The Meaning Of Reconciliation And That "God Is In Christ."

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die;

yet perhaps for a good man someone would

even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own

love toward us, in that while we were still

sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having

now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from

wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies

we were reconciled to God through the death

of His Son, much more, having been reconciled,

we shall be saved by His life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God

through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom

we have now received the reconciliation.

Romans 5:7–11

            Sometimes we lose true understanding when we hear or have been taught certain things without explanation; that is, we here “Christian” phrases or words but there is no insight; so we accept them on faith, but this faith is of blind faith.  For instance, what does it mean: “God was in Christ?” Is it as the Mormons would state: “Jesus was just another God.” Is this true, that Jesus Christ is another God, therefore it can be said that God, the Father, conjoined Himself to this other God? Or is it as Jehovah Witnesses teach, “Jesus Christ is a created being?” If those two theological theories are true then Jesus Christ had to be reconciled to God. This reconciliation had to be imbued into Him before he could become the Messiah. This has implication in regards to the doctrine of the Trinity. So how are we to understand that phrase: “God was in Christ”? It may be meant of the Trinity that the Father was in Christ constitution and directing, and the Son was in Christ by personal union, and the Holy Spirit was in Christ gifting Him for this work of reconciliation. My personal feelings, on this matter, all is of the Father. There is then this “inness” (a word that cannot be found in the dictionary unless you go online) but it is what we are attempting to understand: how God was “inness” in Christ. Inness is an informal noun and has two meanings: 1. The state or quality of being fashionable: the inness of his new wardrobe. 2. the state or quality of being part of a select or exclusive group: here inness with the literary crowd.

            Wow! That seems very philosophical and tough to wrap our minds around, “inness”? But the Scriptures do say that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Him. First, we must admit that Jesus Christ was not some wardrobe of God the Father, that is what the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses make of Him. Yes God was in Christ and Christ had a body as we do when He was here on earth as the Son of God, but this is not as though God needed a wardrobe to impress Himself to others. Secondly, God being in Jesus Christ did make the Father to be a part (in a loose sense) of a select state.  Was He not in Jesus Christ and in this state He would reconcile lost sinners to Himself? Yes!

            Let us examine this: “God was in Christ” so we can come to know what is meant, and, what is not meant. What is not meant by that phrase? First: We must so confound this doctrine of the essence of God the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit so as to resemble that of man. Man has a son and that son is of the same essence and nature as the father, and even may have the temper of his father, and in many ways resembles his father. Yet, is this what is meant when we speak of the “inness” or the “essential inness” whereby the Father and the Son are one in essence? If so, then Jesus Christ is not exactly God, only a representation by lineage of God and being so is a separate being. Again, this would mean that Jesus Christ had to in some fashion be reconciled to the Father, God. The truth from Scripture is plain and clear that the Father and the Son have the same nature, the same perfections and excellencies. Why? Because Jesus Christ is God, a person of the Godhead as is the Holy Spirit. God the Father is in the Son without any respect to reconciliation. God is in the Son in creation, and He is also one with the Holy Spirit, not in some manner of “inness” is He is Jesus Christ as the definition would provide if that is what is meant by “inness.”  The fact remains that for Jesus to be the One who reconciles lost sinners to God, He must not have had to be reconciled to God whether or not He sinned. It is not by the reason of your sin God reconciles you to Himself. God reconciles you to Himself by means of His will alone, and not by anything you do or are. This is the mercy and the love of God towards all whom He chose to be the bride of His Son Jesus Christ and to give to this bride all that the Son has to give, and the most He gives is a reconciliation to God by means of the propitiation Jesus Christ gave to those chose by God. Why did God choose some and not others? I don’t know! I only know what God has revealed in His word. I do know this: God is just, God is Love, God is merciful, and God is God who is Good and all that He does is Good and for the good of those whom He chose. Now! Are one of the chosen ones? Do you desire to know and convert your life to Him: no matter the cost? Do you really believe that God through the death of His Son on the cross will deliver you from this world and by doing so will create for you, and all those chosen, to have a new world, and that by your faith, your conversion to Him, you have eternal life and all that comes with eternal life? This desire must germinate and this germination comes about by the Holy Spirit in you leading you to read His word, and apply His word in your life. You are an ambassador for God, for Jesus Christ, and a new creature, now, legally in heaven, now. What then is holding you back? I hope and pray: nothing.

