The Christian Life: Where the Abnormal is the "Norm"

The Christian Life: Where the Abnormal is the “Norm”

The Christian life is not a difficult life to live. The Christian life is an impossible life to live. Why is it so impossible? As Paul mentions in Romans 6:14, the Christian life is a life under grace rather than law (New Inductive Study Bible), and the standard of grace is actually higher than the standard of the law (Rick Barth). The standard of grace is the holiness of Christ, and as Christians we are called to be holy just as He is (NISB, I Peter 1:16). Fortunately, we do not have to live this holiness-requiring Christian life. Christ lives it for us, in us and through us. So living the Christian life is as simple as depending on God. This concept may seem too easy to line up with the complexities of Christianity, but consider how one becomes a Christian in the first place: we die in order to live (NISB, Matthew 10:39; Romans 6:8). The Christian life is a paradoxical one, so while aspects of it may seem contradictory or absurd, they actually express truth. Along the same lines, in order to live a “normal” Christian life, one must actually live abnormally in relation to the modern Christian culture. Normal does not mean usual or average, it means functioning in good health, in this case, as the Bible says we should (Richards). Therefore, as believers, we do not want to be living an average life but a life that is functioning in good health, which means a life completely dependent on God. What does living dependent on God mean? It means first knowing the provision of God, second reckoning this provision to be true in ourselves, and third, in light of the knowing and reckoning, yielding to the power of God every day.

In order to know the provision of God, one must first know who he is apart from this provision, which takes us all the way back to the beginning. In Genesis 3, the Fall occurred. Adam and Eve sinned, effectively damning the human race to a life and eternity separated from God. Romans 5:19a explains this idea: through Adam’s disobedience the rest of the human race were made sinners (Richard). Watchman Nee said it well, “…the teaching of Romans is not that we are sinners because we commit sins, but that we sin because we are sinners. We are sinners by constitution rather than by action” (Nee 35). So in Adam, we have imputed sin, inherent sin, and personal sin; we dwell in darkness and in death; we are enemies of God and at enmity against God; we are under condemnation, dominated by sin, and totally lost (Bonner).

Fortunately, God provided a solution, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:19 continues on to give hope: through Jesus Christ’s obedience the human race will be made righteous. Jesus Christ became obedient to the point of death (NISB, Philippians 2:8), and by accepting His death as the substitution for one’s own, one is justified or made righteous (NISB, II Corinthians 5:21). As Galatians 2:20 explains, this act removes the person from being in Adam and places him or her in Christ (The New Inductive Study Bible). In Christ, we have imputed righteousness; we still have inherent sin and personal sin, but we dwell in light and in life; we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ; we are not under condemnation; we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and totally saved (Bonner). Once again, this may seem too easy, but in reality it is exactly what was needed. The only way for God to justify the sinner was for His justice to be satisfied. Nothing we could do is able to satisfy God’s justice (NISB, Titus 3:5). At the point of salvation, His justice was satisfied due the fact that we are placed in Christ (NISB, II Corinthians 5:17), we are made righteous (NISB, II Corinthians 5:21), we are perfect in Christ (NISB, Hebrews 10:14), and we have received the fullness of Christ (NISB, Colossians 2: 9-10) (Bonner). It all comes from knowing Christ. So satisfying God’s justice did not simply save us from an eternity separated from Him. As II Peter 2:3-4 tells us, through the knowledge of Christ we receive everything needed for life and godliness; we become partakers in the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world (The New Inductive Study Bible). Knowing these facts is key to living the normal Christian life because the information that saves us is also what we need to stand, walk, and live. However, facts can be useless unless they are believed. This is where faith comes in, but the facts are needed for the faith. True faith comes from the facts of the Word of God (NISB, Romans 10:17). And as Miles Stanford put it, “Unless our faith is established on facts, it is no more than conjecture, superstition, speculation, or presumption” (Stanford 3).

Now that the provision of God is known, it must be reckoned to be true. Many people, including myself, have wondered how all this truth regarding our position in Christ plays out in our everyday lives. It plays out when we reckon it to be true. Growing up in a Christian home, I heard the facts day in and day out. I even knew them to be true, but these true facts did me no good until I appropriated them. On the West Rim of the Grand Canyon lies the Grand Canyon Skywalk. The Skywalk is a 70-foot-long, glass bottomed walkway which projects over the edge of a 4,000 foot drop. Someone may know that the structure is anchored by large steel caissons that are attached to piles drilled 40 feet into thick limestone (Lubell). Someone may even believe that these anchors will hold the structure steady, not allowing tourists to plummet to their death on the rocky floor of the Grand Canyon. But until that someone actually walks out onto the Grand Canyon Skywalk, he is not appropriating that knowledge; additionally, he is also missing out on a spectacular experience. As has already been mentioned, at the point of salvation we are placed in Christ. II Corinthians 5:17 tells us that this makes us a new creature (The New Inductive Study Bible). So in order to live the Christian life, we must appropriate that knowledge. This area is often where the problem of living a normal Christian life lies. One may know the facts and even accept them to be true, but unless he appropriates those facts he will be missing out on the spectacular experience that is the normal Christian life. Often, the problem is due to the idea of probability. As logical-thinking and skeptical humans, the fact that we have died to sin and are no longer enslaved to it does not seem probable. The fact that we are not under law but under grace (God’s unmerited favor) does not seem probable. The fact that we are freed from sin and slaves of righteousness does not seem probable. George Mueller responded to this problem: “Faith has nothing to do with probabilities. The province of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail. Appearances are not to be taken into account. The question is – whether God has spoken it in His Word” (Stanford 4). And God has spoken it in His Word (NISB, Romans 6:11-12, 14, 18).

