The Simplicity of Christ

By Christopher Davies

What God desires most from us has been clearly placed in front of us, yet it is often overlooked or ignored. We have heard over and over again that God loves us and wants a relationship with us. But do we honestly believe it?

The simple fact is that we already have everything we need to have a great relationship with God. It is our choice as to whether we will pursue a relationship that is both human and divine, but it is clearly a relationship that is within our reach.

Christopher Davies brings a clarity to God’s message that is refreshing and has strangely been missing from writings about theology and faith. Davies boils ideas down to their essentials and presents God as being far more relational, more empathetic, and more human than we had thought.

This book is at once surprising and simply obvious. It’s almost as if we’ve been missing the most important part of the conversation. Reading The Simplicity of Christ could absolutely change the way you think about God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664215955

Christopher Davies

Christopher Davies is an engagement strategist, advising companies and organizations on the value that authentic engagement brings to those who implement programs and strategies centering around healthy human connections. As a lover of Jesus, he understands the humanness and empathy of God and His relational intentions for those who want to be with Him. To help others better engage with the amazing personhood of God, he reminds us to simplify and focus on what matters most.

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Copyright © 2020 Christopher Davies.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher

make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book

and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982

by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1596-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1597-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1595-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020924645

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/14/2020

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1   Why We Were Created

Chapter 2   Why We Fell

Chapter 3   Why God Gave Us Laws

Chapter 4   Why God Gives Grace

Chapter 5   Why God Allows Suffering

Chapter 6   The Whys Lead to God’s Love

Chapter 7   Knowing God Encourages Relationship

Chapter 8   Abide

Chapter 9   Trust

Chapter 10   Love

Chapter 11   We Were Created for Greater

Chapter 12   Simply Simplify

INTRODUCTION

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God loves us. But do we really get what that means? More importantly, do we truly believe it? Does the idea of an infinite all-powerful, all-knowing, and sovereign Creator earnestly loving lowly, flawed beings such as ourselves honestly even make sense? We often believe that He loves us, but to what depths and how?

These are concepts that are challenging at best to gain a controlling grasp of the simple idea that God loves us. And as a result, we find ourselves falling just shy of a much deeper, much stronger, and much more intimate love than what He has planned for us. Imagine if we had a love relationship that woke us up in the morning in anticipation. One that leads to authentic conversations with God rather than just requests of Him. One that literally left us breathless and overwhelmed when in His presence. A relationship so easy and comfortable that it is always our default when we need that someone to turn to when going through the rigors of life. I believe that how we live and how we love are dramatically changed when we are able to experience the wholeness of what God has in store for us.

So what’s keeping us from experiencing a greater intimacy with God? In most instances, it is our own perceptions of who God is. Many times—stemming from religious roots that in an effort to establish an awe-inspired picture of a vastly omnipotent God—we miss the personhood of the same entity. We focus only on His dominative attributes instead of His more humanistic ones, overlooking perhaps the greatest examples of empathy as we veer our attention toward His judgment. I absolutely understand the importance of acknowledging and even embracing God’s sovereignty, but never at the expense of knowing the person of God or, more importantly, His intent for us.

Our greatest discord might arise from viewing God as more distant and standoffish than we ought. But what if God is more relational than we think? We should have considerable reverence for Him, which often plays out in not always being comfortable in approaching Him. This perhaps develops from what we experience in our typical relationships. Those individuals who are greatly esteemed are often inaccessible, and those who wield certain elevated stature or power even more so. Where the privilege of entering the presence of, let alone having quality time with, them seems something to be earned if even allowable. And so diminishes our comfort, confidence, and earnest desire to seek and establish an authentic and loving relationship with Him.

Ask yourself, Do I love God, or am I in love with God? Surprisingly, there is a lot of disparity between the two. And sometimes I feel that we are deceived by the first at the cost of minimizing the value of the second. We come so close to hitting the mark yet do not exactly hit it entirely. I believe we love God, but to what extent? Because of our skewed understanding of who God is, our capacities to give ourselves more fully are limited to our misunderstandings. As a result, we seldom find ourselves in love with Him, at least not to the proportion that is warranted or offered.

How we navigate our lives and our relationships with God and others is so telling of where our understanding lies and where our hearts might be. I hope that by penning these words I remind us of our original design and purpose to be in and to bring others into a wonderful, intimate, and loving relationship with God. One that promotes a comfortable and healthy dependence on and comfortable engagement with one who is passionately seeking both.

It can be maddening how often the intent is so clearly placed in front of us, and it is unfathomable that it gets overlooked. We hear over and over again that God loves us and wants a relationship with us. But do we honestly believe it? It’s like we know He loves us, but do we truly feel that God even likes us? Not really getting it, we feel there must be more to the equation that we must land on in order to warrant such a relationship with such an entity. Again, we overlook the obvious in hope of finding answers that might make more sense to our limited minds that might not truly understand the enormity of God’s love.

The best way to draw out the purest of God’s ultimate objective is to simplify in order to grasp better the clearest, most important message that is being shared with us through the Bible and His actions. To keep the main thing the main thing. To pause and to ponder the basics and then proceed in confidence with a solid grasp of what we believe and why. Let’s remind ourselves that as much as we try to overthink Christianity, it can and is meant to be simplified. God provides us with the Bible and ideas that a child could understand, although it can also be completely missed by the most intellectual of individuals. We approach God and His Word with curiosity and objectivity, and at times we even overthink everything. We must unlearn what we know and understand and be open to what He wants to reveal or reinforce. And again, at the end of the day, we must be able to reduce everything to its simplest, allowing it to be applicable in our actions and in our lives. The task to simplify, however, is anything but simple. I will argue that to be firmly effective in our simplifications, we must first broaden our scopes and initially overthink. We must take a bigger, more holistic approach and consider all factions to gain greater comprehension. Only then can we truly simplify.

To know God’s heart puts us on a journey to understand the why behind everything He says and does, and to learn the most basic intent of His actions and attributes. It’s through the discovery of the whys that we draw the best picture of God’s desire, which inevitably leads us to His intent—why we were created, why He allowed us to fall away, why He gave us the law, or why life is so hard. From answering a series of whys, we then land on the ultimate reason, which in the end is