            There is much more and I will continue to write on this subject so that we can complete our learning in regards to God reconciling Himself through Jesus Christ to all those who will believe on Him. You must choose to follow Him, He does not fill up an empty cistern.

Here am I and the children

            Whom the LORD

Has given me!

            We are the signs and

Wonders in Israel from the

            LORD of hosts,

Who dwells in Mount Zion.

                                    Isaiah 8:18

Live today whose you are

Richard L. Crumb

Living Our Faith: Our Witness To The World

These things I command you,

that you love one another.

If the world hates you, you know

that it hated Me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would

love its own. Yet because you are out of

the world, therefore the world hates you.

remember the word that I said to you;

“A servant is not greater than its master.”

If they persecuted Me, they will also

persecute you. If they kept My word,

they will keep yours also.

But all these things they will do to you

for My name’s sake, because they do

not know Him who sent Me.

John 15:17–21

            We are not to “love” one another because it is Christian. We are to love one another because Jesus Christ commanded us to do so. If you love Jesus Christ you will do what He commanded. If you love God, the Father, and the Holy Spirit you will do all that God, the Godhead, that includes Jesus Christ, all that was commanded by Him. I am afraid that too many people who call themselves Christian, and they are, at least by God they are, are fearful to live the life that God has outlined for us to live. We do not want to be persecuted, therefore, we do not walk away from the so-called water cooler conversations that turn into idle jokes and are often filled will illicit words and examples, funny, yes to the unsaved, but not to a Christian for we are not to associate with such ones: “Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1Corinthians 15:33). Oh, you say: “I don’t go to bars, or drink with them, or do other things that would be considered an association. But you do associate with them if you do not walk away from such things that are not of God. Will they hate you? Yes, probably, but then they hate Jesus Christ before they hated you. You are not of this world, heaven is your home you are just a–passing thru, so goes that old hymn. If you are a lover of God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit is in you then you are a servant, a bond servant, to the One you love, and He is greater than you and will never give to you more than you can handle.  I know, at times it seems that the problems are so great, yet do you believe that God is in control and your situation is not going unnoticed by God? We are to grow in sanctification and by doing so the world does not need to be necessarily told that you are a Christian, they see Christ in all that you do. You are not doing this for your sanctification, that is imparted to you by God who sanctified you when He elected you, so you are legally sanctified and heaven awaits your coming, not by what you do, but by the will of God. If we love our brothers and sisters in Christ then we do all we can to assist them in their times of joy, and times of trouble. Do they need their lawn mowed?  Do then need groceries? Do they need to have fellowship outside of church? Do you invite, when you can, someone to come to you home to have lunch or dinner, and to just be around other brothers and sisters? Or, is church all there is and you go home, off to you world, and glad to have you church card punched? Who are you living for? Now, there are times when you cannot do much for you need that help, or other situations may occur. The question is: did you push the ox into the ditch or did the ox by himself fall into the ditch?

            As I write this I am convicted of my own short fallings, those times when I allowed myself to do that which I know not to do and I fall upon my knees to God and ask forgiveness. I sinned against a Holy God, not that I am caught in my sin, rather that I sinned even though I knew what not to do. I have been asked: “How did that work out for you?” “Not well,” I answered. Hindsight is always 20/20, but foresight is wisdom. The worst teacher is experience. The best teacher is God who has revealed to us all we need to live this life in accordance to His will. How do I know His will? Read His word, daily, meditate upon it, and pray for guidance and the Holy Spirit will do just that. This life is for us to enjoy, not to go around as some pious monk, or some pious Christian. We are to live it, and enjoy all that God has done, His creation, His church, and our families.  Those times to go camping, or shopping, or fishing (that is for me) and to create beautiful pictures, or some art, to play music, to sing, dance, and be happy.  How can we do this? Focus on this fact. God called you to eternal life. God will be with you in this life. All we have to do is allow His commandments to be our mantel. God is not some imaginary being, giving some hope for eternal life. It was God in Jesus Christ that saved you and why not then live for Him? I ask myself this same question. Yes, we must make decisions that are hard: do it by the use of prayer and Scripture. Yes, not all will agree with you, or your choices. If your choices are by means of God’s commands, His word, what does that matter? Let me end this blog with this by the apostle Paul: “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent form the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him” (2Corinthians 4:6–9).

