Yesterday we said that just because one is doing all of the activities of a disciple that does not necessarily mean that they are one. I asked you to think through why that might be. Do not know if anyone responded, I am on a backpacking trip in Arkansas and my son is publishing this for me… But here is my answer to the question I posed. The difference is the motivation behind what I am doing.
Look again at Philippians 3, specifically at verses 7 – 17. The total focus of Paul was to know Christ. He was the center of Paul’s existence, nothing else mattered. We saw yesterday that when Paul was a Pharisee he did all of the things we have looked at in the last days that a disciple does, spent time in the Word, prayed, was engaged in a committed community, was involved in bringing others into that community, and was obedient to the Word as he understood it. But he counted all that as loss, verse 7. After he met Christ on the road, I would submit to you that he did all of the same things but that his reason had changed. Rather than seeking to fulfill a religious obligation, he was driving hard to get to know Christ. He was using those same activities to understand the fullness of what Christ had already done for him. Take a quick look at the sister letter to Philippians, Colossians 2:6 – 10. Note what Paul states that his, our, condition in Christ to be, complete.
If we are complete in Christ, then what is the value of the disciplines we have explored in the past few days? May I suggest that they are the means by which we discover and appropriate what Christ has already accomplished for us.
Grasping that will turn your Christian life upside down.
Look again at Philippians 3, specifically at verses 7 – 17. The total focus of Paul was to know Christ. He was the center of Paul’s existence, nothing else mattered. We saw yesterday that when Paul was a Pharisee he did all of the things we have looked at in the last days that a disciple does, spent time in the Word, prayed, was engaged in a committed community, was involved in bringing others into that community, and was obedient to the Word as he understood it. But he counted all that as loss, verse 7. After he met Christ on the road, I would submit to you that he did all of the same things but that his reason had changed. Rather than seeking to fulfill a religious obligation, he was driving hard to get to know Christ. He was using those same activities to understand the fullness of what Christ had already done for him. Take a quick look at the sister letter to Philippians, Colossians 2:6 – 10. Note what Paul states that his, our, condition in Christ to be, complete.
If we are complete in Christ, then what is the value of the disciplines we have explored in the past few days? May I suggest that they are the means by which we discover and appropriate what Christ has already accomplished for us.
Grasping that will turn your Christian life upside down.
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