Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory

The most profound and revolutionary teaching in the Bible is, I would suggest, "Christ in us, the hope of glory". That is to say, the doctrine that Christ is present within the Christian through the Holy Spirit. This is most explicit in the writings of Paul ("not I, but Christ in me" etc.) although it is present throughout the New Testament.
About one year ago, God led me to a little book entitled "Its as Simple as This" by Norman P Grubb. God especially spoke to me, so I believe, through Norman's testimony of a spiritual crisis which he experienced while on the mission field in Africa in the 1920s. He became painfully aware that his attitude toward the African people was not that of Jesus. Being a godly man, he took his Bible and retired for a time to the forest to pray, desiring that God would enable him to love as Jesus loved and to become more like Jesus. God answered him, but not quite as he had expected! God directed him to Galatians 2:20, a verse which he must have read many times before and, as a Bible-believing Christian, accepted as a theological doctrine. However, God opened his spiritual eyes to a greater understanding of the teaching of this verse; a revelation of the implications of having Christ live in and through him. He, Norman Grubb, could never love as Jesus loved in what he might have called his "natural self". But God already reckoned him as dead from the day of his conversion, while at the same time being brought to new life by the Spirit of Christ within him. If Norman wanted to be like Jesus, all he had to do was cease trying to live from his old dead self and allow Christ to live and act through him - in effect, to let Christ within be his real "Self"!
The spirituality of the Western church is often expressed as the "imitation" of Christ. Eastern Orthodoxy tends to stress the Light of God shining through one. Norman's teaching, in this respect, is somewhat more like that of the Eastern church. He sees the Christian as a "container" of Christ's presence in this age. The container does not imitate its contents; it holds and displays (if transparent) its contents. Suppose you are shopping for jam in the supermarket. You pick up several jars and examine their contents until you find what you seek. But you do not make the purchase because of the jar. The jar is only the container and of no importance in and of itself. You would only notice it if it was covered in something opaque and then only for the negative reason that it would have failed in its role of giving clear vision of its contents.
Think about this as a parable of the Christian as the container and Christ within as the Contents and how we should function in displaying Christ to the world. But God has shown me how this has ramifications far beyond personal spirituality. I have written a short article "Christ in Us and the Kingdom of God" which is posted at daffydd.simplesite.com and which I humbly ask that you would prayerfully read. I would like, if God is willing, to have these thoughts brought before as wide a Christian audience as possible, as I believe that God has led me to write this. It may be copied, and these copies may be added to or subtracted from if you feel led by God to do this. I make no claim to originality. I am only a container!
Blessings to all who love the Lord.
 
The most profound and revolutionary teaching in the Bible is, I would suggest, "Christ in us, the hope of glory". That is to say, the doctrine that Christ is present within the Christian through the Holy Spirit. This is most explicit in the writings of Paul ("not I, but Christ in me" etc.) although it is present throughout the New Testament.
About one year ago, God led me to a little book entitled "Its as Simple as This" by Norman P Grubb. God especially spoke to me, so I believe, through Norman's testimony of a spiritual crisis which he experienced while on the mission field in Africa in the 1920s. He became painfully aware that his attitude toward the African people was not that of Jesus. Being a godly man, he took his Bible and retired for a time to the forest to pray, desiring that God would enable him to love as Jesus loved and to become more like Jesus. God answered him, but not quite as he had expected! God directed him to Galatians 2:20, a verse which he must have read many times before and, as a Bible-believing Christian, accepted as a theological doctrine. However, God opened his spiritual eyes to a greater understanding of the teaching of this verse; a revelation of the implications of having Christ live in and through him. He, Norman Grubb, could never love as Jesus loved in what he might have called his "natural self". But God already reckoned him as dead from the day of his conversion, while at the same time being brought to new life by the Spirit of Christ within him. If Norman wanted to be like Jesus, all he had to do was cease trying to live from his old dead self and allow Christ to live and act through him - in effect, to let Christ within be his real "Self"!
The spirituality of the Western church is often expressed as the "imitation" of Christ. Eastern Orthodoxy tends to stress the Light of God shining through one. Norman's teaching, in this respect, is somewhat more like that of the Eastern church. He sees the Christian as a "container" of Christ's presence in this age. The container does not imitate its contents; it holds and displays (if transparent) its contents. Suppose you are shopping for jam in the supermarket. You pick up several jars and examine their contents until you find what you seek. But you do not make the purchase because of the jar. The jar is only the container and of no importance in and of itself. You would only notice it if it was covered in something opaque and then only for the negative reason that it would have failed in its role of giving clear vision of its contents.
Think about this as a parable of the Christian as the container and Christ within as the Contents and how we should function in displaying Christ to the world. But God has shown me how this has ramifications far beyond personal spirituality. I have written a short article "Christ in Us and the Kingdom of God" which is posted at daffydd.simplesite.com and which I humbly ask that you would prayerfully read. I would like, if God is willing, to have these thoughts brought before as wide a Christian audience as possible, as I believe that God has led me to write this. It may be copied, and these copies may be added to or subtracted from if you feel led by God to do this. I make no claim to originality. I am only a container!
Blessings to all who love the Lord.
Thank you for sharing such a well-written and insightful article.
The example you give in the article of the church council "putting it into practice"... Sounds like the exact same story/situation that is in a publication that I have from Andrew Murray. Are you familiar with it? I would give you the title of it, but apparently my husband has relocated it to an unknown location! :)


-God bless.
 
