This is another talk from the 1996 Christ in You series. When we live the life of Christ we have access to his faith.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
PAUL: Now I want to talk a little about faith.
So what must we do to live more and more the life of Christ? At least part of the answer can be found in the second half of the passage from Galatians 2:20: âI have been co-crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.â Now note what comes next: â. . . and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.â Some Bibles translate the last part of this passage, âI live by faith in the Son of God.â But increasingly, biblical scholars are saying that it should be translated âI live by the faith of the Son of God.â I live by God in me âfaithing,â by the Son of God in me faithing.
There should be great hope for us in this. When we live the life of Christ, we have access to his faith. He trusted his Father and believed his Father. This is the faith which moves mountains: Christâs faith. This faith is not a human achievement. Itâs not simply a psychological disposition. Itâs not Norman Vincent Pealeâs Power of Positive Thinking. It is not intellectual assent to propositionally formulated dogma. We can live in Christ and have his faith. It was this faith that sustained Jesus on the cross. Unwittingly, those who mocked him said, âHe trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, âI am the Son of God.ââ [Matthew 27:43, RSV]
Well, Jesus did trust in God. And God did deliver him. He is the righteous one who lives by faith. He is the âpioneer and perfecter of our faith,â according to Hebrews 12 [verse 2, RSV].
This should be a great relief for us. I am sure that you know as well as I do that you canât just conjure up faith. You canât save yourself by your faithâby believing harder, or something. It doesnât work to try to graft faith on to Adam, so to speak. So how do we have more faith? Live in Christ!
This is important to keep in mind because now, with âthe full assurance of faithâ in Hebrews 10:22, we must face the challenge of the gospel. The gospel story is not just the story of a superhero who once upon a time defeated the cosmic villains of sin and death and thus discharged us from all responsibility. Christ alone won our salvation, but we are in Christ. This is our story.
When âGod anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,â as it says in Acts 10:38, and said to him, âThou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleasedâ [Luke 3:22, RSV], that was only just the beginning of the story. From there the Word of God made flesh went into a synagogue in Nazareth. He opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and read,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. [Luke 4:18â19, RSV]
When the Word of God is made flesh, âthe blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to themâ [Luke 7:22, RSV].
Obviously, we have in the People of Praise not yet reached âmature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christâ (Ephesians 4:13). Christ is dim in us. When we hear Jesus say that we Christians âwill also do the works that I do; and greater works than theseâ [John 14:12, RSV], we donât say, âAmen! Thatâs been true in my experience.â We are more likely to gulp and shove this passage under the rug. Or, as one of you told me, itâs easier to think that there was a copyistâs error, and it should read âwill also do the works that I do, and lesser works than these.â [Audience laughs.]
Thereâs another reason for trying to ignore the gospel. It reveals what happens to the Word of God made flesh. He is crucified. In Christ, as Christ, we will suffer persecution. We will be mocked and humiliated. And in Christ, as Christ, we must conquer evil. In Christ, not on our own, we must bear the sin of the world, absorb it into ourselves and see to it that it goes no further. In Christ, as Christ, all this is done and suffered out of love for the world.
If you look at Lukeâs Gospel, in chapter four, beginning there right after he has come out of the river Jordan, having been baptized in the Spirit, and the Father says, âThis is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,â he has an anointing on him, which he follows into the desert, and the wilderness, where he does battle with the evil spirit for forty days and nights. He ate nothing. And when these days were ended, and the anointing was leaving him, he had to turn back, to go home.
And at this point, imagine yourself being Jesus, saying, âWell, what am I going to do when I go home? Iâm not the same man I was. Things have really changed. What am I going to do? How will I live? I have this anointing, and, after all, what does this thing mean, I am the âSon of Godâ? So he starts thinking about how heâs going to live when he gets back. And he encounters these temptations of Satan, the last of which Iâll focus on for a moment. Satan says, âIf you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, and the angels will protect you lest you dash your foot against a stone.â And Jesus responds, as he does with all of these temptations, with those great passages from Deuteronomy, which is that wonderful book of the Bible which presents Moses on the plain, giving the teachings in his own word about how the Israelites must live when they go into the promised land.
Jesus is going back. You could say heâs going into the promised land now. And heâs going to live a certain way. And what we have to find out is, how is he, in fact, as the Son of God, going to live in the promised land? Well, he goes back, and he reads this passage, which I just quoted from Isaiah, about the captives being released, the oppressed being freed, etc. And everybody is just thrilled with his teaching, because he is such a wonderful young man. They all marvel at it, and they whisper to each other and they say, âIsnât that Josephâs son?â And Jesus hits the roof. He is not Josephâs son, in either sense of the word. Heâs the Son of God. And they take him out, to throw him down from that high spot, just like in the third temptation in the wilderness: âFall down, throw yourself down from this pinnacle, if you are the Son of God.â Here he says, âIâm not Josephâs son.â So they say, âHeâs mad, weâve gotta throw him down,â and the devil has his way, and he passes through them. We see this again, the same temptation. Jesus is hanging on the cross, and the people jeer at him. They say, âIf you are the Son of God, come down.â
Donât come down, Jesus. Stay there, and win the victory for us on the cross.
