The Day of New Beginnings
One Life
We as Christians tend to lead parallel lives. We serve God as part of an overall lifestyle. We have our jobs or careers, our personal relationships, our hobbies and points of interests, our hopes and dreams. We have the monotony of everyday living. Sandwiched in there we have our devotion to the Lord. This does not mean we don’t love God enough, or that we only give Him a small amount of time. It means we have not yet come to the revelation of all that God wants to be to us and in us.
Paul said, “For me to live is Christ...” (Phil. 1:21). Paul’s life, whether he was ministering the Gospel, making tents, or chilling out, was an expression of Christ. He also said in Gal. 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Now, one might read those statements and think, “Boy, what an austere lifestyle.” But that’s not it at all. Religion thinks in one dimensional terms. “I’m going to have to give up everything I like and just be focused on Jesus.” What the Lord wants for each of us goes way beyond that. If it were only that easy! It’s not about what we give up but rather having Christ incorporated into our lives at every level.
There is a work of the cross involved, but not for the sole purpose of crucifying things we happen to enjoy. The work of the cross comes to crucify the self life which exists apart from an awareness of the Lord’s presence. There are certain innate things about each of us that will never change. They define who we are. God made us that way and we will never change. The Lord does not want a religious conformity in us so that we all act and behave the same. He does, however, want His life expressed through ours. How do we reach the place of living only one life before God?
Luke 9:
23 And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
24 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
25 "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?
The desires and wants of the self life must give way to His life ruling in us. Religion focuses on what we must lose, but the intent of God is for us to focus on what we gain.
We miss it if we only think in terms of, “What kind of lifestyle does God approve of?” There is no one lifestyle He approves of. He approves of Himself having free expression in us whatever our interests are. The indulgences of the flesh nature must be crucified. What is resurrected in their place will have Christ as its focus.