“The Gospel is supposed to be about Life IN Christ. The Apostle Paul used this term over 150 times in his writings and Jesus lived IT and mediates IT. Life IN Christ is about awakening to the reality of the nature of God and His/Her/Its presence in all of creation and as the source of existence and being. It is also about the realization of your oneness with these realities. When the reality and realization of this Life is “lost” in religion, two things are substituted–belief and authority. These “beliefs” tend to be about a set of doctrines and extraordinary or miraculous things. Authority is usually centered in some combination of holy books and human leaders & organizations. As Richard Rohr points out in The Universal Christ, neither Jesus nor Paul were limited by belief structures or authority. Both Jesus and Paul were challenged for exceeding or lacking authority in what they taught and did and for not acting within the limits of certain beliefs. Both challenged man made authority clothed in divine garb and both challenged conventional or false beliefs as they relied on direct knowledge and experience of and in God. Paul spoke often of liberty or freedom IN Christ and a refusal to limit or yoke oneself to man made religious codes or even foundational, spiritual laws that should be surpassed as one matures IN Christ (the proverbial “schoolmaster”). He was also careful to warn that liberty was not license, as in licentiousness. Oddly its the “saints” and the “sinners” who have no use for “law” and “code”.
I never cease to be amazed at how much power belief in things not directly known and dependence on authority rules people’s thoughts and vision. It did mine for many years so I should not be surprised but folks are settling for a “mess of pottage” (a bowl of stew) when the birthright of the fulness of Divine Nature is being offered!”
– Philip McLemore from a FB group Meditate with Phil
Breathings 