In Christ Alone

"Christ would not be Christ without both Jesus as God's representation and the Holy Spirit as God's power and fullness."

WHEN ONE OF GOD’S PEOPLE, those of Jesus’ lineage, the Jews, prays to Him without knowledge of His salvation, does He hear, and does He answer? Well, can someone who isn’t Jewish and is also without salvation call out to God, and will He hear them? Does God care about those who aren’t saved? That seems to answer both questions. Of course, He hears. Of course, He answers. And He draws them toward a revelation of His love for them through Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus, the Christ.

The word “Christ” means “anointed” or Anointed One and comes from a word meaning “to smear with oil” in reference to the Old Covenant priesthood. We must see the picture here because every facet of the Old Covenant Law was written to draw the gaze of its worshippers to the coming Messiah, to the Christ Himself. The priesthood was made to resemble the work of Christ in His cleansing of the heart of believers. The sacrifice they offered, the altar it was placed upon, and the tabernacle or temple itself was designed after what He would do. From the table with the shewbread and the lampstand, to the cleansing of the flesh needed to enter the temple and the priests’ garments, to the Holy of Holies itself, all of it pictures the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of it.

"Christ has set us free from selfishness, free from fear, free from ignorance about God—free to be his friends. So stand firm in the truth about God as revealed in Jesus, and don’t let yourselves be duped back into a system of rituals and works motivated by fear and selfishness." (Galatians 5:1 Remedy)

“For Christ Jesus revealed that no ritual—such as circumcision—has any value with God. The only thing that counts is trust in God, established by the evidence of God’s supreme trustworthiness revealed by Christ, which expels fear and selfishness and results in loving, Christlike character developed within.” (Galatians 5:6 Remedy)

What was meant for only a period of time became cluttered with its continued use. This has happened, in part, in our own Constitution. Many have tried to add amendments to it, taking it away from its original intent. But what its founders intended, what they consecrated to do before God, hasn’t changed. And what God intended for the Old Covenant Law came to its fulfillment in Jesus. Yet, when Jesus walked amongst men, the mesh of rules men had instituted served only to elevate men and condemn the poor. And after His Resurrection, those who chose to cling to what was then not needed fell into a pattern of worship which has continued in part today.

This is not a post against the Jews, who are God’s covenant people. To them, as the apostle Paul said, were given “the oracles of God.” The psalms tell us to pray for Jerusalem. And as I point out often, Jesus is a Jew. God bless Israel. But we, Gentile Christians, have become entangled with our modern thought patterns. We see ourselves as more informed than they are, as wise where they are ignorant. Ignorance, however, crosses the aisle. You can be IN CHRIST through your decision at salvation and yet not be any wiser than a man outside of Christ. College degrees and seminary degrees and positions in or out of authority do not make a man wise either. Wisdom comes only THROUGH CHRIST who is a person, Jesus of Nazareth, who is and was and will always be anointed with the anointing, the Holy Spirit.

To be IN CHRIST means to be filled with all that Christ is. He is Jesus. Jesus lives in my heart and is my Lord and Savior because I have accepted His salvation. But the Holy Spirit also lives in my heart and is the power of God that resurrected Him from the grave and the connection to the Father who sent Christ to earth. Christ is both Jesus the Son of Man and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who came into men’s hearts when Jesus spoke and who fell upon men at Pentecost. Jesus gives a good description of who He and the Spirit are as Christ in His words in John 14. First, He says, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” He spoke the words of the Father and did the works of the Father. He is the exact representation of God in the flesh. Then, He promises answers to prayer and that the Spirit of God which was upon Him without measure will be sent to bring them guidance, teaching, wisdom, and show them the love and goodness of God.

Christ would not be Christ without both Jesus as God’s representation and the Holy Spirit as God’s power and fullness. Christ would not be in men if Jesus hadn’t consecrated Himself to the work He’d been sent to do. “Our Father, which art in heaven, HALLOWED be thy name …” are words of consecration. The word “hallowed” means “to make holy, ceremonially purify, consecrate.” Jesus was describing the work of Christ in the prayer. He is the kingdom of heaven come to earth. He is our daily bread. He brought forgiveness to men so that we could forgive. He delivered us from the Evil One through His death and Resurrection. He is both man who came to save and God who committed Himself to bringing salvation. He is the Lamb laid on the altar anointed with the fire which consumed it. He is King of the Jews, King of Israel, and King of Kings, even if some do not accept it.

What we do not believe of the truth does not change the truth, and who Jesus is as the Christ is forever sealed in the Scriptures, in the spirit world (God is spirit. We must worship Him in spirit), and in the hearts of men who see Him as Messiah. But God is of unending mercy. He is love, and His desire for men to be saved from their sins has never changed. As it was under the Old Covenant, looking forward toward the revelation of Jesus Christ, as it was when Jesus laid down His life for mankind, is how it has been since He rose from the dead. He delights in mercy and is never misinformed or deaf to even people’s thoughts and unspoken words. He knows what we are going to say before we say it and is ever ready with a plan of escape for any who call upon Him.

He not only hears men’s prayers, whether inside Christian faith or not, He is eagerly listening and given glory and honor in answering. It is His always answering, His generosity to fill our need, that brings Him praise and not a false image of Him as hard of hearing and difficult to reach. Men praised the God of Israel when He showed Himself victorious. When the prophet spoke and the sun stood still, they saw Him as powerful. When worship and praise caused the walls of Jericho to fall, He was the God of strength. When Jesus healed the blind, the lame, and delivered the oppressed, the kingdom of God had come to earth. Here is the heart of God, for He sent Jesus to reveal Himself, so that He would be known as compassion and mercy and no longer a God of judgment. So He would be seen as love. Jesus made it possible to recognize Him and call upon Him for ourselves. Even when we don’t yet have salvation.

Salvation comes only through Christ. Only when we accept Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is someone reborn and forgiven. Only when the anointing of Christ, the Holy Spirit, enters the heart because a person prays are they cleansed and made new. He comes because we ask, and prayer is our asking. He never forces salvation on anyone. But when we ask, He pours His goodness into us, and through His power we are changed from where we were outside of Christ to being fully His, and that is the most amazing miracle. That God who is so vast, so high, so majestic, would pour Himself into us and make of mankind His altar, make of us His children, anointed with the same power which raised Christ from the dead is exactly like Him. For only when we look like Him, sound like Him, and act like Him is He truly magnified. For God didn’t make weak vessels nor poor imitations, but likenesses whose every thought and motive now, in gratitude, belongs to Him.

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)

“Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts!” (Ephesians 1:3 TPT)

Image by Your activity, is my stimulus! from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com