Oneness With Christ

“Now if we are children, then we are
heirs—
heirs of God and co-
heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
  Romans 8:17

As I sit to write, I wonder what can be said that will effectively tell my story.  And then I think, I am not needing to tell my story but rather I am needing to tell His story. 
 It is one that is so often forgotten in our busy lives today.
  Who has time?

The King had time.  No, not Elvis. 
Jesus. 
He could have had all that the world had to offer. 
 He could have lived in the biggest house, been named the richest, eaten the best food, ruled all of the nations. 
 He instead grew up the son of a vagabond carpenter. 
 He himself was a bit of a vagabond, running around with an uneducated crew who fell far short in their role as supporting cast. 
 He was mocked, beaten, run out of town. 
 People called Him a glutton and a drunkard.
  He hung with the outcasts, the untouchables, the disgraced, the sinners, the persecuted.  In the end, He died the cruelest death possible, beaten within an inch of His life, and then hung naked on a cross in front of His own mother.
  Humiliated.

Why tell that story again? 
 It is so cliché. 
 Why, because that should be my story!  Jesus didn’t deserve any of that. 
 But, I do. 
 He deserved the best of everything and yet He chose a life of sacrifice. 
 I deserve the worst and yet I’ve been taught my whole life that I should strive for the very best that life has to offer. 
 It’s the American way. 
 Regrettably, it has too often become the church’s way as well.  But it is not Christ’s way.

Being one with Christ is a call to the poor, the orphans, the widows, the prisoners, the outcast, the broken, the sick. 
It is a call to a life lived in opposition to the mainstream.
 We can not serve two masters. 
 Does our life look like that of Christ? 
 It is not hard to make the comparison. 
 What does our checkbook say?  What does our house say? 
 What does our lifestyle say?  What does our day-timer say?  What does our heart say?
  What would God say?
 

What does it mean to be Christ-like? 
The Gospels tell that story.
  I want that to be my story.
  Is that as preposterous as it sounds? 
 Yes… in my own strength. 
 But when I read the Bible, I know that that is who God has called the Christian to be. Like it or not, it is, unavoidably, to be my story. 
He said for me to pick up my cross. 
 He said I would be persecuted. 
 He said that whatever I do unto the least of these I have done unto Him.  He said I cannot serve two masters.
 

Maybe that is why He says the road is narrow that leads to life and that few find it. 
 The masses of humanity are not on the narrow path. 
A whole country is not on the narrow path. 
Mainstream Americano is not on the narrow path.  It takes a wide path for the mainstream to walk down and that road leads to destruction.
 

Christ carved out the narrow path.

Now, for the rest of the story. 
 Christ arose on the third day and went to sit at the right hand of God. 
That is the oneness with Christ that I long to have.
  That is the final destination of the narrow path. 
That is oneness with Christ… to be heirs of God! 
 To share in His suffering that we may share in His glory.