Being Personal...

Being Personal

What does it mean to be personal? Depends on the application, doesn't it? My individual statistics: height, weight, hair & eye colors, age-- how personal are they? Most of us don't mind divulging such data, although with some the weight & age can be "iffy." But when it comes to income, charitable contributions & other tax-deductible monies, or intimate behavior with another, the information may suddenly have become too personal to discuss.

As a new believer in Christ, and for many years thereafter, I had difficulty with the phrase, "personal savior." I used the term in addressing others as it had been used toward me: You need to accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. But I was unclear on exactly what that meant. I write about it just now because it has become a matter of importance on this bulletin board due to the claims of some, of having "once been" christians, and to the presence here of others who claim to know Christ but evidence little of His presence in their lives.

My early take on Christ's being my "personal" savior was that the sacrifice He had made applied to me individually and specifically, rather than in some vague way being applicable to the entire human race which thereby (equally vaguely) included me. In other words, I understood the "personal" part to mean that I had to personally recognize His inclusion of me in His plan, and personally acknowledge and accept that as fact. This concept is (again, vaguely) correct, of course, and I did just that, but the "personal savior" label still seemed to me somehow empty or lacking for many years.

Only relatively recently have I begun to recognize that "my personal savior" is an equation, in which the word personal is the bridge between two components: myself and Christ. Scripture makes it clear that God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knows us intimately as individuals. But the bible is also replete with references to our knowing God. Grab a good concordance and see how often the word know and its derivatives occur in the New Testament alone, and how many times those refer to our knowing of Him.

Naturally, once I was a believer, I heard and read the passages frequently which spoke of our knowing Christ, but I saw them as figurative language. In my teens I had been fascinated by the War Between the States, and became a depository of facts and trivia concerning President Abraham Lincoln in particular. I knew more about Lincoln than did just about anyone in my circle of association, but the man was dead long before my birth, so obviously I never actually knew him. I regarded knowing Christ as being much the same as my "knowing" Lincoln-- a term loosely reflecting the concept of knowing about someone.

At that time I was not yet prepared to see some stark differences: Lincoln was dead; Christ was risen and alive. Lincoln had not sent a comforter to teach me of himself; Christ had. With Lincoln, I was on my own & at the mercy of the recollections & opinions (accurate or otherwise) of others. The Spirit of the Living God had personally led godly men to write and to preserve every word of His will that applies to my present life, had provided me with copies of those words, and indwelt me to personally guide my comprehension of their application to me.

When I began to realize that the other side of the "personal" equation is the Lord Jesus Christ, I began to experience the reality of Him as a living person. The meaning that Christ is my personal savior is that I have personally been rescued from inevitable doom by a Person, who will now personally never leave me nor forsake me, and with whom I am privileged to become evermore fully personally acquainted-- not just the historic report of His past, but the present reality of His life. The experiencing of this reality is not formulaic, but entirely custom-fitted to the capacities and inclinations of the individual believer. It is neither an emotional experience nor an intellectual exercise, although it cannot transpire without the involvement of both mind and feelings. The ratio will vary with the person.

There are two "groups" of people to whom I address these thoughts:

First, the believers in Jesus Christ who long to know, but can't seem to realize, His working in your lives. You believe, but you feel spiritually "dry." You deeply desire to know the peace, inner joy, and love for others of which you read and hear, but you have no feelings but of sadness and emptiness. You may even feel resentful toward those who profess joy, peace and love-- perhaps you think they are lying because you know you would be lying if you made such claims...

You need to be honest with yourself and with God. Stop pretending that nothing is wrong. Something is wrong: you are miserable, but you are afraid that to admit it would be to call God a liar. Make up your mind: IS God a liar? In your heart you know He is not! Proving that is not up to you! Let God BE God! Tell Him exactly how you feel and what you feel you need.

Open His Word and read: when you see a promise that applies to believers, tell God you want to see that apply to you. God's Word is true, and God answers prayer. Seek. Knock. Ask. His way may be enormously different from your anticipations, but He will not disappoint!

The others to whom I appeal are those who think they were once christians but are no longer. Upon what supposition do you base your claim to christian experience? If upon the things you have done, witnessed, thought, said, or even believed in your heart, you are mistaken. That is harsh I know, and I am sorry, but it is the truth. There is nothing, nor has there ever been anything that a person could do to merit adoption into the family of God, and being a member of God's family is the ONLY definition of being a Christian. You MUST be born again, of the Spirit of God. There is no other way. The new birth is not achieved by thinking it, saying it, even believing in it-- It is by the divine working of the three Persons of God. I do not infer that we have no part in the event, but that our involvement is purely cooperative & responsive-- not seminal. The faith that saves comes to us by grace-- unearned and undeserved favor.

Getting personal, I ask: Does your claim to have been a christian have its roots in your experience of and involvement with the Person of the risen, living Lord Jesus Christ? If not, it is an empty form and an empty claim-- you have been deceived and your presumption is in error.

The good news is that, for all of us, the Way to God stands open to all who will hear the call: Come unto Me...

al Hartman