February 22

 

“Truly, this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).

The overarching purpose of the incarnation of Christ, in so far as it applies to mankind, was to reveal what man was meant to be. Knowledge of what this actually was had become one of the casualties of the Fall and man had no way of knowing what he was meant to be, nor any example to which he could look for guidance. Until, that is, came the Son of Man, an incarnation of the Son of God.

The legacy that Jesus Christ left to mankind was the living fulfillment, example and demonstration of what God meant man to be. The death of the Testator has meant that the Will can be executed, and whoever will – whoever will – can be a beneficiary and take hold of that legacy.

If you read that Will carefully, as so few do, you will find that it contains the conditional gift of authority to become a child of God (John 1:11); the condition being that, to successfully gain the full inheritance, each beneficiary must use the legacy, apply its instructions, and employ its powers, to be made like Him, so that they might act like Him and live as He lived.

This is the “heavenly calling” of which we are to partake (Hebrews 3:1) and to which we are called. This is the legacy that He has left to us; and the only way that He can become the first born of many brethren (Romans 8:29), is if we take a firm hold of that legacy and bring it to life in our own lives.

There is a fanciful notion shared by many Christians that faith is a force floating around in the ether into which anyone can plug whenever they choose; it is Up There, ready at any time to enter our hearts and change our moral disposition. This, of course, is nothing less than fanciful, religious deception, and is dangerous in the extreme. Faith is irrelevant unless it engages with truth; men can, and do, have faith in all sorts of things that are not true, to their eternal cost. Many have faith in self, many have faith in other gods, while many have faith in Christianity. All are wrong. Christianity cannot save anyone; Christ and Christ alone is the Saviour.

True faith and trust in Christ must inevitably lead to moral action; the true believer is meant to be an incarnation of Christ as Christ, in His humanity, was an incarnation of God; what else does “abide in Me” mean? There needs to be better understanding of some of the key words in the New Testament.

Belief is the outcome of knowing.

Faith is the outcome of trusting in, and relying completely on, Christ Jesus as Saviour.

Sanctification is the outcome of obeying and abiding in Christ Jesus as Lord.

Salvation is the outcome of relating to Christ Jesus as Lord first, and thus, Saviour.

Certainly, if He is not your Lord, He cannot be your Saviour.