Christianity – A Renewed Understanding

Discovering the Keys that Unlock the Mystery and Power of Grace

We are speaking about authentic Christianity. Not the Christianity as commonly conceived, merely of principles for living or even just as a source of moral direction. Instead, we are talking about a Christianity that is alive with the very life that is in Christ.

I understand that inspiring Biblical terms such as “life” (e.g., grace, love, peace, victory, freedom, etc.) are used so commonly in the Church that we have become desensitized to their true implications. We all hope to actualize these words in our lives, but the reality of our Christian lives often results in our unnecessarily lowering our expectations.  The Christianity I will be presenting here is the unfolding of a way for believers to live, to live the gospel way. This way enables each of us, regardless of our innate capacities (or deficiencies), to inherit the reality of these inspiring words just as they were manifest in our Savior and His Apostles.

This way also is imbued with power that is only found in God Almighty. That kind of power always overcomes all things that challenge the soul of man. More specifically, it is a power that overcomes the darkness in us and the world around us. In other words, it is a life that prevails.

A Different View of Christianity

God has offered us abundant life. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, the truth is that our actual lives are falling short, perhaps terribly short, of our calling. This is not God’s plan. The Church is lost in many ways, (unknowingly) offering us cheap substitutes for the true riches available to all in Christ. Certainly, most Evangelical leaders and teachers believe they are, indeed, offering the real Jesus to their congregations. Notwithstanding this conviction, I contend that most are in reality, missing the Biblical and Apostolic message of the New Testament to the Church. As a result, they are unable to offer that message to their congregations.

We will be speaking on this website about a kind of Christianity that shook the world 2000 years ago. Among those who truly understood it, it enabled their lives to greatly surpass the limits of their own capacities. The weak are made strong in Him; this is not just a nice-sounding metaphor.

The life abiding in the early Church created true righteousness in them. This righteousness was the same righteousness that is in Christ and the Father. This kind of righteousness made them able to roar like a lion with the truth and yet remain gentle as a dove. Because their wisdom came from God, it enabled them to see clearly into themselves and also the world around them. Thus they could also speak to men’s hearts and consciences. It was not an attempt to manipulate or persuade with eloquent or enticing words. On the contrary, it was wisdom that was pure and incorruptible and coming from a source – the Holy Spirit – that was perfectly pure and incorruptible.

This Life is a Person

The life of Christ is not merely a feeling or an experience. Neither is He a force, or even a set of ideas, but a Person. This Person has definition; that is, He is knowable. We must search Him out to come to really know Him. His ways are surprisingly different from ours, initially incomprehensible until He reveals Himself to us.

Unlike the gods invented by men, He calls for true righteousness at a profound level of the soul. He requires that authentic righteousness in all things in those that serve Him. What’s more, He graciously enables His people to inherit that righteousness – a righteousness only found in Him.

In Him, we discover an engagement with one who is profoundly greater than ourselves. Beholding Him day by day we live in ever-greater awe of Him. He is perfect in all His ways; He is constantly working His wonders in our lives. This is not the case in the lives of most believers. It was not the case in my own life for some forty years of being a sincere, but double-minded Christian. 

This life, rarely tapped by most believers, operates in a sense, outside the constraints of the natural universe. This life does not fail to fulfill God’s purposes. His life is perfect in nature. This life is Christ – a gift for all those who believe. It is a gift for all those who recognize their poverty before the Almighty God. 

I am not suggesting that those who abide in this kind of relationship with God are perfect, but I am suggesting they will begin to live a life that is well beyond their capabilities. Does this sound appealing to you? If so, read on.

The Keys to the Door for All

Let’s explore together just what God has given to us who believe. We will discuss why so many Christians fail and why this is unnecessary. We do not need to be great within ourselves to find the greatness of God in our lives. Instead, we find the keys that open every door through a true understanding of Christ and the full implications of the cross.

We can only enter God’s house through the door, through Christ. His substitutionary death is the only basis by which we may enter. All those who try to enter that house some other way are still seeking to establish their own kingdom. Only one kingdom will ultimately stand – His kingdom. He will test all things with fire. Only that which is built by God will remain.

This entrance is not the door to self-glory nor a kingdom devised in the arrogance of the mind of man. Instead, this is the door to God’s own kingdom, a kingdom of real righteousness. God’s kingdom is defined by God, inseparable from His unchanging nature, prevailing power and His perfect love.

Being in His House

There are no oppressors in His house. Those who seek to enter His house must have the secrets of their hearts exposed in His pure light. For the believer, this is joy and liberation, for that light immediately brings freedom from the kingdom of self. We are all brought to brokenness in His magnificent presence. Yet, surprisingly, it is a place of real mercy and grace for those who hope in Him. This gracious and kind humbling of God becomes sweet brokenness in us. It is the gateway to real success in our Christian lives.

