Alive in Christ

The average, everyday Christian is anything but average and everyday.  We are called to be set apart and made holy, understanding the fullness of the meaning of the phrase "created in God's image."  In fact, if everyone in the world knew that they are of innumerable value and loved by God emphatically, think how different things would be on our little blue planet.  Stress and anxiety replaced by peace and joy.  Low self-esteem and depression substituted with the fruit of the spirit.  We must live differently than the rest of the world because the believer has been made new; alive in Christ. 

The book of Romans in the Bible is often referred to as the Constitution of Christianity.  Authored by the apostle Paul, this section of Scripture doesn't pull any punches.  Romans 6:8-10 says this, "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once and for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."   

What does it actually mean to 'live to God' though?  How do we interpret this in an objective and Biblical manner, leaving our own bias and prejudice aside?  I believe we can take a three-pronged approach to unpacking this text.

First, we can take from this passage that you and I can be dead to sin if we so choose.  In other words, we can live in a fashion where sin no longer controls us and doesn't reside at the center of our world.  Think that most people aren't focused on appeasing their own personal sin appetites?  Think again.  Money, sex, jealousy, power, and all other manner of corruption runs rampant in today's culture.  Being alive in Christ allows us to escape the constraint of feeding our ever-hungry stomachs with the type of food that isn't good for us.

Second, being alive in Christ means we can have hope through redemption.  Remember Jesus didn't come only to seek the lost, but also to save them.  The redeemed soul is a joy to God, and so it must be for you and I as well.  It means we can live a love-centered life based on nurturing and encouraging each other, as opposed to tearing down other peoples' views and opinions.

Finally, we can have eternal assurance and salvation in Jesus.  We need no longer wander through life like aimless strangers on a continuous path to nowhere.  Once we accept God's Son as lord and savior, we may rest on the promise of a heavenly destination.  We will eventually get to be with our creator forever.  Rest assured, this is no small matter.

When we are alive in Christ, we also understand that we now belong to another.  We are spoken for already, betrothed to the bride in every spiritual sense possible.  Those set apart for God's kingdom and listed in the book of life were bought at a great ransom.

Romans 7:4 in fact says, "So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God."  Bearing this new fruit successfully means that we live differently than the rest of the world.  We view things with spiritual eyes, and listen with ears that can hear.  The veil that separates the non-believer from God's truth has been torn and disposed of.  We now have access to what Jesus called 'the mysteries of heaven.'

The reader will note at this point, that living a godly life here on Earth doesn't mean we act perfectly all the time and in every situation.  Nor should we expect that level of performance from others.  I really think that God's desire for us is to repent, accept Jesus, and get on with becoming sanctified.  Remember that sanctification simply means to become more holy over time (not necessarily perfect).  There was only one perfect penitent, and he lived two-thousand years ago in Nazareth.  Don't try to compete with Jesus, simply accept him and learn from him.  The journey matters just as much as the destination.

Paul also tells us that once we accept the Lord, there is "now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ..." (Rom 8:1-2, paraphrased).  We accept the free gift of salvation, and He does the rest.  At that point, we live to God.  We are free to love and to be spirit led.  To have hearts that rebuke evil, and lives that shine forth from heaven.  

Accept your calling to be a new creation in light of God's love, and understand it is no small thing to be alive in Christ.  It is up to us to act our age spiritually at this point, and get out there and show the world that we are different.  

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