From E.Stanley Jones’ “In Christ.” (With some insertion of my SELF-talk as I read!)
“…..we must explore what we mean by “Christ.” I came near saying “we must define,” but to define is to confine, and when we are dealing with the Eternal God manifested in the flesh, which I conceive Him to be, we can only explore—our definitions are departure points, eternally open to eternal explanations.
We begin with Jesus, not with Christ, for you cannot say Christ until you have first said Jesus—the Incarnate One.
For JESUS PUTS HIS OWN CHARACTER CONTENT INTO CHRIST!
(CBB: Jesus’ own uniqueness, His one -of-a-kind SELF that was given to Him through God’s Spirit at conception, choosing to be born of a woman and sharing in our humanity with us!)
The Jewish people had the idea of a conquering Christ, the Messiah, conquering by force. The Amplified New Testament when it uses the word “Christ” amplifies it into “Christ, the Messiah,” but this isn’t amplification—it is minification, for it puts Christ back into a Jewish Messianic mold. That mold has been broken; it was too small.
Other molds have proved too small. One by one they have been broken.
(CBB: i can only imagine, as the Creative Trinity anticipated the path that created humankind with freewill would take, sitting together at the cosmic creation drawing board and laying out the details and timeline of how to restore what God knew would become a broken and marred image of Himself…. and desiring the Perfect Person at Just The Right Moment in the yet-to-unfold time and space of history, from Adam and Eve to eternity, to reconcile and restore Our people when they go off track… Let’s see, shall it be a Prophet, a Priest, a King perhaps? …..We will certainly have to demonstrate the inadequacy of any single one of those to what will surely be a strong-spirited, freedom-loving, mighty race of beings….Let’s use a Carpenter-make him a skilled Designer, Engineer and Builder of sturdy, practical, functional, and eye-pleasing structures in which we can live among these people. That’s a pretty big task to give One Person, though. We will obviously have to do this task Ourself. Let us make them first in Our image. Then we Ourself will slip Ourself into the race by interpolating Ourself right into their midst! But let’s give them lots of clues about how We intend to do it. And if they miss the prophetic signs, We will make it such an extraordinary event over Our Lifetime, assuring plenty of witnesses and multiple scribes to document it, that they will, in time, see the Truth. And then let US continue among them forever and steer the Ship of Dawning Eternity that We will have slipped into their physical realm and We Ourself will guide them into entering into this Holy Spiritual Dawning Eternity Ark, 2×2, as one explains the Prophetic Word and the Revealed Gospel Plan to another, just as We will show them, starting with one at the time and growing and building Out Temple. Don’t forget to put the example of Phillip and the Eunuch in there so that they will be excited and eager to enter into Etermity with Us!)
“Christ, the Teacher, the greatest of all teachers? Yes, but more, for a teacher imparts knowledge—He imparts life.
The greatest of characters, the best of men, the highest example? Yes, but more, for…..
WE ARE NOT TO IMITATE HIM IN LIFE, WE ARE TO RECEIVE HIM AS LIFE!
(CBB: WOW! Holy mind-blowing, seeing-it-now-WOW! I am to receive HIM AS the SOURCE and BEING of MY OWN LIFE, the Living Water flowing in, through, and from ME…..as I live “in Christ” …… The vital Living Water of His transformed and transforming blood (that gushed as water out of His pierced side in death!) becomes the wine and the daily sustaining nourishment of the Bread of His BODY, God’s Word to me, that provides the power for exploring all of what “In Christ” means in MY OWN unique-one-of-a-kind SELF! I am not subsumed into the “Christness” of Jesus’ own unique life but Jesus’ “Christ”, His character DNA …, inoculated into me like mitochondrial DNA from an external source, in now being produced IN ME. The spiritual DNA of the One snd Onlt Original “Christ” is interpolated INTO my own spiritual DNA and initiates a process by which His Holy Spirit in me can heal, protect, instruct, guide, comfort, correct, discipline, adore, use, and minister to me and through me in His all-sufficient way as I encounter and live into the unique-one-of-a-kind circumstances and relationships that are MY life! “THE Christ Living IN ME” , “CHRIST PRESENT IN ME with my “ME-ness” still intact, only better!!!!) Not me exerting and exercising my own self-control, but me surrendering my SELF to the control of His far wiser and perfect spiritual DNA control now within me. One spirit (Mine!) choosing to subordinate SELF to HIM. Some days and some circumstances are easier than others. But as long as I am in this body the urge will be to drive from the back seat or to take the wheel again. I must not. Christ, once granted the Captain’s role in my life will choose the moments when I share in navigating and/or steering and when He Alone will navigate and steer. Am I up for the task of Captain in the storms of life? I’ve demonstrated again and again that I alone am not. I’m a second mate, at best, and He’d prefer that I simply relax and trust Him to get us to the destination.)
(Is Jesus Christ) …”someone pinpointed in history, our Guide and Inspiration? Yes, and more, for we cannot live on a remembrance, we must live on a realization. A martyr to the cause of the kingdom of God? Yes, and more, for His death seems to have all the signs of a cosmic struggle with a cosmic result—the redemption of the race. Who then is He?
He is the Word become flesh, God become man, the Eternal manifesting Himself in time, God simplified, God approachable, God lovable.”