Saturday 11 February 2012

In God In christ: a Kainos creation

Christ in us the hope of glory is the glory of the gospel of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The face value of the gospel therefore is the face of Jesus Christ reflected in us to the hope and glory of God.
Christ in us therefore is a consequence of the gospel and God and Jesus making his place of abode in us.(John 14:21-23). The revelation of a kainos(New creation) is the revelation of christ in us.
 John 16:14-15 He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you  All things that the Father has are mine; on account of this I have said that he receives of mine and shall announce it to you(Darby)
The gospel is the declaration that tells us in a glad announcement that all of God is realized in us. The holy spirit takes what is of God and announces it to us. He declares that what is of God is also ours in Christ. God has not withheld anything from man. God has bequeathed us with himself.

“Don’t you know that you are the temple of the holy spirit?” That was the question of Paul to the Corinthians that they should not view themselves any way lesser that of the opinion of God for God will not unite what belongs to him with a prostitute. God is the chief indweller of our bodies.

Jesus’ prayer before he was crucified was that he may be in us and we may be in the father, a perfect union that surpasses any kind of human definition.
This union is found only n the person of Christ. In Christ is the reality that every wall of hostility that has ever existed is torn down in him.
         
                            he tore the wall of hostility: everything is now kainos (new)

Eph 2:13-15and now, in Christ Jesus, ye being once afar off became nigh in the blood of the Christ, 14 for he is our peace, who did make both one, and the middle wall of the enclosure did break down, 15 the enmity in his flesh, the law of the commands in ordinances having done away, that the two he might create in himself into one new man, making peace,(YLT)

We who were far are brought near and into himself. Now we calculate thta there is a new man out of the two that existed. We who were far and God who was always near; we who were fallen and the original perfect man, Jesus. He came to create one new man and we thus judge that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone and behold all has become new.

The old fallen distant, enemy filled man is gone and behold we enjoy a (Kainos)new existence in Christ. He is our whole new world. We see him with unveiled face and we behold how true we are in him, what is true of him is also true in us, because we are in him and he is in us.

We therefore know that God is light and in him there is no darkness. Where God is so are we, we are sited with Christ at the right hand of the father high and above the notion of darkness. We are the ones who have been brought to God we have peace with God and this peace is so meaningful that grace and peace is multiplied in us through the knowledge of God. God knows that we are his sons and he knows that he is our father. This knowledge is an intense union ginosko that bears forth fruit.

Christ is therefore our receipt guaranteeing us that the life of God will be realized in us. If we are living its unto Christ and not unto ourselves. We were not designed to live by ourselves but by the life of God in us . Man is by design the effortless recipient of the life of God. The intergrity of the image and likeness of God in Man is therefore maintained by God himself.
It’s from God that we take our origin. The person of Christ reveals how righteous sanctified and holy we are. God made a declaration that we must be holy. This declaration is a conclusive one and not a conditional one. Apostle Peter tells us how this is possible.
God himself has made a life of holiness possible in us. Through God we hope in God.

1st peter1:20-21He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
He is our claim to fame. God is the enabler and the enablement living in us. He is so thrilled by being in us. He has found great joy in being realized in us. The gospel then announces these glad tidings.
Its news because it has happened. God has reconciled us to himself. We are received into God and if this is so then we are really blessed.
This is what John saw in his vision that God has been pleased to dwell in man.
Rev 21:3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
This is the climax of man’s destiny in God, he dwells among us and we dwell in him. This reaity as Jesus said is within our midst. This is the reality of a kainos creation Jesus came to proclaim to us that that which we thought was far and out of reach is now at hand.
The kngdom of God; its reign and influence is in us , the word is near us, its in our mouth and in our hearts. What is our confession? It’s the expression of how united  we are in him. God himself has eliminated distance. He dwells in us we therefore do not contextualize God in distance he is closer than our next expression.

