WHERE DID JESUS GO?

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4: 13-19

            In my last blog, I spoke on the idea of living “radical” daily lives centered on the notion of daily self-sacrifice (Romans 12:2, Luke 9:23), and rendering all of our lives and beings to Jesus. After a couple weeks of processing and growing, I realized even in my own writing on radical living I failed to emphasize the most important aspect to all of our lives, and the only way we can truly live radically, JESUS.

            Without Jesus, attempting to live radically is futile, and when you remove Him in the slightest bit from your life, you will be derailed in a way that will shipwreck you completely. The thing that strikes me as so painfully obvious and also the most difficult to comprehend is the fact that we have no relationship without Christ’s actions first. It has been so clear from the beginning of time, God created all things (including man), and after God creating, man was able to have a relationship with Him. The concept is no different in our daily lives, because of Christ’s sacrifice, we are now able to be smothered, undeservingly, in His grace and dwell in Him.

            The scriptures say that if we confess Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world, then He will abide in us and us in Him, but without Christ laying down His life for us, we have no reason to confess him as our Lord. Everyday, when you wake up in the morning, it is by His grace that you arise from sleep, and by no other reason than that. He is our sole purpose of life, for every action that we make, and for every single tiny, miniscule aspect of our lives. Without Him we literally are nothing and have nothing. Without Him we are but a speck of sand in the middle of the desert, but with Him we are able to live and experience life unlike anything we could ever imagine.

            In John 14, Jesus begins to tell his disciples that after He departs (due to His death and resurrection) we will receive a Great Helper (the Holy Spirit) that will dwell within us, and through the Great Helper, we will do greater things on this earth than even Jesus did.  The key to this passage that is skimmed is this: it is through GOD, and God alone, that we are able to do these greater things. Yes, it is us who are physically doing the actions, but it is God working in us that causes them to happen. Without Christ dwelling within us, we can do NOTHING.

            Now, in relation to radical living, this is what should be so encouraging to us in our everyday lives that we have no burden on ourselves thanks to Christ and the sacrifice that He made for us on Golgotha. He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest….For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11: 28,30). We have no reason to be worried, to fear, to be frustrated, because when we are in Christ and we surrender all to Him, He takes control and we experience His love. His love covers us completely, it surrounds us, and it exalts us beyond anything we can ever imagine. Realize this, however, we would have no ability to come to Him if it were not for His sacrifice for us. HE SACRIFICED HIS LIFE SO THAT WE MAY IN TURN SURRENDER EVERYTHING WE HAVE BACK TO HIM, AND DWELL IN HIS GRACE AND LOVE FOR ALL ETERNITY. IT ALL STARTS WITH CHRIST.

            The convicting part for me is this: I, along with many Christians, get wrapped up in Doctrine and Theology, we attach these man-made dogmas onto our beliefs (an idea Bonhoeffer refers to as “Cheap Grace”- Cost of Discipleship), and we completely forget Jesus and His sacrifice that gives us the ability to have doctrines in the first place. A lot of times we sit around and get wrapped up in certain “insignificant” (for lack of a better word) doctrines that we forget the sole purpose for us even having lives, JESUS. Then we get to a point where we sit and ask ourselves “WHERE DID JESUS GO?”

            When our lives come down to it, God created the Heavens and the earth and all things in between, and breathed life into man. Man rebelled, and sin entered the world. After years and years of sin, God sent His son, Jesus, fully God and fully man, to live a perfect life, have a ministry giving us his authoritative word, ultimately die at the hands of His own creation, three days later rise again, thus bridging the gap between sinful man and Holy God, and give us the Holy Spirit, our life force, and our only sustaining of a true purposeful life. WITHOUT GOD ACTING FIRST WE HAVE NOTHING. Doctrines and theologies apart from this perspective do not matter; Christ’s sacrifice for us should be enough for us to live the lives we are called to, nothing else.

            To live radically is to recognize ultimately that apart from the sacrifice of Christ, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and causing us to act, we can do nothing to live radically. Christ loved us first, and because of that love we are able to go out and daily surrender ourselves to Him and His love, and go out and have the Holy Spirit intercede in our lives, and express the love of Christ to all people.

            Radical living is nothing that you can do, instead it what Christ can do through you. Surrender everything to Him, and allow Him to dwell in you, spreading His love to everyone you come into contact to. Do not get caught up in petty dogmas that will do nothing for you, live a life of love rooted solely in Christ.

God Bless,

Trip Starkey