In what follows I will attempt to shed some light on what makes the Christian Life so powerful, for it is—in its very fibers—extremely effectual and operative.
As I have written elsewhere, since there is only one Christ there can be only one Christian Life. In that light we can define a Christian as a person in whom the Life of Christ is manifested. The apostle Paul expresses it in these words:
… always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Cor. 4:10,11)
An introduction
To embark on the subject of this article let us read from Colossians:
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Col. 2:11,12)
Here Paul refers to the initial experience a person undergoes when he puts his faith in the working of God, and as we are about to see, what is needed to enter the Christian Life is also necessary to maintain its heartbeat subsequently.
A needed understanding
I write on this subject because it’s possible for us Christians to be partly unaware that a divine working has been provided for us. When this nescience finds room in a person’s mind he might, inadvertently, resort to his own working, which will prove absolutely insufficient to generate a shred of Christianity. That’s the reason why Paul was praying for the Ephesians’ church, that the eyes of their understanding could be enlightened to the end that they may know “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Eph. 1:1:19). It is this knowledge—absolutely distinct from mere Christian information—that can lead us to experience the working of His mighty power, and thereby the Christian Life.
Something about God’s grace
Another thing we learn from the apostle Paul is that the very grace by which a person gets saved, or by which that person can advance, is the result of the working of God. Speaking about his ministry Paul writes:
I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.” (Eph. 3:7)
Grace, as a whole, is given by the effective working of God’s power. Only that divine working can sustain our Christianity, not our wishes or religious workouts.
God is a working God
Happily for us, God is an active God. He doesn’t dwell in passivity. He is constantly manifesting Himself in one way or another. Jesus puts it in these words:
My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” (John 5:17)
The words spoken by Jesus should provoke some thoughts when He said: “the Father who dwells in Me does the works” (John 14:10). That’s right! The very works the Son of Man was performing were established on His faith in the working of God. This should lead us to serious considerations. Only the works generated by God can yield eternal results. The rest will end as bubbles of soap in the wind, and let me remind you that bubbles of soap can be very colorful and impressive, but they quickly disappear in the lethal breath of infertility.
Let us not forget, the productiveness we Christians can experience is contingent on God working through us. Such effectiveness is derived from Him and from Him alone. It is Him who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13), for although there are diversities of activities, it is the same God who works all in all (1 Cor. 12:6). Consequently, there is no room left for self-glory. As it is written: “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31).
Living words
Likewise, when we refer to fruitful speech we refer to God speaking through a vessel, for only His utterance can engender life (John 6:63). No wonder Paul affirms that the words of human wisdom are in their totality depraved of divine power:
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:4,5)
As much as God can work through us He can also speak through us. Actually both entities, the working and the speaking of God, form a unity which can be externalized through us:
But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matt. 10:19,20)
Our faith and expectation, not to mention the state of one’s heart, can prompt God to operate in us and through us. This, in a nutshell, is the heartbeat of Christianity. Anything else amounts to an ineffectual replica drained of potentiality.
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