What is the Christian Life?

Quoting Pastor Jeremy Rhode from his September 21 appearance on Issues, Etc., continuing the series on the Gospel for former Evangelicals:

Eternal life is to know the Father and the Son. Eternal life isn’t a place – it’s a relationship with God, founded upon His grace towards us in Jesus. Eternal life is not something you will get, it’s something you have right now. The Father reveals Himself to you through His Son. “And this is eternal life,” Jesus says, “that they may know the Father and the Son.” So you have eternal life right now. “Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die,” Jesus says. “I am the resurrection and the life.” So the life that you will have for eternity is Jesus, and nothing else. And the life that you now have, is Jesus and nothing else. “I am the life,” He says. So the Christian life is Jesus.

Anyone who wants to make the Christian life foremost about you and what you do, has already put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. In fact, they’ve already missed the whole point. The Christian life is Jesus Himself and what He does for you. His cross, His pastoral care, His Word, and His Sacrament. And of course, this includes good works as well, but let them have their proper place, and let them be understood in this light. They are His good works that He does in you and through you. Sanctification is Christ in action, in you and through you. And we have this from the very mouth of God Himself: Philippians chapter two verse thirteen says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will, and to do, for His good pleasure.”