Who Is Controlling You?

I just finished another book called Who Will Deliver Us?  The Present Power of the Death of Christ by Paul Zahl.   Powerful.

One of the things he wrote had to do with the power we give to others, power over ourselves.  Zahl wrote:

A ministry of imputation calls for preaching and teaching a dramatic affirmation of the self.  (I had a little difficulty with that sentence, till I read the rest of what he wrote).  It is initially a question of recognizing a virtually universal negative experience (something everyone might experience) of life:  that we allow others to carry our value.  Other people have an extraordinary hold over us:  their view of us, or what we think their view is, matters more than what we think of ourselves.  Imputation (Christ's righteousness credited to us) turns this situation around, declaring that in the great transaction of the death of Christ, God has reaffirmed the priceless value he conferred on human beings in our creation.  (p. 73)

That is pretty heavy.  We all relinquish that kind of control to others every day of our lives--some of us more than others.  How?

FARLEY PART VIII: “WE DON’T MARRY DEAD PEOPLE” OR “DO NOT LIVE LIKE JESUS” AND “SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE IS NOT FOR THE BELIEVER” AND “EVIDENCE IS NOT NECESSARY”

We ARE To Walk As Jesus Walked

Farley argues in this section that believers are not to live like Jesus lived.  He wrote, “Hence, we’re not being asked to imitate the recorded actions of Jesus of Nazareth.  Instead, we’re invited to allow Jesus to do what he has always done—be himself.  The risen Christ wants to do this through our unique personalities in every moment of every day” (p. 178).  One of the problems with this statement is that Farley fails to describe what that looks like.  Farley also rejected living like Christ when he wrote, “Some Christians mistakenly obsess over everything that the historical Jesus did in the four gospels.  We memorize his words and actions and try to imitate them the best we can” (p. 180).  Farley discarded living like Christ when he wrote, “The motivation for daily living within the New Testament centers around acting like the person you truly are and benefiting from Christ’s life in the here and now…We’re urged to grasp an important spiritual truth: when we come to Jesus Christ, we receive his life.  Through our expression of him, we find fulfillment” (p. 182).  Again, Farley fails to describe what this looks like,