Wednesday (Day 11) - GOD'S MYSTERY: CHRIST IN YOU

Posted on: March 3, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Colossians 1: 26-27

. . . the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Romans 8: 9-10a

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you . . .

2 Corinthians 13: 5

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?

Consider

Yesterday we pondered the foundational truth that God has planted us in Jesus Christ. By God’s will and power alone, we are placed into Jesus and all his benefits. Our little lives get put into his great life. Our little stories get taken into his one, true, life-giving story.

Today, we ponder the corollary: Christ is in us! It’s crucial that we consider our being in Christ first. That’s the more dominant theme in Scripture. And, we have to avoid the tendency to think Christianity is about having a Jesus small enough to fit into my heart. Then he would be nothing but a little spiritual accent to help me live the life I dream for myself. That’s not the Biblical view!

The point is being taken into Christ. But Christ has established a new relationship between God and his people. We dwell in him. But he also dwells in us. We are united. We share life. He is in us and we are in him.

Today we see that Christ dwells in the center of us, our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.

God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This mystery is as baffling as a mathematical equation. But it’s as glorious as an experienced reality.

In the second century, Irenaeus wrote that to save us, the Father stretched forth his two “hands.” He sent the Son to accomplish redemption. He sent the Spirit to put us into the Son and all he accomplished. The Spirit joins us to Jesus as he dwells within us. Once more, who can understand such mystical reality? Yet we can experience Christ in our hearts. In worshiping, in praying, in serving and obeying. We feel Christ within. We behold Christ accomplishing his work through us. We see answered prayer. We realize the change in our behaviors that he creates.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

Now Paul’s mysticism grows lyrical with precisely this great discovery. “Christ in me” means something quite different from the weight of an impossible ideal, something far more glorious than the oppression of a pattern for ever beyond all imitation. “Christ in me” means Christ bearing me along from within, Christ the motive-power that carries me on, Christ giving my whole life a wonderful poise and lift, and turning every burden into wings. All this is in it when the apostle speaks of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Compared with this, the religion which bases everything on example is pitifully rudimentary. This, and this alone, is the true Christian religion. Call it mysticism or not—the name matters little: the thing, the experience, matters everything. To be “in Christ,” to have Christ within, to realise your creed not as something you have to bear but as something by which you are borne, this is Christianity. It is more: it is release and liberty, life with an endless song at its heart. It means feeling within you, as long as life here lasts, the carrying power of Love Almighty; and underneath you, when you come to die, the touch of everlasting arms (Stewart, A Man in Christ, p. 93).

Consider

Stewart leads us to see how crucial Christ is within us as a person shaping and empowering us. He is not just “out there” as an impossible ideal to follow. Meditate a while on Stewart’s idea that “‘Christ in me’ means Christ bearing me along from within, Christ the motive power that carries me on, Christ giving my whole life a wonderful poise and lift, and turning every burden into wings.”

When, specifically, have you experienced this to be true? How can you draw on this Source today?

Into what anticipated situations do you especially want to invite Christ within you to guide and empower you?

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Christ in me, the hope of glory!

Blessed Holy Spirit, I marvel that you would reside in me.

How can you stand to lodge near my

Selfish thoughts, my resentments, my lusts, my greeds?

Yet you bring Jesus the redeemer to me!

You work his life in me from the inside out.

What a big work you have to do!

And how patiently, gently you undertake it.

This day I invite your guidance,

Your shaping, your desire, your direction

To transform me more and more.

Oh Christ in me, great mystery of our union,

Flow through me that I might do your will

And rejoice at day’s end to give you thanks.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Monday (Day 37) - TRASHING THE OLD HOUSE

Posted on: March 3, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Colossians 3: 5-11

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Consider

We are in Christ. The old has gone, the new has come. We died, and the life we live, we live by faith in the Son of God who loves and gave his life for us. We are a new creation.

And yet. The earthly remains. Until we take up our resurrection bodies with Christ in heaven, we will fight the old sin nature. The world will still tempt us. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5: 17).

An important part of living in Christ, from Christ and for Christ involves mortifying what remains of the old man. Putting it to death. Saying, “No.” Putting away old habits and old patterns.

That involves identifying what we are doing and saying that is contrary to God’s Word. We repent of it. We change our minds about what is satisfying, fun and good from these impulsive wrongs and habitual sins. We change our behavior based on our awareness of what truly makes for life.

Take a moment to inventory some of the remnants of the old, sinful self that beset you. Would you agree to be rid of them? Andrew Murray shows us how to start.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

We have here the great cause of the weakness of faith in our days. There is no separation from the world. So many Christians seek to have as much of its pleasure and honour and riches as they possibly can, consistently with their profession of religion. In such an atmosphere, faith is stifled. Many hardly believe, or never remember, that the world, with its arts and culture and prosperity, amid all its religious professions, is still the same world that rejected Christ.

There is no way but utterly ceasing from ourselves, dying to self, and waiting in absolute dependence and deep humility upon God.

Let us sink into the death of emptiness and nothingness and helplessness; let us, as dead, wait for the mighty operation of God.

To enter in demands a very entire renunciation of the world and of self, a very real and true participation in Christ’s humbling of Himself and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross—in His death to sin. And it demands no less a very real experience of the mighty operation of God, which raised Him from the dead and set Him at His right hand.

The new covenant does not do violence to man’s will. It is only where the heart sees and believes what God has promised, and is ready at any cost to claim and possess it, that any blessing can be realised.

Our place is deep dependence, patient waiting, and implicit reliance on His mighty power (Murray, The Holiest of All, pp. 459, 278, 282, 266, 272, 274).

Consider

Murray calls us with words that have never been popular but have always been counterintuitive. Will I renounce the world in all its self-assertion and self-based ways of living? Will I reckon myself dead to these deathly things I once loved? Will I walk away from the sins that even now I still love so much? Will I truly give over and wait upon God’s power to deliver me?

Is there one particular thing the Spirit is asking you to forsake today?

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Let’s make the answer to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism our prayer today:

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own,

but belong with body and soul,

both in life and in death,

to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins

with his precious blood,

and has set me free

from all the power of the devil.

He also preserves me in such a way

that without the will of my heavenly Father

not a hair can fall from my head;

indeed, all things must work together

for my salvation.

Therefore, by his Holy Spirit,

he also assures me

of eternal life

and makes me heartily willing and ready

from now on to live for him.

