Lifetime Daily DevotionsSample

The Normal Christian Life, (part 2 of 3)

How much faith did you place in yourself to acquire salvation? None. Then why do you trust in your ability, your talent, your strength, your charisma, your education, your intellect, your beautiful earthsuit, even your spiritual gifts, to live the life that you acquired by faith? Oh, the folly of such independent living! Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Jesus is not a life. He didn't give you a type of life, nor did He set the curve for a life-style, leaving you some principles by which to live. Christ (drumroll) is (drumroll) your (drumroll and crashing cymbals) life. "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to [sin]" (Colossians 3:3-5). Eternal life is not a mere extension of your old, sinful Adamic life. Here is God's definition of eternal life: "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life-and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us" (1 John 1:1-2). Christ is the eternal life you signed up to acquire if you are born anew. Eternal Life is a Person, not an extension of your old Adamic life, not an "it," not a phenomenon or a set of values. And this Person, who is Himself Eternal Life, is to express life through you, by faith, as you present yourself to God as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). This is not to be understood so much as to be believed and acted upon.

There is so much more to your salvation than a one-time experience which guarantees heaven. Living the Christian life is experienced via using the same faith by which you got saved. It is experiencing a moment-by-moment, intimate, personal relationship with Christ who indwells you-living "in vital union with [Him]" (Colossians 2:6 TLB). In addition to trusting Christ as Savior and Lord, God wishes that you would trust Christ as life through you to face each day for you. God says it like this in Galatians 3:1,3: "You foolish [Christian], who has bewitched you? ... Having begun by the Spirit [God's power and grace, by faith], are you now being perfected by the flesh [depending upon your own resources-human effort]?"