Part IV: Incarnational Christianity
What is it that sets us humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom? I would like to say it is heart, the ability to feel empathy and our motivations based on love. Animals operate by instinct and are motivated to simply survive. Sure you can train an animal to serve like they do in the circus, police dogs, guide dogs, horses etc. However, the level of service animals provide is not something that comes from their hearts, but comes from conditioning and training.
I ended my last post by saying that partnership is the essence of our union with Christ, which exemplifies the message of the incarnation. Christ is our example and our partnership with Him is to be the motivation for our service. Religion puts us back on the level of animals where our service is based on outward conditioning and training while the revolutionary message of the incarnation is the very inertia of the Spirit motivating us out of the pure love of the Father.
In the same way that Christ took upon Himself our humanity, willingly laying down His life on our behalf being motivated by unadulterated love, in like manner we are called into this partnership. The new covenant is about the Spirit of God writing this love upon our hearts and love being the motivation of our service to Him and others. If our foundations are not correct then like the Pharisees who had noble intentions we will find ourselves in what I call the ‘Cycle of Dead Works’. I find that most believers are not grounded in the partnership of incarnation, but they are established in a religious mindset through years of church conditioning and training.
Dead works, are works of service usually done with sincerity, but it is based on the false notion that, “If I want God’s approval then I must be good, or I must do something for Him.” I could make a long list of such activities like giving time and effort to charities, stop smoking or doing drugs, the keeping of religious holidays etc. All noble things to do and normally done with sincere motives but what makes them ‘dead works’ is that they are done as an attempt to deal with a guilty conscience through our own self-effort.
Hebrews 6:1-2 list ‘repentance from dead works’ as the first of six foundational areas of understanding every believer needs to be grouned in. It is not repentance from sin, but turning away from our own ability to change or save ourselves and totally identifying and relying on the power of God to work in us. Repentance from dead works is the first foundational doctrine mentioned in Hebrews 6:1-2 and the one I find most people trip over, living their entire Christian lives in the ‘Cycle of Dead Works’ (If you want more information on this subject get my free book ‘Building Your Spiritual House’ by signing up for this e-newsletter or ‘Like’ our Fan page then read lesson 8). In the ‘Cycle of Dead Works’ we are conditioned by a guilty conscience, motivated by fear and the fruit produced is religious activity along with hypocrisy.
The only way to break the ‘Cycle of Dead Works’ is to understand and live by the DNA of the gospel. We don’t serve to gain favor, be accepted or more loved by the Father. We serve and do works of service based on what Christ has done for us. His Spirit working in us, has so designed us, that as we fellowship with Him we will want to be a blessing to others. Jesus was moved with compassion and touched with the pain of others. He was motivated by love to heal, serve and demonstrate the Fathers love. The DNA of the gospel is that God so loved; that He gave and when we are grounded in love we will be motivated from within to give. I heard Thomas Mc Daniels the lead pastor of Lifebridge Christian Center in Longview, Texas recently say, “Serving others is the primary way to show your love! All else is just talk! The world needs a genuine expression of God’s love, it will be revealed through our service to others!”
The incarnation is lived out as an expression of the love of God. He first loved us therefore as we are filled with His Spirit we are moved from within to show expressions of service visibly demonstrating His love to this world. It is true justice in action helping those who need the hand of God and if we open our hearts to the Spirit then we can become those hands. You could simply call ‘Incarnational Christianity’ an example of servant evangelism. In my next post I want to move the conversation on to different methods of evangelism depending on the context of where we are serving.
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