Christ, Our Life

Christ, Our Life
There is no doubt that our Lord Jesus Christ is our life. As our teacher Saint Paul the Apostle had said “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21), and as in the book of Proverbs “For whoever finds me finds life” (Proverb 8:35) concerning the Logos. So, Christ is our life from all aspects; as He gives us the life of our bodies and spirits, and he also gives us the privileges of God’s children, and makes us heirs to the kingdom of heaven.

First: Who is Christ?
We believe that Christ is 
1. One person in the Holy Trinity, our one God
2. God the creator
3. God incarnate
4. The good teacher
5. The good shepherd
6. They redeemer who put himself for me
7. The one Who Has risen from the dead for us all
8. And ascended into Heaven as a precursor to all of us
9. The bridegroom and the head of the holy church
10. And he is also the one to come from heaven to take us with him to live in His kingdom

1- One person in the Holy Trinity

• We believe in one God. This is how we cry out many times every day in a our Christian creed
• He is one because he is infinite. If we suppose, for argument’s sake, that there are two or three gods, each of them will be limited. There can only be one infinity, so our God is both limitless and infinite.
• As an example of the Trinity, let’s take the sun. The sun = fire + light + warmth
o The fire and the light and the warmth = one sun
o The fire is different from the light or the warmth, but all three are in one and the same sun
o Should the sun lose its fire or its light or its warmth, it would be sun no more
o Three multiplied in one 1 × 1 × 1 = 1 (in essence ), 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 (in persons)
• We say “the Father” because he is the origin in the Holy Trinity, and we say the “Son” because He is born of Him like light is born of fire, or like words a born of the mind; they come out of it but remain in it. We say “the Spirit” because He Has come out of the Father from the very beginning; just as warmth comes out from the sun but not from its light, though light carries it to us, so light is born of the fire, while warmth comes out of it, still all three are in one and the same sun.

2- He is God the Creator

God Has created the universe with His only begotten Son in the Holy Spirit. Man and his mind and his spirit are one and the same man. And God and His Word and His Spirit are one and the same God. All three persons are differentiable though inseparable. In other words, the Father is not the same as the Son or the Holy Spirit, but all three are one and the same essence. This is why Lord Jesus Had said “I and my Father are one,” (John 10:30). In exactly the same way, my mind and I are one.

The Logos (the Word) said about Himself in the book of Proverbs: “I wisdom …, I was set up from everlasting …, Then I was by him (that is, by God)” (Proverbs 8:12,23,30). So the person of Wisdom is both from the beginning and creator. Hence, God created the universe in His Wisdom and with His Word, and the Bible says: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” (Genesis 1:1-3). Here we can see the Holy Trinity: God the Father and the Logos (the Word) and the Spirit of God. God in His three persons created the world and the whole of creation. So, all three persons in our one God work together, which we have seen before in incarnation, redemption and salvation, etc.

3- He is God incarnate

When Isaiah prophesied about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, he said: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14). Therefore, He is a child that will be a man, and in the same time, He is God, Almighty and Everlasting. He resembled us in everything except sin alone.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was born twice:
1. An eternal birth, because He’s born of the Father before all time, the same as light is born of fire, or words are born of the mind. A word comes out of the mind and travels all over the world, but remains in the mind all the same.
2. A temporal birth from Virgin Mary in the mystery of the incarnation.

God Had prepared for the incarnation in many ways all through the Old Testament. So, He appeared as man many times, as happened with Abraham (Genesis 18), Jacob (Genesis 32), Joshua (Joshua 5), Gideon (Judges 6) and Daniel (Daniel 10), etc. Many apparitions prepared for the incarnation.

Finally, divinity united with the human flesh that He took from the Virgin Mary. He resembled us in everything except sin alone; since the Holy Spirit sterilised the substance that He took from Virgin Mary, preparing for Himself a body out of her.

800 years before His birth, Balaam prophesied that a star would appear from Jacob, guiding the magi to the divine child, the hosts of the angels telling the good news of the holy birth of the Saviour, the Holy, Son of God. “… that Holy One Who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35).

4- He is a good teacher

It never happened in the history of humanity that a man came that was holy, without sin, except our Lord Jesus Christ. He is man as far as His human nature is concerned, but holy as far as His divine nature is also concerned. The two natures united in one, exactly like when the human spirit unites with the human body; these are two different natures, but they both unite in one nature, namely the human nature.

When our Lord Jesus Christ started to teach, everybody was amazed of His exalted, heavenly teachings. So much so, Gandhi, the Indian leader, said: “If the Bible were a crown, the Sermon on the Mount is the jewel of that crown.” Indeed, Gandhi peacefully sought to drive away the English occupant, until occupation ended, and the English left India.

Are we to talk about the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, which overflows with love and holiness? Or about the other sermons and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ all over the four gospels?

Never has humanity seen another teacher who provided such exalted, holy teachings. That is because our Lord Jesus is the holy one who “knew no sin;” (II Corinthians 5:21).

5- He is the good shepherd

Lord Jesus tended to his children in all love and tenderness. He saw them thrown like sheep with no one to care for, so He came and wrapped up their wounds, and healed the sick, and had mercy on them, as He did with the deaf young man. The Bible states that “He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha”, that is, “Be opened”, (Mark 7:34), so he started to speak. Again, when He wept at Lazarus’ grave, and over the doomed Jerusalem, and when He said to Judas: “Friend, why have you come?” (Matthew 26:50).

He Has proven to be the good shepherd with His teachings, His love and His tenderness. He cares for us from one sunrise to the next. He makes it rise over the bad and the good, in His overwhelming and forgiving love who does not wish for the death of the sinner, but for him to come back and live.

6- He is the loving Redeemer

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends,” (John 15:13). Our Lord Christ redeemed us on the cross, thus providing a solution for two problems that mankind has, namely:
1. The Death Judgment: that we had to suffer because of our sins, “For the wages of sin is death;” (Romans 6:23).
2. The Corruption of Nature: as our human nature had been corrupted with the virus of sin, which was transmitted from one generation to the next. Exactly as microbe of syphilis or the virus of AIDS is transmitted to the foetus in his mother’s womb.

On the cross, Christ died for us, and so:
1. He carried the judgment of death in our place, thus saving us from this judgment. As Saint Peter says: “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree,” (I Peter 2:24). As well as our teacher Saint Paul: “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:18). And again Saint Athanasios the Apostolic: “He died instead of us, or in our place”.
2. He cleansed us in His pure blood and His Holy Spirit. The Bible states that: “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin,” (I John 1:7). Therefore, we look towards the cross as to the serpent of copper; everybody who looked at it was healed from the poison of the burning serpent. In us was accomplished what the Lord Had said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15).

It was notable that our teacher Saint Paul considered the cross as something targeted for him personally, stating that: “who loved me, and gave himself for me,” (Galatians 2:20). So, Lord Jesus loves each one of us in person, and cares for each and every one. Let us benefit from Christ’s blood that was shed for us, and establish a personal relationship with Him through: prayer, the Bible, communion and service.

7- He is the one Who Has risen from the dead for us

Since our Lord Jesus Christ is without sin, death could not seize Him. Instead, His human soul, united to His divinity, went down to Hades, where the good and the bad were held in the grip of the Devil. When the Devil wanted to seize the human soul of Christ (united to his divinity) like with all other good souls, it was stricken by the current of divinity, and was crushed forever, and Paradise was opened, and the good souls were received in it.

Then our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, since His dead body was united to His living, infinite divinity. Christ’s resurrection is different from all those who were raised before or after then, even to the Last Day, because our Lord Jesus Christ:
1. Has risen by His own power, whereas they were raised by His word, or by the powerful prayers of saints.
2. Has risen with a body of light, whereas Lazarus, for example, was raised with a normal body, and died once more.
3. Has risen and never died again, and will never die forever. All those who were raised like Tabitha, or Jairus’ daughter, died once more, whereas Christ lives forever.

That glorious resurrection was meant for us; because when we are raised from the dead, we will be raised with a body of light that is spiritual, heavenly and glorified; one that resembles the body of His resurrection, so we can be launched with Him to Heaven, and live there forever. See I Corinthians 15:42, and I Thessalonians 4:13. So, Lord Jesus “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,” (Philippians 3:21).

8- He ascended into Heaven as a precursor to us

For Christ ascended into Heaven in flesh, i.e. His divinity never left His humanity on the earth, since the two natures were united in one, forever inseparable nature. This Ascension was meant to precede ours. This means that, in the Last Day, when the Lord comes on clouds, we change into bodies of light. So, those who have lied down shall be raised from the dead with bodies of light, and Lord Jesus will meet them on clouds. Those who are still living, the believers who happen to be still existing on earth on that day shall suffer a swift death (that is, a quick separation of the soul and body, followed by a quick return), and shall then be raised with bodies of light, too. Then, the Lord will take us with Him on clouds, and accompany us into Heaven.

