Being in Christ vs. Being in Christianity

What if it is very difficult for a modern day Christian to experience what it really means to be "in Christ"?  What if the reason for all those books and teachings about who a Christian is in Christ is that we just don't experience it?  I mean what if we need all these reminders just because it's not a reality in our lives?  What if the reason that it's not a reality in our lives is that we traded being "in Christ" for being in Christianity?  What if being "in Christ" means to be outside of or free from religion/Christianity (and it's nagging thought: "I'm not good enough for God.  I have to change.")?  What if the freedom that Christ wants to bring is at odds with Christianity?   What if religion has to make way for something new?  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 2.Cor.5:17

New Religion vs. New Creation

What if Jesus never intended to found Christianity?  What if he didn't want another religion?  What if what Jesus taught was freedom from religion?  What if Christianity became exactly that which Jesus critisized in Judaism, a religion seperating people from the love of the Father?  What if Jesus' gospel is so much higher and deeper and wider than what Christianity could hold?  What if Jesus really is the firstborn of a new creation, instead of the founding father of a new religion?

Freedom from fear & shame

What if we, in western Christianity, don't understand anymore what it really means for Jesus to forgive our sins?  What if it's not just about a 'Ticket to Heaven' or a 'Hell-Free Card'?  What if for Jesus, when he walked this earth, forgiving people their sins used to be all about freeing them from the bondage of shame which seperated them from Father (ie. the paralyzed man in Luke 5)?  What if "Do not be afraid" and "your sins are forgiven" were some of the most spoken words of our big brother?  What if it really is fear and shame that keep us away from a loving relationship with Father?  What if sin is this seperation caused by fear and shame?  What if, trying to manage our own sin, we get sucked deeper and deeper into it by fear and shame?  Would it be enough to just deal with the sin?  Or do we need to allow Jesus to deal with the root of it: fear and shame?  What if religion is just using fear and shame for its advantage, instead of, like Jesus, removing the burden of it?  What if I can live in a loving relationship with Father without fear and shame?

Sin Management

What if living as a child of God is not about not sinning anymore?  What if for God it has never been about us not sinning?  What if, by trying to manage our sin, we're really worshipping sin, sacrificing good deeds on the altar to sin?  What if we're really "free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8)?  What if there really is "no condemnation" anymore (Did God ever condemn us, or was it our shame that condemned us?)?  What if life is 'just' about enjoying being one with Father?

Law vs. Love

What if we're doing the same thing to the New Testament (NT), as the Jews did to the Tanakh by writing the Talmud, trying to keep the law plus thousands of other extra rules. What I mean is that we take the NT (but also the OT) and read it as the law, something to live our lives by as good Christians.  And because it's not that easy to understand what the different authors really want us to do, we come up with commentaries that we need to study and adhere to as closely as possible.  What is the difference between a good study bible with footnotes and commentary (not to mention Christian book stores filled with advice and rules to live the Christian life succesfully, based on scripture), and the hundreds of intricate laws that the God fearing Jews put on themselves?  Have we really come away from living under the burden of the law?
What if Jesus is really right, and it all can be broken down to... LOVE?

Blood covenant & freedom

What if the reason that it is very hard for me to condure up a feeling of gratidude and meaningful thankfulness when thinking about Jesus dying on the cross (I'd have to watch "The Passion" or sing one of those slow "thank you for the cross" songs) is not that it's so long ago, but that I have never been under that blood covenant that Israel made with Yahweh?  What if the cross was primarily for the Jews?...and the life of the resurrection for all of creation?
What if I was born into freedom?...into life?...into the new covenant?
What if I can just live in that freedom without feeling guilty?
What if really being thankful is living out this freedom to the fullest (and not crawling on the floor telling God how awful and undeserving I am)?

Blood sacrifice...God or Shame?

What if God wasn't the one who demanded a blood sacrifice from us?
(What if Genesis 3:21 doesn't talk about God killing animals and clothing Adam and Eve with the fur?  What if He 'clothed' them in skin, their own human skin?)
What if it was our shame that first drove people to sacrifice animals?
What if all of Israel had gone up Mt. Sinai, instead of fearing the fire and asking Moses to mediate?
Wasn't it human shame that asked for the law?  Wasn't it the law that demanded sacrifices?
What if Jesus gave his life not to appease an angry God, but to appease (fulfill) the law that was put into place by popular demand?
What if that sacrifice really did once and for all deal with ALL our shame?