========================================================================
  CHRIST HIMSELF THE CONTENT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
  by Major Ian Thomas
========================================================================

Summary: Major Ian Thomas emphasizes that Christ Himself is the
essential content of Christian faith, highlighting His roles in
reconciliation and ongoing salvation through the Holy Spirit.

Topics: "Regeneration", "The Life of Christ"
Scripture References: Romans 5:10, Philippians 2:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:24, Titus 3:5-6

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major Ian Thomas emphasizes that Christianity transcends mere religion
or ethics, as it is fundamentally centered on Christ Himself, who is the
essence of the Christian faith. He explains that Christ's death
reconciles us to God, while His life continually saves and empowers us
through the Holy Spirit. This dynamic relationship with Christ is what
enables believers to live out their faith actively and meaningfully.
Thomas highlights that the presence of the Holy Spirit signifies
regeneration and new birth, allowing Christians to experience divine
action in their lives. Ultimately, it is Christ who fulfills all the
demands of faith and life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is something, which makes Christianity more than a religion, more
than an ethic, and more than the idle dream of the sentimental idealist.
It is this something, which makes it relevant to each one of us right
now as a contemporary experience. It is the fact that Christ Himself is
the very life content of the Christian faith. It is He who makes it
"tick." "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (I
Thessalonians 5:24). The One who calls you is the One who does that to
which He calls you. "For it is God which worketh in you, both to will
and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). He is Himself the
very dynamic of all His demands.

Christ did not die simply that you might be saved from a bad conscience,
or even to remove the stain of past failure, but to "clear the decks"
for divine action. You have been told that Christ died to save you. This
is gloriously true in a very limited, though vital sense. In Romans 5:10
we read, "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his
life." The Lord Jesus Christ therefore ministers to you in two distinct
ways - He reconciles you to God by His death, and He saves you by His
life.

This, however, is but the beginning of the story, "for if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, (now an accomplished fact,) we shall be saved (as a
continuing process) by His life" (Romans 5:10). The glorious fact of the
matter is this no sooner has God reconciled to Himself the man who has
responded to His call, than He re-imparts to him, as a forgiven sinner,
the presence of the Holy Spirit, and this restoration to him of the Holy
Spirit constitutes what the Bible calls regeneration, or new birth.
Titus 3:5 and 6, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Saviour."

From: The Saving Life of Christ, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing
House. ©1961.

========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/major-ian-thomas/christ-himself-the-content-of-christian-faith/
========================================================================