Simplicity in Christ

2 Corinthians 11: 2 I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

In our modern-day church, there is a tremendous focus upon sermons, teachings, “doctrines”, Statements of Faith, “rightly dividing” the word and other such things. With all these teachings and endless words though, there is a very low level of functioning as the Body of Christ.

Let’s look quickly at three passages of scripture regarding the Body of Christ. Please read them carefully; it is important:

Ephesians 1: 15 I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 4: 9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He [Jesus] also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Galatians 4: 19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…

Let’s briefly summarize those three passages.

The Ephesians 1: 15-22 passage:

1. God must give us wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, including about the greatness of His power toward us who believe. This is not referring to “believers” but to those “who believe”. There is a difference, because most “believers” don’t even know about such things. We must first know; then believe; then live it out, by faith.

2. This power is the same power the Father used to raise Jesus from the dead.

3. Jesus is now seated in the heavens, far above all principality and power, and everything is now under His feet. He is the head of the Body [His people] and together, we are to express Christ and fill all things.

This is mind-blowing truth. It’s almost impossible to conceive the amazing depth of this, but we do see it lived out in the book of Acts, and also at other times and places in Christian history.

The Ephesians 4: 9-16 passage:

1. Jesus has given certain ministers to His church in order to raise up His Body into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Himself, meaning those ministers are called to work together with Christ, as under-shepherds, toward the transformation of Christians into the image, likeness and fullness of Christ. We are to grow up into Him!

2. Every member of the Body has their place and role in the functioning of the Body, playing their God-ordained part in the edifying [building up] of the Body, in love.

The Galatians 4: 19 passage:

The forming of Christ within the Body involves labor and travail, but this is the ultimate goal that must be reached, because it is God’s purpose and plan.

So, after reading those three passages, here are a few questions:

Do we see these things happening in the multitude of Christian congregations, all of them claiming to have Christ as their head? Which all claim to fully and only trust the word of God for all matters of faith and practice? Which say that they and their denomination are rightly dividing the word of truth, as the Bereans did?

Do we see the various bodies of believers, under the care and nurturing of their pastors and teachers, living in the realities of what we just read in the three passages above? Do we see them expressing the life and nature of Christ? How about taking up their cross and genuinely following the Lord, together?

Of course we don’t see these things, except in certain places among certain peoples, but not in the western churches of the U.S., U.K., Canada, and so on! This is painfully obvious.

Why?

It’s obvious because everything now revolves around doing certain “activities”, at certain times and places, on a regular, ongoing basis. It’s all planned and scheduled, and only the “clergy” class, along with the ushers and “worship team” play any sort of active role.

Everyone else just attends, listens quietly and attentively, gives money and goes home until the next inspiring “service”.

We rarely if ever see the sheep, individually or together, functioning as the presence of Christ in a sick, chaotic society. Do we?

Instead of the simplicity that is in Christ, it has all been complicated by endless words and teachings and activities and doctrines and pot-luck picnics and retreats and conferences and singing supposed worship songs and Vacation Bible Schools and “revivals” with the traveling evangelist and stomping on the devil and sending money to the Televangelists and…...

I’ll stop there.

“OK,” you may ask, “so what exactly is this simplicity that is in Christ?”

I’m happy you asked.

The simplicity that is in Christ consists in understanding, believing and taking hold, by faith, of the basic components of the good news, which are:

1. We start out from birth, by nature, as enemies of God and alienated from Him. God, in His love for us and by undeserved grace, provides the way for us to receive forgiveness for our sins and to be reconciled back to a right relationship with Him.

This has already been provided for us by the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, who died in our place to pay the penalty of death for our sins. We do not need to ask for this forgiveness and reconciliation, or invite Jesus into our heart; we simply need to repent and receive it by faith with a thankful heart.

2. We died, were buried, resurrected and ascended in Jesus, unto newness of life. We share with Jesus in these experiences by baptism.

We died out of Adam’s race, and were reborn into the new creation, in Christ, the Last Adam [1 Corinthians 15:45]. This sets us free from the law [we died to it] and makes the way for us to bear fruit unto God [Romans 7:4].

3. Our old nature is not removed from us when we are born of God. We must put off the old man, put on Christ and walk in this truth and reality. We do this by faith in God’s truth and then walk [live] by faith, not by sight.

We are called to abide, as branches, in the True Vine, Jesus. As we abide, His very life flows into us and the fruit of that life and nature comes forth in our lives.

This results in Christ-likeness, which is what actually saves us.

The death and shed blood of Jesus justifies and reconciles us to God. The life of Jesus saves us [Romans 5:9-10]

4. God has provided us with His very own nature to live by [2 Peter 1:4]. This results in true life and godliness, which is God’s goal for us that we must not refuse or ignore.

In a nutshell, here is the simplicity that is in Christ...

We receive forgiveness by repentance and faith in what God has already done for us.

We share in the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, dying out of Adam’s race and being born again into the race of Jesus, the last Adam.

Dead to the law, we can bear fruit unto God.

By faith, we put off the old nature and put on Christ.

We abide in the vine and bear the fruit of His life and nature. Sharing in God’s nature, we have all we need for life and godliness.

Everything shared here has clear scriptural backing. I won't provide all the biblical references because, if you are interested, you should search things out for yourself.

Conclusion

Today’s churches have replaced the simplicity that is in Christ with a multitude of services, activities, sermons, doctrines and much, much more, as previously covered. These activities can never in a million years result in what God is truly after, which is the Body of Christ living and functioning in this corrupt world, being the aroma of Christ leading to life or death [2 Corinthians 2:15-16].

Do we desire the simplicity which is in Christ? If so, there is a real cost to it, since it requires that we know and understand God’s word, take hold of it and live it out by faith. We will also have to deal with persecution and affliction of many varieties, from outside the fold of Christ and from inside.

Many things… the world, the flesh and the devil… will come into the picture to convince us that it’s all a delusion, that we can’t manifest God’s very own nature, that all we can really do is “try our best” to imitate Jesus and be a “good Christian”.

Will you believe those lies?

There is, of course, another option, and that is to remain in the religious “system”, with its never-ending array of services, activities, programs and projects; a system in which we will never come to the place of truly abiding in Christ and enjoying the highest and best of what God has provided for His people.

2 Corinthians 2: 9-10 - Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit.