(Part Two): Personal Faith Beyond Easter by Ron Lowe

Jesus is never impersonal in His affection for us.

If Jesus is living and active in our sanctification, why is He so absent from our speech? If His Word is the vox Dei (the voice of God), why don’t we engage with, listen to and respond to it as eagerly as we do to conversations with friends and acquaintances? Are prayers merely one-sided, from-below affirmations and requests? For me, these are challenging things to consider.

We could just tack His name a few more times to our prayers, our worship, our correspondence and publications – well, let’s go all the way with bumper stickers, t-shirts, and billboards. But does any of it flow out of a vibrant relationship with Jesus, our elder Brother?

In evangelism, for all our talk about having a personal friendship with Christ, is such friendship evident in our thinking and communication? How does our own personal Jesus work Himself into the way we treat people and our ministries of mercy? Is He merely the standard for our personal ethics and for our public witness on social issues? Is he just the platform on which we take a stand?

Or is He also (first) involved in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, cars – even in our deep and abiding communion with television, radio, stores, and computer screens?

In sum: Who is Jesus? Who are we in Him? How does His pivotal work of salvation shape our identity? What is He saying to us? How is He calling us to respond to His weighty, sobering, and joyful work in our behalf? Is talking like this only a relic of the prophetic and apostolic age?

Why does it seem awkward or embarrassing to talk this way, even among religious professionals?

Of course, we don’t like being lumped in with the weirdoes. You know – the ones who very confidently claim to interpret the Lord’s meticulous providence moment-by-moment, almost without effort. Even if we outwardly distance ourselves from them, we still think and pray like them: “Lord, remove these annoyances of life so I can experience the smooth-sailing that must come with following you.” The red light that impedes our race to the finish line (of the next red light). The annoying co-worker, the crying children, the apathetic or unruly students, the unemployment, the financial worries. The broken relationships.

Jesus promises healing, deliverance, well-being, and security, but His path toward our temporal fulfillment of these promises is almost never as we envision or desire. And so enters the faith by which we stand and walk with Him. We are to live by it, not by our sight. This faith is neither speculative nor is it primarily practical. It is chiefly personal.

Next: (Part Three) “I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection”