Existential Reality, whatever the hell that means...

Dr. William Lane Craig, a renowned speaker with two Ph.D.s from some university or other, was speaking at Texas A&M today about the historical evidence for the Resurrection of Christ. It was a decent talk, and I learned some information that I didn't know before, but during the question and answer time, one student asked what the relevancy of the Resurrection was to today. Dr. Craig gave an answer that was basically on the lines of, "If Jesus is alive, that means that God vindicated His claims to Deity" (a very good answer). However, He also said (also correctly) that few people have the historical training to look into the Resurrection, instead they embrace the Resurrection through "experiencing Jesus as an existential reality". My gut reaction to this was to ask, "What the hell does that mean?". My second gut reaction was to laugh. My third gut reaction was to think about it.

There's no question that modern evangelicalism overuses phrases like "personal relationship with Christ". I think that phrase should be made into a single word and added to Webster's: personalrelationshipwithchrist. Sometimes I think I will throw up if I hear the phrase, "Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship" one more time. But that's beside the point.

Part of Christianity is a relationship with Christ such that the Holy Spirit indwells us and makes us into Christ's own. The Holy Spirit changes us in a fundamental way, carrying His beginning work of regeneration slowly on to completion (Philippians 1:6). Sometimes, I think I've lost too much sight of that. I pray for God to sanctify me every morning, but sometimes that prayer can become a ritual. I want God to fundamentally change me, sure, but when I look at a process that spans months or years from a day by day basis, it feels like nothing is happening.

A lot of times, it is very easy for me to forget that the Holy Spirit is working in my life. I get frustrated with myself for things that I do, for not thinking before I say something, or for acting out of selfish motives. That is not how I want to be. I want to love others before myself, and God first and foremost. And it seems like I keep trying and failing and trying and failing.

But we do have the Holy Spirit changing us on the inside. And that, for the Christian, is a reassuring thing, because that means that the Holy Spirit will make us into people that reflect Him better. I want God to reform both my thinking and my character. I may not know what it means to experience Jesus as an existential reality, but I think that's what he was getting at...

Luke