There is nothing more mysterious to man than the mystery of the realm of grace. Man has not only consistently struggled to abdicate his throne to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, but he also continually struggles to understand how that Lordship of Jesus works out in his life. Sooner or later, man always seems to flounder in every aspect of his life.

Although man puts forth tremendous effort to live, he consistently fails to experience continual life. He often becomes confused in his search to experience the good life. The realm of living the abundant life, the realm of grace, invariably eludes him.

Mysteriously, the more man turns to himself to enhance his life the more lacking his life becomes. The more he attempts to live, the more he dies. The more he dies, the more he knows that life is more than what he is experiencing.

Moreover, man, without Christ, no longer has the capability even to perceive the realm where that good life is experienced. He simply cannot understand the mystery of the realm of grace that led Paul to declare ". . . all the body by joints and bands [attachments] having nourishment ministered [fully supplied], and knit together [united together], increaseth [to grow] with the increase [growth] of God" (Col. 2:19). Man cannot comprehend the mystery of his needs being fulfilled only in others--the mystery of the connecting links of life.

It is not that most men do not perceive the need for others. They do. However, most men see others only as a means to their end. Without the revelation of Jesus Christ, man will always use others to meet his perceived needs.

Man, at his best, will endeavor to acquire some admirable social skills to enhance his interaction with others. However, he will develop those skills only to have a more stable existence with the least amount of personal trouble for himself. He is willing to give up the fulfillment of some of his short term desires in order that his personal enhancement might reap greater dividends in the future. Although he may not openly abuse others, he simply does not understand that the life he desires to experience can only be found in, not by, others.

On the other hand, man, at his worst, constantly finds himself in abusive relationships. Paul described this abuse to the Philippians: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (3:18,19). Sadly, the very thing in which man attempts to find glory, his enhancement, is, in reality, his shame.

With his "belly" (inner selfish desires) as his God, man unknowingly plunges into his death. He does not perceive that the end of his abusiveness is hell. Minding earthly things, he misses the life of the heavenly realm--the life of experiencing Jesus in the connections.

The foundation of relationships, the foundation of life, is understood in "even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you [not singular, but plural], the hope of glory" (Col. 1:26,27). It is to understand that the ultimate definition of what it means to be a human being can only be defined, mysteriously, in the light of another person.