One might think that reckoning is just another word for positive thinking. It is not. Positive thinking is hoping that something will come true if one believes hard enough. Reckoning is acting on what one already knows to be true. The truth is that we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (NISB, Ephesians 1:3); the truth is that we can do all things through Christ (NISB, Philippians 4:13); the truth is that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ and will be glorified with Him (NISB, Romans 8:17). So let’s start acting like these things are true and living in victory rather than defeat!

So far feelings have not played a part in living the normal Christian life, and this is because feelings can often contradict the facts. Many times one will not feel like he is dead to the “old man” (who he was in Adam) and alive in Christ, but God does not ask us to. He knows that the “old man” is still within us, but He does ask us to remember that it has already been judged (Cutting). It only has the power that we give it. And this is why it is so important that in light of the knowing and reckoning, we yield to the power of God every day. Romans 7:15 shows that we are still in need of God’s power for holiness. Even though we are new creations, we still lack the power to overcome sin and live righteously, and as Romans 7:24 expresses, someone else must deliver us (Richards). Therefore, we yield to God both in our mindsets and in our actions.

As we have already seen, mindset is key. Two important ideas to keep in our mindsets are that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him (NISB, Romans 8:28) and that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (NISB, Romans 8:9). Knowing that God is sovereign and that He has our good in mind always are such freeing concepts. What could be better than the One who is in complete control of everything having our good in mind? Ideally, this arrangement would result in the perfect life and it does, but we have to remember one thing: our ways are not God’s ways (Isaiah 55:8). When we present ourselves to God, we are recognizing that we are altogether His. I do not consecrate myself to a certain life; I consecrate myself to Him, to His will, to be and to do whatever He desires (Nee 103). One does not know how his life will go, but he can know that God is sovereign and He has his good in mind. Suffering and trials may come into our lives, but reckoning these concepts to be true gives hope in the suffering and purpose in the trials. Additionally, we do not have to face these in our own power. The Holy Spirit indwells us. We have already seen who we are in Christ. This identification with Christ makes the Christian life possible, but walking in the Spirit makes it do-able. The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to actualize Christ’s life in me (Richards). Watchman Nee explains that the difference between victorious Christians and defeated ones is not that some have the Spirit and others do not, but that some know His indwelling and others do not. Those who know they have the Spirit recognize the divine ownership of their lives while the others are still their own masters (Nee 144). The Holy Spirit desires to empty us of our old life in Adam and fill us with our new life in Christ. He does this when we yield to Him by not grieving Him (NISB, Ephesians 4:30), which means we act according to our old life; by not quenching Him (NISB, I Thessalonians 5:19), which means we refuse to let Him lead us in our new life; and by walking in Him (NISB, Galatians 5:16, 25), which means living in light of the provision of Christ (Richard Barth 235). Another way to look at walking in the Spirit is to walk in communion with the Father, in dependence upon the Spirit, having the Lord Jesus as my one object (Bonner). I John 3:2 tells us that we will be like Jesus because we will see Him just as He is (The New Inductive Study Bible). So it makes sense that we can be like Him now by focusing on Him. If we spend all of our time looking at Him & who He is, we will have no time to focus on ourselves, and the normal Christian life will take care of itself by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In addition to yielding our mindsets, we also need to yield our actions. People often think of faith being something that is passive, but in reality it is very active. We want to make the activity be our works, keeping the Law, but doing this is unbelief. We must focus on who we are and what God wants us to do rather than what we were and what we cannot do, keep the Law (Richards). This activity that we should focus on is seen in the action verbs that are involved in the normal Christian life: believe, read, and pray. It has already been stated that the foundation of the normal Christian life is fact. We must know that we are dead to sin and alive in Christ. This is not a passive knowledge; it is an active reckoning. We must keep that mindset even when we do not feel like it is true. One thing that can be helpful in keeping that mindset is reading the Word of God. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (NISB, Romans 10:17). We possess everything we need at the outset and only progress as we advance in the knowledge of what we already have (Stanford 24). This knowledge comes from being in the Word of God. Additionally, II Peter 1:12-15 explains our source of protection from falling prey to the obstacles which cause failure in the Christian life is to be constantly presented with the truths involved in our salvation (Rick Barth). If we are constantly reading and studying the Word of God, we will be constantly thinking about and focusing on God rather than ourselves and our circumstances. Finally, we must pray. How can we expect to have a relationship with someone unless we communicate with him? In the age of the internet, blogs, and Facebook, a lot can be known about a person, but a relationship does not exist unless there is communication. God does communicate through His Word, but He desires for us to communicate with Him as well (NISB, Psalm 141:2). This action shows our dependence on Him and once again puts our focus on Him rather than ourselves.

Ultimately, the Christian is a person so it makes sense that his life would have the essential qualities of a personality, intellect, will, and emotion, or as they’ve been identified, fact, faith, and feeling. We know who we are and what we have in Christ, we reckon these facts to be true, and we yield to them in our lives. All of this brings us back to the paradox: an easy concept (dependence on God) that results in practical difficulty, essentially “easier said than done.” But one more fact dissolves this paradox: “It is finished” (NISB, John 19:30)! We are already victorious in the Christian life, so stop preparing for battle, stop trying to live the Christian life, and start reposing in Christ. As Psalm 46:10 states, “Cease striving and know that I am God” (The New Inductive Study Bible).