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'God has chosen to make known...the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.' Colossians 1:27

 

Near is not enough

Colossians 1:15-29

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

 

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 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.

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

 

The final statement of our Lord in His great intercessory prayer is this: "I have made known to them, and will continue to make known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." (John 17:26) Christ says that not only has He made the Father known but that He will continue to make Him known.

 

Here we gather something of the delight which the Son has in making the Father known. There is no sense in these words of the Saviour saying to Himself, "Well, I have finished my task, and now I can sit back and let the third member of the Trinity- The Holy Spirit-  take over." Whichever member of the Trinity you read about in Scripture, you never get a sense that He is performing merely from a sense of duty. What the Father, Son and Holy Spirit do (with some exceptions, such as exercising discipline and judgment), they do with delight. At this point our Lord is just about to go to the cross and to die one of the most fiendishly cruel deaths ever devised by man. Yet His thought is not of Himself but of continuing in the task which God had given Him - to reveal the Father's heart to the world.

 

Jesus closes in prayer with these words: "That I myself may be with them." William Law (John Wesley's one-time teacher) said of this phrase, "this is the whole Gospel, the birth of the holy Jesus within us; His conquering life overcoming our inward death." William Law also commented, "A Christ not in us is a Christ not ours." This, in a sense, is what Paul is declaring in our text for today. We must have Christ within. Christ near is not enough. Christ above is not enough. Christ outside of us is not enough. Only Christ within is enough.

 

 

O Father, it is no exaggeration to describe the words, "Christ in me" as the essence of the gospel, for I see that a Christ not in me is a Christ not mine. May the wonder of it thrill my soul hour by hour, and day by day. Amen.

 

 

Today's devotion taken from: Every Day with Jesus (Mar/Apr 06, Wednesday 19 April) written by Selwyn Hughes

Copies of Every Day with Jesus are available for sale from the Church office $5.50 each.

 

 

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