I know this message that Iâve been presenting is a disturbing message. What can it mean in my life? we say. I donât understand it; it doesnât reduce to the simple categories or the usual categories that Iâm accustomed to. How can I work with this? It seems important, but I donât understand it.
Iâd like to share with you a little story. Two nights ago, when I finished giving my teaching, I felt a considerable desolation, which I often do after giving a talk. And I walked out, and one of the brothers was getting on the elevator, and I said, âWell, I did my thing to the Greeks tonight.â And he said, âYeah, I dunno; I was half asleep.â [Laughter.] So I went on out the front door, realizing that I had just been begging for a compliment. And I decided to take a walk along the river. And I walked up to the dam, finally, and the water was torrential, just pouring over the damâgreat volume. And I sat on the low wall there, right next to the water, and felt the power surging through it.
And this scrawny little man walked up around me, about five [foot] six or seven, wearing a soiled white shirt, long sleeves rolled up. His hair was black, mostly, with some gray in it. And skinny as a rail, emaciated looking, and he didnât have a tooth in his head. He had a face that you could light a match on. And he sat down, about ten feet from me, on that low wall. And I was a little wary of him. And he said, âDoesnât it feel like you could just be pulled right in?â And it didnât strike me that it was suicidal. In fact, it did feel like you could be pulled right in, the rush was so great. I said, âYes, it really is a lot of waterââbeing such a great conversationalist. [Paul and others laugh.] There was a little silence for a while, then he said, âYou know, they throw money in up there a little ways, but all those coins would be washed out in this water.â So I thought, âWell, heâs going to ask me for some money.â
So we sat there a while, and I said, âIsnât God powerful?â And he was about ten feet away from me, and he turned to me, and it was as though he had reached right into my face. And he said, âThere isnât that much space in the whole universe that God isnât in control of.â And then he started preaching to me. And he preached the glory of God, and it was a fantastic sermon! [Laughter.]
And I said, âBrother, you should be a preacher. Are you a preacher?â âNo.â And his headâhis heartâeverything just sank, and he started to sob. He said, âNo, I have been called by God twice to preach,â and then he told me the circumstances of his call. He said, âBut I have turned my back on it.â I said, âNo, you ought to preach! You have a wonderful gift.â And he said, âWell, I wonât tell youâIâm not gonna lie to ya, I had a couple beers today.â And then he told me some more stories.
And he said, âAnd Iâm not gonna lie to you; when I was in prison, one day I went out into the yard, and there were two guards there. One was a really good man, God-fearing, and the other one was a hardcore guy.â And then he jumped up from this low bench, and he went over to show me exactly where he stood and where these two different guards were, in relationship to him, about 12 feet apart, in a triangle. And he said, âAnd I said to the guards, âCould I climb that tree and get the balloon down thatâs stuck up there in the top of that tree?ââ Because there was a little packet attached to it, and he wanted to know what was in it. And the guard, the one good guard, said, âSure,â and the bad guard said, âNo way; youâll just sue the state if you have an accident.â So they argued, and his buddy was behind him, and he said, âYou want me to hoist you up there so you can get started?â And he said he looked at the tree, and the tree turned into a perfect sphere. He said it was the most beautiful sight heâd ever seen.
So he climbed the tree. He said he took his shirt off so that he could climb freely, and by the time he got to the top, he was justâhis whole chest was just full of blood. And he scampered down, with the balloon and the packet. And he gave the packet to the guards. He said, âThey were still arguing. They didnât even know that Iâd gone up. I gave it to them, and they tore it open. And guess what was in it?â he said. I had no idea. It said, âGod loves you, and so do we.â He says, âIsnât God good?â I said, âOh yeah, Godâs really good. Yeah, itâs just great.â
Well, by now, he had crept up close to me. I didnât eve- âheâd kind of sidled, I guess, not getting off of the bench. And now his face was right here, in front of me, so close that all I could see were his eyes, actually. And they looked like the eyes of an icon. And he stuck his finger in my face, and he said, âDonât . . . be . . . afraid. I will always be with you.â And then he went back to his seat, scampered back somehow. And we talked a little bit more, and I thought, âThis is the prodigal son. I just talked to him!â [Paul and audience laugh.] âI just saw Jesus, and Jesus showed me the Father. And the Father just told me what I had to hear.â
We talked a little bit more, and I just, frankly, didnât know what was going to happen next. So I said, âI think Iâve got to go.â And I saidâhe saidâI got up to go, and he said, âAre you going to leave me?â And it was the Father.
And I shook his hand, and he grabbed my hand, and his hand wasâthis little man had a hand like a ham. I think it was a carpenterâs hand. It was raw-hide, beefy, strong. I prayed with him, that he not be impatient. I told him that God is just waiting for him, and that he should preach. He should preach to people like me. Preach to everybody he sees. Just preach the good news.
The thing that I take away from it is the word I want to pass on to you. Which is, âDonât be afraid. I am with you.â Amen.
Let usâletâs pray for a while. Letâs have a prayer meeting for a while. How would that be? [Sounds of âamenâ and assent from audience.] Weâll have some music, and if you want to come down. . . .
[The recording ends here.]
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