To this Lord, to whom I belong, I consent today,

To renounce my sins and my self

To be wholly and always his.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Tuesday (Day 10) - GOD PUT YOU IN CHRIST!

Posted on: March 2, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

1 Corinthians 1: 30

And because of him [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . .

Consider

The Corinthians were a young church. Most of them had come out of paganism. Most of them were neither wealthy nor educated. Yet, they were a spiritually gifted church. Dramatic works of the Spirit happened among them. This combination of immaturity and gifts led them sometimes to think too much of themselves. To take too much for granted. They had trouble with snobbery and immorality. Paradoxically, they also felt intimidated by the sophisticated Greek culture around them. Sometimes they worried they were missing out by being part of this new religion. Paul had to remind them that God chose what is low and despised in the world as the path of his glory: the shameful cross became glorious redemption.Obvious failure became eternal victory. Paul reminds the Corinthians that all of Christ belongs to them, not as a right, but as a gift.

The language is so simple, we can read right past it. It more literally reads “But out of him you are in Christ Jesus.” Notice the “out” and “in.” Out of him, you are in. The “him” is God the Father. By his will and action, you and I got put into Christ Jesus. And Jesus is for us all wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

If it’s all in Jesus, we have to get into Jesus. That happens only by an act of God. He creates saving faith in us. God enables us to do for ourselves what we cannot do by ourselves: to believe, to yield, to surrender, to trust, to be joined to Jesus.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

“Ye are in Christ Jesus.” The believers at Corinth were still feeble and carnal, only babes in Christ. And yet Paul wants them, at the outset of his teaching, to know distinctly that they are in Christ Jesus. The whole Christian life depends on the clear consciousness of our position in Christ. Most essential to the abiding in Christ is the daily renewal of our faith’s assurance, “I am in Christ Jesus.”

But the apostle has an additional thought, of almost greater importance: “OF GOD are ye in Christ Jesus.” He would have us not only remember our union to Christ, but specially that it is not our own doing, but the work of God Himself. As the Holy Spirit teaches us to realize this, we shall see what a source of assurance and strength it must become to us. It is of God alone that I am in Christ, then God Himself, the Infinite One, becomes my security for all I can need or wish in seeking to abide in Christ.

Let me try to understand what it means, this wonderful “OF GOD in Christ.” In becoming partakers of the union with Christ, there is a work God does and a work we have to do. God does His work by moving us to do our work. The work of God is hidden and silent; what we do is something distinct and tangible. Conversion and faith, prayer and obedience, are conscious acts of which we can give a clear account; while the spiritual quickening and strengthening that come from above are secret and beyond the reach of human sight. And so it comes that when the believer tries to say, “I am in Christ Jesus,” he looks more to the work he did than to the wondrous secret work of God by which he was united to Christ. . . . But it is of great consequence that the mind should be led to see that at the back of our turning, and believing, and accepting of Christ, there was God’s almighty power doing its work—inspiring our will, taking possession of us, and carrying out its own purpose of love in planting us into Christ Jesus. . . . [So] he will learn to praise and to worship with new exultation. . . . OF GOD I am in Christ Jesus” (Murray, Abide in Christ, pp. 39-40).

Consider

If I am in Christ, it is because God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit put me there. He re-located me into Christ. Not by taking away my will. But by enabling my will. His power inspires me to yield my heart which otherwise would remain in stubborn rebellion. So I really do surrender my life to Christ; it is really my act of free will. But the power to have free will comes from God. He creates faith in me as a gift. “It is of God alone that I am in Christ.” Murray encourages us to receive the comfort of this reality. God wants me! God planted me in Christ so that I can grow in him. I did not make this up. It is God’s work and it’s happening in me!

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Of God I am in you, Christ Jesus!

Out of the Father’s pleasure

Out of the Spirit’s power,

I partake of your very life,

I receive your redemption,

I yield to your will and way.

Oh, priceless gift of faith!

Oh, merciful Savior

Who lets me be joined to you

And all you accomplished for us.

Of God I am in Christ.

I sing all day!

Of God, of God, of God

I am in Christ!

I cannot be snatched away

I cannot lose him

For I did not make this.

No, you are making me:

Of God I am in you, Christ Jesus.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Monday (Day 9) - THE GREAT YES

Posted on: March 1, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

2 Corinthians 1: 20-22

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Consider

Today we take up for study one of the verses we are learning by repeating it every day. When we begin to see what is going on in this passage, we realize these are words we cannot live without.

All the promises of God get fulfilled in the person and career of Jesus. All the human response to God gets offered by the person and career of Jesus.

In Jesus, we see God keeping promises like these:

“And I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people.” Leviticus 26: 12

“And I will give you a new heart . . . and I will put my Spirit within you.” Ezekiel 36: 26-27

“He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces.” Isaiah 25: 8

In Jesus, we see a man keeping promises like these:

“All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Exodus 24: 7

“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’” Hebrews 10: 7 quoting Psalm 40: 8

“Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14: 36

Jesus is the meeting place between the promises of God and the faithfulness required of humanity. The people waited for centuries for the LORD to fulfill his Word to them. The LORD waited patiently knowing his people could not ever, on their own, keep his law. The waiting ended in Jesus. He enacted our faithfulness and his Father’s promises. So God and humanity meet in Christ alone.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

It was by his union with us in our life in the flesh, by His Identifying Himself with our nature, that Jesus was able to claim and to work out and enter into possession of the glory God had promised to man. It is by our receiving His nature, and identifying ourselves with Him in this life on earth and in heaven, that what He has achieved for us can really become ours. Let us here, at the very outset of our Epistle, get well hold of the truth that what Christ does for us as our Leader, our Priest, our Redeemer, is not anything external. All that God works in our nature in heaven or on earth, in the stars or in the trees, He does from within, by laws that pervade their whole existence. All that Adam wrought in us is from within, by a power that rules our inmost life. And all that Christ does for us, whether as Son of God or Son of Man, is equally and entirely a work done within us. It is when we know that He is one with us and we with Him, even as was the case with Adam, that we shall know how truly our destiny will be realised in Him. His oneness with us is the pledge, our oneness with Him the power, of our redemption (Murray, The Holiest of All, pp. 73-74).

Consider

Murray describes Jesus as 1) identifying himself so closely with us as to join his divinity to our humanity and 2) fulfilling from within our humanity the obligations of man to God and the promises of God to man.

