Christ

The work of Christ is general and objective, but it is also personal and subjective. Both are real and true, but the personal and subjective is only true because the general and objective is a pre-existing reality. As we are rooted in the general and objective reality of Christ's work we are opened up effortlessly to the personal/subjective mystical experience of that reality. We need to have more

 faith then the reformers and have deeper experience then the mystics of old. As we trust in His all inclusive work that had nothing to do with any effort on our part we begin to enjoy the depths and riches of it on a personal level. In the Phillips translation of the New Testament, Colossians says "May your spiritual experience become richer as you see more and more fully God's great secret, Christ himself! For it is in Him, and in Him alone, that men will find ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." As we come to see and understand Christ and His finished work, we effortlessly come to enjoy and experience it.

Jesus is the vicarious man! He is God, He is man. God clothed in skin. He united Himself with our humanity. In His oneness with humanity He died, He was buried, He resurrected, and He ascended! Now seated on the throne forever is Jesus Christ: fully God, fully man! Just by being who He is, He is in continual intercession for us. His intercession is a state of being. He is our high priest. In Chris

t we find forever complete oneness and union with Humanity and God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Nothing can break this union! Nothing can take away this oneness! Jesus once and for all united man to the Godhead.

 Jesus is the complete union between man and God for all of eternity. The complete collusion of heaven and earth... IN CHRIST! This union has nothing to do with your devotion, nothing to do with your efforts. This union is the fruit of another. This oneness is found in the new man Jesus Christ! Jesus came into the world clothed in skin... Jesus ascended to the throne clothed in skin. Don't let anyone tell you Jesus is with out form! He is still clothed in skin, has flesh and bone. This is the reason for our oneness! Christ! Grace has saved us, nothing of our own. Jesus alone lifted humanity out of darkness and into light! He alone lifted us into His glory and presence. His passion wasn't just for you, it was AS you. He died as you, He rouse to life as you and He ascended as you!

Sin is gone, Holy is on

The word SIN is a noun (person, place or thing), It isn't a verb. The word HOLY is a noun (person, place or thing), it isn't a verb. No matter how hard we could or would try we could never leave the slave master of sin. Even if we worked really hard by trying to keep a moral code to stop SINS as a verb; we were still in the noun of SIN. None of our efforts could get us out of the noun of sin and into the noun of holy. The good news is this! Jesus Christ came and didn't just cover or wash away your sins (verbs) by his blood. He actually destroyed, killed and buried the very nature (noun) of sin. He cut it away! He took you out of the prison cell of sin and placed you in the prison cell of righteousness! Now being free from the noun of sin, you have been placed into the noun of HOLY! Romans 6:22 says "But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!" Jesus i

s our Holy! He is the person we have been placed into! Holy is a person and you have been united with him! He destroyed, killed and buried the noun of SIN. You were included in this death. SIN died once and for all. But when we were raised, we were raised to newness of life. Life in Christ. Oneness with HOLY. Oneness with God. 

The former noun produced evil actions (verbs)... The latter noun produces holy actions (verbs)! You are HOLY! You are righteous! Now the old has pasted away and the new has come. Now being placed into the noun of Holy, you are prone to righteousness. HOLY (noun) effortlessly produces HOLY (verb). 

Favor

Some times as people we feel we have to work hard to walk in favor or that we have to get around really powerful, favored people and hang on to their coat tails. But the fact is this: You already have all of God's favor. You have been united to the most favored person in the whole universe. Jesus is our high priest, He is our favor. The truth is that He (favor) came and united himself with humanit

y! You can't look any farther then Christ in you. You aren't lacking anything! You have already been given grace and truth! Colossians 2:9-10 says "For in Him (Jesus) the WHOLE FULLNESS of deity dwells bodily, and you (insert your name haha) have been (past tense) FILLED in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority." That is some extreme favor right there! He is the head of ALL rule and authority. In other words His favor is the highest. You can't get any more highly favored then Him. So why look any farther then Him? You are highly favored... In all of life. Your favor is within you! It's already there in fullness! Bless you, love you - Micah

Good News Part 2

I believe in Heaven 100%. I believe in Hell 100%. Both are real places! Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Could it be possible that Heaven and Hell are both filled with saved people? And the only difference is that some believe that Jesus saved them and some do not believe. It's a mystery. I don't know how it all works. On one hand Christ's work is all inclusive. Saving all of humanity. Then on the other hand if you confess with your mouth you will be saved? huh! Which one is it?? It's both. We are saved by grace, through faith. Grace saved us, faith opens us up to enjoy our salvation. We must repent and believe to experience this salvation. But repentance and faith do not save us. Jesus saved us. God doesn't give me salvation when I repent and believe, as a mere transaction. He gave me salvation as a gift, therefore I believe. Believing comes down to enjoying and experiencing what is already a reality. God's saving work is done and complete, apart from any action, belief, works, etc. of our own. But every person must believe in this work.

