Introduction

Jesus is not an easy person to get to know in a deep way, but this has very little to do with trying to understand how one person can both fully human and fully divine. Paul alludes to the effort needed to become intimate with Christ when he states, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion/godliness”[1]. He immediately expounds this “mystery” with a hymn shaped around the life of Jesus, “He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” (1 Tim 3:16). Paul’s Christocentric definition of the Christian life of godliness is a constant challenge to the church[2] to keep Jesus’ life history as the central aspect of our faith.

Sadly, the most of the Western church today has marginalised Jesus by becoming preoccupied with issues that have no bearing on the life of eternity – these include matters like personal advancement, money, and personal peace and prosperity. Most of these emphases attempt to make life’s experiences easier or more enjoyable. The true depth of personal and relational problems can however only ever be addressed through a share in the life experience of Christ himself. I believe that there is a crisis between Jesus and his people today that requires a radical revision of our spirituality.

In dealing with this situation I have divided my presentation into three parts. The first is a biblical/theological statement of the absolute centrality of Christ for our thinking, the second is a personal reflection on various episodes in my life where God oriented me to Jesus, and the last is a challenge about restoring Christ to his central place in our lives by sharing in his life.

Jesus is the Centre

To do justice to this topic would require many hours of teaching, all I can do here is touch upon a few major points. Since this talk is being given in a church, the relation of Christ to the Church is a useful place to begin. The full title of the last book of the Bible is The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:1); Revelation is an unveiling of Jesus in his present heavenly majesty. At the commencement of the book the beloved apostle John receives an extraordinary vision where he sees the glorified Lord standing in the midst of seven golden lamp stands, which stand for the church. Jesus then introduces himself as “the first and the last”, or as expanded later in the book, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”” (Rev 22:13). This self definition places Christ on a par with God Almighty (Rev 1:8; 21:6). One of the profound implications of this unity between Father and Son is that God is unthinkable apart from Jesus. “God is Christlike and in him there is no unChristlikeness at all” (Ramsay). Paul has his own way of emphasising the knowability of God in terms of Jesus.

When he says that Jesus, “is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15)[3], he is not concentrating on a physical form, but teaching that all our thoughts and imaginings about the divine nature must be conformed to the story of Christ in scripture. This is first and foremost the record of a fully human life. If Jesus is truly the Word and wisdom of God (John 1:1-3; 1 Cor 1:24), then God’s own consciousness is filled with an awareness of Christ’s humanity. God eternally knows himself in the fully realised humanity of his glorified Son. To put it another way, we do not see Jesus through God, we see God through Jesus[4].

Many Evangelicals have unknowingly limited Jesus’ role to “getting people to heaven”. For example, we can quote John 14:6, ““I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”” as an example of the Bible’s teaching that there is no salvation outside of Christ. This is correct, but misses the importance of Jesus saying that he is not merely the revealer of truth but the content of truth. As Paul says, “the truth is in Jesus” (Eph 4:21); Jesus’ life is the truth. Or to put it more theologically, “Christ, his character and work, is the center and circumference of all truth, he is the chain upon which the jewels of doctrine are linked. In him is found the complete system of truth.” (Ellen White) In my nearly 40 years as a Christian I have met very few believers who have assimilated what this means into their thinking about God and his relationship with us, let me give a few illustrations of what I am trying to say.

At a prayer meeting recently someone commented that the concept of “the fear of God” seems neglected by “grace teaching” today[5]. This led into a discussion about “grace”. The old Sunday School favourites like God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, or more technically, “unmerited favour” are not false, but they are too impersonal, or place the emphasis on our salvation rather than Jesus himself. In New Testament terms, “grace” is neither a concept nor an experience (though it involves both), grace is a person. The scriptures repeatedly talk about ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’.”[6] Grace is something that Jesus gives, grace is what Jesus experienced in the transformation from being under the verdict of God’s “No!” as he bore our sin on the cross (2 Cor 5:21) to accepting his Father’s “Yes!” in being raised from the dead as the beloved Son (Rom 1:3-4). To press on with this effort to explain about Christ as the content of everything Christian, we can think of “faith” as something we do or something which God shares with us. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is “the founder and perfecter of [our][7] faith” (Heb 12:2)[8]. Faith is something that God shares with us from within the life experience of his faithful submissive Son.

A (Theo)logically informed Christian would think of the sequence, grace-faith-justification. This takes us back to our key text on the “mystery of our religion/godliness”. Paul states of Jesus, “He was… vindicated by the Spirit”, where the word “vindicated” is used everywhere else for “justified”. The resurrection of Jesus by the Holy Spirit as his vindication/justification by God[9]. Applying the principle of Christ as the content of the Christian life, this means that our justification can must be understood as a grace-filled shared in Jesus’ resurrection and access to the Father (Rom 5:2).