How do we get in on this double fulfillment? Murray says we identify ourselves with Christ. We put all our faith and trust in him. His Spirit joins us to Jesus, and from that moment on, Christ is working out his life from within our lives!

There is no way we can be like Jesus if we just try to imitate him. Only when he lives within us, by his Spirit, can Christ’s faithfulness start to get worked out through our faith and faithfulness.

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Beautiful Jesus, you said, “Yes” to your Father!

As the Son of God, you accepted the plan

To visit us as the man Jesus Christ.

In becoming one of us, you said, “Yes” to humanity.

You came to bring us back to what we were meant to be.

All the ancient promises came true in you:

God dwelt with his people in you!

And you hold onto our humanity in heaven,

You keep us joined to you by your Spirit.

You are constantly the promise kept!

And you are our Yes back to God!

Through your faithfulness, we sing our praise.

Through your prayers, we make our own.

We find our joy in joining your harmony

With the Father’s will.

In you, we say, “Yes!”

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Sunday (Day 8) - ALL OF GOD IN THE MAN JESUS

Posted on: February 28, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

WEEK TWO

IT'S ALL IN JESUS

So the true address of the church is Jesus. We live in Christ. That’s the truest thing about us. But if we really have our lives in Christ, don’t we want to know more about this “neighborhood” where we reside? Don’t we want to know more about the person and work of this Jesus who contains our whole lives in himself?

The great Reformed theologian, John Calvin, loved to ponder the riches of Christ, and how he accomplished in himself such a great salvation for us. Calvin raised this question:

Now someone asks, “How has Christ abolished sin, banished the separation between us and God, and acquired righteousness to render God favorable and kindly toward us?” To this we can in general reply that he has achieved this for us by the whole course of his obedience. . . . In short, from the time when he took on the form of a servant, he began to pay the price of liberation in order to redeem us (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.16.5).

From his conception right through to his ascension, everything Jesus did and said matters to us. From birth through his sinless life, sacrificial death and mighty resurrection, Jesus created a life for us in union with himself. This week we’ll explore what Scripture says about all that is “in Jesus” for the sake of humanity.

I love the mystical quality in Fra Angelico’s painting of The Sermon on the Mount. Here is the Son of God on earth, seated on the solid rock of real life. Jesus teaches his twelve disciples who represent all the believers who ever would come to be. He reveals to them the hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God, now come to earth. Jesus is the very center of focus. It’s all in him. All treasures of knowledge and wisdom, the very path to intimacy with God. Viewing this painting, I realize how drawn I am to this man who came from the Father’s heart.

Fra Angelico. The Sermon on the Mount. 1437. Museo di San Marco. Florence.

DAY 8 SUNDAY

ALL OF GOD IN THE MAN JESUS

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Colossians 1: 15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 2:9

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily . . .

Consider

The first disciples asked, “Who was this man Jesus?” They had to wrestle through seeing an ordinary-looking man like any other who also did the most extraordinary things. After he returned to heaven, they realized, “Jesus is no less than God himself who came among us as a man!” Paul explodes our imaginations with the realization that the Jesus who lived among us 33 years is also the Son of God who existed before creation and, indeed, through whom all things came into being. Paul grasped an impossibility: in Christ all the fullness of God dwells bodily.

If we think just in terms of containers, all of God could never fit into a body. His divine fullness would overflow and burst the paltry container of a human person. Yet. Yet, somehow, the essential nature of God, stripped of divine privileges, joined with a truly human nature. Jesus was God walking among us as one of us. He is, even now, still human as he is divine. God and humanity, so at odds with each other, meet and reconcile in the man Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

We see that our whole salvation and all of its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from somewhere else.

If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus [which means “the LORD saves”] that it is “of him.”

If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing [at his baptism].

If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception;

If gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain.

If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion;

If acquittal, in his condemnation;

If remission of the curse, in his cross;

If satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood;

If reconciliation, in his descent into hell;

If mortification of the flesh, in his tomb;

If newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same;

If inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven;

If protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessing, in his Kingdom;

If untroubled expectation of judgement, in the power given to him to judge.

In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.16.19).

Consider

Our passages from Colossians locate all of God in Christ. These extraordinary words from John Calvin locate all aspects of our reconciliation with God in Christ.

Jesus atoned for our sins on the cross. But that salvation occurred in a context from which the cross cannot be removed. From the moment of his conception Jesus was redeeming us. He ran “the whole course” of a sinless life and a faithful ministry full of love and worship. Without these, the cross doesn’t work.

In the same way, Jesus’ death would have accomplished nothing if he hadn’t been raised from the dead and then ascended to the Father’s right hand. His salvation for us would not be complete if he were not returning to judge the world and set all things right.

I invite you to spend some extra time this morning going over Calvin’s list and considering how each aspect of Jesus’ journey relates to how we are saved in Christ alone.

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Lord Jesus, when we meet you in Scripture,

We know we are meeting God come to us.

You are the eternal Word.

The Father spoke creation into being through you.

In you, the eternal Son of God, all things hold together.

Without you, nothing would be.

Without your entry into our world, we would be lost.

Your conception, your life, your death and your resurrection

Together bridge the separation between God and humanity.

All reconciliation occurs in you.

You are salvation itself; you are the meeting place

Between us and the Father.

You brought hostility into peace,

You remade our humanity

As you made your faithful way through the world.

We bless you Lord Jesus.

It’s all in you!

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Saturday (Day 7) - THE REAL ADDRESS OF THE CHURCH

Posted on: February 27, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Colossians 1: 2

To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae . . .

Philippians 1: 1b

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi . . .

1 Thessalonians 1: 1

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

Ephesians 1: 1

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 1: 1

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ . . .

Consider

The “churches” to which Paul wrote were groups of believers in particular cities. They usually met in homes and had no building dedicated to Christian worship. Paul thought of these believers as dwelling in two places at once: in Christ and in the town. They were co-located. A gathering of those worshiping Jesus as Lord might be held in a city you could find on a map. But at the very same time, this church also dwelt in Christ. For instance, though geographically in Ephesus, those believers were declared by Paul to be already seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2: 6). Physically somewhere in the visible world, they were also spiritually united to Christ Jesus and with him in the Father’s presence.

