The Experience Of Life

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. believed: or, trusted - 2 Timothy 1:12

    To have something and have no experience of, or experience with, that which we have, would be comparable to being alive, but in a comatose state. It would be like marriage to the love of our life, yet never seeing or being with, or having met the one whom we love. Would this not be a miserable (or maybe an impossible) existence? Is this the portion for God’s children while we are here in this world? Is this what God has ordained for his people? Are we to have only the mere knowledge of him and not have the presence of his life, love, mercy and grace, and be partakers of his divine nature (2 Pt 1:4)? What about the faith in Christ that gives peace, joy and rest in our hearts, and enables us to worship him in Spirit, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom 14:17).

    What about the blessed fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son? Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 Jn 1:3). I am convinced (by the Word and Spirit of God) that being one with Christ is more than a head-work. It is a heart-work. It is the work of almighty grace that imparts spiritual life to dead, ungodly sinners, or there is no life (Eph 2:1 & Ez 37:14). In the giving of that life, Christ, by his Spirit, begins his eternal abode in them—I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me (Jn 17:23). This is the mystery revealed concerning Christ and his church (Eph 5:30-32). True, salvation is not in a feeling or an experience, but it is equally true, there is no life where there is no feeling and experience,.

    There seems to be some tormenting fear of the truth of the nearness, realness, and presence of the living Lord in some who present themselves as theologians and intellectual giants. Nowhere in the Bible is it even suggested that salvation is knowingfacts or having newprinciples. Salvation is knowing Christ in living, vital, union! And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (Jn 17:3). And again, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (2 Cor 6:16).

    Now, to get the horse in front of the cart—Those that are in Christ believe the truth, and do have new principles. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh (Ez 36:26). The sinful creature remains dead until Christ comes and gives life, and when he does give life, the unworthy, ungodly, dead, corrupt creature lives, and knows it by experience and the revealed Word of God.