Christ In Us The Hope of Glory

The unspoiled beauty of the Christian life is awesome to experience and live. Keeping rules and obeying mandates is bondage, but living out what’s inside is sheer glory. The Son of God did not come to condemn, He came to birth a new covenant that would be established on better promises. Within this covenant, we do not live by the law, which condemns; but by grace, which liberates. The keeping of God’s laws for the new man “in Christ” is a matter of liberty from the bondage of a corrupt nature. We are free to do what is right because the Son has made us free indeed.

Multitudes of today’s church world do not know the liberating life of being “born again.” To these dear souls the idea of Godly living, separated from the corruption in our world, sounds like legalism. There has been a growing put down of Biblical Holiness for several decades. The result is a church world that is struggling to teach discipleship to unconverted church members. It cannot succeed without a return to the Christ life within. There is nothing in God’s church worse than legalism and phariseeism. It’s empty, and it creates a facade of spirituality that kills the spirit and leaves the soul hard and condemning. It’s the very religious spirit that causes the Jewish leaders to clamor for Christ’s crucifixion. They even condescended to cry, “We have no king, but Caesar.” (John 19:15) Christianity on the outside without Christianity on the inside cannot succeed.

In fact, there is no such thing as being a “Christian on the outside.” The Apostle Paul declared the wonderful plan of God to recreate the lost souls of fallen man. This was the Father’s agenda from the day of Adam’s fall. The apostle said, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30) The New Testament saint is utterly a new creature. The Son of God died, shed His blood, and accomplished supernatural redemption to craft you unto the image of Himself.

This level of conversion is not just a mental change, but also a transformation of character. The very life of the Son is infused into your spirit and soul. and you no longer want the unclean past life. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17) The words “in Christ” are the key truth. The saints “in Christ” and “Christ in them” is the foundation of the New Testament covenant. You do not end up here; you start here. “Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7)

Being born again is a supernatural event. The Holy Spirit is the best friend a man has in this world, and He was sent by Christ to convict you of sin and then to rebirth you into Christ. The Son of God said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:6-8) The wind (of the Holy Spirit) bloweth where He listeth or where He is sent by Christ to redeem. He is always a guest, so you can resist Him. But, if you embrace Him and repent of your sins, He will trace His steps up and down your soul and transform it into a new creature. He will take hold of the Father for you, take hold of you for the Father, and you will become a child of God.

No one, and the Bible means no one, can be a part of the Father’s kingdom unless he is born again. If you are not born again, this earth is the closest you will ever be to Heaven. If you are born again and live out the born again life, this earth is the closest you will ever be to hell. Hell is an insane asylum for eternity, and every sinner and every sinning person that does not repent and turn to the “in Christ” life will spend his eternity in that awful place.

Choosing Christ is a double blessing. He desires to save you from hell in this life and hell in the eternity to come. We cannot fail to see the living hell that is erupting all around us. It is on every news broadcast, it is visible in every corner of life, and it is threatening to engulf each one of us. The Holy Ghost of God is the Father’s restrainer and He will erect a barrier around you by the Father’s Cherubims that move in His wake. “Christ in us” means that His Holy Ghost has become our keeper, along with the Heavenly Host, and we have no need to fear. The Father is on His throne, the Son is at the Father’s right hand to intercede for us, the Holy Ghost is in us, and the angels encamp about us. If Christ is your all in all, you are just as safe as if you were already in Heaven.