Received vs Receiving

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV.

There are many tensions we have to live with. Two things that at first appear to oppose one another, and we wonder which one is right. Things like faith and works, fight or surrender, doing and waiting, going and not going, cost and benefit, risk and reward, theory and practice, promise and provision. There are many such tensions.

Here’s another tension. It’s between what we have received, and what we are receiving. And many of us find this difficult to live with. Let me explain.

Some things in the Christian life we have just received in full the moment we were born again. Other things we are receiving progressively, as we grow into maturity in Christ.

Here’s a chart that helps understand this truth

When we came to Christ, He gave us His righteousness.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV.

When we came to Christ, we are forgiven, totally.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
Psalm 103:2-3a NKJV.

We are growing in some things, changing over time.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NKJV.

Here it is.  … forgive us our sins — instant, in full. And … cleanse us from all unrighteousness — progressive, over time.

There’s many things we have received in full, at our conversion. But there’s also many things we are receiving as time goes by. We are growing into maturity, we are growing in Christ-like character, we are growing in an understanding and function of our gifts and calling — it doesn’t happen overnight.

But there’s the thing, and this is important. What do we focus on? Do we focus on the things we are deficient on, the areas where we lack but are growing in, or do we focus on the things we already have? It’s my belief (as Pastor Ken Legg says) that the thing we focus on, we empower. If we focus constantly on the areas of our life we are lacking in, on the areas that are still less than they could be, then that’s going to be our life. That focus will affect our thinking, our behaviour and everything.

But if we focus on what we already have, and grow in an understanding of what they are and what they mean to us, and how we are so blessed and privileged to receive them from Christ, then we will live out, we will start to behave from that focus.

We need to live out of who we are, what we already have, rather than from what we are growing in, and don’t have fully yet. We always do better in life when we live from our true identity. From who we really are. Trying to live out of what we are not yet, or not fully yet, is not going to work. But God has already given us, in full, totally and completely, the things that Christ has won for us at the Cross.

What we are receiving, the transformation of our character, is the by-product of who we really are. Focusing on what we don’t fully have yet, is to focus on incompletion, imperfection, what is as yet undone, its glass half empty stuff. But to focus on what we already have and already are — which is essentially Christ — is to focus on completion, glass full, done, nothing to be added.

So there’s a tension between these two things; what we already have in Christ and what we are growing into. Faith holds these two aspects of life in tension without conflict.

Faith, (our relationship with Christ), our connection to Him, our identity with Him, brings a vision of who we are, of our completeness, of our fullness, which has a spill over effect to our flesh. We find things in the natural realm beginning to align with the spiritual realm. We find growth, progress, and improvement. Focusing on our problems just enlarges them. Focussing on who we are also enlarges the revelation of what we have received, and who we are in Christ. What we focus on we empower.

and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:10 NKJV.

It’s hard to grow in character to be like Jesus when we focus on what we don’t have, but forget about what we do have. The foundation is Christ, and who He is and who He has made us to be. Out of that revelation, comes more and more of His nature.

Paul talks about walking in the Spirit.

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 NKJV.

Could it be that what he’s saying there is that when we focus on what we have, the fullness of Christ within us, and all the things He has won for us, then we will live out of that revelation and our physical life, the flesh, will begin to align more and more with who we really are. Walking in the Spirit is the focusing on what we have, the Holy Spirit within us.

Make it a quest to discover all that you and I have been graciously given when we received Christ.

Received and receiving. Both are true. But let’s focus on what Christ has won for us and freely given us when we came to Him.

Faith holds these two aspects of life in tension without conflict.