I Am to Become Successor

January 4, 2017

I Am to Become Successor

“Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”

2 Corinthians 3: 16-18 (The Message)

When we simply accept the fact that we are accepted by God, we experience grace. This experience of grace transforms everything. Believing you are a beloved child of God opens your life to receive unconditional blessings from God. In this new way of living in the Spirit, we refuse to make resolutions and vows for that is to trust in the flesh. We expect to be blessed, not because we hope to be better (hence acceptable), but because our right standing with God is in Christ only. Our acceptance of God’s acceptance of us is the path to our new identity as “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17 NRSV). What does it mean that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”?  Henri Nouwen, in his book, The Return of The Prodigal Son, answers this question by helping us correctly understand Jesus’ parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15).

"If the only meaning of the story were that people sin but God forgives, I could easily begin to think of my sins as a fine occasion for God to show me forgiveness. There would be no challenge in such an interpretation. I would resign myself to my weaknesses and keep hoping that eventually God would close his eyes to them and let me come home, whatever I did. Such romanticism is not the message of the Gospels. What I am called to make true is that whether I am the younger or elder son, I am the son of my compassionate Father. I am an heir. . . . as son and heir I am to become successor. I am destined to step into my Father's place and offer to others the same compassion that he has offered me. The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge to become the Father. . . . Being in the Father's house requires that I make the Father's life my own and become transformed in his image."

It is God’s work to form Christ within me. It is my work to accept my acceptance and to become a successor, to step into my Father's place and offer to others the same compassion that he has offered me. This is seeking the life in Christ as my way of life.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.