Monday, June 30, 2008

32 - What DIFFERENCE does it make ? (2)

Generally, the BIG focus of ignoring Jesus as Covenant is not allowing Jesus to BE who He in actuality IS ! God designed HIM to be the FOCUS - to be Lord and Christ - to have ALL preeminence - to be ALL and in you all. Now all those phrases are Scripture phrases - I try to not ignore Scripture at ALL. I have mentioned the beginning of my pilgrimage included translating Colossians - and I cannot get over the FORCE of that book.

Allow me to share the ULTIMATE force Scripture in Colossians which caused me to catch my breath - and I have NOT recovered to this very day !

Focus-JESUS - "ALL THE FULLNESS of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily" is one translation of Colossians 2:9 - but I noticed that the sentence is not ended at that point. However - focus for a moment on the fact of verse 9 - why even bring that up ? Actually part of the reason of bringing it up was to write verse 10 - don't forget, most of Paul's writings were to help Christians KNOW their privilege and live up to their destiny ! It also helps to know a covenant principle here - in reference to those benefiting from a Covenant Representative, the concept includes this challenging thought - whatever happened to the Covenant Representative, is shared by those who are represented. David won the war against Goliath - and even though they didn't have much faith in David, His VICTORY was their victory. The concept continues as "whatever happens in the Representative's Victory belongs in identity to the represented ! (Yes - sounds almost the same - but I am trying to get us to see that Jesus' VICTORY means we, by faith, not only experience His Victory - we get His IDENTITY ! We, Paul said, "are the joint-heirs with Christ" Romans 8:17. Paul used the concept in Colossians 3:3 to state that since we are united with Christ - "we MUST APPEAR with Him when He appears" - same principle. BUT - that's not what stopped my heart - that shows up in Colossians 2:10 - my translation (which is a little fuller to show several levels of meaning from the original) "YOU have come to this fullness of Life in Him" - remember, the introductory verse said, "The WHOLE FULLNESS of the Godhead dwelt in HIM bodily" - now "YOU have come to this fullness" - and I ask you - does that makes any difference to you ? My first response - that just cannot be ! Ah - but Paul seemed to be led by The Spirit to tell us - it can certainly BE !

I wonder why we don't SEE these things - and I know the answer now - we keep putting the emphasis on US - when we are meant to get our Identity from HIM ! That is part of the concept of being "in Him" and Him being "in US". He is to get ALL preeminence - so if we don't allow that, we miss out on some BIG STUFF !

What has it meant to you to be "in Christ" - doesn't that seem like some kind of symbolic figure of speech not really for US ? I have known since childhood that the theme of Colossians was "Christ in you" - but I had no clue what that meant. Once I saw the "fullness of the Godhead" coming to me - or me coming to it - I knew I really had NO CLUE ! But, what a wonder ! What excitement to know what is mine by faith in what JESUS did ! Incredible ! And - we need a new word for this concept - I don't know what to say ! Maybe "beyond words" - indescribable - or TOO MUCH ! By the way - just talking about the impossibility of the concept is thrilling to me - it gives our minds a chance to grasp the enormity of the idea we cannot totally get - and we can enjoy every second of that impossibility !

"IN CHRIST" - is a series of lessons I have researched and taught. I don't know if I'll ever feel that I have taught it fully or correctly - but I enjoy that struggle so much ! One huge rocky crag on my pilgrimage - thanks for sharing the climb - and let's climb again soon - more to come

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