The Hope of Glory with Christ Inside
The Hope of Glory with Christ Inside.
“… 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!
“Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with Him, and He with them. And we know He lives in us because the Spirit He gave us lives in us.” (1 John 3:24).
“And Jesus replied, ‘All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.” (John 14:23).
Opening the Door. 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.” So this is a simple glimpse of this mysterious process… Jesus knocks on the door of our 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.
Choosing Friendship. 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 door knob. 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.
Hope of 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. Christ’s presence in us, with His glory residing within us, is the only hope we have of reaching God’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, TPT).
“When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.” (John 14:20).
The Double Union. The idea that Jesus through His Holy Spirit is inside of me is pretty familiar. How many times did Paul say something along the lines of “Christ in me”? Actually, about 160 times. But to acknowledge that Christ is in each of us, we need to remember that at the same time we are actually inside of Christ! Christ in me, and me in Christ! Christ inside of you, and you inside of Christ! What a tremendous and wonderful mystery, a truth we accept by faith in the Christ who said it. There have been many descriptive titles given to this idea of union with Christ, of being within Christ, including: the Double Union; the Mutual Indwelling; the Mystical Union; The Double Mystery. And there have been some interesting ways to try to describe this two-way unity we enjoy with Christ: bonded in union within Christ; somehow inside of each other; a believer’s new spiritual location; participating in the interior life of Christ; intimately joined together with Christ; hidden with Christ inside of God; a Christian’s spiritual address; in a new sphere of spiritual existence; fellowship with God inside the Person of Christ; tightly wrapped around the Personhood of Jesus; regaining our original identity in Christ; being inside of Christ, we have shared in His death and resurrection, and we now we will go wherever He goes, including being seated in the heavenly realms.
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.
Half the Story. Imagine if someone has gone through a long life of the Christian faith, being told that one side of the story is the complete story. Yes, that’s me. I grew up being taught that the believer’s relationship with God involved God inside of me through the Holy Spirit, which of course is true. But that’s the incomplete part. I was never really instructed as to the importance of the believer being inside God. There is a double mystery here, and our union with Christ actually goes both ways… God inside of each of us, and each of us inside of God. Christ enters us through the Holy Spirit, and His Spirit delivers us into the Person of God. Christ dwells within me, and I dwell within Christ. This double mystery, God in me and me in God, is well-mentioned in the New Testament: “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. 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, we tend to say things in faith that we ourselves don’t even comprehend, we draw conclusions that we trust at some point God will explain to us… Our double union with God 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. There is even a million-dollar word that some say sums this all up: “Christification.” That’s quite a mouthful, and one assumes that in the New Kingdom we will be truly and fully “Christified.”
“Consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with Christ Jesus, living in fellowship with God through Christ.” (Romans 6:11).
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.
“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden within Christ inside God.” (Colossians 3:3).
Living Within Christ: Participating in the life of Christ; in union with Jesus; united as one with God; inseparably joined with Christ; when we started trusting in Jesus, His Holy Spirit hand-delivered 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; we are intimately connected within each other; by uniting with Jesus, we married into His family, and are embraced within the fellowship of the Trinity; we have a permanent location within Christ and are not lost in the cosmos. Inside of Christ, He is stuck with us, and 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).
‘Vine and Branches,’ and ‘Believing Into.’ What has been helpful as we consider this mystery of the Double Union, the Mutual Indwelling, is the many times Scripture includes an analogy about it, a metaphor that describes a physical union that points to a spiritual union. Looking at a double union in tangible reality will help us think more deeply about a double union in a spiritual sense. There are physical signs in our earthly life that illustrate at least some of the meaning of our union with Christ. Uniting with Jesus as a branch grafted onto a vine is one way (John 15), and believing into Jesus is another way (John 3:16).
“Abide in Me.” “I AM the True Vine, and my Father is the Gardener, the Farmer who takes care of the vineyard… Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains united with Me, neither can you bear fruit unless you live inside of Me. I Am the Vine, and you are the branches. Whoever makes his home in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-8). Abide in Me means to dwell in Me; to remain united within Me; to continue being joined in Me; to be in a living union with Me; to make your home in Me; to live inside Me; to stay vitally united to Me.
Union: Believing into Him. “For God so loved the world, that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whoever believes into Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). This is an accurate translation of the Greek word for “into” and an apt phrase to use in the context because it implies action, not mere intellectual assent; it suggests entering into a union with Christ; it is not a passive phrase in which one believes in Christ’s existence, but then again won’t bother to embrace Him in everyday life; to believe into involves working His words practically into one’s heart and mind; this phrase implies a movement from a generalized belief that Jesus exists, into a personal commitment to Him; to believe into Jesus is to lean into Him, to intimately join together with Him, to trust Jesus enough to unite yourself into Him through active faith, to place yourself into the spiritual reality of Christ; to believe into Him is to desire a permanent relationship with Him, finding one’s human identity in Him; believing into Jesus is to work His words into our heart and mind; it is to prove our allegiance to Him by the biblical standard of both hearing and doing, not just hearing. Believing into Christ means we have asked His Holy Spirit to enter our life, and for us to enter into His.
“No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendor. But if we love one another, God remains united with us, and He makes His permanent home in us and we make our permanent home in Him. His love is then brought to its full expression in us. He has given us His Spirit within us so that we can have the assurance that we remain united with Him and He with us…. (1 John 4:12-13).