Part III: Incarnational Christianity
Have you ever heard the commercials about how chemistry affects our daily life? If you have not it is true. If you are reading this in your house take the time to look around. The plastics, cleaners, shampoos, deodorants, carpets, medical prescriptions, climate controlled temperature, containers to hold your food and even much of the food you eat for consumption that is if you don’t eat organically are all a result of the science of chemistry. We live in a chemically induced society, which is not all bad because more times than not we benefit from the advances of modern science.
I am in no way anti-science, but the emphasis we place on science can also have a negative affect on how we view modern life. We begin to think everything should be instant and that we can manipulate the natural process of life to benefit us. It is this issue that I want to address in this post because this mentality has slipped into our spiritual lives. A false mentality has slipped into some segments of the church and I have actually heard the teaching that we are gods (if not directly taught the teaching is implied) who can make our own path creating whatever circumstances we want.
I have had the privilege of living in a very rural community for the last five years. I would have never put myself in this setting, which has been frustrating at times seeming as if time has stood still, but it has been an education for me. I have learned something I don’t think I could have learned many places and that is an organic way of looking at life. Jesus lived in a rural setting and if you read His parables He understood the rhythm of life. Modern society has lost that rhythm. We want instant spiritual growth, if we are planting a church instant numbers, a business instant success or even in a relationship we want instant change and I mean now or we are breaking relationship. We are a lot like the teenage boy who is skinny and sees the path to change along with popularity as pumping steroids into his body.
I think a lot of the frustration we feel in modern society stems from this false perception that we can accelerate growth and somehow move outside of the rhythm of life by charting a path of our own making. When I was in high school I had a drug problem, but I had a few friends who were also athletes and used steroids. I watched them go from small to big in a short period of time. I knew something was unnatural, harmful and going to end bad. Now twenty years later these people have weight problems, emotional problems and health issues. We are hearing about NFL head injuries and suicides, but I do wonder how much of this is also a result of steroids used among these players?
In the church since we are part of our culture we too seem to want instant everything. At times we can have it if the Father so chooses to override the natural process by turning water into wine with a working of a miracle, but I find most of the time He goes the organic route. The incarnation was a miracle, but it was also God stepping into our time and subjecting Himself to the rhythms of life.
When I talk about the rhythm of life lets look at the fruit tree. I have a young plum tree in my front yard and it bore fruit this year for the first time. I did not have to do anything, but plant the tree, water it and care for it. Paul told us one plants, one waters, but God brings the increase. I couldn’t make it grow faster than the rhythm nature put within it and even when I saw fruit for the first time I had to be patient to let the fruit ripen so I could enjoy the taste.
The DNA of the gospel has to be the source from which we grow in all aspects of our life and if it is not then we are building on sand not the foundation of Christ (Matt. 7:26). In the book of Galatians Paul lays an axe to the root of religion and self-improvement through human potential and striving. Paul systematically dismembers the false facades of a life independent of Christ bringing us to the centrality of the cross of Christ. Paul in speaking about the cross is not just referring to Christ death, but also His burial, resurrection and ascension including our total identification with Him.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul talks of this identification and sums it up by saying, “I no longer live as I myself, but Christ lives within me; the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” We have too cut the root of legalism and dependency on our own human potential allowing them to be crucified so that the new man in union with the Spirit can produce the will of God in our lives. We can do things to cooperate with the spiritual life of Christ within us by learning the rhythms of this new life, but we can never add to the DNA of the gospel and when we do we actually hinder its power of true organic change.
It is Galatians 5:23 that Paul talks about the fruit, which can only be produced as a result of living our lives in union with Christ. The fruit mentioned here cannot be produced through the steroids of legalism or the development of our human potential, which both end in spiritual erosion because they are based on the foundation of self and not Christ. The enduring ‘God kind’ of change and character can only be produced through the organic growth of God’s Spirit at work in us. Partnership is the essence of this union and partnership exemplifies the message of the incarnation. In my next post I want to expand upon this partnership we have with Christ and how it is to be our motivation for service to Him and others.
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