The Hope of Glory with Christ in Us
The Hope of Glory with Christ in Us.
[this article is in process, so please wait to read this until it is finished]
“I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27, NIV).
Here we find St. Paul summing up the gospel in two joined phrases… “Christ in you the hope of glory.” He is offering here the greatest mystery of all, a phrase that states the “word of God in its fullness.” There is no other religious leader who actually intends to dwell in his followers. Mohammed didn’t promise that, Buddha didn’t, nobody did, except Jesus Christ. This phrase is only the first part of the mystery. An additional divine secret was revealed by God here: the God of the Jews, the Chosen People, who himself was Jewish, is promised to the Gentiles as well! The Hebrew Scriptures talk about the salvation of the Gentiles, but nowhere is there a sense that God himself will dwell within the Gentile! This is something utterly new, unexpected, unprecedented. This revelation had people scratching their heads in Israel. “Christ in you,” the Bible says. Not merely near you, or around you, or with you, or for you, but in you. This is the mystery for the ages, revealed to the world, to Gentile and Jew alike, by the Son of God. The Trinity of God wants to make a home in us! The Creator of the universe wants to live in us and enjoy fellowship with us!
“A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and as stewards of the mysteries of God. Think of us as Messiah’s official underlings and as those who are entrusted with the mysteries of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1).
SERVANTS: (Greek, “hyperetas”); literally the under-rower, the lowly person pulling the oars on the lower deck of the ship; the underlings; the subordinates who have special orders. A servant of Christ is one who is content to decrease while Christ increases, who considers it a privilege to serve Jesus in a way that is hidden, humble, and full of trust in God’s purposes.
STEWARDS: (Greek, “oikonomos”); literally the manager of a household responsible to dispense what is needed; the custodian in a home given the responsibility to carefully distribute the necessities when needed; managers; caretakers; trustees, or those entrusted with important responsibilities from the owner of the house. In this context, to responsibly take care of the revelations of God and disperse the knowledge of God’s mysteries in a way that would honor the owner’s wishes; to carefully explain the revealed secrets of God’s in a responsible way; to guard the sanctity of what God has decided to reveal. A competent and faithful steward would be one who “holds the mystery of the Faith with a pure conscience.” (1 Timothy 3:9), since we are also called to be “stewards of God’s grace.” (Ephesians 3:2). So if God has anything to do with it, these stewards of God’s mysteries must “speak the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4:15).
MYSTERY: (Greek, “mysterion”); a sacred secret hidden in the heart of God until the appointed time of revelation; a truth that can only be known by divine disclosure; spiritual insights into God’s way of thinking and planning; hidden truths revealed by God that are beyond human intellect and reason; divine knowledge that can only be understood through the Holy Spirit; God’s thoughts and plans revealed to believers and hidden to skeptical doubters and those who choose not to believe.
Starting the Process. What does this indwelling process look like? Again, remember this is in many ways the mystery of mysteries, according to St. Paul. But we get a little picture of it in Revelation 3:20: “Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share a meal at that person’s side.” (the New Jerusalem Bible version). So this is a simple glimpse of this mysterious process… Jesus knocks on the door of your heart and calls to us; we listen to this knocking and calling from inside the door; we open the door and invite Him inside our heart; Jesus walks in and desires to have a fellowship meal together as friends. That seems to be the general picture in simple terms, though it remains a mystery in many ways. Notice that Jesus didn’t enter into our heart and first thing try to clean up the place, or tell us what to do, or begin some rebuilding projects? The first thing Jesus wanted to do was to have table fellowship, to share a meal as friends. Jesus settles into our heart by breaking bread and establishing an intimate companionship.
Divine Fellowship. Notice that He initiates the process, but we are expected to hear him knocking and calling. Is our life too loud, too noisy, too busy, to preoccupied to actually hear Him at our heart’s door? Is our lifestyle such that we invite Him in but then give short shrift to Jesus as He sits at our table alone, waiting for us to sit down next to Him in friendship? Remember that this door has no outside doorknob. There is no way for Jesus to open the door from the outside, it must be opened by us from within. He stands there patiently knocking on the door, calling to us to be welcomed in, but He won’t just barge in uninvited, He won’t break down the door, He won’t bang loudly on the door like some obnoxious salesman. Jesus is the ultimate gentleman, giving us the choice as to whether we invite Him into our heart for divine fellowship. He will only make His dwelling in us if we choose to let that happen. This door-knocking scene recounted by St. John hearkens back to the Hebrew Bible, to the lover in Song of Songs 5:2, and Jesus is the lover of our souls waiting to enjoy sweet communion with us: “O listen! It’s the sound of my love knocking, calling! ‘Let me in, dear companion, dearest friend, my consummate lover! (MSG).
