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August 19, 2015 - In This Issue:
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INFORMATION ON JIM FOWLER
Jim Fowler has been a pastor at the Neighborhood Church in Fallbrook, California for the last twenty-three years. His wife, Gracie, and their five children (Philip, Charis, Kirsten, Sarah and Sandi) have been very supportive in Jim's teaching, preaching, and writing ministries.
Jim's educational background includes Manhattan Christian College, Friends University, New College-University of Edinburgh, Bethel Theological Seminary, Palomar College, and Jubilee Theological Institute.
In recent years, Jim has spent much of his time writing, as can be viewed within the resources of his website. He is currently researching and writing several other articles and books.
Feel free to contact him at jimfowler@christinyou.net
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"The purpose of Jesus' incarnational advent and His ministry here on earth as a man was not to establish a new religion, nor to inculcate a new teaching, nor to lay down a new morality system. Jesus came to bring Himself, the presence and dynamic of His own divine being, expressed in the humanity of one perfect man, so that He might be expressed as divine, eternal life in the humanity of all men. The gospel that Jesus brought was entirely Christocentric. There is no message of "good news" apart from the ontological reality of the very Being of God in Jesus Christ who is the essence of Christianity. Christianity is Christ!" - Jim Learn More About Jim's Studies:
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"This book details the primary discussion of this year's World Grace Summit. I considered the discussion of "Dialectic Formatting" to be of the highest priority of dispelling Universalism in its attack on the true Church of Christ."
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"When Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being "in Christ" or of Christ being "in them," this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them..." ("Mere Christianity" Macmillan Publishing. 1978. pp.64-65). -C.S. Lewis
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HISTORICAL CHRISTIAN BIBLES
For over a decade now, Jim Fowler has been collecting Bibles for an exhibit that shows "The History of the Christian Scriptures." A new website has been developed to show featured items in this collection. View at www.fowlerbiblecollection.com.
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| Christianity IS Christ (part 3) |
Ontological Essence of Jesus Christ in the Christian
The "bottom-line" reality of what it means to be a Christian is expressed by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans."If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9, NKJV), for "the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are childre n of God" (Rom. 8:16, NKJV). Apart from the indwelling presence and witness of the ontological essence of Christ by His Spirit, one is not a Christian and not participating in Christianity. "Christ in one" constitutes a "Christ-one," i.e. a Christian. This is the radical new reality that God made available in the new covenant, the essential presence of the very person, life, and Being of the Spirit of Christ; the self-conveyance of Himself to the spirits of receptive humanity.
In this restoration of the Spirit of God to the spirits of men (cf. Gen. 2:7), so that men might function as God intended in His creative design, there is effected a spiritual union whereby we become "one spirit" with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17). This is not a psychological union, whereby we keep Jesus in our thoughts and consciousness; nor is it a moral union, whereby we are obliged to seek to conform to Jesus' example. Rather, it is a spiritual union whereby deity dwells and functions in man - Christ in the Christian. Jesus illustrated this spiritual condition to Nicodemus in the analogy of a "new birth" - a spiritual regeneration, whereby one is "born of the Spirit" (Jn 3:1-6).
It is extremely important to keep in mind that the presence of the risen, Lord Jesus in the Christian is not to be divided from the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. The dissolution of the ontological essence of Jesus Christ from the Holy Spirit creates a defective trinitarian perspective of God that has plagued "Christian theology" for centuries, and remains a serious misrepresentation even in evangelical explanations. The Holy Spirit is not a substitute for Christ, nor is He a surrogate of Christ, but must be understood to be indissolubly one with Christ. Paul adequately reveals that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Holy Spirit can be referred to interchangably (Rom. 8:4-11) as the triune God, who is Spirit (Jn. 4:24), functioning within the Christian.
The indwelling presence of the ontological essence of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the spirit of a Christian constitutes the divine reality of constitutes the divine reality of a "new creature" in Christ. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17). This is not an assumed identity, wherewith to engage in role-playing of Christian living, but a new spiritual identity as a "new man" (Eph. 4:24, NKJV; Col. 3:10, NKJV) in Christ. The deepest sense of one's identity is in identification with the spiritual being that constitutes one's read full article
All Scriptures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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