CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY
“Christ in you” suggests that Jesus is the Priest, the one perfect Saviour, operating in the inner shrine of the individual life. Through the intermediation of Christ inside us, we have personal and immediate access to the presence of God. “Christ in you” further explains that He is the King, ruling all the life, not by the law of carnal ordinances written on stone, but by the perpetual inspiration of His indwelling presence. God doesn’t want to give us things to the exclusion of Christ. Rather, He gives us Christ in whom are all things. Seek first Christ and you will become rightly related to God in such a way that you will be safe to receive those things which serve God’s purpose for you.
God makes it very simple and clear, perhaps so simple and clear that we often miss it. He tells us outright what the hope of a Christian is. It is Christ in us. Not merely hope in Christ who will come back someday — although He will come back. Rather the hope of a Christian is Christ in us now. Christ in us, who is our hope of glory. Paul says: “But of him God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord”. (I Cor. 1:30-31).
Christ Himself in us is likewise our Redemption. Have Christians realised that God has not given us a thing called salvation, or done a thing to us called Redemption, or merely given us things? No. God has given us CHRIST in whom are all things. God says, through Paul, “Christ who is our life.” (Col. 3:4) Jesus said, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:6). “The Lord is my light and my salvation…..” (Ps. 27:1).
Christ in us constitutes all that God has — “for you are complete in Him.” (Col.2:9-10). Thus, despite the fact that Christians’ growth is a process that takes a lifetime and more, it does not happen all at once. If you have Christ in you, you have everything that God has to give. From that point, it is a matter of learning Christ, and a matter of coming to manifest HIM. But this is not a matter of us becoming strong (increased). It is a matter of us becoming weak (decreased) and out of sight, so that Christ might be seen.
Have a blessed week!
