A believer’s life is a life of free fall. When “by faith we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God” — that everything in our life is from Him, of Him, and to Him — we find that we no longer need to hold so tightly to our own life with all its concerns, worries, and anxieties (Heb 11:3). We can let go of ourselves in love, knowing He is responsible for us. Such a life is powerful, transparent, and free.
But your experience might tell a different story. Human life is full of many little creeping things — the worries and desires of our day-to-day life that sneak their way into our hearts. They catch us, halting our freefall. Instead of living a simple life, we become complicated, trying in vain to cover our own iniquities. You may seek after money, career, name, or even goodness — but does upkeeping all these set you free? Can you be successful enough, smart enough, good enough? Or will you forever live in such an impossible deficit? No matter what you use to cover your feelings of guilt or inadequacy, it will never be enough. All these “layers” we put on make our life heavy, weighed down by the many facades we wear.
But the wonderful news is that no matter how many layers you’ve put on, or how complicated life has become, there is a way to live a transparent and free life. If you know and experience that God is the source, purpose, and meaning of your life, there is no more self-effort or vain trying. He is our only righteousness, the One who examines and justifies us (1 Cor. 4:4). Today, we can shake off our guilty fears, knowing that through His blood and our confession, He washes and cleanses us (1 John 1:7, 9). This is not a once-a-week wiping away of our sins or a ritual to feel better — no! It is a reality — your state of being — you can live in today. You can enjoy a fresh and pure sense of life that comes from Christ living in you. What things were once gains to us — all of our sophistication and self-effort — we can now wholeheartedly account as loss on account of Christ (Phil. 3:7). What a freedom!
These days you may not see it often, but in the beginning, God created such a perfect, pure, transparent being on the earth called man. While all of humanity is facing depression, corruption, and hopelessness, such a free and bright life as God originally intended it still exists today in the church. Here, there are no walls between us. Our barriers are unnecessary; our masks are irrelevant. Our relationships can be free and open, true and transparent. That is our churching. Just as Paul rejoiced that his life was poured out as a drink offering for the saints (Phil. 2:17, 2 Tim. 4:6), we find ourselves able to joyfully give and receive completely, without reservation. Only in the church can you taste such an unpolluted, pure life in one another — a life that is always “new and fresh, available and dear.”
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 2/12/2025, not reviewed by the speaker.)