Renewed in Christ

In the early days of his ministry, John Wesley (the 18^th Century minister and theologian who was a founder of the Methodist movement) found himself caught up in a constant flurry of busyness and activity. To do a better job of being closer to God, he decided to add an “exactor diary” in his life, in which he evaluated, measured and rated his daily devotions. His intention was that in so doing he might improve his devotion to God, and please God more.

He found that, not only did he not experience a greater closeness to God, but the opposite happened – he experienced a deepening despair. Slowly, over time, he began to see that his approach was back-to-front.

He was working hard trying to please God – thinking if his devotions were good enough, if he tried hard enough, if he did more, God would be pleased and accept him. But God had already accepted him in Christ. When he began with God, rather than himself, he saw that the fundamental starting place was God’s love, God’s eternal “yes” to him in Christ. This was the first step on the journey, not the end of the journey.

He came to see that the chief characteristic of the Christian life is gratitude – for what God has already done in Christ – rather than duty and devotion, as he had thought, trying harder and harder to appease and please a perfect but distant Being.

Many of us have shared a similar Christian experience. Indeed, this seems to be a fairly common Christian journey. It’s a journey simply described as one from legalism to grace.

Spiritual renewal is not found in forcing ourselves to try harder, to work more at our devotions, to judge ourselves (and others) more harshly. It is found in encountering Christ. Renewal is always in Christ. Hence our international conference this year was entitled “Renewed in Christ”.

Renewal starts with God, as he has revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, not with ourselves. “This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). As one conference speaker put it, renewal is always found as a “grace reunion”. That is, it is in discovering or rediscovering the joy of God’s kindness and love, expressed to us in Christ. All grace is the love of God in our lives through Christ by the Spirit.

In grace, God comes to us in Christ and invites us to share in that wonderful, happy, creative, loving communion of Father, Son and Spirit. Renewal in Christ is therefore always about communion, too.

God is love, and has his Being-in-Communion. This is not just some obscure theological sounding point. It is the starting place, the foundational principle, the divinely energising system of the universe. As C. S. Lewis wrote, God is not a ”

managerial” God, a Being whose function is to “run” the universe as a manager might run a company, or a headmaster might run a school.

In God there is no loneliness, no need, no hunger that needs to be filled. Father, Son and Spirit have always existed in perfect harmony and fellowship. God, in his divine freedom and love, has chosen not to live without us. He has created, redeemed and adopted us that we might share in his close, loving fellowship.

Understanding the fact of our salvation enables us to both live into and out of it. In faith, as adopted children, we are free to act like a child of God, loving others as the Father loves the Son. (Rather than thinking that we will become a child of God if we first act enough like one.) This is only possible because our lives are “in Christ”, as his transforming presence lives in us through the Spirit (Galatians2:20).

In our shared journey of grace, we have come to understand the place of the Old Covenant – that it was given to the nation of Israel, and finds its fulfilment in Christ. We have seen that its contents – days, times, rules and regulations – pointed to and find their true meaning in Jesus. We have grown in a deeper understanding of the nature of God, his triune Being as a God of love and communion. And so we have changed our name to give expression to this transformation. Thank you for your shared fellowship in our journey together.

May we continue to live into and out of all our new name describes. May we grow in loving God, one another, and all mankind the way the Father, Son and Spirit love one another.

Renewal starts with God, not with us. May we continue to be renewed in Christ, as he dwells in us and we dwell in him through the Spirit. May we rejoice in gratitude together, remembering that renewal in Christ is grace and communion.

Written by John McLean
© 2010 Grace Communion International ABN 53 096 517 190