There is a mystical quality to the church. He is the head and we are the members of his body, as organically joined to Jesus as a hand or stomach is part of human anatomy. What’s more, we are joined with all other believers, across the space of the world and the ages of time. This reality is what the Apostles’ Creed means by “the communion of saints.”

In the Garden, the LORD asked our first parents after they had eaten the forbidden fruit, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). They were hiding in the bushes, ashamed of their nakedness and alienated from their Creator. Now we have a different answer about the status of our lives. Where are you? The answer is “in Christ.” Or, to answer the Genesis story, we are still hiding but now “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3: 3). And Christ brings us with him to draw near to the Father unashamed and unafraid—as long as we go joined to him.

The deepest reality of our lives is our union with Christ. So it follows that the deepest bond we can have with other humans is to share the Spirit of Christ who binds us together as one.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

“Ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead” (Col. 2: 12). His life is yours, Paul means. You do not need to wait “until the day break and the shadows flee away” before beginning to live eternally. In union with Christ, that glorious privilege is yours here and now. Risen with Him, you have passed out of relationship to sin, out of the hampering limitations of this present order, out of the domain of the world and the flesh, into the realm of the Spirit, and into life that is life indeed. In short, even here on the earth, “you are a colony of heaven” (Phil. 3: 20). Never forget where your citizenship lies! “Reckon yourselves alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6: 11).

To be “in Christ” means that Christ is the redeemed man’s new environment. The human body, by the acts of eating and drinking and breathing, is continually drawing for its strength upon the resources of its physical environment. So the Christian spirit, by prayer and worship and surrender, makes contact and keeps contact with its spiritual environment, which is Christ: thus the soul draws for its strength upon the supplies of power which in Christ are quite inexhaustible. “I can do all things,” it says, “Through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4: 13). Faced with the strain and stress of the moral struggle, surrounded by stubborn hereditary foes, torn sometimes on the rack of almost unbearable temptation, it lifts its head and cries, “Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ” (2 Cor. 2: 13). (Stewart, A Man in Christ, pp. 105, 107)

Consider

Dr. Stewart reminds us of our true home when he writes that “even here on earth, ‘you are a colony of heaven.’” We live and work and serve in this world, all the while tethered to our homeland, and representing the interests of our King. Stewart tells us that even in this daily life we can keep contact with our “spiritual environment, which is Christ.” We live in him even more truly than we live on this earth. Just as we draw physical nourishment from the physical world, so we can draw strength from Christ, who is now our true natural habitat. The church gathers weekly to reset our focus on our real address.

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Triune God, we live and move and have our being in you.

More than sky to a bird or the sea to a fish,

Great Father, you are the environment of eternal life.

Even more than we must have air to breathe,

Windy Spirit, we must breathe you in.

Even more than we must have food to eat,

Lord Jesus, we must partake of you the Bread of Life . . .

It mystifies us that right now

You have made us spiritual amphibians:

Both of earth and of heaven.

Yet we know we are here to bring your Word

And your love to those who do not yet

Breathe the air of heaven, eat the Word of God

Or revel before your shining face.

So give us strength for this day here

As we yearn for you there.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Friday (Day 6) - THE TRANSFER OF OUR DWELLING

Posted on: February 26, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Colossians 1: 11-14

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Consider

Paul uses dramatic imagery to express how we live in Christ alone. Think in terms of a moving company. Let’s call it the Triune God’s Relocation Services! Elsewhere Paul writes of “God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2: 3-4). God does not want us to perish (2 Pet. 3: 9), but he knows that without him we are trapped in the inky night of our lonely sinfulness. So by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father sent the Son to come get us out. Jesus came to relocate us.

Our old neighborhood could be described as the Domain of Darkness. We lived under the shadow of death. We were enslaved to sinful passions. We could not see a future with any hope. But then the orders for a transfer came. The Father sent the great mover. By the Spirit, we were given faith and got placed into Jesus Christ. The transfer came through. We moved from the Domain of Darkness to a new neighborhood: the Kingdom of the Beloved Son. In Christ, we no longer live where we used to.

Now we joyfully learn the streets and paths of this new neighborhood. We don’t need to go back to revisit our old streets! We really, truly, get to live here. In Jesus. In his Kingdom.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

Paul thinks of the Christian as living and moving and having his being in a spiritual element which is the very breath of life. Just as it might be said that the human body is in the atmosphere that surrounds it on every side, and yet that atmosphere is also within it, filling it and vitalizing it, so it may be said of the Christian soul that it both exists in the Spirit and has the Spirit within it. Here, then, is the key to the phrase “in Christ.” Christ is the redeemed man’s new environment. He has been lifted out of the cramping restrictions of his earthly lot into a totally different sphere, the sphere of Christ. He has been transplanted into a new soil and a new climate, and both soil and climate are Christ. His spirit is breathing a nobler element. He is moving on a loftier plane.

The sinful soul, confronted with God’s wonderful self-disclosure in Christ, and with the tremendous and subduing fact of the cross where the whole world’s sins were borne, responds to that divine appeal and abandons itself to the love that stands revealed: and that response, that abandonment, Paul calls faith. This is what God sees when He justifies the ungodly. Far from holiness and truth and all that makes a son of God, the sinner may yet be: but at least his face is now turned in a new direction.

He is now “in Christ.” He is “looking unto Jesus.” And that means three things. It means, first, that the sinner is now looking, not inwards, but outwards—trusting not to any merit in himself, but to something outside of himself altogether, the grace and love of an entirely trustworthy God. It means, second, that he is looking not downwards, but upwards, not down to sin’s alluring shame, but up to the beauty and purity of Christ. It means, third, that he is looking not backwards but forwards, “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” His position may not have altered much, but his direction has been changed completely; and it is by direction, not position, that God judges. Once the sinner had his back to Christ: now his face is Christward. This is faith, and it holds the potency of a glorious future (Stewart, A Man in Christ, pp. 87, 138-9).

Consider

“Christ is the redeemed man’s new environment. . . . he has been transplanted into a new soil and a new climate.” Dr. Stewart uses this same metaphor of being relocated into Christ. He elaborates how in Christ we can live on a higher plane. The air is better up here with Jesus! The new neighborhood is brighter. Its soil is much better for growth.

Later, Stewart describes this relocation as a change of direction. We point our lives Christward. The physical neighborhood around us may not change much. The streets may still be mean, the pathways may still be littered with broken relationships and trust. Yet, when the fundamental direction of life changes from self to Christ, we see the world in a new way. We find forgiveness to replace bitterness; kindness substitutes for mean ways; love heals old wounds. The desert can bloom even if we don’t physically leave it. This spiritual redirection of focus transforms everything.