Beyond all this, there is no flaw in His message. Neither is there any deficiency in the work of redemption that He has wrought for us. The work on the cross is perfect; therefore, its effect in us is also perfect. We can inherit this outcome only as we learn to embrace His death for us. More concretely, we are learning to place all hope in His redemptive work alone. We are being transformed by our daily believing, relying upon and receiving of His death and resurrected life. This life is Christ.

The Centrality of the Cross

Our name, Christianity Rediscovered, speaks to an uncommon understanding of Christianity. It ought not to be uncommon, particularly in the Church, but unfortunately, it is. The implications of this spiritual understanding, though simple, are truly profound. One could describe this understanding as a revelation of the centrality of the cross of Christ. As we come to comprehend the significance of the cross, that understanding unveils a gateway into the revelation of Christ. As a result of this realization of the cross as the core message of the New Testament. Most importantly, the daily receiving and believing of this message is the only door to the inheritance of the kingdom of God.

This message of the cross is the central message preached by Christ and His (true) Apostles. Their writings of the New Testament have been handed down to us by God’s own working in history.

The New Testament is the magnificent fulfillment of the promise of a new covenant prophesied by the prophets of old. This covenant was to be the vehicle by which Israel and even the whole world were granted God’s most unfathomable gift of salvation. The gift of life in Christ is to all who believe Christ’s message. It is the message of His redemptive coming, His dying atonement. Christ’s substitutionary atonement (the cross) is the Father’s offering for our sins. Thus it is a perfect and fully sufficient sacrifice emerging from perfect love. 

God’s Guarantee

The Father Himself is testifying to us that believing in His Son’s death is the only means to inheriting His promises. And oh, what promises! More than that, they come with a perfect guarantee. Yet, this guarantee is not only the promise of an eternal life in heaven. The point often overlooked is that God wants His people to spiritually reign in this life. In short, He wants them to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Yet this guaranteed inheritence comes only to those living in Christ’s death. That is, they are constantly being put to death to their own wants in this life. This death results, however, in the unfolding of His life in us. The outcome is that His life is constantly overcoming all things in us and through us. It is a daily miracle that becomes alive in those that truly abide in Him.

Practical Applied Understanding

In this Christianity Rediscovered blog, we will unpack the elements that avail us of this inheritance. In addition, we will be learning about the obstacles that also impede this inheritance in us. One might say it is like learning to walk on water with Jesus daily.

His life, however, is not a life of mere abstract intellectual manipulation of ideas. It is one of day-by-day application and a daily success that comes directly from God. Our life is one received from above. His truth is setting us free from the tyranny of self. We are indeed God’s dwelling place, just as He once dwelt in Jerusalem’s Temple. His house is now in us, a house not made by human hands. It is a house built and sustained by Almighty God Himself, God dwelling in human flesh. We are the dwelling place of the Most High, and we tremble before Him, who is awesome in might and power.

We will be exploring the marvelous implications of this kind of life in Christ as it overturns our reality.

Understanding God and the Scriptures

Continuing in the message of the gospel results in an ever-deepening grasp of the New Testament writings and their extraordinary implications. This insight comes about, in great measure, because the life in us is the same life that was abiding in the lives of the writers of the New Testament documents. This unfolding understanding is the testimony of truth, and it is always witnessed and confirmed by God’s words in the scripture. He does not change; He has known all things from the beginning.

Furthermore, this deepening understanding profoundly alters and expands our perspective about God, ourselves, and the world around us. What emerges is a clearer view of God’s perspective of the landscape of the Christian life which He has prepared for us. We are also constantly growing in His perfect love.

A Different Kind of Living

This ongoing revelation turns us from seeking to establish ourselves. Instead, we are becoming those who gladly lay down our lives. We lay our lives down for His sake and for others, regardless of who they are. We lay our lives down because He who laid down His life for us is also manifest in us. He is perfect love and those in whom He is abiding are being perfected in that same love.

In the hearts of those truly abiding in Him, there is no place for cultural, political, national, ethnic, status, or racial divides. His love is the same for all. Therefore, that love that is manifest in us We also show without partiality. And He loves us as we are, regardless of our condition. We all come from one Father. As He is patient with all people, so are His children.

A Living Relationship Emerging

As we abide in faith in Christ’s redemptive atonement, we are being conformed to Him who lives in us. Those being trained in this way by Christ are continually being exposed by His light. This light reveals our self-centered, self-seeking nature that we hide even from ourselves. Yet, because of His grace towards us, that light results in cleansing us from these very things. Through this daily working of His Spirit, we are being formed into Christ. Since there is no oppression in Him those who are living in Him also will not oppress. They are trustworthy in all things because His righteousness abides in themHe is kind, gentle and filled with mercy and love in all things towards us.

