Crucified Hearts

We must be one with God in Christ and therefore with each other if we are to fulfill the purposes of God in our lives. 

This is not an optional way to live, but the only way to have eternal life in the kingdom of God, in the kingdom now and the kingdom to come. Any attempt to live apart from God is death.

In the kingdom of God there is no life part from union with him and union with him means we will have unity among ourselves. The unity I am speaking of is not a self-defined unity, but one that is defined by the living Word of God. 

We come into the kingdom through faith, through hearing and receiving the Word of Life, leading to repentance by grace, by baptism into Christ. 

It is our union in him through the Spirit that creates our union with one another. When we answer his call we come into this church which is his body on earth, of whom he is the Head.

Christ is all and in all of those who put their trust in Him. By faith (trust) in Him alone do we have His very life in us, the only Life that conquers sin and death, the One Life that will bring us into peace and love for one another.

Any claim to the Christian life that defies unity with Christ and one another is a false religion, a deception that leads only to death. 

If a search of our hearts reveals that we are alienated from God, half-hearted in our commitment, separated from him and from one another by cherished feelings of hatred, contempt, bitterness, or even a fear of union that defends itself against love, we have a need for repentance that can only be put off at the risk of our lives.

Any attempt to live life apart from complete trust in God through Christ, a trust that unites all believers with one another in both character and purpose is a failed life, a failure to fulfill the purpose of God who would bind all things together in love through the atoning work of His Son, Jesus Christ.

This doctrine of oneness in Christ therefore means there can be no bigotry, prejudice, racism, or any other form of exclusivity in self-righteousness on the part of those who take His name as their own. 

There can be no divisions based upon supposed preeminence, ungodly ambitions, pride of place, or any other form of self-assertive egoism. Being servants of Him who serves sinners in complete love and humility, the Christian counts others as more deserving than themselves, only desiring the good life in God for all they meet. They hunger for the love and unity that defines the Christian faith, not only for family and friends, but most of all for their enemies (Luke 6.35), for whom their Master laid down His life as an atonement for the sins of those who hated him.

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
— Galatians 3:27-28

If we would find happiness now and in the heaven to come, it will be in Christ and Him crucified, in union with Him in His death and resurrection, that the very Life of God may be in us who put our trust in Him.

As Paul, who was one with Christ, said…

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
— Galatians 2:20

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
— 1 Corinthians 12:13

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
— Ephesians 2:19-22

As Jesus says…

“That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me…I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” John 17.21,23

Concluding…

“The sincere, contrite soul is precious in the sight of God. He places His own signet upon men, not by their rank, not by their wealth, not by their intellectual greatness, but by their oneness with Christ. The Lord of glory is satisfied with those who are meek and lowly in heart. “Thou hast also given me,” said David, “the shield of Thy salvation: … and Thy gentleness”—as an element in the human character—”hath made me great.”” Psalm 18:35. 

~ Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, 437

“The religion of Christ uplifts the receiver to a higher plane of thought and action, while at the same time it presents the whole human race as alike the objects of the love of God, being purchased by the sacrifice of his Son. At the feet of Jesus, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, meet together, with no thought of cast or worldly pre-eminence. All earthly distinctions are forgotten as we look upon Him whom our sins have pierced. The self-denial, the condescension, the infinite compassion of him who was highly exalted in heaven, put to shame human pride, self-esteem, and social caste. Pure and undefiled religion manifests its heaven-born principles in bringing into oneness all who are sanctified through the truth.”

~ Ellen White, Gospel Workers, 313

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all….And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

— Ephesians 4:4-6,11-13