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Thank you Father, for getting me out!

The Domain of Darkness was terrible.

All the streets were fear, guilt, clamor and despair.

But you sent the Mover!

Christ created salvation.

The Spirit put me into Christ.

I live now in the Kingdom of Your Beloved Son.

The streets paved with steadfast love and mercy.

The future shines bright with hope.

I belong to you and I go to work each day

On the mission of your kingdom.

Oh, thank you for getting me out of the dark

And into your marvelous light.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Thursday (Day 5) - WHAT'S FOUND IN CHRIST JESUS

Posted on: February 25, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Faith and Love

Formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 1: 13-14

Mercy

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1: 15-17

Nearness

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2: 13

Peace

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 7

Truth

. . . the truth is in Jesus . . . Ephesians 4: 21b

Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge

. . . in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2: 3

Life

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus . . . 2 Timothy 1: 1

Eternal Life

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6: 23

Strength

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Ephesians 6: 10

Consider

On Monday and Tuesday, we looked at passages describing our lives outside of Christ Jesus. Today we receive the riches of ten gifts that come from being in Christ.

Faith, Love and Mercy. Paul wrote his first letter to Timothy about three decades after his conversion on the Damascus Road. But we see that Paul never lost connection to that life-changing moment of being joined to Christ. He kept constant awareness that his harassment of the first believers made him feel the foremost of sinners. Though Paul the persecutor deserved only wrath, God’s grace overflowed toward him. He received a share in “the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” His phrasing is key to our understanding.

Living, active, constant faith to God the Father is not possible for we who are sinners. Only the man Jesus lived in fidelity to his Father wholly and completely. True, other-centered love is not sustainable for we who are sinners. Only the man Jesus lived pure, self-giving love to others. Jesus is the man of faith and love. We cannot ever successfully imitate him on our own. Rather, we have to be organically joined to Christ. With Paul, we have to receive “the faith and love that are in Jesus” if we are to live them out.

Being joined to Jesus all begins with the reality of the mercy of God. By his grace, the Father sent the Son: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. As we take a sinner’s place with Paul, we can then also become those through whom Christ displays his patience.

Nearness and Peace. In Christ, we are brought near to God again. Because we have peace with God through Christ (Rom. 5: 1), we may have peace in our souls day to day. But again, we note that the peace promised to us never comes apart from a living relationship with Christ. The bumper sticker is correct: No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace!

Truth, Wisdom and Knowledge. We all seek an enduring view of the world that will make sense of our lives. We seek an integrated vision that embraces the reality that life is difficult while yet offering a real hope for a better future. No other philosophy on the face of the earth engages suffering with realism and optimism. Only the foolishness of the cross (1 Cor. 1: 18) gives wisdom that endures.

Life, Eternal Life and Strength. Jesus defeated death and opened the way to eternal life for all believers. In union with Christ that everlasting life begins now. Jesus is the water of life, the bread of life and the light of life right this minute as well as in eternity. From Christ who is our life we, by faith, draw strength for daily tasks. In relationship to Jesus, we find his strength to be our strength.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

Everything depends on a man’s union with a living, present Saviour. In the absence of that union, even the Gospel of the cross loses its saving efficacy. Atonement remains impersonal and largely irrelevant until we make contact with the One who atones: and contact of a vital kind is possible only if Jesus is risen and living now. Hence, the New Testament writers refuse to treat either the death or resurrection of Christ in isolation. When they speak of the cross, they see it ever in the light of the Easter glory; and when they speak of the resurrection, they set it against the dark background of the cross (Stewart, A Man in Christ, p. 124).

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

I have known my heart to say “I am the foremost of sinners.”

I have heard the accuser say, “You deserve no good thing.”

I have looked at the futility of the world and despaired.

Yet this I call to mind: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Most blessed Lord, continue to display your mercy in me!

Draw me near to the Father and speak peace to my soul.

By your life, I can live and find strength for this day.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Wednesday (Day 4) - HE SAVED US!

Posted on: February 24, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Titus 3: 4-7

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Consider

Yesterday we visited Titus 3: 3 which describes the sin-spiral of life without Christ. It’s a steady slide into hatred of life itself. Today, we hear Paul proclaim how God interrupted our cycle of futility.

Note how something happened once at a particular time in history that has dramatic, continuing effects for us right now. The goodness and love of God appeared in the world. Into the darkness of our rebel world, God shone a great light. He sent his Son. Jesus came to us as one of us. He answered hate with forgiving love. He restored broken relationships and broken bodies. He lived the fidelity and obedience to his Father that we could never achieve. And he did it on our behalf! He accomplished the purpose of God for humanity: to live a life of utter love and worship.

Further, Jesus took the rage of our sin onto himself. All the God-hatred, the self-hatred and the people-hatred that our sin created piled onto Jesus on the cross. He absorbed it until it killed him. But God raised him from the dead, destroying the death into which we were all plunging.

Paul is saying all that (and more!) in those three simple, magnificent words: he saved us! That happened once for all in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Salvation was accomplished.

But then, throughout the rest of time, God has been sending the Holy Spirit to unite people to Jesus so that they can get in on this salvation. Based on what Jesus has already done, the Spirit washes us clean of sin in his name. He creates new life in us. He enables us to believe. We come back from death. Everything gets renewed. Instead of expecting condemnation to come, we anticipate inheriting eternal life.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

[A direct consequence of Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road was his surrender to the divine love which now stood revealed.]

That Jesus Christ, whose name he had maligned, whose followers he had harried, whose cause he had striven to bring down to destruction, should nevertheless have come to meet him, and to lay his hands upon him, was a thought at once gloriously uplifting and terribly subduing.

For him, then, blasphemer and persecutor as he was, Jesus had been seeking! For him, grace and mercy had entered the field. For him, the Lord had climbed Calvary. In that hour of revelation, Paul realized that right on to the end of his days he would be immeasurably Christ’s debtor. With endless wonder he now could speak of “the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2: 20). And never for a moment did he doubt that the love which had come seeking him was the love of God himself.

