Christ in You Part Five

Those who are continually looking to write yet another book on how to succeed at the Christian life and enjoy the glory and favor of God are men and women who have yet to grasp the glorious message of the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

They are still struggling to find a way to get God’s attention with antics they call radical and passionate. But these radical deeds do more to point others to them than to point others to Christ Jesus.

When we do this we become the horse others mistake as the point, when Jesus who is the rider should be their focus.

You and I will never experience more passion than we will when we discover through a revelation of the grace revealed through Jesus Christ by faith that we are forever sealed by His Spirit, accepted in the beloved through Him and walk in the Divine favor because of what He has done.

This revelation does not lead true believers into sin, it leads them into victory over sin as they find themselves gloriously distracted by the sure mercies of God revealed in His Son Jesus Christ!

Your purpose and my purpose is the same as every believers and that is to become identified fully with Him! To be hidden with Christ in God!

I want to bring this to an end going back to Colossians and reading it from the Message.

Colossians 1:11 We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, 12 ¶ thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. 13 God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, 14 the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. 15 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. 16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. 17 He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. 18 And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. 19 So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. 20 Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross. 21 You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. 22 But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. 23 You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message. 24 I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. 25 When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth. 26 This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. 27 God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. 28 We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. 29 That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.

Identification!

Christ in you the hope of glory!

There is no glory apart from His finished work!

Faith in Him delights the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit is revealed through this faith in Him.

It is by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast!

Jesus our Savior and Redeemer has done it for us! He reconciled us so sufficiently there is nothing we can add to it to impress the Father.

We can rest in His finished work on our behalf and rejoice in the steadfastness of His power to keep us!

What keeps you from approaching Him?

What can hold you back from fully surrendering all that you are to Him?

Come to Him and find the rest you long for!