Getting It Together Takes a Cross

[HKHaugan]

Epi.14 Bound for glory, This Train

Now that we have a grasp of who we really are in Jesus, our identity secured, we can move into how we grow into that identity. As a child of the Father, a younger brother or sister of the Lord Jesus, His disciple, each of us is equipped with a visual image of the spiritual growth instrument maturing us, the Cross. It’s vertical beam declares our identity in Jesus, a child of the Father and His Son’s disciple. We grow vertically as we open to the Lord’s directing us through His Word. The Holy Spirit brings more and more of Jesus into our consciousness. As we increase in the experience of Jesus, our mind, heart and spirit become more alert, more aware of the wholeness of God in the spiritual dimension into which He has brought us. As we identify with Him, He identifies with us. In that process is where we find our true identity. The primary spiritual reality of Jesus is a gift directly from God.

But in Jesus, we have a horizontal beam as well; the Body of Christ, the spiritual family of God, of which we have become a part. In Christ we become more aware of the world in which we live. It’s full of people. How do we live among them? Just as we have a vertical identity in Christ, our horizontal identity is to grow relationally as a brother or sister in His spiritual family on earth. The Body is where we practice with one another to be relational in the world. This is why Jesus tells us to grow together under the authority and power of the Cross. Our growth in the Body determines how we will relate in the world around us. The Cross stands before us to ready us for whatever we face in the world outside the Body. The Cross assures us that every next moment promises a resurrection above whatever conflict we face. It stands over our past reminding us we have been forgiven and accepted by God. It stands over our every next circumstance, every next event and every next encounter. Just as Jesus’ Cross was His ultimate symbol of faith, so our faith acting in each moment is the cross He calls us to take up.

So, how do we practice the Cross in the Body? How do we act as disciples? What’s the program? How are we equipped? Spiritual gifts! Yes, spiritual gifts. The Lord is not a Lord leading us around saying “Guess what I want you to do? See if you can read my mind. If you just try and be good, somewhere along the way, you might find something that works for you. Just try.” No way. Quite the opposite. He provides an arsenal of spiritual abilities for each of us and Paul is the apostle who spells this out. But it starts with a special attitude, the readiness to offer one’s self to His will while we are on the way every day. God gives gifts that work for us while we are on our way from morning to night. It’s those special spiritual gifts that round out our identity in the Body and set us up in our routine.

To illustrate the idea of gift giving, Jesus uses something that reflects the image of God in us, giving gifts to our children. Follow His principle here in Mt.7:7-12: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who seeks finds and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (vs.7-8).” Now, catch that natural parental attitude in vs.9 about the good as opposed to bad gifts a father gives a child. “How much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! So, in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets (vs.10-12).” So, like a benevolent Father, He wants to give to us, to learn He is our true Father, ask Him for help, to seek His will for the way to live and to seek the power to motivate us into action. We ask Him, we seek Him and we knock on His door. Remember how Jesus said, “I am the door for the sheep (Jn.10:9)” and “Come and you will see (Jn.1:39)” and “I will give you... the Spirit of truth (Jn.14:16).”

Now while the basic message here is attitude, does it not also follow that we have been given a specific way to “do to others what we would have them do to us?” Is not this as well, an attitude given us vertically to live in a horizontal world? There are two Greek words for ‘gifts’ that stand in contrast here. The first one is domata (visible gifts) and the second, agatha-(invisible qualities behind the gifts given). But even these require a third in order to function fully. This brings us to that third Greek word, charismaton (1Cor.12:1, literally, grace things). Charis, grace, is the source of these gifts which is what makes them spiritual. Note, they are grace given which means they carry special spiritual weight. Charismatic gifts give perspective to the other two. They are not given based on one’s adequacy, but precisely because the receiver is inadequate without them. Paul is quick to recognize this when he says about his preaching and teaching, “By the grace given me... (Rom.12:3, 1Cor.12:10).” If you are giving charismatically (grace motivated), something deeper happens.

The Spirit’s motivation behind the physical gift involves spotting a specific need or recognition of how a particular gift fits the person receiving the gift. It is also developing a goodness attitude that builds as you deal with people. You tend to grasp the uniqueness of their character and what pleases them. Remember Jesus’ words and how they apply here, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A charismaton gift is what makes a domata gift a spiritual agatha blessing rather than a ‘brownie‘ point earned for being good in order to get praise from others so you can feel good about yourself. A charismatic gift is a grace gift intended to grow us through faith. It’s about being open to the Lord’s leading to serve Him and in the process, others sense Him. Practicing grace gifts in the Body gives you a deeper awareness of the uniqueness of others outside the Body which is exactly the point of Jesus’ relational mission. Gifts given in the Spirit touch the hearts of faith-challenged people and in turn soften them as they deal with others.

Let’s put it this way. Aren’t we always impressed with those people who have a knack for sensing the kind of a gift that seems to fit someone’s personality? It’s not the monetary value but the heart response of the one receiving the gift. It can be the drawing of a child, a piece of wood found on a trail that reminded you of something in another person, a pebble, a shark’s tooth, a scarf, an object in an antique store or anything from any place that you feel would bring a heart-to-heart bridging moment. Now we’re talking about real power, heart changing power. The kind that changes the world. “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones (Lk.16:10).” Isn’t it the ‘little’ people of the world who are God’s ‘largest’ treasure? By ‘little’ I mean the individual heart in the ‘large’ world. When Jesus was looking at children He was addressing the heart’s need for humility, “For he who is least among you all is the one who is great (Lk.9:48).”

What all this is driving at is the need for our immediate every moment need to be aware of the heart of any one with who we come in contact. Human beings by nature are heart needy, believers or not. This is precisely why spiritual gifts are given to the Body of Christ. They match the hearts in people. A disciple of Jesus is a ‘matchmaker.’ A disciple of Jesus is a connector in the world of the disconnected. Think of it this way. In a large railroad yard with different kinds of cars; tankers, freight carriers, flat cars, coal and sand cars, etc., a dispatcher is given orders to assemble a multipurpose train. Each car is assigned a place to go with its cargo. An engine or two and their crews designated according to their job descriptions. Their destination set, fuel amounts figured, time of departure and arrival calculated. Then, they are on their way.

Now think of the training and experience each of the crew had to have; the dispatcher, the management above them and whatever else is involved in the process. When they leave the yard is when what they were trained for takes place. All kinds of things may happen along the way but that’s what the training was for. This analogy can apply to any organized entity from an orchestra to a corporation. In the Body of Christ the dynamics are the same. We are on a train ‘bound for glory’ as the old spiritual sings. But glory happens while we are on the way because ‘grace and truth’ are the glory given through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

For any disciple, the Cross is the place we start. We die to the world’s influences and rise to life like having the heart of a child,open to receiving the wisdom of God in every next moment, event, occasion and circumstance. This is achieved through the practice of spiritual gifts, the life blood of the Body of Christ who shed His blood to show the Cross as the spiritual doorway to glory. Instead of what we think is the best thing to do, we check it against the Word and trust the Spirit in faith. Faith always precedes action. In fact, faith is the action. Faith is what Jesus’ Cross brought to light as His way of lifeHis Resurrection was the justification of His faith.