All his feverish quest for peace and righteousness and certainty was now over, for God in Christ had taken the initiative. The poor, smoking lamp of legalism had flickered out in the glory of the dawn. God had reconciled him. While he was yet a “sinner,” an “enemy”—how deep dyed in Paul’s own heart’s-blood, the great words in Romans are!—Christ had died for him.

Gone was the stern, inexorable God of [Pharisaism], watching his creatures toiling for a justification he knew they could never win. Now there stood revealed a Father yearning for his child. Face to face with that seeking grace, that reconciling love, Paul’s whole being went down in uttermost surrender.

With all the passion of his soul he responded. He gave himself to God. He worshipped Christ. Grace on the side of God had met faith on the side of man: and from the white-hot crucible of that experience there emerged a new life. The cataclysm of that hour ushered Paul into a totally different sphere of being. He was now as unlike the man who had set out from Jerusalem as noonday is unlike midnight, as life is unlike death. His outlook, his world his nature, his moral sense, his life purpose—all were changed. He was a man “in Christ” (Stewart, A Man in Christ, pp. 76-77).

Consider

As you read back through the above passage, try to identify what changed for Paul when he encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road. From what things specifically did Paul get saved?

Also, identify Paul’s response to this salvation that Stewart describes.

Where would you say that you are in relationship to the salvation Jesus accomplished? Have you also been called to a response of surrender? Have you entered into “a totally different sphere of being” than when you were outside of Christ?

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Fairest Lord Jesus,

You are the goodness and loving kindness of God

Who entered our world

In order to save us.

Thank you for coming as light into our darkness.

Thank you for washing clean our humanity

By your faithfulness.

Thank you for taking our sin to the cross.

Thank you for rising in resurrection power

So that everlasting life may be opened to us.

Oh, shine your light into our hearts this day!

Shine it so clearly that we see you and

Joyfully yield our whole lives to you.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Tuesday (Day 3) - OUTSIDE OF CHRIST, PART 2: ABSENCE OF ALL LIFE AND GOOD

Posted on: February 23, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING OUR LIFE WITHOUT CHRIST

No Good

I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.” Psalm 16: 2

Futility

Apart from me you can do nothing. John 15: 5b

Anger and Hatred

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. Titus 3: 3

Death

. . . in Adam all die . . . 1 Corinthians 15: 22a

Headed for Wrath

. . . among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2: 3

Consider

Humanity was made to live in active relationship to the Triune God who created us. From the earliest days, however, we made decisions to distrust God’s good intent for us. We wanted to be our own gods and trust our own wisdom. From the beginning, we human beings, made in the image of God, have tried to live without God. That decision expresses itself in myriad ways, but at its root, it can simply all be described as sin, a word which means literally “missing the mark.”

Today’s passages show us the consequences of our sin.

We cannot achieve the good we envision if we seek it apart from God. Godless utopias can be envisioned but never accomplished. We can climb for a while toward something we think is good, whether it involves wealth, power, intimacy, intoxication, enlightenment or adventure. We routinely try to make lesser goods into ends in themselves. But always with diminishing results. (Just ask an addict.) Without God, our goods evaporate. Futility and despair solidify.

Frustration rises from the failure of our self-determination project. We get angry that we cannot make life work out on our own. Rather than own up to the choices we made, we blame. When we blame, we go on to envy, slander, undermining and hate. Bitter death remains, as well as the expectation of God’s judgment against the squandering of his gift of life.

Have you noticed people caught in the downward spiral the Titus passage describes? What is life like for them? When have you been there yourself?

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

Only those who through Christ have entered into a vital relationship with God are really “alive.” Existence outside of Christ is not worthy of the name at all; for as compared with the soul that has seen everything in heaven and earth transfigured by a personal experience of redemption and has begun to live daily in the romance and wonder and thrilling stimulus of Jesus’ fellowship, the man who lives for the world and the flesh and has no knowledge of God is virtually dead. He does not know it, he thinks he is “seeing life”; he cannot guess the glory he is missing, nor realize the utter bankruptcy and wretchedness of everything in which he has put his trust. But the fact remains. “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life” (Stewart, A Man in Christ, pp. 104-105).

Consider

Those outside of Christ often ridicule us for losing out on a great life. They say we don’t live in the “real world.” We are described as boring, narrow, constricted and fearful of truly living.

By contrast, how does James Stewart describe life outside of Christ?

Why does being apart from God actually diminish our experience of life?

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

How often I have left you, dear Jesus,

To seek some “good” I think I need.

I have feared that you want to withhold life from me.

So, I have not even asked you about these new “wants!”

I do not consecrate my desires.

I do not compare them to your Word.

I have found that:

The experiences I demanded

Have left me bored.

The relationships I manipulated for advantage

Have left me empty.

The revenge I craved

Tastes bitter, not sweet.

The offence I took at the least slight

Led neither to harmony nor satisfaction.

I do not savor life apart from you

But fear constantly discomfort, disappointment, illness and death.

Truly, apart from you I have no good.

It’s all empty and angry without you.

Oh, do not leave me to myself!

Would you receive me back into your arms?

Let me taste your goodness again.

Restore me to life in you that I might

Be made well and rejoice.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Monday (Day 2) - OUTSIDE OF CHRIST, PART 1: THE GREAT DIVIDE

Posted on: February 22, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

DISCOVERING OUR LIFE WITHOUT CHRIST

Scripture describes two impenetrable barriers between us and God.

Mortal Frailty

“For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3: 19b

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,

declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the

earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55: 8-9

God lives forever and is holy. He is high and lifted up (NCV). Isaiah 57: 15

Consider

God lives forever. We live, at best, for a century. God created the universe and rules over it. Our frail strength, never much anyway, rises and falls like a breeze. God knows all things and sees all things from every angle. We know only a fraction of reality.

How, then, can we relate to God? How could he even notice us or care for us? We can never climb up to God’s level in our own strength and wisdom.

How does such truth put your life in perspective? What in us resists this reality?

Sin

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1: 21

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2: 12

Consider

My creaturely limits are not the only impediment between God and me. Scripture from first to last concludes that I have a bigger problem than mortal frailty. I am sinful. That is, I am prone to rebel against God’s revealed way in order to seek my own way. I am prone to live without continuing recognition of God as my source and sustainer. And I consistently fail to thank God for my life and his mercies, including what The Book of Common Prayer calls “our creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life.”

To which of these ways do you feel most prone: a) lack of acknowledging God, b) failing to give him thanks or c) choosing your way over God’s way?

