Smoodock's Blog

I think we’ve all seen the commercial were three or four men sit around the campfire one evening drinking beer and one says to the others: “It doesn’t’ get any better than this!” To which many might say: “Oh, really?” After all, not everyone likes beer or even likes camping for that matter. However, the implication of the commercial is “This is life!” Could anyone really sum up life in a commercial? I think we can all agree, if we are really serious, that one could not do such a thing. Life, after all, is rather abstract. Is it not? It is not as tangible as a bottle of beer. It is not something we could place in our hands and say: “Here, this is life!” Nevertheless, we all know life through our own consciousness. We know life exists, because we are able to witness that we live. We may not be able to fully explain it or put it into a bottle and say: “That’s life!” but we can all agree that life is real, because we are conscious of our own existence.

Similarly, the Christian is able to say he or she is conscious of the life of Christ within, although he cannot prove it objectively by putting it in a box or show it to others through an x-ray machine and say, “There, next to my heart is the Christian life!” It simply cannot be done this way, but the Bible tells us that we are living a new life and are to reckon our old life to be dead. However, simply because I cannot point to something which others are able to detect with their five senses and say this is the life of Christ within me, this does not mean I cannot be aware of such a life or that others cannot acknowledge such a life within me.

When I received Christ as my Lord, the Scriptures tell me that I have been saved and am given a new life—I am born again (of God). That is, I am his child. If the presence of the life of Christ is within me, then the consciousness of this life—divine life—must also be present (John 1:4). In other words, when I sin, I should immediately be aware of a kind of wall or separation that I have placed between me and God (Romans 8:12). If others have to continually point out my sin for me, who can I say that I am conscious of the new life that is witnessed within me through the presence of the Holy Spirit? Just as I am able to perceive the dangers of this natural life and perceive how I may have damaged my relationship with a loved one, a neighbor or a friend without having had to be told, so too, I should be able to perceive through the consciousness of my new life within that I am damaging my relationship with God whenever I am overcome in sin (1Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 4:30).

On the positive side, I should also be aware, if I have the life of Christ dwelling within me, that is, that I am a child of God. This is not simply a doctrinally understanding, folks. It is something real and is detected within my spirit through the witness of God’s Spirit within me (Romans 8:16). Through this life I come to know God, just as in my natural life I can come to know my mother and father. Just as I become aware of how approachable they are when I am a babe, so too, I can become aware of the nearness and the intimacy of God as my Father. It becomes almost a “natural” thing to feel he is so approachable in that I can call him Father (Galatians 4:6).

If I must be constantly reminded of my relationship with God or if I am afraid of him, because I cannot see him or touch him, how can I say that I am his child or that I truly have the life of Christ within? It is in the sense of the dreadfulness of sin and my sense of intimacy with God that I can truly know I have the consciousness that Christ’s life dwells within me and that I am born again in him (Colossians 1:27). No, this isn’t something I can prove objectively to someone who is not a Christian, but even the natural life is proved only subjectively. It cannot be put in a bottle where someone could point and say, “There it is!” And, when someone dies, we know he has not life simply because that body is unable to function like we can, simply because it can no longer be aware of and appreciate all we are able to experience with our five senses.

In like manner, when it becomes evident that a man or woman has no spiritual awareness, it is known that that one is dead to the spirit and is unable to function and appreciate the spiritual life. For it is in sensing the horror of my condition when I sin and the unspeakable wonder of my position in Christ as one of the children of God that I am able to be conscious of my new life—the life of Christ within me.

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