…that they may all be one, just as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me….I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, – and he repeats the phrase from verse 21 – so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:21-23).
“The central miracle asserted by Christians, is the Incarnation” C. S. Lewis wrote in Miracles. “Every other miracle prepared for this, or exhibited this, or resulted from this” … This incarnation, this mystery is rooted in the belief that God assumed our nature, our human flesh in the form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and in so doing, He took on our nature, and then becoming like us in all things but sin. But even with this incredible miracle there is even yet a deeper truth and reality. This is what Jesus declared in the passage above. And this is what the apostle Paul captured in this passage: “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27).
“Incarnational Reality” is at the heart of the gospel. This is the language Leanne Payne used in writing about the Christian life. It’s difficult to write about – because it’s unlike any other tenet of faith held by other religions but more so, because it is not a mystery that we can ever really understand with our intellect. – It must be grasped with our hearts, our souls, our inward parts. This understanding of personhood is at the heart of everything Leanne Payne wrote about or ministered into.
The Incarnation itself, the coming of God in flesh expresses just how deeply we are loved by our God. But this? Words are inadequate as we stop and realize that it was not enough that Christ died for our sins – we are now in-dwelt by a Holy God. That life in us, the Spirit of God, is something we can now treasure as our greatest joy.
It is Christ in me which is the only hope I have of conquering my fears, or sins, or lies. This calls for highest praise. That praise is lifted up and out of our souls, spirits and mouths to a transcendent God who stooped down to take on not only our flesh, but our sin as well.
When you go on to read Paul’s letters you realize that he has radically changed the way we see and know “incarnation.” It wasn’t too long ago when I realized that Paul took the events of Christ’s life, and our lives in Him and made it theology. Actually, even more than that – he made it the language of our Christian formation. With this in mind, go back through his letters and realize this for yourself. “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20). Stop there. Think hard about that. Let that truth sink into your inward parts! What an awesome but somewhat terrifying truth. The Creator of all that is, lives in me. The One who died for me, lives in my soul, spirit, my everything. The proper response to this is awe, glory, gratitude. We can abide in him, remain in him, dwell with him, live in him. This is the Christian faith. This and no other.
Paul took the events of Christ’s life, and our lives in Him and made it the language of our Christian formation.
“When Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being “in Christ”, this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts – that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body.” (Mere Christianity)
Leanne Payne called this incarnational reality. This is how she puts it: In Him we become fully human. In Him, we begin to do His works. This involves incarnation, a descent of the Spirit into our deepest beings and lives. In Him, the will, the intellect, imagination, feeling and sensory being are hallowed and enlivened. We begin to fully live, to participate in the eternal, the immutable, the indestructible. (The Healing Presence).
With all my heart I think this is the key to Christian formation. We talk a lot about Christlikeness and how certain practices or disciplines help us to do that – to become like Christ. There is truth here, without doubt. But I wonder if it’s going about it the wrong way round. We pick the slow lane in traffic to build a habit that helps us be more patient. (This is probably not the best example for me, because I cannot even imagine doing this!) Good habits though, may well indeed produce good character, which hopefully leads us to become more like Christ. Yet I think there is a better way. I think that Christlikeness emerges from our “inward parts” as we abide in Him, as we make room in our hearts for this incredible reality. Christ invites us to join Him into the life, the unity he shared with his Father. (John 17:21-23)
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:3-4
Many of you probably remember Corrie Ten Boom. She was a Christian who was captured during World War II and spent the remaining years of the war in a prisoner of war camp. She was there with her sister, and her sister was relentlessly hounded by and finally killed by the guards of that camp. Corrie survived. She spent many years after the way, writing and speaking about forgiveness. On one such occasion, she had finished speaking about forgiveness and a man approached her. He stepped up onto the stage and told her he had been one of those guards. He asked her for her forgiveness. She froze and was overtaken by hate. This man had been one of her sister’s torturers. There was absolutely no way she could forgive him. But she stopped, prayed a prayer that went like this, “Lord, you know there is no way I can forgive this man. If he is to be forgiven it must be You forgiving him through me.” She felt a deep peace as she reached her hands out to this man. The only way to describe this is to say that it was through Christ in her that gave her the power to forgive.
This is incarnational reality, and it can only really occur as a result of our union with Christ. And by trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit in us that reality becomes more and more a part of our lives – not just our faith or our Christian life – but the whole of who we are – mind, soul, body, and strength! This becomes the cry of our hearts then – Another lives in me!
I think a good way to look at our becoming in Christ is this: it is the incarnational forming of our whole beings into the image of God effecting the full scope of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection through the work of the Holy Spirit. Another lives in me.
* Sigh. Not an easy process though, is it? Discipleship is hard –being transformed is not for the faint of heart. Our life in him is certainly a life we must cultivate – through the power of the Holy Spirit in and through us. All of God is readily available to us in the midst of our pain or sin or temptation. In the grip of fear, or anger, or any temptation, we can pause, take a moment, and remember this reality – that Christ lives in me – and then as C.S. Lewis said –“we listen to that other voice (not the voice of our sinful desires…) and we take that other point of view; we let that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.” (Mere Christianity)
Leanne used the term hamewith to describe this life in Christ. It is an old Scottish word that means “home within.” What an incredible picture this paints of incarnational reality. Where would we be without that life within? We might still be forgiven, we might still become good people, we might still do what Jesus did (WDJD), but nothing compares to the knowledge that it is Christ in us, who is our hope of glory. It is Christ within that cries out in praise and worship. Hallelujah!