Irresistible Invitation by Maxie Dunham - Day 16

Irresistible Invitation:  Responding to the Extravagant Heart of God                   

Day 16: Alive In Christ

 

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Col. 1:27

 

Maxie points out an interesting scriptural observation:  Paul, in all of his writings, never does tell about his Damascus Road experience in descriptive detail.  Paul never speaks about how and when he first knew Christ.  Luke talks about it in the Acts of the Apostles, but not Paul himself.  What Paul does talk about in great detail are the results of that meeting with Christ, the meaning of that event.  “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” (Gal. 2:20).

 

Quite an extravagant claim made by Paul – one we could easily brush off.  “In Christ,” “in union with Christ,” “Christ in you” – hear the words of Paul. 

 

Extravagant, but these words are the truth.  “Jesus came for one purpose and one purpose alone: to bring himself to us, and while doing so, to bring God.”  While we often talk about our “becoming Christian” as having accepted Christ, our Christian walk is not about a one-time event.  No, it is Christ in us, the Christ who dwells within us, that is the shaping power of our lives. 

 

“To be a Christian is to change.  It is to become new.  It is not simply a matter of choosing a new lifesytle, though there is a new style.  It has to do with being a new person.  The new person does not emerge full-blown.  Conversion – passing from death to life – may be the miracle of a moment, but the making of a saint is the task of a lifetime.  The new process of saint-making is to work out in fact what is already dynamic in principle.”

 

Paul says we are new creatures, perfect in Christ.  It is the Christ in us that is perfect.  It doesn’t have to be a dramatic story, the story of our conversion.  It doesn’t have to be a Damascus Road experience.  But it is the story of becoming more and more like the Christ living within us. 

 

The Heart of the Matter

 

-         What does the phrase “hidden with Christ in God” mean to you?

-         Do you know anyone you would consider alive in Christ?  What characteristics make you think so?

-         When you gain new life, what parts of your self were you able to bury with the old?  Take a moment now to thank God for that experience.