JOINED TO THE LORD
To be joined to the Lord is to be one spirit with him (1 Cor. 6:17). There is no separation between the real Christian and the Lord. The Christian walks in close intimacy with the one who created and calls us. God knew us before we were formed in the womb. He determined our days and the set times for our dwelling. Christ is here with us at all times and because we abide in him and he abides in us, we can accomplish our purpose as his people.
Christ’s teaching about the vine in John 15 reminds us that there is a relationship of complete intimacy that is available to all disciples of Christ who strive to maintain the connection to him that is theirs through faith. The process then, becomes one of on-going closeness and ever-deepening appreciation of who we are and what we have in Christ. It is something that we will never fully understand in this life, but something that we nevertheless move toward and grow in.
It is very informative to understand the nature of all that we have in our relationship with Christ. The disciples knew Christ better than anyone on earth. And the twelve apostles shared a relationship with Jesus that no others were privy to. We know about it now through the recorded revelation that we find in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
When we turn to the Epistles we note that the emphasis is not on law but on relationship. It should reveal much to us to know that we have the writings of inspired men who not only were guided miraculously by the Holy Spirit but who knew Christ in the flesh. What they wrote is decidedly important for that reason alone. If they knew him intimately and knew his thoughts and his deepest feelings the way a friend today would reveal himself to another, we should pay careful and close attention, not only to what they wrote, but the tone in which they wrote it. We must be careful not only to say what they said, but to say it in the manner in which they said it. Our emphasis must be on par with theirs.
Read the writings of John and Peter and Paul. You cannot help but be amazed at the tone with which they revealed their respective truths. They spoke in the tone of grace, on the themes of love and intimacy with Christ and on being children of God. Everything they said must be understood from the standpoint of what Christ was saying through them. It is easy to see what kind of people we are to be in Christ and what is to be important to us.
