Moral Dominion

"Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God" -- Oswald.

God alive in me. I confess I have no idea what this means. And I'm not alone. Since Oswald has been on this topic for a few days, I've been asking around. We Christians use the terminology pretty freely -- God abiding in us, Jesus in our hearts -- but we're short on explanations. After my friend Jess and I talked about it, however, she called her pastor dad, and he directed us toward the illustration of the temple. Our bodies are the temple, and God now dwells with us as he did the high priests in the holy of holies. Our flesh is like the veil that separated the holiest place from the next chamber, and as we die to ourselves, the veil is torn, revealing the nature of God in us. A lot of appropriate mystery still surrounds that explanation, but I feel myself moving in the direction of understanding.

I also found this quote on Scotty Smith's Facebook page which seems tangentially relevant: "God doesn't love us based on how much we are like Jesus, but based on how much Jesus is like Jesus. Which is just another way of saying that God loves us as much as he loves his perfect Son, for he has hidden our lives in Christ." This time it is me who is in Christ, which is a little easier for me to grasp. I can see myself hiding there, literally clinging for dear life.