Expecting Glory. It’s clear to St. Paul that Christ in us produces a related mystery: the hope of glory, an expectation to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to restore all of creation. With Christ in us, we expect a coming time for our glorification, when we will be lifted into the glory of His presence, sharing in His divine nature, sharing meals together for all eternity. Christ in us produces an expectation of reaching glory-land, of being a full participant in heaven’s glory. “There is a divine mystery – a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded, and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for His people, and God wants everyone to know it! (Colossians 1:26-27, the Passion Translation).
“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden within Christ inside God.” (Colossians 3:3).
Living Within Christ: Literally participating in the life of Christ; living in union with Jesus; united as one with God; inseparably joined with Christ; when we started trusting in Jesus, His Holy Spirit hand-delivered each of us into the very Person of Christ; we are tightly wrapped into His nature and essence; our spirit is inside His Spirit, and He is inside of us; our human identity is hidden within Christ; we belong to Him, and He is in possession of each of us; by uniting with Jesus, we married into His family, and are embraced within the fellowship of the Trinity; we are not ‘lost in the cosmos’ but instead have a permanent location within Christ. Inside of Christ, we go wherever He goes, including His death, resurrection, ascension, and now in the heavenly realms. We were baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), are united with Him, and thus our union with Him enables us to be with Him right now seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 2:4-7).
St. Paul has confirmed our union within Christ many times, including: “Now you have been united with Christ Jesus and are inside of Him. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13); “There is no condemnation to those who are inside of Christ Jesus, those who belong to Him and are joined in life-union with Him.” (Romans 8:1); “God made this sinless Man to be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with Him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Paul has a very eye-opening passage in 1 Corinthians 6:17 in which he said, “Anyone united with the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” The word Paul used here for “united” could just as well have been “joined to,” or “knit together,” and is the word used in the Greek OT for “cleave” in Genesis 2:24. Paul used a 2-becoming-1 word in the biblical tradition.
The Double Union. “When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am inside my Father, and you are inside of me, and I am inside of you.” (John 14:20); “Remain inside of me, dwell in me, continue to draw life from me, and I will remain inside you.” (John 15:4-7); “God has given us His Spirit as proof that we live inside Him, and He inside us.” (1 John 4:13); “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives continually inside of me, and I live inside him.” (John 6:56); “Those who obey God’s teachings remain inside Him, and He inside them.” (1 John 3:24).
Mutual Indwelling. Our union with God is obviously full of mystery, the kind of sacred secret that the Lord needs to unpack for us. Some scholars call this the “Mystical Union,” while others refer to it as the “Double Union.” For a flesh and blood finite person to join with and into the supreme Lord of the Universe, a human being intimately united with the world’s Creator and vast spiritual presence, is way beyond our understanding. In thinking about being united with Christ, I tend to claim in faith things that I don’t even comprehend, truths that I trust at some time God will reveal to all of us… Our double union must mean that somehow we are inside of each other; When we unite with God, we are one in spirit; We are inside of God, which means we are welcomed into the fellowship of the Holy Trinity; Since we are inside Christ, we can participate in the interior life of Christ; To pray in the Spirit might actually mean we pray inside the Spirit; Living inside Christ means we can acquire the very mind of Christ; We belong to Christ, including the fact that each member of our body are members of Christ; We can only become new creatures if we are enfolded into Christ.
Transformation. Because we are joined with Christ, He is within us, and we are within Him. Our transformation, our sanctification, would seem to happen two ways, then… The Holy Spirit inside of us gradually transforming our nature into the image of Christ; and each of us inside of Christ, receiving an endless supply of the interior qualities of Jesus, His character, attributes, and all the spiritual riches we could ever imagine. We were created in His image, became hopelessly broken, and then in God’s love welcomed into Jesus so that we could end up like Jesus once again. Being inside of Christ and intimately joined with Him means we receive the divine sap that flows through the Vine. Inside Christ, we have an eternal supply of heavenly nutrients that enable us to change, mature and go from one level of glory to another, into the very likeness of Christ Himself.
“God has given us magnificent promises that are beyond all price, so that through the power of these tremendous promises you can experience partnership with the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4).
In 2 Peter 1:4 we are told that we are partakers of the divine nature, participants in the life of God, partners with the Godhead. We are told that God is including us in His eternal nature. In light of that, we have permission to be familiar with God, calling Him a family name. The Greek word for “partners” in that verse is “koinonos,” which means to be a companion with, to have deep fellowship with. Those are love words, words that invite communion. The truth is that we are able to join the intimate community of the Trinity through Jesus and through what He has done to renew the fellowship between God and people. Because we are hidden in Jesus, we are bold to say, Abba, Father.
“Dear friends, that’s exactly who we are right now: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we will end up! It is not yet apparent what we will become when Christ appears. What we do know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we will see Him. And in seeing Him, we will be like Him, for we shall we see Him as He truly is. All of us who focus our hope on Him, who have this eager expectation… All of us who look forward to His Coming should stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own. We need to keep ourselves pure, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3, a weaving of many different Bible translations).