WE PASS FROM 1 Corinthians to 2 Corinthians in our meditation on “in Christ” passages and come across this great one: “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you . . . was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor. 1:19–20).
There are those who believe that Christianity is a negative attitude toward life—you can’t do this and you can’t do that—that it is a denial of the will to live. It is a will to die, the fulfillment of the death wish, described by Freud. It is a no to human living. Solomon Richter says, “Christianity is a set of scruples imposed on the ordinary framework of humanity to keep it from functioning naturally and normally.” If so, we can’t take it, for we must live by affirmation, not negation.
This verse says the opposite—“in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” As Moffatt’s translation puts it: “the divine ‘yes’ has at last sounded in him.” He so expresses this affirmative attitude toward life that He is called the “Yes.” Everything outside Him is the no. Experience verifies that. When Judas went away from Jesus he went and hanged himself. Does life commit suicide when it goes away from Jesus—sudden or slow? Life says yes. I think a thought, take an attitude, do a deed which departs from Jesus, and around that thought, attitude, or deed is a sense of sadness, a sense of defeat. Everything within us cries, “This is not the way.” But the moment you begin to think His thoughts, take His attitudes, do His deeds, everything within you cries, “This is the way.” At that moment all life is affirmed, is verified, and begins to sing and glow with joy divine. Jesus is the Yes—the yes to human joy, to human development, to life itself. He is the Yes!
O Jesus, my Lord, I’m so grateful for this wonderful “Yesness” in Thee. I am affirmed—the real I—when I affirm Thy Lordship. I live when I live in Thee—live to my fingertips. I thank Thee, thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Jesus is the Yes; everything outside Him is the no. I will live in the yes.