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

Of all sin’s consequences—and they are many and varied, including outward penalties, and suffering to self and others, stings of conscience, hearts hardened and wills enslaved and “a certain fearful looking for of judgment”—by far the most serious is the loss of fellowship with God which sin involves. It brings a cloud across the sun. It interrupts the family relationship. . . . What makes sin an essentially lonely thing is not the separation of the sinner from his brother men or even from his own best self: it is his isolation from God. This is what Paul calls “alienation.”

This condition of alienation has various stages and degrees. It begins with a vague feeling of estrangement. The soul becomes aware of a barrier which has mysteriously arisen between itself and God. It realizes that although in the actual sin there may have been no intention of wounding God, indeed no conscious thought of God at all, still the relationship has subtly changed. . . . Inevitably the barrier rises, and the fellowship is broken. The soul is alienated.

Now it often happens that alienation of this kind hardens into resentment. The soul in its bitterness turns and accuses God. It lays the blame for the estranging barrier at God’s door. Has it failed to observe the law? Then the fault is God’s, who has pitched His demands so unreasonably high. Is God almighty and the soul itself feeble? That only serves to increase the resentment. Thus failure breeds hopelessness, and hopelessness begets recklessness, and recklessness becomes downright hostility. The man who was made for the highest fellowship now stands over against his Creator as an enemy. “We were enemies,” says Paul, describing the general attitude to God before conversion (Stewart, A Man in Christ, pp. 113-114).

Consider

When have you been aware of the loneliness which sin creates because it isolates us from God?

Stewart describes a progression in the alienation from God that sin causes. He says that in the beginning, we may not even be aware that our relationship has changed. But if we persist, alienation hardens into resentment. What a paradox! We sin; we isolate. Then we blame God!

We do not want to accept responsibility for the breach in the relationship, so we project blame outward onto God. Then, things get worse, and we get hopeless. So we sin more because it doesn’t seem to matter. Before long, we have steady hostility to God.

Can you remember any times in your life when you followed that path to God-resentment? How did you get out of it?

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Lord Jesus, lights from houses and streets hide your stars.

Walls and shades hide your sun.

Screen lights illumine the trivia that occupies our hours.

Breaking news demands that Now is all.

We live in a shrunken awareness.

We forget the immensity of the cosmos,

The variety of creation, the mystery of the microscopic,

And the eternity of our lives.

We are so easily distracted.

So we hardly feel you, scarcely believe you.

The immediate is our world and we are lonely.

Jolt us with your grandeur

So that we might know our true place,

As nothing to the indifferent universe,

But as a pearl of great price to you.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Sunday (Day 1) - LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Posted on: February 21, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

WEEK ONE

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

The conversion of Saul the Pharisee was one of the most dramatic in history. He despised Christians, believing their “gospel” to be an idolatrous perversion of the Jewish faith of his fathers. Saul was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus with official papers authorizing the arrest of known Christians. In the middle of the day; however, a light brighter than the Middle Eastern sun suddenly burst upon him. Blinded and terrified, Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The answer came in a voice from heaven, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”

Everything changed, including his name. Saul became Paul. He went from being a hostile outsider to intimately united to Jesus. The very location of his sense of identity moved. For years he had lived inside a sense of Jewish heritage, elite education and scrupulous keeping of the law as the markers of his life. Now he considered all that as nothing compared to being located in Christ. Over and over Paul uses that simple phrase to take us into the riches of grace Christ brings us. This signature expression “in Christ” reveals a reality that pervades the New Testament. Jesus has opened for us an intimate, insider union with himself. This joining fills us with a sense of Christ’s presence, love, forgiveness and hope.

This famous painting by Caravaggio expresses the dramatic transformation Paul underwent. It is an emblem of the deep change anyone experiences in moving from “outside” to “inside” Christ Jesus.

Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da. Conversion on the Way to Damascus. 1601. Oil on canvas. Cerasi Chapel, Rome.

DAY 1 SUNDAY

PAUL RELOCATES INTO CHRIST

DISCOVERING WHAT'S "IN CHRIST"

Acts 22: 3-16

In Paul’s own words:

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus . . . educated at the feet of Gamaliel [a famous rabbi], according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God. . . . I persecuted this Way [Christianity] to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women. . . . I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’ Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

And one Ananias, a devout man . . . came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.”

Acts 26: 17-18

“‘I am sending you [to the Gentiles] to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”

Consider

When have you had moments of realizing, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see?” (If the answer is “never,” what do you imagine you are missing?)

Describe the circumstances leading up to the realization.

Describe the change in focus that occurred in you after this realization.

After his Damascus Road experience, Saul changed his name to Paul, and considered himself from that time on to be “a man in Christ” (2 Cor. 12: 2).

How would you describe Saul before conversion? He was a man in ________?

Consider what it means to have your leading identity statement be “I am a (wo)man in Christ.” How would that distinguish you from other identities?

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

Paul writes again of his transformation in Philippians 3: 3-4, 7-11:

For we . . . worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. . . . But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Consider

What does it means to be “found” in someone? Think of the ways we might finish this sentence, “If you’re looking for me, you can be sure you’ll find me. . . .” The answer would say lots about what we love and value. You can find me . . . watching the Tigers. Working on my computer. Down at the boats. Hunting at the camp. Taking care of Dad.

What would your life look like if people said about you, “Oh, you can find him/her in Christ”?

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

Graham Kendrick set to music Paul’s ardor for Jesus recounted in Philippians. This song epitomized a season of renaissance in my faith when the Holy Spirit reignited my first love for Jesus. It’s directly affectionate, a true love song to our Savior. It captures our yearning to have our soul’s true home to be “found in him.” I invite you to YouTube this beautiful song and sing along in your prayers today. Here are the first two verses and the chorus:

All I once held dear, built my life upon,

All this world reveres, and wars to own,

All I once thought gain I have counted loss,

Spent and worthless now, compared to this:

Knowing you, Jesus

Knowing you, there is no greater thing.

You’re my all, you’re the best!

You’re my joy, my righteousness,

And I love you, Lord.

Now my heart’s desire is to know you more,

To be found in you and known as yours

To possess by faith what I could not earn

All-surpassing gift of righteousness:

Knowing you . . .

Graham Kendrick, “Knowing You,” 1993.

