PSALM 96:6-9 – Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
THEME OF THE DAY. THE CHRIST OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY. There are many ways we may determine spiritual stability and maturity. The chief one, though, will be the increasing place the Lord Jesus holds in our affections and thinking. Like the Apostle Paul, maturing Christians will find themselves becoming more Christ-centered, Christ-controlled, and Christ-consumed. The more one matures as a Christian, the more the heart and mind become fixed on the Person of Jesus Christ. Now I realize no Christian will deny this truth. However, there is a real danger, even a self-deception, when it comes to a fixation on the Person of Christ. And it lies within the ease we lean on our own understanding of what it truly means to live life Christ-centered, Christ-controlled, and Christ-consumed. What we find as the underlying principle of salvation throughout the Bible is that Jesus Christ is not merely a Savior from our sins, but the Lord of our lives. Study Christ’s call in the Gospels to those who wanted to follow Him. Study the book of Acts and see the radicalness of total abandonment of oneself to Christ as the standard of following Him. Study the New Testament epistles and pay attention to the writers when they describe the walk of a Christian. We will find they always point to a non-compartmentalized commitment to Him. To follow Jesus meant and means to surrender all of life; our speech, our actions, our attitudes, our resources, our everything including our very being to Him for His purposes and direction. So, if we are going to follow the Christ of Biblical Christianity and not the Christ of contemporary church culture or of our own comfortable creation, we must come to grips with three things about Him and our relationship with Him.
First. Jesus is not a Savior first, then made Lord later in the Christian life. I have heard testimonies from Christians saying, “I took Jesus as my Savior, but it wasn’t till recently, I made Him my Lord.” I know these folks are well-intended, and don’t lack sincerity. What they lack is a Biblical Christology of realizing when a person receives Christ Jesus; when they become a Christian, He has become their Savior AND Lord. Remember, we receive a full Christ and that means Lordship. Jesus Christ comes into the life of a repenting and believing sinner in all of His offices and titles.
And that leads to the second truth concerning the Christ of Christianity – Jesus Christ becomes the believing individual’s absolute authority in life. He is now the compass we steer life by. He is the One who directs our decisions and life’s choices. His commands become our “marching orders.” We will quickly know if we are walking with the Christ of Biblical Christianity by our attitudes and actions of obeying His commands. The Psalmist writes, “I delight to do Your will, oh my God; Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). Christians walking with the Lord do three things with His Word. They put it into their hearts by reading, studying and hearing it preached. They delight to put it into their hearts by reading, studying, and hearing it preached. They intentionally put the word read, studied, and heard into action by their obedience to it. A Christian not consistently obeying God’s Word is failing to live out the relationship established at salvation; a relationship of glad submission and active obedience to His Word under the complete authority of Christ.
A final thing about our walk with the Christ of Christianity is that the Christian knows the only true pleasure and satisfaction in life is found in a close and intimate relationship with Christ. This maturing Christian is awakened to the deception of the devil and sin promising happiness and contentment but never able to deliver. This believer knows by experience Christ alone satisfies and he or she will be seeking Him alone to fulfill their inner heart longings.
God has privileged us to walk with His Son in this life. Let’s ensure our walk is with the Christ of Biblical Christianity; a walk of holy joy, holy obedience, and holy conformity to His holy image.
PRAYER: “Father, grant me an insatiable desire to behold Your Son in Your Word, in prayer, and in His church.”
QUOTE: “Christianity is Christ; a beholding of Him in the beauty of holiness that produces a growing likeness to Him.”