Same old same old – Or a New Covenant Life?

Jesus is the lens through which we interpret the world. “In His light we see light” is not a generic reference to God. The light by which we see is Jesus the Son of Man in whom all things find their essence and purpose. Jesus is both the life and the light of the inhabitants of the world. All things that are in Him hold together. All things were created by Him and for Him. There is no thing, no law that is superior to Jesus. He is all that transcends the knowledge of good and evil. He is life itself.

Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world’ because He is. Jesus is the starting point of meaning and understanding. In the Old Testament God was but dimly perceived. In the New Testament God is revealed as the Person of Jesus and the one who reveals your meaning and purpose and the destiny of the church. See Jesus and you see the Father.

Jesus is the lens by which we discover existence, understand the Bible and see clearly to create the Kingdom of God. It is through Jesus manifesting Himself in us and as us that we become kings and priests who reproduce the Kingdom of God as the Bride of Christ.

It is more correct to say that Jesus gives meaning to the Bible than to attempt to know God through Bible study. Many Bible scholars do not know God. Jesus is not produced by our religious efforts. He already is. We perceive and know God as Jesus takes His place in our hearts and His revelation of Himself floods our being. Knowledge of God starts in the heart through revelation. This is why a little child can know God while a seminarian only thinks He does. When Jesus is our life we will know the power of God and the Bible.

Jesus is the lens through which the Bible must be viewed if it is to become the Word of God and not an encumbrance of the letter, which kills the knowledge of God and His reality in us by the Spirit. Spiritual things are not only spiritually discerned. We are re-created as spiritual beings by the indwelling Spirit of Christ – the Life Giving Spirit. Where the letter, which is the knowledge of good and evil puts life to death, the Spirit of life in us infuses us with resurrection vigour.

Jesus is also the lens through which we perceive our identity as the sons and daughters of God. Such an identity is exclusive and unconditional needing no props and human additions. He is the lens through which we interpret the New Testament and make meaning of the Old. Beware religion that has its own distinctives and perspectives. Should we attach ourselves to the Sabbath making this our focus, we join ourselves to the law, separate ourselves from the Spirit, make nonsense out of the New Testament and pervert the entire Bible. All for the sake of building an identity and a place outside God. But the Father has given us a place in Him. Just as Jesus and the Father are one, so are we when Christ is our life. The place Jesus has prepared for us is union with God.

‘There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?’ John 14.2 NLT.

We cannot live in the law and participate in the Spirit as sons. No matter how hard the we may work under law we cannot represent the Kingdom of Heaven (Galatians, Hebrews).

We are on the verge of a new year. We can advance mightily in the Kingdom of God or continue in the same old same old. The old has ended, the new has come. The law as a school master is dead. Our teacher is the Spirit of Christ Himself witnessing within and speaking through the witness of the Bible and Godly people without. Today we have a choice. We live either in the knowledge of good and evil or in the Son of God. We live either in the law of sin and death or the One who is the law of the Spirit of life. We live either in the letter or the Word who is alive in our hearts. We have our own minds or the mind of Christ.

Speaking of the Living Word the author of Hebrews writes, ‘For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’ Heb 4.12 NIV.

 

Keith Allen