The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ offers many blessings:
1. The assertion of the ascension of our bodies of light on the Last Day.
2. The sanctification of the human body; here it is sanctified, and ascends into Heaven.
3. Redeeming intercession, as our Lord Jesus Christ now intercedes for us before the Divine Justice, so as our own sins are forgiven in His blood.
4. A preparation of the fullness in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit came down on the Disciples in the form of wind and flames of fire and new languages.
5. A promise of the Second Coming to take us to Himself, so we can live with Him in His kingdom.

9- He is the Bridegroom and the Head of the Church

Lord Jesus calls Himself the Bridegroom of the Church, as John the Baptist had put it: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom,” (John 3:29), “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; … This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church,” (Ephesians 5:25, 32).

The Lord assimilates the unification of man and woman to the unification of Christ and the Church. Indeed, the Song of Songs offers us so many verses expressing this joyous fact: that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. And He is also “the Head of the body”, the Head of the Church, the Church being His body. Each and every member of the body is connected to the Head, exactly as the smallest of toes of the foot is connected to the brain through the network of the nerves. That is why the Bible says: “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them,” (Isaiah 63:9). He asked Saul of Tarsus: “why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4) because he persecuted His children, not Himself personally during the period of His incarnation on earth.

The Church, therefore, is not just a group of individuals, rather a group of members united, interconnected and interdependent. Though each member is unique and different, all members are in harmony through a holy unity that edifies the whole body.

The Lord has indeed established, within the Church:
1. Holy Sacraments to edify us:
a. Baptism, which renovates us, and through which we enjoy a rebirth.
b. Myron, which anoints us in the Holy Spirit, making us a temple for Himself.
c. Eucharist, which holds us fast to Christ, and gives us an eternal life.
d. Repentance, which reactivates Baptism in us though faithful concession.
e. Unction of the Sick, which heals the patient spiritually, and physically according to God’s will.
f. Matrimony, which unites the couple in the Holy Spirit.
g. Priesthood, which serves all other sacraments, offering the authority to withhold or release, for the purpose of edification.
2. The Company of the Saints: where we find their biographies, their examples, their power and intercession. This is how they became such a support for believers who still have to struggle on this earth, like a cloud of witnesses, monitoring our struggle, supporting our weakness and intercedes for us.
3. The Fathers Sayings, where we find explanations for the books of the Holy Bible, and guidance through the spiritual path. They became personal examples to us, and enlightenment to our minds and the road to Heaven, sparing us from being lost or deviated along the way.
4. And an Exclusive Liturgy, where we find the Holy Mass, and prayers for the sick, or those who travel, or passed away, or estranged, or orphaned; where we find daily praise, the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, the beatification of the Holy Virgin Mary, … etc.

10- He will come again to take us

He told us: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also,” (John 14:2-3).

We thus cry out, every time we pray our Creed: “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the coming age.”

Our teacher John, who wrote the book of Revelation, ended his speech saying: “Surely I come quickly!” and John responds “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20).

The signs of the Second Coming are manifold: the advent of Elijah and Enoch, the advent of Antichrist, a wave of atheism, many Jews believing in Christ, hard times, etc. Still, no-one knows for sure the time of His coming; in His own words, He said: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own authority,” (Acts 1:7).

The important thing is to be constantly on the alert, with repentance and concession, faithful in our struggle, with good deeds, with spiritual vigilance over ourselves “that no man take your crown,” (Revelation 3:11). Let us finish with the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ when He said: “Watch!” (Mark 13:37).

Second: Christ is our life

Our Lord Jesus Christ is, no doubt, the secret of our live. This is why we call Him, in the Litany of the gospel: “You are the hope to all of us, the cure to all of us, the life of all of us, and the salvation to all of us.” Therefore, our teacher Saint Paul says concerning Him: “For to me to live is Christ,” (Philippians 1:21). This is because our Lord Jesus Christ is the secret of:

1. Our physical life:
Thus we say: “For in him we live, and move, and have our being;” (Acts 17:28) since it was He Himself who stated: “I wisdom …, I was set up from everlasting …, Then I was by Him (that is, by God)” (Proverbs 8:12,23,30). Our Lord Jesus Christ grants us a new day every morning. Therefore, we should maintain a close relationship with Him all day long, through attending masses, the Agpia hourly prayers, as well as direct prayers like “My Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!”, and personal, free prayers where we talk with Him about all our daily circumstances, successes or failures, … etc.

