Part One

 

For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us…2 Cor. 1:19

In 2001, after forty years of regular attendance, and at Holy Spirit’s leading, I ceased participating in the institutional church (IC). I know that many who follow Bread for the Bride have a similar story.  I am grateful for all I learned during those years with the IC and I know that God had His purpose for that season.  But rarely, if ever, in any IC setting, did I hear the preaching of Christ.

In using the term “preaching of Christ” I mean much more than the message of Christ as our Saviour.  I am referring to the pre-eminent Christ, His breadth and depth and majesty, as the central focus of our lives, our worship and our spiritual journeys (Col 1:18). Believing in Christ as Saviour is the vital first step of that journey, but in order for born-again Christians to grow, they must be immersed in the Christ who is so much more than Saviour alone.  Christ must continually increase in them, otherwise they remain as spiritual babies. (By the way, ‘’Christ’’ is not Jesus’ surname; it means ‘’anointed’’.  So, when we speak of Jesus Christ we are speaking of Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.)

The earliest Christians preached a Person – Jesus as the Christ. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, preached Christ to the multi-national crowd and they were cut to the heart (Acts 2:36,37).  Acts 5:42 tells us “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.’’ Philip went to Samaria and ‘’preached Christ to them” (Acts 8:5). To the Jews at Thessalonica Paul declared ‘’this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ” and to the Corinthians he wrote “we preach Christ crucified” (Acts 17:3; 1 Cor. 1:23)

So I invite you to consider along with me a fuller version of who Jesus Christ is, the Christ I never met at church, but who I’ve since seen, love and follow. I will be posting this series: “The Christ I Never Met At Church’’ over coming weeks as time allows. The posts that will follow are not exhaustive, nor do they contain all there is to know about Jesus the Christ – far from it. But I hope, through this series of posts, others will be encouraged to a deeper knowledge of the One ‘’who is before all things, and in whom all things consist.’’

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Part One: CHRIST AND THE CRUCIFIED LIFE

And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it. Matt.10:38-39

It is not unusual in IC churches, at Easter time, to hear sermons about Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, but mention the need for His disciples to lead a crucified life and you will often be met with blank stares or even derision.

When Jesus said “he who would follow Me let him take up his cross,” He was inviting His followers into a crucified life. And when the apostle Paul testified ‘’I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me….’’ he was not stating some obscure theological doctrine, he was giving testimony of his own lived experience. This crucified life is one in which our own natural, or flesh life, which ruled us before we became Christ’s, is increasingly dethroned, giving way to the Christ-Life in us – His will rather than our will, His way rather than our way, His thoughts rather than our thoughts, His Life rather than our life.  The New Testament calls our natural, or soul life, ‘’the flesh’’, which Jesus said is useless to us:

It is the Spirit who gives live, the flesh provides no benefit; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are life. Jn. 6:63 NASB

A crucified life is not something we can accomplish for ourselves. It is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit within us as we humbly seek to know Jesus, as Christ, ever more deeply. All who are determined to wholly follow Christ can expect the cross to be woven through their earthly life in one form or another, because we are being ‘’conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). That means it is not unusual for Christians to experience suffering, but we can be sure God will supply the grace needed for any adversity He leads us through.

We should not assume that every adversity that comes our way is from the enemy. Sometimes it is, but there are other times when God will allow us to walk with Him through hard things. The Father’s purpose is always for our knowledge of His Son to be deepened, and our dependence on His Son to be strengthened.   

There are three things named in the New Testament which will work against us in this life:  these are our flesh, the world, and Satan.  Someone wisely said ‘’we can’t cast out the flesh, and we can’t crucify a demon.’’ And the most obstinate of these is our own flesh lives.  The New Testament teaches us to resist the devil, overcome the world and submit to God (1 Jn. 5:4,5; James 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8,9)

A note of warning here:  if Satan cannot convince you that your flesh life is not crucified with Christ, he will take the opposite position and try and deceive you into needless suffering. This is the religious spirit operating through our flesh convincing us that the more we suffer the more spiritual we will be. It is a deception.  Believers who submit their bodies to physical suffering, such as whipping, crucifixion etc. are in error, thinking they can draw closer to God by such things (Col. 2:20-23).  Please understand a crucified life is not something you can attain by any means at all. This is solely the work of Christ within us. It is not about punishing our bodies of flesh; it is about reckoning our sinful nature crucified with Christ and living from His Life within us (Rom. 6:11; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3)

I wish I had been taught about the crucified life when I was a younger church-going Christian. But this is a very unpopular message. So many believers have never been taught about knowing Christ in ‘’the fellowship of His sufferings”, so that when adversity comes along, as it will, they fall away or spend their lives pointlessly fighting with the devil (Phil. 3:10).

We can be sure we will never experience the level of suffering Jesus did. However, there is a deeper revelation of Christ, the ‘’fellowship of His sufferings’, for followers who have known hardship, brokenness, adversity or persecution (Phl:3:10, Acts 5:41,42).  Have you suffered, by no fault of your own, through something you may not understand, and yet remained faithful to Christ through that suffering?  If so, a mighty work is being worked in you that is sadly unknown to many believers (Phl. 1:29).

When the time had arrived to go to the Cross, we are told Jesus steadfastly set His face towards Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).  Peter rebuked Him for taking that course, but was in turn rebuked by Jesus: But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but on man’s.”  It was not the One setting out for the Cross who was deceived.  It was the one who sought to avoid the Cross who was deceived (Mark 8:31-33).

Salvation is by grace and will cost you nothing.  Discipleship, however, is costly. And above all, His grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 9:8,12:9; Heb. 4:16).

Suggested Further Reading: Luke 9:23-25; 1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 2:20; Gal. 5:24; Gal. 6:14; Phl. 1:29;

Next: Christ as Resurrection and Life

© Cheryl McGrath, Bread for the Bride, 2023 and beyond.  

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