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

Saturday - INTRODUCTION

Posted on: February 20, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

Where you do you live? That’s a deceptively simple question. You could, of course, just answer with the address of where you sleep. Or the state or country in which you reside. Or you could take it deeper.

I live in traffic, driving people from dawn to dark.

I live in hope she’ll one day come home.

I live in pain; nothing they can give me touches this wound.

I live in the fast lane, always pushing it, never resting.

I live in the shadow of my brother.

I live in complete disarray, forever losing my keys and phone.

I live in expectation that all this has got to change sometime.

I live in fear of what will happen when she gets home.

I live tangled in the web of his addiction.

I live in the sunny warmth of her love.

We can describe where we live in terms of the condition, pace and longings that permeate our days. The atmosphere created by the people with whom we live can seem more like our home than any physical dwelling. The culture of our community becomes so much a part of us we’re not even aware of it. Its values and priorities seep into us. More, we each live inside the habits of our technology, media and daily routines until we don’t imagine that anything could be different.

Scripture, however, urges us to awaken to our truer home. Early in John’s Gospel we hear this description of Jesus, the Word of God, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1: 4). In Christ is life. Life that lights up all our days.

Living in Christ is a major theme in the letters of the Apostle Paul. More than 150 times, he uses the phrase “in Christ,” “in him” or “in the Lord.” For Paul, coming to live “in Christ” marked a transition as striking as passing from death to life. Everything changed. He found his heart’s home. He found the heart of the universe. He found the point of everything.

This Lent, we explore what it means to live “in Christ.” We take up in prayer and study what it means to discover that our truest address is in Jesus. This reality pervades every aspect of our life. Living in Jesus, we draw on a source which alone satisfies the deepest human longings and needs. In Christ may be found deep peace, effective forgiveness, enduring hope, robust love, energizing purpose and everlasting life. During these 42 days, we want to take time daily to live where we truly live: in Christ alone!

HOW TO USE THIS STUDY 20 MINUTES A DAY

This study is meant to be a springboard for your own reflections and prayers. My work is to take you to the sources and encourage you to drink deeply from them. The power, of course, is in the Scriptures which we will read in reliance on the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Further insights from recognized spiritual masters will help open our hearts and minds to the deep Scriptural mystery of union with Christ. Each of the 42 days unfolds according to this pattern. I encourage you to plan to spend about 20 minutes each day working prayerfully through the material. Here’s how a day sets up.

DISCOVERING WHAT'S IN CHRIST

We’ll read over 80 passages of Scripture together during Lent! The treasury of all that is “in Christ alone” is a vast one. Each day we’ll study the Word deeply with a particular goal in mind: to trust more in Christ so that we can live more from Christ and be more effective in the world for Christ. After the passages, I offer questions and commentary meant to inspire your own quest to live in Jesus more fully.

TREASURES FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM

To assist our explorations, we’re inviting several great spiritual masters to guide us through what it means to live in Christ. Their contributions have stood the test of time. I quote most from Dr. James S. Stewart’s beautiful 1935 work, A Man in Christ. Stewart was a renowned Edinburgh minister and teacher. One website (preaching.com) ranked him as the number one 20th century preacher! His insights into union with Christ sparkle with loveliness and light. We will also hear from Andrew Murray, a South African pastor at the beginning of the 20th century. His books on the spiritual life have endured more than a century. His Abide in Christ and The Holiest of All usher us into the intimacy of continuing communion with Jesus. John Calvin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Torrance and C. S. Lewis also resource our reflections. I’m delighted to have excavated these jewels for you.

Daily Quotes to Pray

Each day, two Scripture passages recur. We’re meant to read them aloud in order that, by the end of six weeks, we will have them memorized. This treasure will be ours to enjoy no matter where we are. These verses encapsulate the theme of our study.

2 Corinthians 1: 20: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

As we will see, Jesus is the fulfillment of all that God promised to do for our salvation. Jesus is also the way by which we make our response to God’s grace. Jesus is the station through which all the trains of faith and redemption run!

Galatians 3: 26: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

The wonder of who Jesus is and what he has done is that we, men and women, become sons of God with him!

PRESSING INTO CHRIST

In this section, I’ll invite you to use the printed prayers as a springboard for your own prayers. We’ll each try to push deeper into the mystery of living from and in Jesus.

Weekly Art

In each week’s introduction, we will engage a work of art related to the theme. Both classic paintings and contemporary expressions will give us one more avenue down which we may consider all it means to live “in Christ.”

Fare forward, beloved congregation! It’s a joy to pursue Christ Jesus with you in this season,

Gerrit S. Dawson

Senior Pastor

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone

You're Weird!

Posted on: February 1, 2021
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

You're weird! Not like everybody else. Unique in the world. Different than most.

After all, what Muslim says “I live in Mohammed?” What practicing Buddhist says, “I spoke with Siddhartha this morning?” What existentialist says “I am in organic union with Camus?” What atheist says “I have a mystical link to Richard Dawkins?” But you say all those things about Jesus! We Christians are “in Christ.” We speak with the historical founder of our faith personally and presently. His Spirit links us to Jesus and to each other the way parts of a human body are linked to the whole. That’s weird—if you’re on the outside looking in. But such wonder is normal for those who have been joined to Jesus.

This Lent, we’re going to explore what it means that our truest home is Jesus himself. We’re going to pursue the mystery of what Paul meant by being “in Christ.” We’ll see how living in Christ and from Christ lights up everything in our lives. John Calvin called it a “mystical union” and declared it to be of highest importance to our faith.

Honestly, engaging in this study will change your life. Like discovering priceless treasure you hadn’t known you possessed. Like tapping into an endless supply of energy. Like coming home. Like finally living in Reality. We’ll be drawing from more than 85 Scriptures as well as the writings of experienced spiritual masters such as James Stewart and Andrew Murray. We’re questing for the very heart of Christian experience. We’re going to claim our distinctive faith. Yep, we’re weird. Gloriously, joyfully so!

The week of February 14, your elders, deacons and pastors will be bringing your Lent books to your house! It’s a quick, safe drop off. But we wanted to be sure, in these COVID times, that every member gets a copy before February 21 when the daily readings begin. You can get extra copies at church and also sign up for daily emails. Smaller, well-distanced 6 week home groups will also begin. We hope participating with others will help to reknit our congregation after so long apart.

I’m so eager to join you on this journey deeper into Christ our true home!

Register for Daily Lent Email

Posted in: Lent 2021: In Christ Alone