Colossians 1:27

CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE

‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’

Colossians 1:27

The Apostle speaks of a mystery—what is it?

In a single sentence, it is ‘Christ in you.’ Looking carefully at the passage, we see that he makes certain statements respecting this mysterious union betwixt Christ and His people.

I. It is a secret.—‘To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery.’

II. It is a secret once hidden but now revealed.—The Apostle says this mystery was hidden from ages and generations. The mystery of Christ could not be fully revealed at once. The Lord Christ was hidden in the mystery of the Divine Unity; hidden in the secret counsels of God; hidden in type and prophecy and legal ceremony; until at length in the end of the world He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

III. It is a secret about indwelling.—Christ in you, says the Apostle, not Christ for you. There is only one holy life. There is none holy but the Lord, and if you would be holy, you must let Christ live out His life in you.

—Rev. E. W. Moore.

Illustration

‘The indwelling of Christ in the Christian is presented to us, as Bishop Moule says, as a normal, nay as a necessary, fact of all living Christianity; “Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, unless ye are somehow counterfeits?” (2 Corinthians 13:5). If we are in simplicity at His feet, He, thus indwelling by the Spirit, is in our being. And the indwelling “in the heart,” what is it but this fact realised by the faith which sees and claims it? It is not an attainment; it is a recognition. “Come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Come, and let the Lord, humbly welcomed without misgiving, “dwell in us, and walk in us,” every hour of life.’