Finally, if justification by grace through faith puts us into the new covenant, how does this apply to covenant? Most believers think of “covenant” as an agreement between them and God.[10] Where is Christ in that thinking? The scriptures however make it clear that Jesus is the new covenant between God and humanity, “I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations” (Isa 42:6; 49:8 cf. Luke 22:20; Heb 13:20). From beginning to end, from first to last, just as Jesus introduced himself in his vision to John, every element of thought, attitude and intention that can be called Christian must be drawn from the personal life of Christ. To live a Christ-centred life requires an entire reorientation from our normal egocentric way of thinking about God, ourselves and our relationships[11]. This is just as true for the corporate nature of the church as it is for an individual.

It is sometimes very difficult to see the Church as Jesus sees it. I was talking with an outspoken Christian friend who said that he couldn’t understand why people said that the Church was the Bride of Christ. Apart from a brief examination of the scriptures on the subject (John 3:29; Eph 5:31-32; Rev 19:7-8), I had to explain to him that the biblical meaning of “church” should not be confused with what we see about us. (He had experienced a lot of pastoral neglect and indifference to evangelistic passion.)

However anaemic and malnourished much of the Church in Australia may seem, Jesus presents himself in the Revelation to John as a glorified being walking in the midst of the seven golden lampstands! The Church is not constituted by the purity of our doctrine, the excitement of our worship, the longevity of our tradition or the size of our denomination. Wherever believers gather in the name of Jesus and confess him as Lord his Church is created by his personal presence (Matt 18:17-19). If few folk truly understand the centrality of Christ, a similar small minority grasp the identity of the Church –because like Jesus who at the present time is in heaven, it is a hidden identity (Col 3:3; 1 John 3:2).

In a difficult passage to understand Paul teaches, “He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph 5:28-32) As Adam was a mirror to Eve where she was to behold her beauty and identity in his love and faithfulness[12], so the Church only know who she is as in beholding and adoring her heavenly Lord (2 Cor 3:18). Paul calls the connection between husband and wife and Christ and the Church a profound “mystery”. It is a part of the “mystery of our religion/godliness” in our key text from 1 Timothy 3. Just as this passage traces the pathway of the life of Jesus from the humility of fleshly, mortal and weak human life to heavenly glory, so this too is the journey of the Church. When the Church disgraces herself with materialism and idolatry it is because we have not understood that suffering and lowliness is the way to glory. We think that God had one way for Jesus and another more comfortable way for us[13]. Wherever this pattern prevails the church has put itself in the centre that belongs to Christ alone. This brings me to the second part of my address, a personal reflection on various episodes where God oriented me to Jesus

A Personal Journey

Obeying the familiar command[14], “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:2), requires a fundamental reorientation of all our thinking into sharing “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). This does not happen simply by going to church, reading the Bible or praying. Luther sets us on the right track by saying, “It is by living, no–more–by dying and being damned to hell that one becomes a theologian, not by knowing, reading or speculating.” He is saying that we become increasingly Christ-centred as God immerses us in the life journey of his Son. Your life under the hand of God takes on a shape conformed to the shape of the life of Jesus.

I have been through various phases in my spiritual journey, an early Pentecostal-experiential phase, an intellectual Evangelical phase, a more mystical time, a post-institutional church phase, but in the mid 90’s something happened in prayer that began to totally revolutionise my way of thinking.

At the end of a week of prayer for revival (6 am – 6 pm Monday – Sunday) I had one of the most difficult spiritual encounters in my life. (I will apply this as a principle a little later.) People moved out of the meeting because they thought it had dried up, a brother boisterously picked up a vacuum cleaner with the brand “Elite” on it and confronted the group with its alleged elitism, and so on. These were not however the most painful aspects of the meeting. For quite some time I felt rather like Paul, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” (2 Cor 1:8). It is difficult to explain how “crushed” I was inside, but I remember lying on the carpet face down literally clinging on with my finger nails trying to hold on to God. Unexpectedly, a scripture came into my mind from Acts 3, one which I had never given any serious consideration, Peter preaches, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for the restoration of all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” At that moment I had a clear image of Jesus in heaven restoring order to everything- politics, law, education, health , business, the arts……

This shape of this experience was totally unlike anything that I had ever encountered before and it constituted a call of God in response to a revelation of the ascended and reigning Lord[15]. It conforms to a pattern that is at the very heart of Jesus personal spiritual walk, self emptying and suffering always precede exaltation[16]. At the heart of “the mystery of our religion/godliness”, is that in God’s order humility (represented by the word “flesh” in our key text) always precedes “glory” (1Tim 3:16). There are no exceptions to this as the way of God (which is Christ John 14:6).

