October 5 - In Christ
Paul is sharing a deep secret with the Colossian believers: it is about being “in Christ”. We have become a new creation because we are in Christ and once we are in Him, everything is different. The union with Christ is an important concept and experience for all believers. Without its full import in our lives, we cannot receive the fullness of Christ that is rightfully ours.
The first step to become “in Christ” is to have “Christ in you”. When one receives Christ as Savior and Lord, he must ask Him to come into his life. This is the beginning of “Christ in you”. His presence in our lives is the guarantee of what is to come and is the hope of our glory. After receiving Him into your life, you must act, think and do as if He is in you. You are no longer alone because He is in you. He is with you when you are at home, at school, at work or at play. You are not merely representing Him in the world, He is “in you”. In John 15, Jesus compared this relationship with the vine and the branches. How we need to have Christ in us. If Christ is in every believer, the glory of Christ will be all over the world.
The thought of having Christ in us is not enough, the other part is to move ourselves to the Christ that is in us. Following up the thought on Christ in us, Paul continues on to describe our position that is in Christ. This is the goal of every mature believer, to be complete in Christ. Only when you are in Christ, you may grow to maturity, having everything that only Christ could provide. The Christ in us is our all-sufficient resource for in Christ is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When we are in Christ, we have the mind of Christ that allows us to have supernatural knowledge and wisdom to deal with the affairs of the world. When we stop our quest for knowledge and wisdom, divine knowledge and wisdom will come to us.
If we know what Christ knows and make every decision according to the will of Christ, we may venture into spiritual maturity. We are then walking in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith. When Christ is in us and we in Him, we can love one another and abound in thanksgiving. The power to think, to do and to will like Christ becomes ours and we may come alive completely.
Would you like to have this kind of life in Christ? Jesus has already come into your life when you first called on His name. Now He must live in your life as Lord. As you realize His presence and rule, you must move closer and closer to Him by leaving your own self behind. Are you willing to be in Christ now that Christ is in you? Pray now and ask that you may be in Him as He is in you. Feel now His abiding presence in you; reject the self, the world and the devil for more of His presence in your life. He is the Vine, you are the branches: abide in Him.
Ps 109:1-15 Jer 4:19-6:14 Col 1:21-2:7 Prov 24:23-25