July 21, Christ in You
Do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?
2 Corinthians 13:5
Paul posed this question to offer accountability to the truth of the Christian faith - Christ in you. One who is “in the faith” (to borrow Paul’s terminology) can be fittingly described with the phrase, “Christ in you.”
How can Christ Jesus live in us? Consider the Gospel. God sent His Son, Jesus. God became man and dwelt among mankind.
“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. “ (John 1:14)
Jesus lived the human life completely perfect - without sin. As willed by the Father, Jesus died upon the cross for our sins. After three days He rose again and sent His spirit to reside in the life of every believer forever.
John 14:16-17 states,
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will bein you.”
Christ in you is not merely a metaphorical expression of the Christian life. Christ in you represents reality, if your faith is in Him.
Watchman Nee (beloved author and leader of the church in China until his martyrdom in 1972) told the following account to describe a life “in Christ”:
In Fukien, I once visited a man who owned an orchard of fruit trees (3 or 4 acres of several hundred trees). I inquired if his trees had been grafted or if they were of native stock. “Do you think”, he replied, “that I would waste my land growing un-grafted trees? What value would I expect from the old stock?” So, I asked him to explain the process of grafting, which he did, beginning with, “when a tree has grown to a certain height, I lop off the top and graft onto it.” He then pointed to a particular tree and said, “that is the father tree because all the grafts for the other trees are taken from that one. If the other trees were left to simply follow the course of nature, their fruit would be only the size of a raspberry and would consist mainly of thick skin and seed. This tree, from which the grafts for all the others are taken, bears a luscious fruit. And, of course, all the grafted trees bear fruit like it.” I asked, “how does this happen?” He explained, “I simply take the nature of the one tree and transfer it to the other. I make a cleavage in the poor tree and insert a slip from the good one. Then I bind it up and leave it to grow.” But how does it grow?” I asked. “How can a poor tree bear good fruit?” He answered, “by implanting into it the life of the good tree.”[1]
Nee then concludes,
“God has done everything. There is only one truly fruitful life in the world that has been grafted into millions of other lives. We call this the new birth.”[2]
The new birth is the reception of a life I did not have before - a new creation more than simply a renovation. So today, one of the greatest steps of faith to be taken - second to your salvation, is to walk daily in the reality that Christ Jesus is in you.
“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 1:27)
Blessings.
READ
Read Colossians 1:24-29, and be encouraged with the truth of “Christ in you.”
[1] Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1977), 91-92.
[2] Nee, 94.
