What God are you following?

"Salvation is awakening from our spiritual blindness and recognizing the reality that has always been true"

What God are you following?  Are you following the grace full God or the wrath filled God?  Are you following the God who defines you by your performance or the one that defines you by the power of the resurrection?  Are you following the angry God that is mad at everyone or are you following the joy filled God who wants us to smile more?

There is way too much of religion and even churches today that are more about self-improvement and sin management than they are about death to self and being alive by God's grace that fills everything.  Two powerful and similar books that are coming from two very different directions are Brad Jersak "A More Christlike God" which is calling the church to exactly that and John Crowder's book "Cosmos Reborn" calling the church to being the new creation rather than some kind of works religion of doing.  Both Jersak and Crowder come from charismatic backgrounds and Jersak has now found his spiritual home within Eastern Orthodoxy.  Crowder remains and evangelist and missionary for charismatic spirituality but both Jersak and Crowder powerfully call the church today to be more Christ like and mystical and less dogmatic and limiting in how it understands important theological issues.

Let me end with Crowder's most powerful words about the gospel and the whole notion of born again talk and Christian conversion.  The gospel is not a "start over" or "second chance" but a whole new beginning and way of life.  Jesus did not just forgive you to give you another chance in life but he transformed the very substance of who you are to restore and rebirth you into an entirely new creation (p.213).  You are no longer a separate individual but called into a community corporate identity into God's whole new world and kingdom.  God's covenant with you is not some kind of private contract but it is a corporate one which chooses not just you but all people and nations and even the whole creation to be reconciled to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19).

As the new creation, you are already reconciled and one with God, even if you do not fully recognize that!  This new creation is not based upon your personal decision but comes from the death and resurrection power of Jesus Christ.  When we talk about "new birth" or being "born again," there are some major blind spots and misunderstanding of these concepts.  It's all about Christ and him crucified, not my choice!

People were frustrated with Jesus because he says to religious people who think they can get to heaven on their own accord that it is impossible to do that, even if you are a child of Abraham.  Jesus told parables that embarrassed both religious and rich people as well as frustrating his listeners to the point of them trying to save themselves but rather they should throw themselves to the mercy of God and into the arms of a loving Messiah.

Nobody can do enough good works or believe enough to be saved.  Your faith in Christ doesn't birth you but his faith birthed you.  We can not keep the law like the young rich ruler and we can not rebirth ourselves like Nicodemus.  We were born again when Jesus came out of the womb and we were born again when Jesus stepped out of the tomb.  "We are saved by His (Christ) faithfulness, not our ability to muster up faith" (p.227).  Salvation has always and will always comes from above.  Actually, being "born again" literally in its root meaning means "born from above."  Are you born from above?  Are you a new creation in Christ?  Are you a heavenly person on earth?