Christianity is Christ,
The Christian life is not an imitation of Jesus' life, but the manifestation of His life and Being in our behavior. The Apostle Paul was desirous that "the life of Jesus should be manifested in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11).
Explaining to His disciples their inability to reproduce the Christian life, Jesus indicated, "
Apart from Me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5). There is nothing that a Christian can originate or activate that constitutes or demonstrates Christianity, that qualifies as Christian behavior, or that glorifies God. "I am the vine, you are the branches" (Jn. 15:5) was the analogy that Jesus utilized to illustrate
the necessity of allowing His life sustenance to flow through the Christian's bodily behavior, whereby the Christian might bear (not produce) the fruit of His character. The character of Christ lived out in Christians is the "fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal. 5:22,23).
The fruit of Christ's character is also the "fruit of righteousness" (Phil. 1:11; James 3:18). The divine character of righteousness (I Jn. 2:29; 3:7) personified in "the Righteous One" (Acts 3:13; 7:52; 22:14;I Jn. 2:1), Jesus Christ, allows the Christian to "become righteous" (II Cor. 5:21) and "be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19), as "Christ becomes to us...righteousness" (I Cor. 1:30). The understanding of righteousness must not be objectified only in "positional truths" of declaration, imputation, reckoning and reconciliation, with no practical implication of our bodily members being "instruments of righteousness" (Rom. 6:13) in the conveyance of Christ's character.
"Having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 5:10), Paul explains. Christians live by "the saving life of Christ."That is why Paul could also say,
"for me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21).
All of the deeds or works of Christian living are but the outworking of Christ's activity. "We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). We allow for the outworking of Christ's work by recognizing that "God is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12,13).
To claim Christian faith without any of the consequent outworking of Christ's character and activity, is to evidence the invalidity of such faith (cf. James 2:14,17,26).
Christian ministry is likewise, not something that the Christian does to serve Jesus. "God is not served with human hands, as though He needed anything" (Acts 17:25). Rather, we recognize that the "same God works all things in all Christians" (I Cor. 12:6). Together with Paul we affirm that "we are not adequate to consider anything as coming from ourselves,
but our adequacy is of God" (II Cor. 3:5). This is why Paul declared, "
I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me" (Rom. 15:18).
God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ.
Christianity is Christ.
Christianity is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian.
Read this entire, excellent article:
http://www.christinyou.net/pages/XnisXst.html
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