08/17/2015 The Surpassing Greatness of His Power

Regrettably, I have not given the attention to this part of the web site that I should have over the summer, but I trust to be more responsible with regards to it over the next several months.

Recently, I shared on a couple of Sunday mornings from Ephesians 1: 15 - 19. I especially noted the passage where Paul speaks of the "...surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” All of us have at some point in our checkered journey into Christianity dreamed of attaining unto this glorious state where we sense deeply true oneness with the Triune Godhead and the consequent peace and confidence that such a state provides. Alas! Dreaming of it, however, and truly experiencing it are, sad to say, two very different things.

Yet, unwittingly, we play the game of seeming to be normal and in touch with the reality of what we unceasingly proclaim as a biblical relationship with God because that is what "nominal believers" do. All the while, we live far short of what we attempt so hard to portray. We struggle often with the inward battle of genuinely living out the real Christian life with peace of mind and joy of heart.

One of the primary problems in this struggle of displaying and actualizing the real life of Christ stems from the long years of teaching and preaching that has dominated the more conservative aspect of the Christian Church for the past hundred-fifty years or so. We have heard repeated and ratified over and over again how unworthy we are, how scripturally ignorant we are, how sinful we are on the one hand, and how absolutely holy and demanding our heavenly Father is on the other hand. We have come to accept the fact that no matter how hard we try we don't measure up.

Thusly, we are scourged for our weaknesses and our failures and admonished to go back to the Cross to repent, to acknowledge our sinfulness and our great need week after week, year after year. We are told that we must hang around the Cross because we know that the Cross focuses on man's failure and weakness and we are beset with so much of it. This ushers in a never ending ritual of confessing our sins, begging for forgiveness and pleading for strength and power to overcome the flawed life that we live. There are many tears, fears and emotional distresses by which we feel constantly bound.

Then, there is the other side of the coin that springs out of the social gospel with its universalist leanings which provides salvation with no requirements or responsibilities on the part of man because Jesus died for all, thus, all are reconciled, forgiven and granted the favor of God regardless as to one's lifestyle or core beliefs. Thus, we never need to be concerned about our future life regardless as to how we live...even though it is okay to acknowledge God occasionally as a matter of courtesy.

But both these dangerous philosophies are nothing more than religious conceptions born out of "head-religion. Please hear my heart as I certify most adamantly my sincerest appreciation and my most profound affirmation of the Cross of Jesus. The Cross is the very ground and basis for the forgiveness of sins and the foundation of our acceptance with the Father. Without the Cross none of us could be saved; none of us could know the certainty of our being the children of God.

The Cross is pivotal to our being "born-again;" and it is the root-stock out of which all other vital and essential truths of God's Word emerge. It is the essential foundation of all our on-going communion and relationship with God. But, just as the foundation to a building is essential; it is also vital and necessary to build on and to get past the foundation. Failure to do so makes it virtually impossible to occupy that building as a home or an office or a factory. The only way that building can be occupied happily, prosperously or beneficially, with joy, peace and comfort is to build meaningfully beyond the foundation.

So we take as a "given" the eternal necessity of the Cross, and, if you are reading this, we must also take as a "given that you have experienced the Cross...the forgiveness of sins and the deliverance from sin as a power that the Cross provides. So, we are not looking in this blog for the way to the "new-birth," which, hopefully you have already experienced, but we are looking for the means to the effective and victorious life that follows after the "new-birth," the life that flows wondrously and copiously out of the RESURRECTION LIFE OF JESUS!

In our next post, we will open our hearts and our understanding to the truths of the RESURRECTION LIFE.