In today's epistle Galatians 1:11-24, the apostle Paul portrays himself as God's messenger with divine authority to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to all cultures, nations and religions. Paul understood and lived the Paschal Mystery. Paul experienced the truth of a radical passing over from bondage and slavery to sin into the freedom of God's love in the living Christ. Paul's commission and authority to proclaim the Paschal Mystery came through his personal encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.
Prior to his conversion experience, Paul was a devout and zealous Jewish religious leader who sought to stamp out the metaphor and mystical dimensions of the Jewish religion which Jesus as Rabbi and Messiah taught and modeled. Paul's life as Saul of Tarsus, before his Christ-centered spiritual awakening, is symbolic of the erroneous and distructive wills, mindsets and actions of many sincere, carnal minded and zealous leaders, teachers and seekers in all the world religions.
These leaders and zealots are spiritually deaf, spiritually blind and spiritually dead. Many remain quite resistant and antagonistic to the truly inclusive, Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-based understanding and daily practical application of the Gospel of the living Christ, as proclaimed by the apostle Paul. Paul's ministry has become the major continued Holy Spirit-based revelation of God's redemption plan for all mankind through the living Christ.
After Christ-centered, spiritual awakening, many of those who were previously antagonist to Jesus and the Spirit-based Gospel of Christ have become its most enthusiastic and effective ambassadors. They have also experienced deliverance from slavery to sin and passed over into the freedom of God’s love in the living Christ. They assertively share their experiences of the Paschal Mystery through faith in the living Christ. This mystery can only be discerned and experienced through faith, grace, divine revelation and personal encounter with the risen Christ through one's own spiritual body.
Paul stressed that he actually received, embraced and proclaimed the same mystery of the new, inclusive, Christ-centered, Spirit-based version of the Christian faith, which Jesus of Nazareth had lived and proclaimed [John 3:3-7]. Paul declared that he actually received his revelation directly from the living Christ. Paul believed that Jesus also received his personal revelation from God, through the eternal incarnate, living Christ, in Jesus' spiritual body [John1: 1-5, 5:19, 30; Galatians 1:23-24, Colossians 1:24-29].
The apostle Paul remained steadfast in his faith and total dependence on the grace, guidance and truth revealed to him by God through the living Christ, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit in his and Jesus’ spiritual bodies [Galatians 1:15-16, Colossians1:24-29, 2 Corinthians 4:4-7]. Paul taught that the living Christ, who dwelt in Jesus Christ, had now become incarnate and also shone into his heart, germinating God’s wisdom, salvation and reconciliation. He believed that through the indwelling Christ, God would further establish and fully manifest the kingdom of God in our midst and within us [Mark 1:14-15, Luke17: 20-21].
Is it possible that this is why the apostle Paul, like Jesus, cautioned his followers to tell no man, that he was the living Christ [Luke 9:20-21, Galatians 2:20]? Is it likely that Paul and Jesus realized they were both called and sent by God, as Sons of Men, to reveal the living Christ as the only begotten Son of God and Image of God in all people [Genesis 1:26-27, Luke 9:22-26]? Like Jesus, Paul sought to become the full manifestation of the living Christ to others, in order that they might learn through him, and know the mind and presence of the living Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit in human flesh [Luke 4:16-19, 9:20-23, John 17:20-26, Galatians 1:15-17].
Many Christians therefore believe that Paul is the greatest teacher in the Christian church and the world, aside from Jesus Christ. Like Jesus, Paul also realized that the glory of man is the eternal and incarnate presence and character of the living Christ. Like Jesus, the apostle Paul also declared the full manifestion of the kingdom of God in and through every human life, through the living Christ [Matthew 6:6-10, Luke 17:20-21].
Grace revealed to Paul, the mystery of God's redemption through the indwelling Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ, Paul and all people [John 1:14-18]. Are you willing to seek and serve Christ within yourself first and them within other people? Are you willing to consider, embrace and faithfully proclaim Paul's inclusive understanding and daily practical application of the Gospel of the incarnate, living Christ through the spiritual body of all people? Are you willing to explore and experience the New Birth and New Life that can be found in the daily practical application he metaphor and mystical dimensions of your religion, in your life?
No comments:
Post a Comment