Many
believers experience Christ in a wonderful way when they are saved, but then
they are religiously indoctrinated along lines that are contrary to the
character of the regeneration experience.
By this I mean that the disciplines of the Christian life are often
presented in a way that is somehow divorced from the intimacy of relationship
that God intends for us in the process of spiritual growth.
It
is of cardinal importance that we never view any aspect of the Christian life
apart from our union with Christ and our vital relationship to a loving
heavenly Father. Every religion,
including that which goes through as the Christian "religion",
inevitably ministers from a position of separation and then the subsequent
process to "get connected" as it were.
The
wonderful assurance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, however, is that we have
been fully reconciled to our Father God and every discipline and phase of the
Christian life is based on the vital union that we have with Him. Once we discover that this union has been
fully and finally consummated our concern is less with all the mechanics of
Christianity and more with the Person of Christ and knowing Him intimately.
Then
we discover that many of the things that we so longed for as believers
spontaneously begin to manifest as a consequence of our new emphasis. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18 makes it clear that
it is only as we behold Christ that we are being transformed into His image
from glory to glory.
"And we all, with
unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord
who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:18
After
all is said and done Christianity is in its essence a matter of knowing God in all His splendour.
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