2. Our spiritual life:
It was our Lord Jesus Christ who reconciled us with Heaven through His glorious redemption. It was an answer to that cry of Isaiah the Prophet: “Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down,” (Isaiah 64:1), and that other cry of Job: “Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.” (Job 9:33). The Son, the Logos, has incarnated and redeemed us on the Cross. Through that redemption, reconciliation took place between God and people, and thus “Good will toward men” (Luke 2:14) became a fact. This meant that God became content with people after their life was renovated with the blood of Christ, the Redeemer. It then became possible for us to be God’s own sons and daughters, and enter into a close relationship with Him through prayer, the Bible and the Communion.

3. Our conceptual life:
When Man fell, nature became his enemy; so, some animals became fierce, even a virus like AIDS became capable of destroying man in his entirety. Thus, Man became a prey to the Devil, illnesses and disasters. But, when our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us with His pure blood, He took us back to the Father’s bosom, and so we became God’s sons and daughters “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God, Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (I John 3:1). So much so, that those who believed in Him were called “the children of God,” (I John 3:1). Our honour now extends from Earth to Heaven when He granted us to be heirs of His Kingdom, and live with Him in His glory forever.

4. And our eternal life:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent,” (John 17:3). With His glorious redemption, our Lord Jesus Christ has opened up the gates to Paradise. He granted us to be raised from the dead in bodies that are of light, spiritual, heavenly and glorified. The Apostle even said that our Lord Jesus Christ: “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,,” (Ephesians 2:6) … “enter into the joy of our Lord,” (Matthew 25:23) … “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25) … “Because I live, you will live also.,” (John 14:19) … “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them; … and there shall be no more death,” (Revelation 21:3-4).


Third: Christ is our Example and Teacher

Our Lord Jesus Christ is The Holy (i.e. His holiness is limitless). But He granted us, in the Holy Spirit, to be fruitful in nine ways (Galatians 5:22), namely: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

We haven’t found anything better than the book by H.H. Pope Shenouda III (Fruits of the Spirit), in which he offered a detailed spiritual study about all of those fruits. Here are some excerpts of what he wrote:-

1. Love:
• “Many have treaded the path of Repentance from the outside, but go through Love from the inside. So, relationships practices and rituals were established between God and themselves, but Love between the two parties was lacking. So, the lives of those people became a failure.”
• “Get into the depth of Love, and it will never fail.”
• “With Love man would live in perpetual joy; joy in the Lord who leads him in the road of His victory.”
2. Joy:
• “Let us notice here that there is a difference between pleasure and joy.”
• “Pleasure concerns the body and its senses, whereas real joy concerns the spirit.”
• “Real joy is having joy in the Lord, the joy of being in the presence of the Lord, of having an established relationship with Him.”
• “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)
3. Peace:
• “Peace with God, as well as peace that comes from God.”
• “Peace with others.”
• “Internal peace within the heart, between man and himself.”
• “Never allow conflicts to be caused by yourself.”
• “Be very patient and meek”
4. Longsuffering (Patience)
• “God Himself is very patient”
• “He is patient in dealing with sinners.”
• “People have manners that need longsuffering to change.”
• “With longsuffering, we do not get angry at sinners.”
• “Look at trees, how they bear fruits only after many years.”


5. Kindness:
• “If you are not kind to people, you are not a believer at all.”
• “A truly kind heart does not rebuke much.”
• “… and wins people with kindness.”
6. Goodness:
• “Negative goodness is steering away from sins.”
• “As for positive goodness, they are represented by the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) in the New Testament.”
• “So a man should do both: steer away from all sorts of sins (negatively), and seeks to follow all virtues (positively).”
7. Faith:
• “There is Faith in the doctrine, as well as Faith in public life.”
• “True faith shows clearly in our practical life, in our practices, in our relationship with God and with other people.”
• “Now, this is practical faith.”
8. Gentleness:
• “A gentle person is usually loved by all people on this earth, too. So, he wins this (mortal) world, and that of the Living.”
• “Gentleness characterised Christians from the very beginning.”
• “A gentle person is one who is goodhearted and peaceful.”
• “He is quiet in everything.”
9. Self-control and self-discipline
• “A disciplined tongue is a polite, nice one.”
• “Discipline of the heart is that of feelings, passions and the senses; it is discipline of aims, conscience and desires.”
• “Discipline of the mind and the heart is also about discipline of the subconscious.”
• Disciplining the body is in steering it away from all carnal and bad longings.”

St Mark Festival Slogan 2011

Christ, our source of Life
You’re the meaning of it all
In you we exist and thrive
For you’re the pulse behind it all
Your Spirit that dwells in us
Offers peace and joy to all

Church incense makes it heavenly
It’s indeed our spiritual ark
The Bible gives salvation guidance
Its teachings give life’s own spark
And our Lord is Captain Great
And He is the path to Eternity’s gate

Download E - Logo  2011 - click here