My Theology is Jesus, Part Two

My Theology is Jesus, Part Two.

“My theology is Jesus Christ, and nothing else. If I can but understand Him, I shall need no other. Take your theology from Christ Himself. Learn from Christ Himself. That is the only theology that everyone must have.” (George MacDonald (1824-1905), a Scottish author and minister who has inspired me the most in my being a Christ-follower. C. S. Lewis considered him his “master,” and once said of MacDonald,  “I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.”).

My theology is centered on the Jesus we find revealed in the Gospels. The reference point to my faith is Christ, and the spiritual grid I use is hopefully Christ-centered and Gospel-dependent. I choose to be one of those radicals who take Jesus at His word, and seek to think with His life and character in mind. I believe that Jesus Christ is the central Truth of the universe, and that He will lead us into all the truth we can handle. I believe that Jesus Christ fleshed out the Father’s thinking in those matters that demand our thought. I believe that without the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of the Father and the Son, we would not be able to take even one step in following Christ or in growing into Him. I believe in the Trinity, the divine Godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as revealed a number of times in the Gospels and affirmed in the early authoritative Creeds of the Christian Church.

Into My Heart. As I age, my Christian focus seems to be shifting, my attention is moving to the question of, who abides in whom? As I grew up as a newbie in the faith, it was impressed upon me that my first step in becoming a Christian was to accept Jesus into my heart. To invite Him into my life, to welcome Jesus into my very self. And I’m sure that’s a good way to start things off in a relationship with Christ, but do you notice what the focus seems to be in this first step? It seems that our personal faith is starting off with a rather self-centered direction. I have come to wonder if it is true to Scripture to remain there. The initial attention is on myself, inviting Jesus into my heart, accepting Him into my life. Perhaps this early faith development mirrors human development, when in our younger years, focusing on personal needs and growth are vital as we yearn to mature into a mature adult.

Into His Heart. That’s fine as far as it goes, but I wonder if that picture is necessary but insufficient.  Now I find myself thinking a lot more about my identity being hidden in Christ, more than His identity being hidden in me. I’m working on my faith identity not being centered so much on me containing Christ, but on Christ containing me. Instead of me, myself and mine, I would rather it be more of He, Himself, and His. I want to find myself in Him, with me in Jesus without forgetting that Jesus is in me. Instead of Jesus moving into the home of my heart, I want to more intentionally move into the home of His heart. I want to enjoy a new address in the home of Jesus. In addition to welcoming Jesus to roam from room to room in my heart, I find myself also desiring to explore the rooms of His heart.

Inside of Christ. Paul instructs us many times in his letters that we are “in Christ,” that we are “hidden within Christ, inside of God.” (Colossians 3:3), and I don’t want to forget that part of my relationship with Jesus. Paul also claimed that “God has given us His Spirit as proof that we live inside Him, and He inside us.” (1 John 4:13). And, “Those who obey God’s teachings remain inside Him, and He inside them.” (1 John 3:24). Actually, Jesus said a number of times to abide in Him, to dwell in Him, including “Dwell inside of Me, abide in Me, make yourself at home inside of Me, and I am inside of you.” (John 15:4-7). “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives continuously inside Me, and I live inside of him.” (John 6:56).

Believing Into Jesus. The most famous gospel passage of all time has to be John 3:16… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only and unique Son, so that everyone who believes “in” Him will not perish but have eternal life.” Many translators actually point out that the word there is “into” not “in.” The more accurate translation, or at least the equally correct version, would read, “Whoever believes ‘into’ Him will have eternal live.” Into Him. God is asking us to trust our way into Him, to believe into Him, to enter into Christ in order to gain eternal life. Another fascinating passage involving into instead of in is Matthew 28:19, as Jesus gives His last-minute instructions to His disciples before He ascends to the Father’s throne. “Go and make disciples from all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Not merely in the Trinity’s name, but actually into their Name, into the reality of their Personhood. When someone is baptized, that person enters into the life of the Godhead, into the communion of the Trinity.  We have passed into His spiritual realm, and we have penetrated into His community of intimate love within the Trinity.

Entering a Union. Why does the reality of ‘believing into’ appeal to me so much? It implies full-bodied action, not mere intellectual belief; it suggests entering into a sacred union with Christ; it is not a passive phrase in which one believes in Christ’s existence, but then again won’t bother to embrace Him in everyday life; it is an active faith word that involves working His words practically into heart and mind; it points directly to the movement of a generalized belief that Jesus exists, into a personal, experiential commitment to Him; it suggests that to believe into Jesus is to actively lean into Him, to intimately join together with Him, to trust Jesus enough to unite yourself into Him; it demands that believers place ourselves into the spiritual reality of Christ; it embraces the truth that it is necessary to trust ourselves into Him in order to enjoy a permanent relationship with Him, and finding our human identity hidden inside Him; trusting into Christ is to prove our allegiance, our faithfulness to Him by the biblical standard of both hearing and doing, not merely hearing. Believing into Christ means we have invited His Holy Spirit to enter into our lives, and we have at the same time entered into His. I also rejoice that by trusting into Jesus, we have entered into the very heart-home of the eternal God Himself.

Inside Each Other. It’s clear to me that Christ-centered discipleship includes the grand mystery of what has been called “mutual indwelling.” Christ spiritually dwells inside of each of us, and each of us spiritually dwells inside of Christ, who Himself dwells inside God. We welcome Jesus into the rooms of our deepest self, and He welcomes each of us into the rooms of His deepest self. The awesome mystery I embrace here is that somehow, because of my personal union with Christ, Jesus and me are inside each other at the same time. And the same goes for all those who through His Holy Spirit seek to follow Jesus. We can all make ourselves at home inside the Person of Christ, who is in the person of his Father. So, actually, we are dwelling in the heart-home of God! As Paul said to the Colossians, we are each within Christ, who is inside of God.

My Theology is Jesus. So when I claim that my theology is Jesus, in part I mean to say that my identity is hidden within Christ at least as much as His identity is hidden within me. He lives inside the home of my heart the same time that I live inside the home of His heart. By following Jesus Christ, I am choosing to live into the reality of His eternal heart-home. I have been given the front door key to Christ’s heart. I reside in Jesus. He is my permanent mailing address, and we have all eternity to explore the rooms of His heart.

(May 3, 2025).