The Charter of Christ
Jesus made startling claims about his divine nature, but his charter message was the most shocking: he would be crucified/resurrected in order to deliver the full love of God. So Christ's mission was not primarily to deliver principles for good conduct; rather, to make divine life available via his dying/rising.
What's the Meaning of This?
The key is the transaction that occurs, nicely summarized in Galatians 2:20.
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
What is its spiritual technology? See C.S. Lewis' cool insights in
The Meaning of the Cross.
In short: Jesus became what we are, so we might become what He is. He became human, so we might become divine. He identified himself with us; and we are invited to identify ourselves with him. He took the evil due to us; and offers us the good due to him.
Other Purposes
Though the love transaction is the main message, it's a package deal:
- To perfectly please his Father (Eph 5:2)
- To learn obedience as a human (Heb 5:8)
- To demonstrate the wealth of God's love for sinners (Rom 5:7-8)
- To cancel the legal requirements of the law on us (Col 2:13)
- To abolish rituals as the basis of salvation (Gal 6:12)
- To be an offering for the forgiveness of our sins (Mat 26:28)
- To free us from slavery to self-addiction, (Rev 1:5-6)
- To establish a means for healing (Mat 8:16-17)
- To give marriage its deepest meaning (Eph 5:25)
- To be an example and pattern of self-sacrificial love (Heb 12:3-4)
- To conquer our spiritual enemies (Col 2:14-15)
- To exhibit how God turns the worst evil into the best good (Acts 4:27-28)
- To solve the death problem with resurrection (Rom 8:11)
What Does This Mean Practically?
So how do we receive Christ's life? Simply by rejecting what is not of God (i.e., repenting) and receiving what is (i.e., through faith). Repenting corresponds to Christ's dying; and receiving new life corresponds to Christ's rising.
The divine nature is love. And we need to lose that part of ourselves that doesn't love. That's the transaction—God's strength for our weakness.
Remember, it is in your weakness that My strength is made perfect (II Cor 12:9). I will love you regardless of what you do for I love you for who you are and I love you exactly as I made you. You are lacking nothing in Me. I have given you My gift of unending forgiveness from the cross of Jesus. His blood covers all your sins—past, present, future. No sin is too great for the blood of the Savior.
Run to Me in your weaknesses and failings—let Me be your strength. You are broken and wounded in your flesh, a product of imperfect attempts at human, temporal, and conditional love. I know this about you and have seen your life unfold in all its brokenness. My mercy is here for you.
You need never work up to a personal sense of goodness or feelings of being righteous. Come before me today, just as you are. It is I who will work in you an “eternal weight of glory”. Even your best works are passing away. Refuse to live in the realm of condemnation where the devil yearns to take the world, especially believers in My name. You are redeemed, set free, My beloved.
Receive this truth and believe Me when I tell you how much I love you. “For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.” (II Cor. 13:4)