LIFE IN CHRIST: chap. 2, part 1

Lent with Fr Harton

Excerpts of Chapter 2—“Members of Christ”—begin today. What are you all thinking of Life in Christ? What is striking you? Anything hard to understand? Let me know in the comment section below.

Note: Only the first bits of the excerpts are available free subscribers. To read the rest you will have to become a paid subscriber. To do so, see below—it supports publishing ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality.

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CHAPTER 2: MEMBERS OF CHRIST (part 1)

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.”—S. John xv. 5.

In the last chapter we considered what S. John—and, incidentally, the Church Catechism—tells us that we are as Christians. We were dealing with our being and its relation to the being of God—a somewhat metaphysically subject—and, since metaphysics is not a popular branch of knowledge, it is possible that some may find such considerations rather difficult. In this chapter we pass on to another truth of the Catechism which should be easier of comprehension.

The Catechism says that we are not only children of God but also members of Christ, a statement whose full value we seldom appreciate. It will be well, then, to think about this, for the two facts are closely interrelated. We are sons of God because we are members of Christ, our new birth comes through Him; it is not a new development in the order of nature but the gift of God through Jesus Christ.