Grace Communion International wrote: "God forces this personal decision/acceptance upon no one. Love must be freely given and freely received; it cannot be coerced, or it is not love. Thus human decision, the exercise of human freedom, is of great importance, but only in this context of accepting God's gift that has already been freely given." The decision to believe in Christ's all inclusive work is for each person to decide. But their decision to believe doesn't save them. Rather they are choosing to believe in a work that has already been completed. Robert Capon wrote an awesome story about faith. It went something like this. Imagine a man was sick in the hospital, he can't leave and he has been in there for months. The whole time he has been in the hospital he has been fretting about his home. He knows it is falling apart. The paint is pealing, the grass is tall. The water pipes are leaking. But he can't do anything about it. So in comes a friend of his and says, "Hey bro, don't fret or worry about your house. I got it all taken care of. I hired a contractor and he fixed the whole thing up." Here is the question: does the sick man believing or disbelieving the word of his friend add a single thing to the reality that his friend fixed his house? NO, not at all! The sick man's decision to believe his friend's words will let him enjoy the peace and rest that his home is fixed and safe. If he doesn't believe he will continue in worry and anxiety. But either way, whether he believes or not his friend did fix the house. It wasn't fixed because he had enough faith or believed ... It was fixed because of the strength of his friend.

Faith then is an effortless response to an already present reality. Thank God, I was saved by the strength of another! I was saved by Jesus! The good news is simply this: Good... News. News always talks about something that already happened. If we believe what the news man tells us or if we disbelieve it, it doesn't change the fact that what they reported about actually happened. It's the same with the Good News! Jesus already died, He said "It is finished!" Now we get the honor of telling others what he already did! I encourage you to dive into the word and search for yourself. Come to the word with a clean slate and see what you will find! Without going into detail here are a few verses you could start with. Acts 10, John 3:16-21, Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 13:8, 2 Timothy 1:9, Ephesians 2:4-10, Romans 4, Galatians 3, Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 Bless you! :) Cheer up! Be happy! I LOVE YOU!                                             

- Micah

Good News

If you preach the good news (the gospel: grace) 99.9% and then add .1% law... It is still the law. People talk about extreme grace preachers... As if there is a separation from grace and extreme. Grace is extreme. There is no balance to grace. What they're really saying when they talk about "extreme" grace is that they want their grace seasoned with law. "Yes we get everything by grace, But..." That... would be the Law! There are no buts. It is simply grace. No additives. If there is a single blip of law in the teaching of grace then you are left with nothing but law. You can preach the cross and grace all you want, but if there is a You in the equation of Christ's complete and perfect atonement it is still Law. The Gospel is the happy declaration of the end of humanity. No more effort. No more humanism. The Church is chock full of Humanistic Ideology. You'll hear someone say that "Heaven was bankrupted on the cross" (oooo sounds good, sounds like it's gonna be grace to my ears) but then in the same sentence "Our hunger takes hold of what he purchased." .... What? my humanity is needed to receive the Gospel! HELL NO! You're telling me that I get to be apart of Christ's atonement. That "His" work wasn't enough! Man that's awesome! That's the message I want to believe. Not! Listen!!! If humanity plays a part in salvation is it salvation at all? Salvation has to be beyond ourselves. And thank God it is! Jesus single-handedly saved the World! Believing opens us up to "enjoy" our salvation... But it doesn't "give" us salvation. Jesus did that. We just effortlessly believe in what He has done. My "yes" didn't save me, Jesus' "yes" saved me. 

"In short: you were present in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. His story is your true history. Your inclusion in this event transcends the event in which you came to faith. The event in which you came to faith happened as a consequence of you hearing about these events; these events did not happen as a consequence of your faith." - Andre Rabe

What can we do but joyously fail in the arms of God! Fall into the wonderment of grace! Hurrah for the fall of man! Man has fallen into grace and we can't get out!

 

If you are reading this let me tell you! He loves you! He is with you! He isn't counting your sins against you. You aren't His enemy. He has never left you! Let me tell you the Good news! Jesus has saved you! He has destroyed the nature of sin, that thing that made you do bad things and caused you to think you were God's enemy. Jesus has destroyed sin, He has saved you, He has redeemed you, He has kissed you! All is well with you because of Jesus! It is well with your soul! You aren't a sinner anymore! You have a good heart! Jesus took away your naughty heart. :) It is a done deal! It already happened. Now what can we do, but enjoy what has been done!

- Micah