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Originally Posted by Hanna Smith
There are two kinds of Christian experience: one is an experience of bondage and the other an experience of liberty. In the first case, the soul is controlled by a stern sense of duty and obeys the law of God, either from fear of punishment or from expectation of wages. In the other case, the controlling power is an inward life principle that works out, by the force of its own motions or instincts, the will of the divine Lifegiver, without fear of punishment or hope of reward. In the first, the Christian is a servant and works for hire; in the second, he is a son and works for love.
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One only need apply this to see how absurd it becomes.
Jesus: And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.
Inner Life Acolyte: No, I don't give cups of cold water to anyone - that's just a dead work. I instead focus on the controlling power of the inward life principle, working Christ out in me. Also, I don't do the fear of punishment or hope of reward stuff. That's in the legal realm. I'm all about love.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Hanna Smith
We are continually tempted to forget that it is not what people do that is the vital matter but rather what they are. In Christ Jesus neither our performance of or omission of legal observances avails anything; what counts is that we are "a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17). God is a great deal more concerned about our really being "new creatures" than about anything else, because He knows that if we are right in our inner being, we will certainly do right outwardly. We may, in fact, sometimes even do right without being right at all, but no doing of this kind has any vitality in it or is of any real account. The essential thing, therefore, is character; doing is valuable only as it is an indication of being.
Paul was grieved with the Galatian Christians because they seemed to have lost sight of the truth that the inward life, the "new creature," was the only thing that availed.
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Jesus: Which one of these loved his neighbour?
Lawyer: The one who showed mercy.
Jesus: Then go, and do likewise.
Inner Life Acolyte: But Jesus, I'm not about doing, but about being. I don't want to get caught in legalism, every time I see some poor wretch by the side of the road I have to engage in 'performance Christianity' and pull over and help? I'm not here for that - I'm here to be the new creation!
Jesus was the New Creature, the Second Adam. And he manifested it, he didn't just talk about it. When John's disciples came to query him on his status and position, i.e. what he was, he told them to tell John what they saw. He didn't give claims, but works.
Our works are nothing. But we see him working, and by faith we follow. And it becomes his faith, the "faith of Christ", that works in us. It is no longer I but Christ in me who lives, and this Christ works.