Christ Does Not "Help" Me - And I Do Not "Help" Christ

The picture Jesus gives us concerning Himself is, “My Father works hitherto, and I work.” John gives us a revealing insight of how life worked for Jesus. He made it very clear that, “the Son did nothing of Himself” (John 14:10). This means that God, His ever-working Father, was doing the Father’s works and giving the Father’s Word through Jesus. It could have been said of Jesus, “For Me to live is the Father living,” in the same way as Paul later said, “For me to live is Christ living.”

Now the surprising thing here is not the glimpse we get of the Father being the su­preme initiator and actor in Jesus, but of this also being the unfailing pattern for us, His many children - sons and daughters. We do not and indeed cannot live the Christ­ian life on our own - just as Jesus could not do so. He lived the Life of the Father and was taken over, by that indwelling Holy Presence. He was never just Himself - He was always the Father in manifestation.

The various stages of man’s misunder­standing of God, and of his faulty react­ions, are made very clear in pictures such as we get in Francis Thompson’s poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” In that masterpiece Thompson sees that in every step of his disastrous flight from God there was God’s gracious action of love and yearning for him. So toward the end of the poem Thompson asks, “Is my gloom, after all, shade of His hand outstretched caressingly?” It is only when this question is settled for each of us, and we fall into the hands of the ever-loving Pursuer, that our future becomes the unfolding of this same pursuit of love. Christ then becomes my only Life.

We often hear it preached that we need to call on Christ for HELP in our lives in times of distress. This is a well-meaning instruction but it still puts the spotlight on Christ’s strength “helping out” our own independent strength. The basic change in awareness that God is purposefully making in all Christian lives is that Christ is no longer in my life acting as my assistant, helping me to live the Christian life; He is there to do it Himself by a form of RE­PLACEMENT. That transition is totally with­out any loss of my personhood. My unique personhood is the vessel through which He acts. He becomes the living Christ through me. My illusory self-autonomy is finished.

The pattern is clear: God is in action in me. “He does the works,” as Jesus said of the Father. Of course, this is also what Jesus meant in His call to us to REST (Matthew 11:28). In this we should gladly give way to Him being the sole actor in doing the impossible through me. Life becomes a stream of consciousness of the divine Indweller as my only Life. The mystery of “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27) is brought into full clarification by Paul in Galatians 2:20 where the nature of that mystery is clearly defined - CHRIST LIVING MY LIFE.

As Luther once wrote, “God is creating a race of Christs.” We, in this way, become Christ in action. As immature Christians, we are hesitant to come to such a bold definition of faith, but it is the center and heart of Christian revelation. For all who are “in Christ”, all real living flows from this great affirmation of faith.

And as it is not a case of “help” from Christ, it is also not correct that we are “helping” Christ as we go about our good works to those around us. What does Scripture say about “our divine Performer”? “He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” No hint there of our “helping Him out!” What a profound relief and comfort! That day may have dawned for you already, the day when it is “no longer I, but Jesus Christ” in total charge: the day when all the heavy workload of your well-meant, but fruitless, efforts at personal performance are finished.

God’s performance in and for me is not aimed at adding to me piece-meal that which I see as so greatly lacking in myself. Actually, NOTHING is lacking. What can the new “I” have beyond a living Christ? God daily is working out the dissolving of the illusion (at some points it is a painful process!) that I am the performer, with divine assistance! The net result is that I finally see and know experimentally the whole and inner Christ as the true “I”.

So then, you ask, what is our respon­sibility in all this? It is without question TO BE WIDE OPEN TO THE INNER VOICE AND LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AT ALL POINTS AND IN ALL THINGS. By this means, Christ can “be Himself” through us. He does not have to “help” us and we do not have to “help” Him.

And this opening to leading is no supreme effort on our part, but a secret delight of any soul that is aflame with love for Him. When once the fact has truly dawned on us that “He is living as the divine contents of this human vessel,” and “He is living as the divine resident of this human temple,” and “He is living as the divine sap of the Vine through this human branch,” and “He is living as the divine Master in this sub­missive human slave,” and that now “the government is upon His shoulders,” THEN OPENNESS TO HIM AT ALL POINTS BECOMES OUR NORMAL WAY OF LIFE.

All life centers in the natural recognition of Christ in myself, in others, and in all circumstances. There are moments when we are temporarily thrown off balance, moments when we need to use of the key of faith to get right back on track - back into the flow of Christ living as our replacement and not as our helper, and especially not us as His helper.
Jesus answers the question from the disciples about our responsibility. They asked, “What shall WE DO to work the works of God?” And He replied, “This is the work of God: THAT YOU BELIEVE. . .“ (John 6). So there is nothing left for us but the simple key of faith: “This is the victory that overcomes the world. . . faith” (1 John 5:4). Not self-effort with Christ’s “help”, not “helping” Christ to convert the world in our own way, but recognition that in Christ there is nothing for us to do but be used by Him and praise Him for it.

At this point the great temptation is being occupied with self. Instead, the heart of the Christian life and experience is to see only God in yourself with the logical extension of this being that you see God dealing in infinite ways with those around you - and you are being used by Christ to them.
All history is God speaking and demon­strating and man ignoring or misunderstand­ing the voice or the demonstrated message. That redeeming work of dealing with humans is what we feed upon. By His indwelling union with us, we are moved and sustained until the final glory discloses the full wonder of it all.

In recent years I have become more and more aware that it is a sheer impossibility to live the Christian life! Today I am convinced that it is utter foolishness to even try to produce any righteousness of our own. All efforts and well-meant intentions are in vain from His standpoint. As we grow daily in awareness of Christ becoming our very LIFE, we will reflect Him who is that Life. Only He can live it (not helping us and without our help) in us and through us, moment by moment, day by day.

This revelation has set me free and brought me to rest and peace. I have come to know my total utter helplessness and complete dependency on Him. My goal is to refuse to do anything to off-balance His Life in me. After all, Jesus Himself gives us a stern warning: “...for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

I have found that there is an appointed time for everything and I could write volumes about all that has occurred during these past thirty years or so since the Master opened my eyes to Him! He never ceases to work in us, though He doesn’t usually reveal to us what will happen next. We must learn daily to rely completely on Him. I am learning daily by trial and error to spontaneously live and move and have my total being in Him.

Can you imagine and fathom this? Now I celebrate the resurrection Life of the King of the universe IN ME, His earthen vessel, His branch of the vine to bear fruit. As His glory builds more and more visible in me, may all those around me be dealt with by God to see the joyous rest, rich beyond compre­hension as they CHOOSE TO BE USED - not helped or helping. And as they choose this, they will also choose not to give in to loneliness, fatigue, and emotional feelings of all kinds. “I have come that they might have LIFE more abundantly” (John 10:10). Not a life “helped” or “helping”, but a divine LIFE lived daily by Christ in this world.

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