Smith Wigglesworth was an early Pentecostal pioneer who is a hero to many because of his spectacular public healing ministry. The secret of his ministry is summed up in his own words about the hidden part of his life, “Before God could bring me to this place, he has broken me a thousand times. I have wept. I have travailed many a night until God broke me. It seems that until God has mowed you down, you can never have this longsuffering for others.”[17]

The other experience I want to relate is much less dramatic but equally significant Several of us who had been at the week of prayer for revival decided we should meet regularly and keep praying. The first time however we met to pray something very strange and quite embarrassing happened. I was in silent prayer on one side of the room and my friend was on the other. (We both had postgraduate degrees in theology, which is an important bit of information in understanding the following discourse.) He approached me first and said, “Check this out, I have the (Latin) phrase communicatio idiomatum (communication of attributes) running through my mind. It means the relationship between the divine and human natures of Christ, doesn’t it?” To which I replied, “The strangest thing is in my mind as well, it’s a line from The Athanasian Creed[18] about the two natures of Jesus, “Who although he is God and Man; yet he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by taking of the Manhood into God.” We knew immediately that the Holy Spirit was redirecting our attention to something much more important than praying for revival; we spent 6 hours a week for the next several years asking God to teach us about Jesus. My understanding about “revival” was being totally transformed from God doing powerful things to people to God filling everything with the life of Jesus[19]. This leads into the third and final section of this talk.

Restoring the Centre

During the early hours of the first night after I started preparing this talk, I was awake with unusual clarity as the Lord started to share with me a crucial truth about knowing him personally.

You will always find the cutting edge of Jesus’ presence, [true God and true man, the second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son,] at the extremities of existence. To state as Paul does that “the mystery” of faith begins with Jesus “manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim 3:16) is to state that God is first known in Christ’s weakness. “Flesh” is not a neutral word[20]; it signifies weak, fallen and mortal humanity (Matt 26:41). When “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” he took on a human frame that was by its nature marginally connected to the divine life[21]. Jesus came in our “flesh and blood” to conquer our fear of death and punishment (Heb 2:14-15); in Paul’s bold statement, Jesus came to “condemn sin” “in the likeness[22] of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3). In condemning sin’s arrogance Jesus must go to the extremes of human life. He was born in the obscurity of a stable and grew up in a town which had no reputation for learning, culture or piety (John 1:46), in ministry he was surrounded by the weak, sick, poor, outcasts and sinners. If we think about Jesus’ life in terms of two intersecting circles, the centre of his kingdom corresponds to the circumference of all powerful worldly interests.

This shape will always be the case for his followers. The most remarkable thing about William Gladstone’s life was not his 60 years as an MP or being Prime Minster of England four times, it was his ministry in rescuing prostitutes (as young as 12) off the streets around Westminster late at night. The first step was to take them home, feed them, let his wife care for them and sleep under his roof, then take them to one of the shelters he had set up to be clothed and trained for a new life. As a committed Christian, Gladstone did not seem to be concerned what other people thought about either his motives or his sanity, for he actually sensed that he would find Jesus out on the streets.

Having friends who minister to gays, sex workers, the homeless and addicts, I know that the presence of Jesus will be found by them again and again on the margins of the humanity in which they immerse themselves. It was not however the face to face interaction of Jesus with the broken and needy that would deal with the world’s sin, it was the cross.

The scripture speaks dramatically about the suffering of Christ in the flesh, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb 5:7-9 cf. 1 Pet 4:1). This description of Jesus’ enfleshed agony in Gethsemane is a commentary on these words, ““My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.”….“Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:34, 36) By a sheer act of will Jesus agrees to become fully identified with the condemnation of our rebellious, fallen and condemned race. This means that he must become so marginalised that neither his glory as God nor as man will be recognised by his heavenly Father. Such is the meaning of the terrible cry, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34). The sorrow of which Christ is first conscious in Gethsemane (Mark 14:34) and which climaxes in the cross, is a share in the eternal sorrow of God over a lost humanity that, if left to itself, will be marginalised from his holy presence forever. The “great mystery” of Jesus’ own testimony[23] is that he experienced a death to all things in the realm of “godliness” that we might live again.

The Puritan John Flavel wrote of disasters, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity”, but his words find their ultimate fulfilment in the great crisis of the cross. The obedient flesh and blood Jesus shares with us became so traumatised, dehumanised and emptied of attachment to this current existence that it created a human space which could be filled with the fullness of God (Eph 3:19). As Jesus dies to “all things” of the old creation, his resurrection opens up a new creation that will be filled to overflowing in every way by his presence as God and man (1 Cor 15:28).

Conclusion

Paradoxically[24] we have arrived at the place where we can understand (in part), “the mystery of our religion/godliness” which is the nature of the person of the God-man, Jesus Christ. You can only understand this Lord when you follow after him with your life[25], when your life is conformed to the shape of his life in the pattern of marginalisation and exultation[26]. You will always find Jesus present where, naturally speaking, you would least expect to find him (1 Cor 2:14) – where you do not seem in your own eyes to be healthy, wealthy or wise, and most acutely, where you have come to the end of all confidence in your own spirituality (cf. 1 Cor 1:26-31).

When I was lecturing at Tabor College, the standing joke for all my classes was, “The answer to every question is Jesus”. Hopefully, from listening today you may understand why this is not just a joke, but God’s “Amen” to all he has ever planned and made[27]. There is a test, not a test set by us, but a test set by the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). It is the test of the confession of our faith, “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2-3). Does the shape of your life testify to the Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh; a flesh broken that all things may be made whole?