Are You Living "A" Life Or "THE" Life? - Part One

    I feel it is important to ask this question because most Christians have been either living “A” life or have been living “THE” life. Let me explain the difference.

       I lived “A” life for the first thirty years of my Christian life. I simply define “A” life as what I taught that I needed to do with God’s help to live the Christian life and to be pleasing and acceptable to God and others. Let me give you some examples of what I was taught:

1.  I was told to take what I learn from the Bible and go out and try to accomplish what it says.

2. I was taught that I need to try to stop sinning.

3. I was taught to try and keep God’s commands.

4. It was up to me with God’s help to try and change myself.

5. I needed to try to become more righteous. 

6. I needed to try harder to transform my fleshly behavior into godly behavior.

    I hope you picked up on the word “try” because that is what I was doing. The problem is that my trying did not lead to accomplishing any of the above. In fact, my trying led to continual failure. I tried to do everything I was taught to do but it never led to the victory, freedom or transformation that God promises. Needless to say, if you keep trying and nothing happens, the tendency is to give up. And that is exactly what I did. I tried and I tried but nothing changed in my life. In fact, it got worse. What was I doing wrong? Was there something missing in my understanding of the Christian life?

    How about you? Are you experiencing ongoing victory, freedom, and transformation? If not, is it possible that you have been living “A” life like I did for 30 years? The problem with living “A” life is that I was the source with God’s help to try and make my life work and it was not working. Is it possible that I was believing a lie? Let’s look at the definition of “THE” life for the answer.

     Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and THE LIFE.” Interesting that Jesus does not say I am “A” life but rather He says I am “THE” Life. Let me ask you a  question. How many people have lived THE Life? If you answered one, you are right. Christ is the only person to have lived THE Life. If that is true, then how can you and I live THE Life? We find the answer in Galatians 2:20 when Paul says: “I no longer live but Christ (THE LIFE) lives in me.” (Parenthesis mine) Paul is saying that he can’t live THE life. Rather, he is allowing Christ to live His life in Paul. Why did Paul say this?

    We see the answer in 1 Corinthians 1:30 “He (Christ) is the SOURCE of your life in Christ Jesus…” (Parenthesis mine). If Christ is the source for living the Christian life, does that mean that I am NOT to be the source? The answer is “yes.” There is only One person who can be the source to live the Christian life and that is Christ. Therefore, we, like Paul can’t live THE life, so we too, must allow Christ to live His life in us. In Part Two, we will talk about what it means for Christ to live His life in us.

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