ACTIVE FAITH

                The life of Christ is something we participate in, or it is just a philosophy. How can we really know Jesus if we don’t first walk a mile in His shoes?

                Everything that Jesus said in the Gospels is preposterous. It should jar us and unnerve us. Even though He called Himself the Son of Man, He said it as the Son of God. There can be no middle ground when it comes to Jesus. He was either the greatest con man of all time or He was exactly who He claimed to be. He left no middle ground and so we either accept Him, or we reject Him. We either hate Him or we love Him, despise Him or worship Him.

                Standing on the shores of Galilee in one of His last appearances to His disciples He said:

                “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Luke 24:44, 45

                Imagine for a moment being a Jew. The Torah was to them the absolute Word of God. Moses was the greatest of all prophets. They lived with a legacy of Law and tabernacle services, of types and shadows, of Psalms and Proverbs and prophecies. They had walked with Jesus for 3 ½ years and just when they had begun to accept the fact that Jesus was more than a prophet, He was ripped away from them and crucified as a common criminal. Their hopes had been dashed, their minds befuddled and confused. They had returned to their nets. They had been deflated… hopes crushed like collapsed lungs… nothing left to believe in.

                Suddenly Jesus appears on the shore like nothing ever happened… a regular guy… fish cooking over an open fire…hailing them with cupped hands. “Put your nets in on the other side of the Boat” 

                When so many fish came into their nets that the disciples had to join their two boats together just to haul them in, Peter leaped into the water and swam like an eager and reckless teenager to the shore. Fish forgotten, he stared at Jesus with gaping mouth.

                Then as the other disciples reached shore and pulled in the loaded nets, Jesus offered them broiled fish. He ate some himself and then he said to His disciples:

                “By the way guys; that stuff you read in the Scriptures? It’s all about Me. Everything that Moses wrote and David wrote and the prophets wrote it was all about Me. I came to fulfill my Word and I did so, right down to dying on the cross for your sins. Now I’m going back to My Father and your Father, but I won’t leave you alone. “I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49

                Jesus had said to the people on several occasions “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but they testify of Me and you are unwilling to come to Me that you may have life.” John 5:39, 40.

                You see, Jesus came to impart more than information to us. He came to impart His very Spirit… His very life!

                Today many Christians seek a relationship with Jesus on the basis of information. We treat it as an intellectual exercise, a list of doctrines, routines and rituals, but it is infinitely more than that. Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you, they are Spirit and are life.” John 6:63.

                But these words must be lived… experienced… participated in. It is not enough to simply believe who Jesus is. The devils believe, but to no avail. Jesus made it infinitely personal. You can’t even do what Jesus said to do in the flesh. On the last great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried out as they were pouring water and wine down the steps of the temple, Jesus cried out in the midst of their traditions. He cried out above the noise of the crowd. He cried out as if to tell us something so very vital…

                ”IF ANY MAN IS THIRSTY, LET HIM COME TO ME AND DRINK!  HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME, AS THE SCRIPTURE HAS SAID; OUT OF HIS INNERMOST BEING WILL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER. But this He spoke of the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37-39

                How are we to know the truth in these last days if even the very elect could be deceived? Will mere information do it for us? With 30,000 denominations and about 7 billion opinions just how are we to sort it out? How do you spot your wife or husband or your kids in a crowd? You know them. So how will you pick the real Jesus in a room full of false Christs? We need to know Him… intimately!

                Remember, Jesus said that His Word was more than information. The Pharisees had plenty of information. They knew the prophecies backwards and forwards. They had the Word but they didn’t have the Spirit. And Jesus said; “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing: the words that I have spoken they are spirit and they are life.”

                Here we see the dynamic of the New Covenant. Jesus was saying the same thing that Paul said in Colossians 2:16, 17.  “…let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” “You search the Scriptures, but they testify of Me.”

                But likewise Jesus clearly taught that He did not come to destroy these things, but to fulfill them. The New Covenant validates the Old Covenant even as the Old covenant validates the New Covenant and Jesus Himself is the living reality of it all. We must center our lives on Him. In fact, He must become our very life. Invite Him in every morning and live with the awareness of Him throughout the day. Talk to Him about everything and listen for His voice.

                So as we said at the beginning: the life of Christ is something that we must participate in, be filled with, animated with and made alive in. Jesus is everything He claimed to be and everything that the Father declared Him to be. We can never be disappointed if we put our full faith in Him.

                As St. Silouan the Athonite says: “No matter how much we may study, it is not possible to come to know God unless we live according to His commandments, for God is not known by science, but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and learned men came to the belief that God exists, but they did not know God. It is one thing to believe that God exists and another to know Him. If someone has come to know God by the Holy Spirit, his soul will burn with love for God day and night, and his soul cannot be bound to any earthly thing.”

                This is the kind of love that will get us through the last days.