To Encourage You

Colossians 1:27 “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The mysteries of God are wonderful things, but they are things that are only available to those Who are His children.

In Psalm 25:14 we are told that “The Lord confides in those who fear him.” Similarly, in Proverbs 3:32 we are told that “the Lord . . . takes the upright into his confidence.”  And in the New Testament we have the teaching above that there is a great mystery that God had hidden for ages and generations but that He has now revealed, but that revelation is only to His saints. Only those Who know and love Him will ever know the reality of what it means to have “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” 

In John 14:17 Jesus talked about this when He spoke to His disciples about “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”  In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul asks believers the rhetorical question, “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”  God Himself, dwelling within the body of a believer: it’s something that an unbeliever can never know and something that it takes a believer a lifetime to come to grips with. It’s an incredible truth, but a truth that only Christians can ever know.  Paul exults in this with these words, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). It’s that very thing that gives a believer such hope, the very hope of glory that is spoken of in Colossians 1 above. 

The Bible speaks of this reality as a “treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Here, the “jars of clay” are referring to our physical bodies.   This metaphor points to the frailty of our bodies, a frailty that becomes more and more evident as we get older.  Yet “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).  In fact, it is in the very wasting away of our body that the treasure we hold inside is revealed.  Paul explains this in the following way as he continues his explanation of the treasure we hold within: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).   

You will recall, how Paul (formerly “Saul”), before he became a Christian, persecuted Christians. Then, on the Damascus Road Jesus appeared to Him and asked him this question: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4).  With these words, Jesus was reiterating the truth that whatever one does to a Christian, they do to the Lord Himself, for He lives within them. Then in Matthew 25:40 Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Do you realize that?  If you are a Christian, do you think about the fact that as you love those around you with your words and deeds that it is really Christ in you who is loving them through you. And as you interact with other believers, as you speak to them, listen to them, and serve with them, you are interacting in a very real way with Jesus who lives within them. That’s why the church is such a beautiful thing to the believer. It’s a place believers go to not just fellowship with other Christians but where they fellowship with Christ Himself! What a wonderful truth this is! What a wonderful thing is this mystery!

Sadly, however, it’s something that will never progress beyond a mystery for those who have never put their faith in Christ. But for the believer, it is the hope of glory, a reality that is true of them and that is almost too wonderful to put into words.