Beloved, do not imitate,

            What is evil,

But what is good. He does

            Good is of God,

But he who does evil

            Has not seen God.

                                    3John 11

Praise God Today In Your life

Richard L. Crumb

You Are Glorified: You Are Reconciled: Do You Believe?

A little while longer and the world

will see me no more, but you

will see Me. Because I live,

you will live also. At that day you

will know that I am in My Father,

and you in Me, and I in you.

He who has My commandments

and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.

And he who loves me will be loved

by My Father, and I will love him

and manifest Myself to him.

John 14:19–21

            Here is a promise that should make you fall on your knees in gratitude to God.  For it is God Who reconciled you and this by means of His Son Jesus Christ. You will live! Forever! Are you questioning now about how it is that God saved you? Are you questioning how it is that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for your sin? Questioning is not wrong. Some think differently and are in such a conflagration in their minds that this confusion has led to antipathy. It may be hard now, but in that day: what day? The LAST DAY! There is no other coming of Jesus Christ as taught in some churches.  Jesus Christ comes on the LAST DAY, and no sooner to redeem His bride and carry His bride home to the mansion He has prepared for His bride.  You are that bride.  On that day, you will not question any longer for you will know will all assurance that Jesus Christ is our Savior, He is God, and He did pay for your sins. Are you looking for the rapture? Don’t! there is no Scriptural proof that Jesus comes twice, and the word rapture is not found in the Bible and there is no other Scriptures that lead to that conclusion of a rapture as there are for the Trinity, a word not found in the Bible. Quit looking! Keep God’s commandments for by doing so you are loving your Savior Jesus Christ and by loving Jesus Christ in this way you are loving God your creator, your Savior, and the One who has reconciled you to Himself. If you keep the commandments of god Jesus Christ will manifest Himself to you and through you will manifest Himself to the world. This is sanctification, not that you earned it, not that you acquire it, for you do not, for it is imparted to you and manifested that it has been imparted to you in how you live according to the commandments of God. This Scripture, among others, is telling you something important: Jesus Christ is: ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ γνώσεσθε ὑμεῖς ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί μου καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν. Notice this Greek word, ἐν: it means “in” but has several uses according to the context; therefore we must understand this if we are to understand this Scripture and not misuse it to develop a theology that is not Scriptural. When the  ἐν is used as to that Day, then it is being used of time, during, or in the course of, (cf. Matthew 2:1). When ἐν is used that Jesus is “in” you then it is being used instrumentally: that is the efficient cause, (Accts 4:12) or being equipped with, furnished with (Luke 14:31). And when it is said that Jesus is ἐν the Father, and the Father is ἐν is in Him then it is referring to a place, being “in” as a person being in a house (Matthew 8:6; Mark 12:26; Revelation 6:6). The question then is; How is it that Jesus Christ is ἐν us and manifests Himself “in” us, and the Bible is clear on this; it is by the Holy Sprit living in you, through you, guiding you, and Jesus promised this when He said: “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:25–26).

            So how should we live? In fear of the world? In fear of being persecuted? In fear that we might lose our job, our reputation? Why? Will you walk away from those who are using risqué jokes, or asking you to come and be with them when you know that the place they are going is not the place you would take Jesus? Will you read the Bible so that the Holy Spirit can recall to you that which you have stored in your brain? Although if you are like me, I need help in remembering, Oh! The Holy Spirit can do that, but He will not fill up an empty cistern. Listen again to the words of Jesus: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27). Yes, Jesus was speaking to His disciples but why record this conversation if not to be applied to all who are disciples of Christ? Are you not a disciple of Jesus Christ? If so, then those words apply to you.

            Is this not GOOD NEWS? Does not this drive you to live for Him? Are you living for now, the temporary life, or for life eternal, that which Jesus Christ says He will do, on the LAST DAY. Yes we are aware of the times and seasons, but we are not to concentrate on that DAY, it is coming, we concentrate on allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest Jesus Christ in us.  LIVE LIFE! LOVE GOD!

Nevertheless I tell you the truth.

            It is to your advantage

That I go away; for if I do not go away,

The Helper will not come to you;

but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

                                    John 16:7

You are glorified by God: Hallelujah

Richard L. Crumb