Thank you for sharing such a well-written and insightful article.
The example you give in the article of the church council "putting it into practice"... Sounds like the exact same story/situation that is in a publication that I have from Andrew Murray. Are you familiar with it? I would give you the title of it, but apparently my husband has relocated it to an unknown location! :)


-God bless.
Thank you for your kind remarks. I don't know of the Andrew Murray publication, but if I remember correctly, my information came from the Bishop (maybe during a sermon, but I can't recall exactly). I long for the day when ALL meetings (church, business, political) are like this, when the Kingdom has come and the will of God be done "on earth as it is in Heaven"!!
 
I have heard others express it as we are Jesus with skin on.

:)
I have heard this expression. Also "God with skin on." This is recognizing the fellowship of Christians down through the ages as a continuation of the Incarnation. What a privilege (and responsibility!) that God has given us!!!
 
The most profound and revolutionary teaching in the Bible is, I would suggest, "Christ in us, the hope of glory". That is to say, the doctrine that Christ is present within the Christian through the Holy Spirit. This is most explicit in the writings of Paul ("not I, but Christ in me" etc.) although it is present throughout the New Testament.
About one year ago, God led me to a little book entitled "Its as Simple as This" by Norman P Grubb. God especially spoke to me, so I believe, through Norman's testimony of a spiritual crisis which he experienced while on the mission field in Africa in the 1920s. He became painfully aware that his attitude toward the African people was not that of Jesus. Being a godly man, he took his Bible and retired for a time to the forest to pray, desiring that God would enable him to love as Jesus loved and to become more like Jesus. God answered him, but not quite as he had expected! God directed him to Galatians 2:20, a verse which he must have read many times before and, as a Bible-believing Christian, accepted as a theological doctrine. However, God opened his spiritual eyes to a greater understanding of the teaching of this verse; a revelation of the implications of having Christ live in and through him. He, Norman Grubb, could never love as Jesus loved in what he might have called his "natural self". But God already reckoned him as dead from the day of his conversion, while at the same time being brought to new life by the Spirit of Christ within him. If Norman wanted to be like Jesus, all he had to do was cease trying to live from his old dead self and allow Christ to live and act through him - in effect, to let Christ within be his real "Self"!
The spirituality of the Western church is often expressed as the "imitation" of Christ. Eastern Orthodoxy tends to stress the Light of God shining through one. Norman's teaching, in this respect, is somewhat more like that of the Eastern church. He sees the Christian as a "container" of Christ's presence in this age. The container does not imitate its contents; it holds and displays (if transparent) its contents. Suppose you are shopping for jam in the supermarket. You pick up several jars and examine their contents until you find what you seek. But you do not make the purchase because of the jar. The jar is only the container and of no importance in and of itself. You would only notice it if it was covered in something opaque and then only for the negative reason that it would have failed in its role of giving clear vision of its contents.
Think about this as a parable of the Christian as the container and Christ within as the Contents and how we should function in displaying Christ to the world. But God has shown me how this has ramifications far beyond personal spirituality. I have written a short article "Christ in Us and the Kingdom of God" which is posted at daffydd.simplesite.com and which I humbly ask that you would prayerfully read. I would like, if God is willing, to have these thoughts brought before as wide a Christian audience as possible, as I believe that God has led me to write this. It may be copied, and these copies may be added to or subtracted from if you feel led by God to do this. I make no claim to originality. I am only a container!
Blessings to all who love the Lord.

Colossians 1:27 is a powerful verse:.........
“God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Salvation s actually a 3 part transformation.

1. We are "Justified".....declared NOT GUILITY by God because of our acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. We are then "Sanctified".......set apart for God's use.
3. We are then "Glorified" at death which is what we all hope for.

All of this is the Free Gift of being saved offered to all people who come to Christ.
 
Think about this as a parable of the Christian as the container and Christ within as the Contents and how we should function in displaying Christ to the world.
True, but remember that every container is different and is made for different contents. I like to think of it as the body of Christ, many members of the body as one. The first church was on fire and it shows because we today all believe in Christ, and there are many that have believed in Christ too.
 
True, but remember that every container is different and is made for different contents. I like to think of it as the body of Christ, many members of the body as one. The first church was on fire and it shows because we today all believe in Christ, and there are many that have believed in Christ too.
Containers differ, but these containers (human beings) have been created in the image of God and can have only one proper Content. Nevertheless, this can be displayed in different ways according to which spiritual gifts the person has been given.

I would like to thank all who have read this post and, especially, those who have read the article. I pray that the article becomes a spark that lights a spiritual fire as Martin Luther's theses did; not that I compare myself to that great saint except to say that both Luther and I and every Christian are but containers - branches of the Vine and organs of the Body but the Mind and Spirit in control of all is Christ. May I just request your prayers for God's blessing and guidance for all whom God may be calling to carry this "spark" into the church and into the wider society.
 
Often referred to as Jars of clay, or we are the clay, he is the potter.
Sometimes we are broken and some are honored. I think it's not so much the container but whats in it. I mean you can have the most fancy pot but it's empty, or just a plain one and have a magnificent plant growing out of it.

I head one evangelist put it this way, when asked was he full of the Holy Spirit, he said yes, but I leak.
 
Back
Top