come to understand that we have been joined together in a spiritual union with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is Life, and that He expresses His Life through us.
EXPERIENCING CHRIST AS YOUR LIFE
Jesus didn’t die on the cross just to offer you a ticket to heaven one day.
He didn’t die on the cross so that He could help you follow His rules and be more moral.
He died so that you could experience His Life in you and through you on a daily basis.
Look at what Jesus said about it in John 7:38
38 “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
How amazing does that sound, rivers of living water flowing within you and through you? Doesn’t that sound way more exciting than a ticket to heaven or following a bunch of rules?
Jesus came so that you could experience His abundant Life in you and through you.
Do you know Christ as your Life?
If you’ve put your faith in Jesus for salvation, He is your Life. Know it, believe it, and focus on the life-giving and life-expressing relationship you have with Him on a daily basis.
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