The Most Helpful Spiritual Insights I’ve Found
I HEARD A PREACHER, when I was still high-school age, tell the story of another preacher of a time long past, who said, “When I was a young preacher, I organized all the Bible truth I knew into 300 doctrines. By the time I was in my middle age, I had narrowed that list down to just 30. But now I’m an old man—and now I have only two doctrines left: “I am a great sinner—and Christ is a great Savior.”
Now, I’m not sure that this story is genuine—that it actually happened. But there’s much truth in it, nonetheless. And the final words—”I am a great sinner—and Christ is a great Savior,” are definitely genuine. They were spoken by John Newton to his friend William Wilburforce, near the end of Newton’s life. I described the circumstances surrounding this statement back in June, in a post on my other blog—Right End of the Telescope.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on what the most important spiritual lessons are that I’ve learned through the years I’ve been here on Planet Earth. What ideas or insights have helped me most?
So for a while now here on this blog, I want to begin putting down in writing those key “big” ideas that have most benefited me in my own walk with God.
The first will be the twin concepts of “You in Christ” and “Christ in you.” The former is my only hope of salvation. The latter is my only hope of becoming more like Jesus. The theologians might call the first, justification—and the second, sanctification…but I’m not overly fond of those big ten-dollar terms. I need something practical, not just theoretical—something personal, not academic.
The Apostle Paul has some amazing, absolutely stunning things to say about those twin themes. So in my next post here soon, I’ll take a look at what I’ve learned from Paul—and also from some preachers and writers who have helped me see Paul’s writing more clearly—and focus on the first theme: “You in Christ.”
This exercise is primarily for my own benefit—to put on paper (or in this case, on a monitor!) where my thinking is at this moment in time. But you are certainly free to read over my shoulder…and if you wish, to weigh in with your own thoughts.
