March 9, 2018 THE MYSTERY MADE KNOWN
Colossians 1:26-27 “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have form God, and that you are not your own?”
Long before the coming of Jesus, the prophets of the Old Testament knew that God had a plan of salvation that would be revealed at some point in future, but they did not know the how and when of this plan. You can find many prophecies in the Old Testament that point to the Savior that God would send; even the angles longed to understand this plan of God. 1 Peter 1:12. But now, this great mystery that has been hidden from past generations, God has made known to those who believe in Him. The mystery that has been revealed is- Christ lives in each believer! Yes! Christ lives in us; He is our redeemer and our Savior, and His presence in us is our hope of glory-of all that God has in store for those who know Him and love Him. At one point, sin separated man from God, and since man was a sinner by nature, it seemed that man being restored to God was an impossibility. How could a holy God and sinful man be united? But thanks be to God, God had a plan, but the plan would require the death of His Son. As great as it was for Jesus to die in our place, being the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, God’s plan went beyond forgiving us for our sins. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we were made sons and daughters of God; our old sin nature was crucified; our bondage to sin was broken; we were made new creations and given a new heart, a new nature, and a new spirit, AND, we became temples of the Holy Spirit. Now, Christ is in us! This fact of Christ being in us is a reality that we can spend a lifetime discovering the implications of Him living in us. At some point, we have to face, or try to get our mind around, the almost unbelievable fact that the God who created the universe, the all-powerful and the all-knowing God lives in us. Even when we in a very elemental way begin to grasp this fact of Christ being in us, our view of life, our purpose in life, and the meaning of life, undergo a drastic change-for the good. God gave us His Holy Spirit to live in us for the purpose of revealing the things of God to us, to guide us, to convict us of any sin we may commit, and to empower us. The amazing realization that occurs when we begin to realize that God is in us, and we are walking in His ways, there is nothing to fear! In fact, His presence in us becomes a fountain of life that never runs dry. His presence takes us out of the limitations of mere human nature and brings a super-natural aspect to our lives. God’s purposes and His plan of salvation is far more than being forgiven-as great as that is. He has made us a part of His family, He has joined us to Himself, and He has plans for us to reside with Him for all eternity in heaven! May our eyes be opened to see in greater ways what it means for Christ, the hope of glory, to BE IN US!
John 7:37b-38: “’If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Blessings,
Buddy
RSS Feed