The glory of the gospel is Christ in us; not a Christ who will be coming, not an eschatological Christ but Christ who is already in us. We know in his second coming as he appears it will be plain that as he is so are we. Meanwhile we ought to be comfortable with Jesus who has come; for if we are not convinced that we are in him and he is in us, then there will be no other event to convince us so, no other greater event than of the cross to convince us so.

The reality is that we are united with Christ at the moment; this union is not something we improve on. Its not a reality that is threatened by our response or our faithfulness, its already established in the heavens and this inspiration actively persuades us to have faith in the gospel.
We calculate that we are in a constant union; we have inherited a perfect fellowship, the fellowship of the father and of the son

filled with the fullness of God

The greatest miracle is that God would indeed live in man. The greatest innovation of the existence of universe is the image and likeness of God.
When God had created man, he said that he is very Good. He saw his very likeness in him. There is therefore no problem with man because there is no problem with his image and likeness.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
Eph 3:15  from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
Eph 3:16  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
Eph 3:17  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
Eph 3:19  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Eph 3:20  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
Eph 3:21  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

In the sublime of Paul’s heart lay this passion, that all may come to the knowledge of God. The saints together may come to full knowledge that surpasses all knowledge. This knowledge is the fullness of God employed in us. This knowledge is ingrained in your new(Kainos) spirit. In your spirit is a perfect knowledge.

There is a super human reservoir employed in our fabric and the psalmist knew it well when he said that surely we have been wonderfully and fearfully created. Paul prays again for the Ephesians that they may know the hope of their calling, their inheritance among the saints.

We inherit God, He is our portion. He is our lot an indeed we are fallen in pleasant places. God would rather employ everything in us; he chose to be God with us, he is not God without us.

What was lost in Adam is therefore restored to us in Christ. We can never compare what we lost in Adam with what we have gained in Christ. It cannot fit our measuring stick. In Christ is much more, he made us alive and then he lived in us. There is a new (Kainos)existence when we calculate ourselves in God’s eyes; God lives in us, the old is gone and behold all has become new.

Paul again reveals the mystery to the church at Colossae whose reputation of the supremacy of Christ was being tested. .

Rom 5:15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

How much will we who have received the abundance of the free gift by grace reign in this life? We therefore calculate that we who once were lost we who had fallen short of the glory of God now stand justified. The glory is restored to us. This glory is the image and likeness of God. It’s the life of God in us, His spirit which dwells in us and by this abundance we reign in this life.

We are the recipients of the fullness of God we are filled of Christ who is the fullness of God.
Colossians 2:9-10For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

because in him doth tabernacle all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 10 and ye are in him made full, who is the head of all principality and authority, YLT
this is the dealings of Christ that of his fullness we are complete. His completeness finds its right address in us. We are complete in him who is the head of the body.

We now engage in the word of God realizing that it’s a mirror reflecting who we are. The word is the perfect law of liberty engaging our faculties to plug in the reality of God as expressed in the person of Christ in us..

James says that he who is the doer of the word looks intently at the perfect law of liberty ad upon hearing, does what he has heard(James 1:25)
Christ lives pours out of us effortlessly when we engage in the perfect law that gives liberty. This law that lives liberty is the law of spirit of life in  operation in us(Rom 8:2)
We therefore consider that the life of God is in us working in us to will and to act according to the good purpose God has for us.
Man’s destiny is therefore found in God and God is found in man having made his place of abode in him; John 14:21-23, Rev 21:3
The fellowship we have is with God our father and the son, 1st John 1:3, its an assimilation into the fullness of God, That which the father and the son enjoy is also ours.

The wonderful price for us to pay now is attention. Attention to the glad announcement of the gospel and as Paul puts it, that we may grasp, grab attentively and make it ours the manner of width, height breadth and depth of the love of God. These measurements are known as being filled with all the fullness of God.

These wonderful truths are not learnt , carefully calculated but they are revealed . Christ in us the hope of glory.

 

Why is the gospel the good news?

Because it is an announcement: if I had something good and keep it to myself, the good thing remains with me. The gospel is not the go...