Christ in You, the Hope of Glory (Colossians 1:26-27)

“…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27 NKJV)

Why is life so hard? Why are people hurting each other although we don’t mean to? Why are we having difficulty very much in loving and being patient each other? There is no one who wants to hurt others. Rather, everyone wants to be good to others. But we know that something within humanity hinders badly from loving and being patient each other. We are the fallen race. We do want to do good but we can’t. We don’t want to do bad but we do. It is so totally helpless that anyone cannot escape from that deeply entrenched fault. No matter how morally good and reputable a person is, it is no avail. As soon as some situation got caught on him, he would not hesitate to revenge by any means.

We are living in a world where the prince of deception rules, leading people into total confusion and darkness. What we see is not all but what we do not see is. No one has seen God who is invisible. He reigns and rules His invisible kingdom in order and purpose throughout the ages and generations. There has not been a single moment in time and eternity when the order and purpose of God is broken, even a bit and never will be. In the kingdom of God, there are two forces, diabolically opposing each other. One is the will of God and the other, the evil spirit. But one of the most important facts is that these forces are not in dual. The evil force though it seems powerfully independent is under full submission to God. The devil is one of God’s creatures. (Read Job Chapter 1)

When the entire race is still helpless and powerless, God set the redemption plan for them before the creation of the world. It is not through cleansing the fallen humanity and creating a new race but through the death of the Son Jesus Christ. God rather punished His begotten Son in the place of the whole race by making Him sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross in Calvary, God poured out His wrath not on us but on Jesus Christ the Son of God. In this way, God bound up the devil and delivered and liberated His captives.

“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:11-15 NKJV)

This is the only way for the fallen race to love and being patient each other in perfection without blemish. Through the death of our old life, we are given a whole new life, the resurrection life, the life of Christ with which we can truly and wholeheartedly love one another. It works marvelously and excitingly because that life has already been manifested by our Lord Jesus Christ and He is in us, the hope of glory. God delivered us from the bondage of the devil in order to make us His indwelling place of the Spirit.

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:17-20 NKJV)