Quote:
Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
On one hand I can agree, that is, the focus for us is to be on Christ. It has to be and that is what we see in the Bible - Christ. But was Christ a Man? Of course. So I think this is a false dilemma here, thinking the focus is on us. Why did Christ come? Us. Man is not nothing. Now of course, apart from Christ we are exactly that - nothing. But we're not apart from Him - He did it all to make us proper vessels to contain what? Him.
But I get it: WL and the LCs catch it because in trying to emphasize what man in in scripture, they probably go a little far. Okay, true. But, after all, man is His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus. (a problem among many of us Christians today is we don't see man high enough . . . for what God has really made us in Christ!)
Now to those who used to be in the LC, there is a sensitivity to saying that man is something more, and this is well expressed on this forum (as Raptor pointed out). But it doesn't negate the fact that there is a ton of talk about us and our experience in the New Testament, is there not? The four gospels are fully centered on Christ, however, the epistles really shift to Christ in us - living in us and operating through us, and what our role is in His operation. But again, I think this is a false dilemma because I don't think Ian Thomas is putting undue focus on us. After all, the title of the book this quote came from is "The Indwelling Life of Christ." Can't have much of an indwelling Christ without the vessel, bro!
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To a certain degree it may indeed be a matter of emphasis, with the right tack being of "balance" - holding to two opposing aspects, like "God and man" with the tension being not of contradiction but a kind of creative tension, where two distinct things are added together to create one new, unique entity.
Certainly the NT has plenty of material, especially Ephesians/Colossians and so forth, to build such a 'mystical' narrative. Then you can go back to the OT for 'type', with oil added to flour, etc etc. You can add words like "incorporation" and "indwelling" and on.
And the fact that we both believe in God, and that God raised Jesus from the dead, makes any differences in emphases to be of little import. I merely pointed out why I'm not impressed with Thomas' emphasis on "Christ in you", perhaps mainly in reaction to what I have seen and seen others go through.
So with all those qualifiers, I'll explain my "subjective Christ" - my focus and my life. You ask above, "What is man" and my reply is from Psalms. "What is man" is addressed distinctly in Psalm 8. The answer, the "him" is distinctly given. It is Jesus Christ. Not you or I. Jesus is the "Man" who God is mindful of, who God cares about. "You [the Father] have made him [the Christ] a little lower than the angels [incarnation, suffering, death], and you have crowned him with glory and honour [resurrection, ascension, enthronement]." The "man" here is distinctly (to my view) one Person - the Christ, who is Jesus our Lord. There is no other.
Now, we are "in him" and he is "in us", yes. But what is our focus? Him, or us? Our strivings versus our rest, our experience and enjoyment? Christ then becomes a prop in our self-focused narrative. Our sensations take over, and we're convinced the "head rush" is the Holy Spirit (and it may indeed be, at least for a while) but eventually it's all about the head rush. Or the 'peace' or whatever. It's no longer about him, but about us. We claim it's about the indwelling Christ but it's about us.
The self is a yawning chasm, waiting to take us in.
Here is my example, given before, so I'll be brief. There is a hymn that says, "The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegroom's face". Yet we were continually (again I reference my LSM-mediated church life) told to look at our garment. Yet the only difference between the woman clothed in the Sun and the Great Harlot, is that one looks at her Maker and the other looks at Herself. Otherwise they are the same. So "look away" unto Jesus. Don't look at yourself. Enjoyment, misery, whatever. Look at him, and live.
That's my narrative anyway. But I don't impose it as a condition of fellowship.
Peace