“LET WHAT YOU heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard . . . abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24). Just what does “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you” signify? One commentator says it refers to the beginning of your Christian life, your conversion. But the context would point to the beginning as the Incarnation. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes” (1 John 1:1)—Jesus! The immediate context says: “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 John 2:22). The issue is Jesus, the Incarnate, who was the Christ. If you let this fact of the Incarnation abide in you, you will abide in the Son and in the Father. Both Father and Son are found in the Incarnation. If you lose the Incarnation—Jesus—you lose both the Son and the Father. The Gnostics lost Jesus the Incarnate and lost the Son and the Father. So do we if we lose Jesus. The issue is Jesus.
Rufus Moseley began as a Southern Baptist professor of literature, wandered through Christian Science, New Thought, and Pentecostalism, and came out finally to Jesus. He saw with deep clarity that the Incarnate Jesus was the issue—not Christ, nor God, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the kingdom of God, but Jesus. When he came to Jesus, his wanderings were over. He had arrived. To hear him say “Jesus” was to hear the music of heaven, and to look into his face was to see his Master. When he found Jesus he found the key to everything—God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God, everything, to life itself. Lose the Incarnate Jesus and everything tumbles with the loss. Jesus once said to Rufus: “You have one business in life and only one business: abide in union with Me.” When he did that, he had everything.
O Jesus, my Lord, when I deepen my consciousness of Thee, everything falls into its place, everything adds up to sense and meaning. All my life becomes Life and all my joy becomes Joy. I thank Thee for Thee. What else do I need? Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The key to the Christian faith is not the information it imparts, but the Incarnation it presents.
