What Is Life?…Part 2

My interpretation and application of the Sermon on the Mount centers around it being some instructions about how we are to live life.  The teaching of Jesus in Matthew chapters 5-7 is not a collection of rules and regulations but in many ways is a revelation of who Jesus is.  We cannot live out the teaching of Jesus in these chapters, or any other chapters for that matter, without the life of Jesus Christ living out the teaching through us.

Yesterday I asked the question “What is life?”   I proposed that the answer is that life is Jesus.  We cannot live life without Jesus.  We can exist without Him; but life as defined in the word of God cannot be lived apart from Jesus.  I think that Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20 are pretty instructive here:  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.  After becoming a follower of Christ, Paul indicates that it is now Christ who lives in him, and I think he intends to say that Christ lives through him.

Could this be why followers of Jesus get frustrated with “life” at times?  When we attempt to live life apart from Jesus, without His controlling and compelling influence in everything we do, we are bound to get frustrated.  As we attempt to quench the Spirit of God through sin or apathy, should we expect anything other than frustration?  I suppose not.  We should be willing to line our lives up with the “life” that Jesus has for us, which is in fact, Him.  Will we fail at times?  Yes.  Can we be forgiven?  Yes.  But our inability to consistently live life the way Jesus desires should not keep us from trying.  I fall far short in loving my wife the way she deserves to be loved, but I’m not giving up!  I fall far short in pastoring a church the way that Jesus fully desires but I’m not giving up!

Let’s not give up…let’s press on.  Let’s attempt to live out the life of Jesus that lives within the follower of Jesus!

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