tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29606082.post6038401237155707121..comments2023-10-03T06:25:41.357-05:00Comments on Grace Roots Blog: One thing we all have in common: we're different!Joel Bruesekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10395847887953875757noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29606082.post-67068884808481059222010-07-01T08:19:24.566-05:002010-07-01T08:19:24.566-05:00Hi Anthony,
Overall I agree with what you're ...Hi Anthony,<br /><br />Overall I agree with what you're saying. We are indeed individuals. God has uniquely made each and every one of us, not as additional Jesus's walking around the earth, but as individual new creations. We are each unique in our own rights.<br /><br />However, I also believe in what some have called the "union life," and others have called other names. But the names aren't important anyway. The point is that the scriptures say things such as "he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him," and "we are members of Him and individually members of one another," and other such truths that show that yes indeed, we're 100% individuals, and at the same time our identity is 100% with God as well.<br /><br />I am righteous, not only 'because of' Jesus, but rather it's <i>God's very righteousness</i> that I walk in and that is my identity. Paul says, "I have died and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." He doesn't take away at all from the fact that we are individuals, but he also makes the point that our identity is both "in Christ" (we are individuals who are in Christ) and "Christ in us" (we are also identified by His very life that is in us).<br /><br />The way that I begun to word it in the past several years is to say that we are individuals who are in an "inseparable union" with God. (And we are also in an inseparable union with one another).<br /><br />My point being in all of this is that yes indeed, as you say, we are definitely unique individuals, and all of our individual uniqueness is a gift from God and is to be celebrated and explored and lived out. And at the same time, we are in an inseparable union with God. Not just with Jesus, but with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To put it in human terms, God doesn't just see "us" and He doesn't just see "Jesus" when He looks at us. Rather, the fullness of the Godhead exists in us and us with Him.Joel Bruesekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10395847887953875757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29606082.post-36576530083747422902010-06-30T23:09:52.786-05:002010-06-30T23:09:52.786-05:00May I say, may more of us embrace this fact, and n...May I say, may more of us embrace this fact, and not hide behind the perfection of Jesus, and claim that when God see us, He is seeing Jesus. In a sense, it is not wrong, as we are made in the image of God, but God sees you, the unique you when you approach Him, not Jesus. Yes, your righteousness is because of Jesus, but God see you, the one and only you, and deals with you accordingly, you who eat cottage cheese with crumbled potato chips and ketchup, you who are able to hum and whistle at the same time, etc, etc. God already has Jesus, why would He still need to have another Jesus. God wants you. Yes, approach Him in confidence as you, only that you just need to respect that He is holiness, draw on the cleansing work of the blood of Jesus.<br /><br />Lord, thank you for me!<br />AChigh.expressions (Anthony Chia)https://www.blogger.com/profile/15796568536820239102noreply@blogger.com