Table of Contents
Preface
What Makes the Christ-life Messge So Unique?
The Christ-life Is Doing the Will of the Father
The Christ-life Is a Progressive Life
The Christ-life Means You Are Free from the Law and Alive in Christ
The Importance of Learning the Christ in You
Seeing Christ as Our Only Life Ends the Search for Truth
The Christ-life Message Ties Together All the Scriptures
The New-Creation-Race Being
Christ in the Human Being Fulfills God's Original Intention for Mankind
Do Our Doctrines Really Come from the Bible? |
Preface
“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
This verse has many facets, but the words “fellowship with the Father and with the Son” are of particular interest to me as a theme for this book. Our real fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. The Christ-life message is the center of everything I want to do. Wherever I go, whatever I do, the message is the focal point of my life. When I first began to see these truths, I realized that many people through the centuries had bits, pieces and parts of the Christ-life truth— “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” but it never crystallized as a part of their biblical truths. They never understood it as a complete and total message because the life of Christ, as the believer’s life, did not sustain all the ideas they thought were necessary to their religious programs. Also, many other things were commingled with the message, most often unscriptural things that followers of organized religion deemed necessary, making the message of Christ alive in believers become lost or, at the very least, diluted.
The Message Is Preeminent
I have been very careful through the years to keep the in-Christ message as the central theme of Christ-life This Then Is the Message Which We Have Heard of Him teaching. In my exuberance to share this truth, I could have easily overshadowed the message with my own understanding. For instance, at one time, I desired to build a meeting place for teaching and fellowship, but it would take time and money to accomplish such a project. Before long the message would have become equal or subservient to what I was doing. My responsibility is the message, and I have never allowed what I wanted to do to become greater than the message.
We Christ-life believers have a message the world does not know. We have a message religion does not know, and, sad to say, we have a message Christianity does not understand. Religion comprehends parts of the message, but it does not know the message as a whole, not as Paul gave it. In fact, when I say that the final gospel is that which Paul gives us in his epistles, people frown and are ready to rebuke me. Paul refers to this message as “my gospel.” Yet, this gospel Paul preached so fervently is unknown to the world and even to most Christians. The reality of this statement is substantiated daily by the hurt and pain sustained by believers who must combat religious hierarchy as the Holy Spirit teaches them the Lord’s truth. Even though Paul’s message is clear and sound in Scripture, it receives little attention in religious circles. |
