The Simplicity Of The Message

Without revelation of the finished work of God in Christ, although perfectly there in us as us, we will do what we never dreamed we would do, try and cover up our hounding nakedness. “Who told you, you were naked?”
In Colossians 2 it says, “Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in Him.”

It was by hearing the truth and believing it that we received Him, our continued growth simply follows suite, being continually exposed to the same truth of Christ IN you, the hope of glory, and setting our minds on it.
Unfortunately, this is too arduous for those wanting a quick fix.

I love how Paul puts it here, “My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving. Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything. “

There are so many who have this fixation of returning to that Edenic place that Adam held before his mutinous rebellion and tried to be “like God.” Thing is, the glory of God covering his nakedness was only exterior to him, and yes, as great as that was, it paled in comparison to Christ IN you, the hope of glory!
It is out of seeing and knowing this glorious One we are transformed more and more, “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”
As we gaze intently on this glorious one in us, the scriptures assure us, that we continue to BE changed from, glory to glory.

From Brennan Manning’s book, Ruthless trust, “The late Karl Rahner insisted, ‘In the days ahead, you will be a mystic, i.e., one who has experienced God or nothing at all.” If Christianity is merely an ethic, a moral code, or a philosophy of life, it will not withstand the incursion of suffering. The graced experience of the divine kabod is not something esoteric reserved for an elite few. When Thomas Merton was asked who might receive this gift, he replied, “The answer is obvious: everybody.”

Rich