Intimacy with God

As Christians, the cross of our Lord Jesus is rightfully the most considered aspect of our faith. So much has been written on the work of the cross, the beauty of the cross, and the wisdom of the cross. However, I’ve been realizing that I have severely neglected “the other side of the coin” when it comes to preaching and teaching about the cross. Not only does the work of Christ on the cross redeem us to God, but the cross demands a response from us as it beckons our flesh into its revulsion and contempt. His cross is an invitation for us into our cross – into the “fellowship of His sufferings”, that we may be “conformed to His death”, so that we may “attain to the resurrection from the dead”. (Philippians 3:10-11)

Paul was not just speaking of some ethereal, spiritual “dark night” or “soul suffering”. He was speaking of real trial, struggle, persecution, and derision in his life. So often Paul found Himself shipwrecked, beaten, hungry, in need, and severely persecuted. But what kept him there was his vision of the worth of his Lord (Philippians 3:8), his hope in the coming resurrection of his body (Philippians 4:21; 1 Thess. 4:14-18), and his confidence in God’s plan to restore all things (Romans 8:19-25; Acts 3:21).

The word “glory” fills the conversation, writing, prayer, and preaching of many in the Charismatic and Evangelical world today. We claim to be seeking for God to “release His glory” on people or places or for Him to “show us His glory”. It has become such an ambiguous term that can mean almost anything, and we seek Him so earnestly for it as if He has yet to actually show it to us in fullness.

What are we really seeking? I fear we have made it more complicated than it was ever meant to be.

In my last post, I expressed some of my personal lament for my unfamiliarity with the most memorable events to the Lord Jesus as He walked the earth. The most precious moments that come to His mind often are probably those of His arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Many Christians can recount the details of their favorite movie with more precision than they can the most precious memories of the Lord. If you’re as pained as I am by that fact, you may be asking “well, how do I change that?” I want to take just a couple of more posts on this topic to address the obstacles to enjoying true intimacy and fellowship with Jesus at the Cross.

The first barrier we come up against in truly growing in friendship with Jesus related to the Cross is simply unfamiliarity and ignorance. For most of us, we have only a very superficial knowledge of the events of those three days. We can talk about the general themes and broad strokes of the Passion narrative, but the details of the story elude us simply because of a lack of diligence in study. The solution is as simple as the reason we are foggy on the details; we must devour every detail of the story, the setting, the culture, and the context until His Cross moves from a hazy progression of events in our minds to a clear, flowing, coherent story. We must know the people, places, and sequence in both the simplicity of the structure and in the depth of the details.

Yesterday we celebrated Resurrection Sunday, the day that Jesus rose from the dead to break the power of death and give us eternal life. As many of us were probably reminded in our church services, the resurrection of Jesus is one of the most critical events to the Christian faith. But if Jesus had stopped there, He would have stopped short of the goal of redemption. If He would have just purchased forgiveness for us, if He would have just paid the way through the shedding of His blood, bearing the wrath of God, and through the resurrection, secured our eternal life, that would not be enough to achieve the dream in the Father’s heart for humanity.

The rest of the story is just as critical to the fulfillment of His dream. After Christ was resurrected, He ascended to the right hand of God to make effective atonement, the resurrection, and the hope of God being joined to man forever. He sent the promised Holy Spirit as a gift to every believer who would call upon Him for redemption.

Even before He began His ministry, Jesus was described by John to the multitudes as the One who would come baptizing with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16). It's the ministry of Christ in the baptism of the Holy Spirit that brings forth our justification, sanctification, and glorification and brings us into union with God Himself. From the beginning, the design of redemption was that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit, both now and forever.

Is it any wonder why the evil one wants to bring mistrust of the blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit? He has attempted to drive a wedge in the body of Christ concerning the work of the Holy Spirit.