“In Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28, NIV. Intriguing statement, don’t you think? Besides good lyrics for a song, what are we to understand from it? What was Luke’s intent in writing this? Had he come to understand something of critical importance for a fledgling church to grasp?
Well, I think Luke is fascinated with everything concerning our new ‘standing’ as followers of Jesus. New Life is all-pervasive, all-encompassing. Every aspect of living life now is totally ‘other’ from what it was before we surrendered to Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Living ‘in’ Jesus indicates a secure place of perfect peace, the peace Jesus lived ‘in.’ We have unflappability regarding all outside circumstances when we are ‘here’ in that space. We glimpse deeper truth about the ‘Omnis.’ If Jesus is Omnipresent, then we can never find ourselves where he is not. If Jesus is Omniscient, then there is nothing he does not know and that includes the answer to our every question, our every request. If Jesus is Omnicompetent, then there exists not one thing he cannot unravel and make clear to us when we ask. If Jesus is Omnificent, then he is unlimited in creative power and is forever able to make a way where there is no way, including, but not limited to, cleansing our bodies of cancers and the like. (Hallelujah!)
If we ‘move’ in Jesus, then he walks by our side 24/7, providing guidance and reassurance and friendship, and guaranteeing that we are never, ever, alone. More than that, every ‘movement’ of our hearts, our thinking, our emotions, has the benefit of his poured-out, forgiving love. Every decision is bathed in the comforting aura of his presence.
If we ‘have our being’ in Jesus, then our real self (our real being) is the self that has been unshackled from its previous existence and now is free from all bondage to sin. It is now the false self (the old us), the one born under the curse, that is locked up, imprisoned, for all eternity. We now emit, often unbeknownst to us, a certain glowing radiance (the aroma of Christ?) to the world around us. We exhibit the total absence of heaviness and now luxuriate in the closer-than-a brother companionship of Jesus himself. Best. Life. Ever. PD
