The more that I read the Word, the more I am astounded and savor its profound truths. There are some things that if you meditate on their meaning, implications, and significance about all you can do is respond with a Wow! This especially is what Colossians 1:27 evokes in me.
"To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Very few things in life attract our interest like a good mystery or secret. In Paul’s day there were many mystery religions—much like secret lodges where only the insiders got to see and know the deep secrets of the organization. The power of that religion was in the secret knowledge that the group held tightly to itself. If the secret ever got out … well, the mystery was revealed, end of story.
Paul was the steward of a powerful mystery from God—a mystery so well hidden that it had escaped everyone’s notice for ages and generations. But now God had authorized Him to fully reveal one of God’s most profound and significant truths; the mystery he was appointed to reveal was the truth of Christ in you. Paul’s role didn’t end with revealing the mystery; his role was to unpack its significance so that the Church could act out that revelation.
I don’t know about you, but I have become so accustomed to verses like “Christ in you, the hope of glory” that I don’t respond with a wow of stunned amazement that I once had. As often happens, truth that is familiar to us quickly becomes common to us and loses its edge in our lives. When this happens, we actually run the risk of creating an environment of unbelief around that truth that limits what God is able to do in our lives. The danger is that what becomes common releases an unbelief in us that ultimately blinds us to the brilliance of Christ right before our eyes.
The Bible presents us with a progressive revelation of God’s creative design for His people. The progression of truth ultimately leads us to the big revelation that was hidden for the ages, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1: 27).
What an amazing truth this is: we who believe are now the new residences of God. Your body is now the sacred living chamber of God—that truth simply has to change everything about the way we view and do life. Now the real truth is that God is far too large and great to be contained in any physical location, but nevertheless He has chosen to be fully present and contained in me. The point is that yes, God does have an address, and it is not out there in Heaven someplace needing to be called down by us; His address is now inside of me. God doesn’t need to be coaxed to come down upon us; He needs to be seen, revealed, and “let out” of.
What has God really been looking to do throughout redemptive history? I believe that He is progressively revealing His design to literally dwell inside of us through Jesus Christ. This is seen in the progression from “God with us” to “Christ in us” in biblical history.
How different that is from the Old Testament. The unfolding revelation of God in the Old Covenant was about what we needed to do in order for God to dwell with us and come upon us as a people. At every turn we fell short through our sin and made His abiding presence with us a very fragile thing. Even David lived in the fear that his performance would cause God to drive him out and then lift from his life: “Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51: 11). In the Old Testament God was with us and upon us (depending on our relative sinfulness), but He never lived in us. And living in us was everything that God was ultimately out to accomplish in redemption (see John 14: 17). 3 He was with us in the Garden, with us in the Tabernacle and Temple, and ultimately ultimately with us in the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth. Yet all of those encounters were only a prelude to what God was always after—actually living inside of us and making us His portable homes and temples on this earth. Carriers of Christ in Us!
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."
We are now carriers of God—carriers of Jesus Christ who fully lives and abides inside of us. There simply is no such thing as more or less of Christ living in you—He’s either in you or not in you. If He actually lives inside of you, then He is fully present inside of you at all times. We are pots that contain the transcendent power of God.
I love this Scripture because it is such a study in contrasts—to think that God lives in my clay container. This contrast between my outsides and God who lives inside of me helps me understand why we need revelation of what is already within us. Paul describes the personal presence of God that now in us as “this all-surpassing power” from God. Others translate this as the “transcendent power of God.” The bottom line is that God now lives inside of us, and where He is, the sky’s the limit. Actually, the limitless capacity of God is the limit, and it is His presence and power that simply transcends and overcomes every limitation, human or otherwise.
A Christian is an unimpressive container of the God, who is “power personified” and whose very presence is not limited by any of the laws that govern the physical universe. That is what is reverberating around inside of my “tent” at all times—the same presence and power that spoke time, space, and all existence into being. I am a “carrier” of all of that—a rather unimpressive tent or cheap clay pot that happens to be conveying God in my world.
Oh If only I could just “get” that truth a bit—if only it could sink in just a little bit deeper; it would immediately revolutionize my world. When I reach my hand out to heal the sick, I would realize it is never about me at all as a healer; it is always about what now is in us as “this all-surpassing power” from God. I just need a revelation of what I truly am; then this world is mine to conquer through Jesus Christ!
Don’t let the cracked pot distract you from the real contents! So what is keeping me from that? To be honest, I have a hard time seeing past the “container” that I look at in the mirror. My problem is that I get stuck on the clay pot (or in some cases, the cracked pot) that looks back at me every time I look at myself in the mirror. In fact, I have a hard time looking past the ragged tents and other cracked clay pots in the Church. Their containers catch my attention more than the contents they carry. Their outsides are visible to me, but the real and substantive transcendent presence and power of God inside of them is hidden from my eyes. Thus, I am mostly struck by what I do see, and I mostly miss what is really present within myself and others who believe.
This is what we are right now, and it is the hidden piece of Christ in us that must be seen through His Holy Sprit or it will remain hidden. What each of us carries within is so much greater than what our physical eyes can see. We so desperately need vision to see what He has deposited within us because it is as gigantic as the fullness of Jesus Christ Himself.
When Christ comes to live inside of us, He isn’t somewhat present in our lives; He is fully present and alive inside of us, right here and now.He is in you and He is in your spouse, your kids, and the person sitting next to you in church.
Ask the Lord to open your eyes to this truth and evoke a whole new attitude in you towards Him, others, your purpose, and yourself. Let it change everything in you and bring change wherever you go, you who are containing and bringing the living Christ!
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