Month: July 2022

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Gifts and the Giver

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

Jesus Christ is the gift of gifts. As Son of God, He offered Himself to the Father before the foundation of the world. In so doing He became the gift of God to us. “If you knew the gift of God… you would have asked Him… and He would have given…” God’s gift is Christ, and God gives all His gifts through Christ. The greatest gift is God’s love, embodied in Jesus. The gift that brings us to spiritual consciousness is faith. Our salvation is a gift (Ephesians 2:6). And His gifts never end, because in Christ we have eternal life.

In the life of the new creation, everything is a gift: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness… he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Peter 1:3-4). As an example, holiness is a gift. “But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). Taken as a command, this is beyond our ability to obey. But taken as a gift we understand, “Because I am holy, and I have granted you holiness in My beloved Son, I therefore consider you to be holy.” 

Really, all gifts of God are one: Christ Jesus. “God will not give me humility or patience or holiness, or love as separate gifts of His grace… He has given only one gift to meet all our need: His Son Christ Jesus. As I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need—in my stead” (Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life).

The opportunity to experience transformation is a gift. To whatever degree the life of Christ is on display in the way we live, we bear the image of the Living God. As we bear His image, we are His gift to each other and to everyone we encounter. “Be occupied with Christ, and the Holy Spirit will show you more and more in Christ with which to be occupied, and as He makes that livingly real, you will have something to give to others” (T. Austin-Sparks). 

Our being God’s gift directs attention back on God the Giver. That gift is a true testimony to the His power in Christ, that He can transform such people as us. That gift declares that humans actually can give God the opportunity to reveal His character in a visible way. That gift foreshadows, through us, what His Kingdom will be like on the earth.

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Enemies

Lately I’ve been reading through the Book of Psalms and noticing the frequent references to enemies. An early example is in Psalm 3, which carries the title, A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son: “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah” (Psalms 3:1-2). In fact, most of the psalms describe conflict on an individual, national or cosmic scale. In general, though, these conflicts are rooted in spiritual discrepancies: righteous v. wicked, observers of God’s law v. those who disregard it, God’s appointed King v. the rulers of the nations.

This made me reflect on what the idea of enemies might mean for us in the present. Every enemy represents a threat to something that we value. In the extreme, the threat may be to our lives and the lives of our loved ones. There are Christians who, to remain faithful to Jesus Christ, face such threats every day.

Although this kind of threat may not be part of our experience, we should consider that our lives are more than bodily life. We have a spirit that Jesus, through his death and resurrection, restored to life when we received him as Savior and King. Not only that, but the Father also placed us in Christ, and our lives are secured with Christ in God. Not only that, but Christ Himself came to live in our human spirit, imparting to us His eternal life. “And this is the testimony, that God gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13). In his book, The Power of His Resurrection, T. Austin-Sparks wrote, “The basis of union with God is that God’s own Life is given to us in new birth, and upon that God builds everything….” The quote continues:

“In order to reach and realize all God’s thought, God must put Himself into man in the very essence of His being, His very Life. God cannot realize spiritual, eternal, universal intentions on the basis of natural life. The Scriptures make it very clear that man’s own natural life can never be the basis of the realization of any of God’s purposes, that God’s own Life alone can be that [basis]. Thus for all His hopes God first of all provides His own basis. God’s hope is in His own Life, not in ours, and He puts the basis of His hope within [us] at new birth, and on that basis He proceeds to the development of all His thought, and the realization of all His intention.” 

So, the threat posed by enemies is the threat to our union and fellowship with God. It places at risk God’s accomplishment of His own thought and intention. However, God’s own Life—that is, the indwelling of the life of the Son—which He Himself has given to us, is the foundation of our union. We who have believed in His name have that Life. Furthermore, as I noted above, God has placed us in Christ. And nothing can separate us from Christ because He sits at the right hand of God’s throne! That is far beyond the reach of every enemy. So, no enemy can take these gifts of God from us.

However, enemies can deceive us into living a life that contradicts the Life that we truly have in God’s Son. We can fall into deception through ignorance, not recognizing that we are in Christ and have the life of Christ. Also, we may know that we have eternal life but fail to enter, or remain, in the good of it. Either way, the lie has in effect robbed us of our life and frustrated God’s purpose in us.

Take the example of Peter as recorded in Matthew 14:28-31. At the invitation of Jesus, Peter climbed out of the boat and walked on the water—up to the point when he “saw the wind.” He had received the gift of walking on water until a lapse of faith robbed him by making him doubt. He still had the gift, but he could not continue living it out until Jesus rescued him. Then they walked together, on the water, to the boat.

Many conditions can hinder us from living the life of God’s intention for us. As we continue in the process of transformation, He will reveal to us the lies that keep us from enjoying our spiritual riches in Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s basis for our union with Him; it does not depend on us. We truly have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). Nevertheless, we have enemies who can deceive us into living as though God has not so blessed us. Let us present ourselves before Him in humility, with open hearts. Let us receive deliverance from the false beliefs that limit the expression of Christ’s life in us.

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