Christ In You!

Colossians 1:27

Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is a relationship. There are many religions throughout this world. Most recently we have been made more aware of the religion of Islam because of the terrorist attacks. But Islam is only one religion. There are plenty of religions out there if you care to study them. In college you may have even taken a class called, "World Religions." But most religions, even though they might utilize different systems or different philosophies, have a similarity. And that similarity is that they are based on works. You see, most religions are man’s attempt to be pleasing to God. And generally it is by some form of self-effort that we are to do this, whether it’s self-denial on the one hand or some kind of good works on the other.

And some view Christianity in the very same way. As a matter of fact, I believe that throughout Christendom, there is and has been for some time, and probably will continue to be, an ignorance of the true foundations of biblical Christianity. You see, we as Christians need to understand that Jesus Christ inaugurated a New Covenant. It is within this New Covenant that we are to function as Christians. It is because of this New Covenant that we even can be believers; that we can walk with God. The New Covenant that Jesus Christ inaugurated changed everything. But many in the church of Jesus Christ, even today, operate as though we were still living under the Old Covenant.

All of us should understand these concepts because we have a Bible. And our Bible is divided up into two major parts. One is called the Old Testament. The other is called the New Testament. Another word for testament is covenant. There is the Old Covenant and there is the New Covenant. We call ourselves New Testament Christians. In fact, that’s kind of redundant because the only kind of Christian there can be is a New Testament Christian. Without the New Covenant, we would not be Christians at all.

Let me explain this a little bit more. The message of the Old Covenant is this: Live by the law. God gave the law, and there is nothing wrong with the law. It reflects the heart of God and the holiness of God. But God gave the law and required the people to obey the laws, to walk in them, and to teach them to their children so they could follow them as well. They had to live by the law. And the message, in more modern terms was –– you can do it. And if you fail, the message was to get up, dust yourself off, and try harder! That’s the Old Covenant. Keep the Law. Try harder!

This idea is reflected today in one of the most well known sayings about God –– "God helps those who help themselves." George Barna has concluded by his polling data that a great majority of the people in most churches believe that this is a verse of Scripture. Let me divest you of any misunderstanding, that saying is nowhere to be found in the Bible unless you wrote it in the margin somewhere. The Bible never says God helps those who help themselves. It’s a uniquely American idea, but not a biblical idea. God helps everybody, and especially those who can’t help themselves. The idea that God only helps the hard working is a concept based on the idea of keeping the law. It is Old Covenant.

The Old Covenant is based on law. But here’s the part that gets me. Sadly, many churches and many Christians continue to live by the law. As a matter of fact, some of you listening to me today are living your lives by the law. You are Christians. You’ve come to know Jesus Christ. But your focus is on rules and regulations, behaviors and appearances, and the like. And if you are, you are living as if the New Covenant did not exist.

You see we’ve developed in many churches a Christianized version of the ceremonial laws that we find in the Old Testament. We don’t follow those ceremonial laws, but we have adopted new ones that tell us what we can do, what we can’t do, what we can touch, what we can’t touch. We define our expectations of Christians and hold them to those expectations, and when they don’t meet those expectations, we talk about them, even though we are probably guilty of the very same thing. The result is that it puts people in bondage. It puts us in bondage. In 2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV) it says "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

Some people use the Bible as kind of a hammer to beat people. I remember my mother preparing meat. When she would prepare this particular kind of cube steak, she would tenderize the meat. Now how do you tenderize meat? Well most of you buy meat tenderizer and pour it on. But my mother used to beat it with an old Coke bottle. She would take an empty coke bottle, turn it upside down and just whack that piece of meat. She would beat it until it became tender. I think some people have come to the conclusion that the way to make Christians more like Jesus Christ is to give them a thorough beating with the word of God.

Let me ask you a question. Does that stuff work? You already know the answer –– NO! It doesn’t work. It might coerce you into conformity in the short run, but it doesn’t change you inside, except to make you bitter towards Christianity.

So, why are some churches so legalistic and judgmental? And why are some churches so filled with the pharisaical spirit? It is because people haven’t come to understand the New Covenant. This is what I mean when I say that there is ignorance as to the New Covenant. There is nothing wrong with the law. The law is righteous and holy. And if we could keep it perfectly, so would we be as well. But the purpose of the law is to show us that we can’t keep it. As a matter of fact, it says in Galatians 3:24 (KJV), "the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The law was given to show us that we could not, with our best effort on our best day, keep the law. That’s why the Old Covenant was given. It was given because we didn’t understand there was something wrong with us. And so, if you have tried and tried and tried and failed and failed and failed, that’s good. Because it should bring you to the place where you say, "I can’t do this." That’s exactly where God wants you.

