{"id":21163,"date":"2022-03-23T08:58:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T12:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21163"},"modified":"2022-03-23T10:29:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T14:29:08","slug":"21163","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21163","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ts3xhw4E9LM\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Living in Christ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Theologian Ursula King sees Paul as a forerunner of the Christian mystics<\/em>.&nbsp;<em>Here she summarizes his key mystical themes:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul\u2019s great mystical experience on the road to Damascus, which changed him from an enemy into an ardent supporter of the early Christians, made him into one of the strongest witnesses to the power of the spirit of Christ, \u201cin whom we live, move and have our being\u201d [Acts 17:28]. While the Gospels describe Christ\u2019s life, his death and resurrection, the Pauline Epistles bear witness to an intense and deeply transforming faith, rooted both in powerful personal experience and in the community of the early disciples, which later became the Christian Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul describes himself as \u201ca man in Christ,\u201d affirming a deep union with the Divine which does not negate his own identity but enables him to live within the divine nature itself: \u201cI live, now not I; but Christ lives within me\u201d [Galatians 2:20]. He also sings the praises of active love, of charity, inspired by the fire of divine love and outlines a vision of the cosmic Christ, the Christ who \u201cis all, and is in all\u201d [Colossians 3:11]. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Jesuit scholar Harvey Egan likewise views Paul as a mystic who gave himself fully to the love of God in Christ, and who believed others could do likewise:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the very depths of his being, Paul experienced and surrendered to the love of God in Christ. For him the Lord was the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17). Pauline mysticism is emphatically Christ-directed; \u201cto live,\u201d for Paul, \u201cis Christ\u201d (Philippians 1:21).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul considered it almost self-evident that all Christians, <strong>because of Christ and his Spirit, had relatively easy access to an experience of God in their lives. <\/strong>Although he spoke of the \u201cmature\u201d in faith (1 Corinthians 2:6) and the \u201cspiritual\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:15), he expected mature faith of all Christians. The Holy Spirit granted all Christians a \u201csurpassing knowledge\u201d (Ephesians 3:19), the \u201cfullness of knowledge\u201d (Ephesians 1:17), and in this way proved to us that we are \u201c[children] of God\u201d (Romans 8:14) who can also call God, \u201cAbba, Father\u201d (Romans 8:15). Christ\u2019s Spirit would pray in us \u201cwith sighs too deep for words\u201d (Romans 8:26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Linked intimately to a loving knowledge of the crucified and risen Christ is a \u201csecret and hidden wisdom of God\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:7), a peace beyond all understanding (Philippians 4:7), and a supreme consolation<\/strong> (2 Corinthians 1:5). <strong>Those living in Christ\u2019s Spirit<\/strong> <strong>experience a richer way of life <\/strong>(Ephesians 1:8\u20139) filled with love, joy, peace, self-control, gentleness, patience, and kindness (Galatians 5:22) that enables them to bear each other\u2019s burdens (Galatians 6:2). As Paul said: \u201cWhat no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the [human] heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him, God has revealed to us through the Spirit\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:9\u201310). . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time and again, Paul spoke of being \u201cin Christ.\u201d For him, moreover, \u201cit is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me\u201d (Galatians 2:20). [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"368\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-9-500x368.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21164\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-9-500x368.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-9-300x221.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-9-768x565.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-9.png 1748w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Living in Christ Theologian Ursula King sees Paul as a forerunner of the Christian mystics.&nbsp;Here she summarizes his key mystical themes:&nbsp; Paul\u2019s great mystical experience on the road to Damascus, which changed him from an enemy into an ardent supporter of the early Christians, made him into one of the strongest witnesses to the power [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21163"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21168,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21163\/revisions\/21168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}