Our group has kind of claimed the
saying
Restored as if nothing was taken
It seems simple
enough. But the more I think about it the more I’m blown away by the
depth and gravity of what that means in Christ. In the basics of
Christianity we known that in the garden when sin entered the world
we had broken relationship with God. The cross repaired that. The
cross restored that. We now live with Christ. We say we accept Christ
into our hearts…but what we are really saying is that we are coming
into deep unity with God. “I have been crucified with Christ and I
no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body,
I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me and gave himself for
me. ” (Galatians 2:20) He has reconciled the perfect unity that
was lost.That’s why we have the Holy Spirit
living inside us. We no longer carry the presence of God around in
the tabernacle like the Israelite s did. WE are the tabernacle.
See the beauty of living with the Holy Spirit inside us is that we can
live beyond and above the reality of the world. We can be pressed but
not crushed, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not
destroyed. We can consider it all joy when we face trials of any
kind. We can actually live and breath as if the old is gone and the
new has come…
Because its truth.
We are no longer sinners and slaves
but friend and a royal priesthood. We are restored as if nothing was
taken. As His children we are no longer abusers, abused, drunkards, sluts, liars, selfish, prideful, or adulterers. We are restored as if nothing was taken. God doesn’t do
spotty repair work. He is healer, counselor, redeemer, savior and
friend. He has reconciled Himself to the world and given us the
ministry of reconciliation. ” All this is from God, who reconciled
us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation:that God was reconciling the world to himself in
Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to
US the message of reconciliation.” Romans 5:18-19
See something I heard from Graham Cooke
is that God has finished with the punishment aspect. He is working
out our righteousness.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin
for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor. 5:21
Therefore…
We regard no one from a worldly point
of view. (even ourselves)…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.
To sum up…We are free to get over ourselves and go on with God! He will renew our mind and heal our wounds along our way and work out our righteousness…But we can now bring the good news of reconciliation to others! There in no condemnation in Christ!
…to be continued