In sum, this message is Christ crucified – a message unique to only Christianity alone. There is none like Him who brings forth justice and righteousness in those who truly abide in Him. Let us then understand. This gospel is a message not for merely entering the Christian life initially, although that is a truly wonderous reality. Instead, our focus here, is on its power to enable us to successfully abide in that life daily.

Transformed into His likeness

 This is not, however, the self-hate of the neurotic. Instead, it results in our unexpectedly becoming filled with Christ’s life. It is an experience that is profound, transcendent and redemptive.

This pattern plays itself out in every area of our soul life. We discover that in our (spiritual) poverty we find the abundance of His supply.

Over time, our souls become as a watered garden, ever fuller and overflowing with His contentment. It follows that a soul that is living in Christ’s overflowing supply is able to let go of a need/wants-driven life. Christ becomes our source of behavior rather than self interest.

We discover the freedom and capacity to love unselfishly. Rigid, obsessive or addictive patterns which imprisoned the soul since childhood begin to fall away. We are stunned by the freedom never before experienced in our souls.

Jesus’ Kind of Christianity

In short, we are rediscovering Christianity. This is the real Christianity. It is the kind of life we always knew it should be like to live in Christ; a life that authentically loves selflessly. The result is joy and thanksgiving that wells up in us because of the privilege to share in His glorious life.

We are describing the death of the kingdom of self here. Those who wish to abide in Him must come and be (gently) put to death themselves. It is not anything like the self-hate of the neurotic; nor the self-negation of the hyper-religious zealot. As we are losing our own wants, plans, and dreams for our lives, He is replacing them with new things. It concomitantly also becomes the unfolding of the very kingdom of God in us. Living dead to self is not a natural thing for us. Our default mode is self-interested motivation. When attempting to operate on our own, we are as incapable of these things as anyone else.

Unfolding Truths that Transform

This website will be presenting these frequently overlooked yet evident and undeniable truths. In addition, we will be exploring their profound implications for Christian success in every of aspect of living.

Amazing Grace Welcomes All

Abiding in the message of the cross profoundly and phenomenally impacts our Christian marriages, parenting, psychological growth, and transcendent character development. But, above all, it offers real and unstoppable ministry effectiveness for every single believer, regardless of personal deficiencies, weaknesses, or lack of talent.

We are not suggesting that the place for those without natural gifts is menial tasks such as cleaning up for the “important” people. On the contrary, God enables all for the work of the ministry. Thus as He always has done, He turns everything upside down (really, He’s turning things right side up).

Come along and discover the incredible graciousness of the Father’s terms for inheriting God’s very life and love. As I have said, inheriting this life does not require any greatness in us. But, contrary to what we would expect, it does demand some inordinate capacity for suffering or self-discipline.

Even those with debilitating mental health challenges are not excluded from entering the same liberty and inside-out transformation in God’s kingdom. And there are implications here for those struggling with various psychological and social difficulties. Christ actually offers the true escape from the prison of childhood emotional damage.

The Gift of Perfect Grace

.Beyond all this is the reality that these things are the results solely of God’s grace, a truly free gift. In fact, these things could only come to man as a free gift. For a certaintly, none of us could ever produce the real righteousness to deserve them. No one other than Christ is worthy to qualify for them. 

Finally, because we cannot earn this gift, when understood and diligently applied, the result is that the outcome becomes wholly guaranteed. This outcome cannot fail to succeed because it is based entirely on Christ’s merit. We become partakers of a heart and life moved by the love of God.

An Invitation

If this does not describe your life in Christ, then by all means, especially you, please join me. With His help, we will together take this road less traveled. He will give you life and success daily, even as He has sworn. Therefore, let us withdraw our hope from ourselves and the endless false promises man gives us. Let us only place our hope in Him, for He alone is trustworthy.

Come, weak and strong, old and young, rich and poor, the great and the lowly – all are welcome. Let Christ help you leave your old baggage at the door. Join me on the most incredible adventure ever undertaken by mortal man. It is a life beyond that which the mind can imagine.

Together we will explore the mechanisms of fundamental change God has set out for our salvation. This salvation is the daily liberation from the tyranny of self that imprisons all men. This journey is not about our own works, will, power, or strength. Instead, in daily practice, we will learn to disable these shackles and rise above our natural limitations.

The result is our being made able to walk with Him in true liberty and selflessness. We can live without the oppression of fear, guilt, shame, and bitterness. 

Come along and join me in this journey as the Holy Spirit unlocks for us the mysteries of the kingdom of God. We are discovering the inexplicable joy of a clean heart and conscience. Together our lives will grow into a fountain of thanksgiving as we lose our own lives for His sake. This life wells up as waters from our innermost being. So come discover Christ anew and reveal all He has prepared for those who love Him!