And that’s where the New Covenant comes in. The message of the New Covenant is that we now can live by grace. What does that mean? Well, as I said before, it means firstly that you can’t do it. Paul shares this with us in his letter to the church in Corinth.

Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6 NIV)

Now here is the secret. The secret of the New Covenant is Christ in you. It’s what we are looking at in that one little phrase in Colossians 1:27 –– Christ in you, the hope of glory. The secret of the New Covenant is that we are not competent in ourselves. Our competency comes from God. In other words, nothing coming from us, everything coming from God. Christ in you, the hope of glory, that’s the secret of our lives. Into us has been poured the Spirit of the living God. The Spirit of Christ within us enables us to live for Christ. You can’t do it, but Christ can. That’s the message of the New Covenant.

The New Covenant was inaugurated to do away with the Old and it boils down to this little phrase that we are looking at today. Christ in you. When you come to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ comes into you. And he lives in you. That’s a wonderful mystery in itself. I don’t know how it even works, but I know it does work. And I know that Christianity doesn’t work without that. That’s the secret of our lives.

It is an internal motivation, born of God by the Spirit of God. Let me take you back to the Old Testament to a prophecy about the New Covenant made in Jeremiah.

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV)

What is he talking about here? He is talking about precisely what Jesus was talking about when Jesus said, "the Kingdom of God is within you." He wasn’t talking about some spark of divinity in people, not some other new age mumbo jumbo. He was talking about that fact that the New Covenant of God is a covenant whereby we are changed from the inside out. It is a covenant that is born of His Spirit and depends upon that Holy Spirit living in us for our life. That’s the New Covenant. Actually, it’s the principle of the exchanged life that you read about in Galatians 2:20.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 KJV)

I am crucified with Christ, I’m dead, nevertheless I live. Yet, not I but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live how? By keeping works of law? By keeping the rules and regulations? No, the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. In other words, you come to Christ. You lay down your life. But you receive His. He moves in. And now you live by faith in Him, by utter dependence upon His life, living in you and through you. This is the New Covenant. It is understanding that we must depend upon the power of the living God living in us.

And we need His power. You can take one of your gloves off your hand and lay it on the floor and ask it to pick up something. What would happen? Nothing. You could give it a little lecture about how to pick up things. You could give it some encouragement, and show it how to do it. But it will never pick up anything until you put your hand in it. And if you put your hand in it, then what does the glove have the power to do? The glove has the power to do anything you can do. If God, by his Spirit, inhabits us, then we have the power to do anything God wants to do through us. Because it’s not us, it’s Him. It’s the power within.

You need to learn to live in the power you already have. If you are a Christian and you don’t have the power, it’s probably because you don’t even recognize that the power is there. And so you don’t act like you do have the power. You’re like Clark Kent, before he figured out he was Superman. That is why Paul could say, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." Jesus Christ will give us the power to accomplish the work that he calls us to do. You see, the responsibility is not ours. The responsibility is Christ’s. Our job as Christians is not to try harder. Our job as Christians is to quit trying and start living out of the life that Christ gives, living out of the strength that Christ gives.

We can be honest about our own situations and problems, because we can be. We can be authentic and say, "You know, I can’t do this, but God can." And we can begin to live from a realization that God is at work in us to conform us to Jesus Christ through everything that happens in our lives. We can relax. That takes such a load off. Because now you can relax in God’s grace. You’re not perfect. You never were. And I’ve got news for you. You never will be until you’re glorified. You should be getting better. But occasionally, we take two steps forward and one step back. But we are still moving forward. And sometimes we take one step forward and three steps back. Then what? Well, God still loves you. God’s not disappointed with you. You can’t make God love you any more than he already does. And you can’t make God love you any less. Just relax.

You know, once you see the reality that Jesus Christ has done it all and there is nothing you need to add to it, once you realize that he loves you perfectly and can never do anything else, once you recognize that you are secure in him, you can begin to live out of an attitude of thankfulness for what he’s done. You see, we don’t live to impress God by our actions. We should live because we are thankful, that it has already been done. There isn’t anything more that can be done. God has already done it all.

You’re already there. God sees you as righteous in Christ. God even sees you as glorified already. No demon in Hell, or the devil himself, can snatch you out of His hand. You have been given everything. So just relax and live because you love Jesus. Live out of a life overflowing with gratitude that it’s already been done. You don’t have to strive. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to struggle or pretend. Good times will be great. Bad times will come. But you can say, "None of this has taken God by surprise. He’s going to bring me out better than I was when I went in, so I’m just going to praise him for it all." Relax in grace.

Our challenge as Christians is to begin to live as who we are in him. The New Covenant is based on Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is the exchanged life. It is living, not depending upon you and your strength and wisdom, but depending upon Him. That’s true Christianity. That’s authentic Christianity.

Copyright © 2002 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.

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