Union With God
The excerpt below is taken from Union with God by Rankin Wilbourne.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
2 Corinthians 5: 17
“ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2: 20
Mind the Gap
A skeptical friend once asked me, “If the gospel is supernatural, as you say, then why doesn’t it seem to make more of a difference in the lives of so many who claim to believe it?” That’s a great question and not just for skeptics. Because the gap between what Christians claim is true about themselves and what we often see when we look in the mirror—that gap is real.
Do you feel the gap? Having the courage to recognize it and admit it is the first step in this gap being closed. You must mind the gap.
But it’s certainly possible to ignore, or not be bothered by, the gap. I’ll never forget the first sermon I ever preached. As I stood at the door afterward greeting people on their way out, one older man patted me on the shoulder like I was a young cub scout and said, “Well, that was a nice sermon. Now, back to the real world.”
If, like that man, you never try to connect the truths of God to your everyday life; if you construct a wall to divide the sacred “nice sermons” from the secular “real world”; if you keep Jesus and his authority safely tucked away in heaven where he can’t threaten your way of doing things, then this gap won’t concern you. It won’t even occur to you that it should.
Neither will this gap concern you if you believe that the gospel means you have a ticket to heaven when you die and that grace means you don’t need to strive to obey Christ while you live. If you believe “It is finished” means there’s nothing then left for you to do; if you consider Jesus’ call to discipleship to be optional, reserved for the cloistered few or super-committed, then you won’t be bothered by the gap either.
And sadly, many Christians have lived with this gap for so long that they no longer mind it. Ernest Hemingway ends his novel The Sun Also Rises with the line, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” And isn’t that how many of us feel, in the quiet of our hearts, about these grand, high promises in the Bible: “Rivers of living water,” or, “Whoever drinks of the water that I give him shall never thirst” (John 7:37; 4:14)? Wouldn’t it be pretty to think so? Now, back to the real world.
Discussion Questions
Describe a time in your life when you felt a gap between your spiritual and worldly self? How did you overcome it?
When you read 2 Corinthians 5:17, can you identify old habits that have caused you to feel a void in your relationship with God?
Consider the phrase “I am crucified with Christ.”. In what ways do you believe crucifixion manifest itself in our lives today?
Share some tips that have helped you bear the crosses in your life.
Like all relationships, we become comfortable with time. Comfort oftentimes leads to laziness, resulting in separation. What are some ways we can help keep one another accountable in maintaining our union with God?