Nov. 18, 2011
According to Paul, there is a mystery to this life. It is the source of effectiveness in our lives and enables us to please God and to live a life worthy of Him. If you need a fresh joy, power to overcome, or the ability to endure, this mystery will unlock all of that for you. This mystery is the reason we can stand before a holy God without blemish and free from accusation.
This mystery starts where all of life starts: with Jesus. Colossians 1:16-17 – “For in him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” This Jesus existed before time began as the Eternal Son. He will live after time ceases to exist or matter. He is the glue, the force, holding everything together. “Remove Jesus and the entire universe will disintegrate,” according to one writer. It shreds and ceases to be. Without Jesus, the cosmos becomes chaos.
Colossians 1:18–20 – “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” This Jesus created anew. A new creation. A new fellowship. A new church. We who know Him are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. This Jesus is the head, the authority, and the ever-present source for that Body.
In the middle of this glorious description of Jesus, Paul pulls the thread on this mystery. Colossians 1:25–29 — I have become (the Gospel’s) servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness — the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is… CHRIST.” This mystery begins with Jesus, our glorious Creator, the One on whom the cohesion of the universe depends. He is the wondrous and radiant Groom, the chief of His church, and the Supreme Victor over death and hell. He is limitless, peerless, and indescribable in His infinite character. This Jesus is the first piece of the mystery, but it is grander than that.
The mystery resolved is: “Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory!” How can that be? Have you looked at yourself lately? Aren’t you tired? Haven’t you been running on empty? Aren’t we sinners? In the past month, I have allowed anger to rule, I have manipulated, and I have been unaware of the sinfulness in the self-righteous acts I have performed. I am burnt. That is the most glorious part of this mystery. Christ is in you, even in your weakness. 2 Corinthians 4:7 — But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
I asked God to give me a picture of what this would look like.
John 4:1–6 – “Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John — although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.”
Jesus did not “have” to go through Samaria. Most Jews went out of their way to avoid Samaria. The only reason Jesus was compelled to take this route was His Father God instructed Him to do so. Jesus was always fully submissive to His Father.
What follows is an incredible story of Jesus meeting a broken woman who was only coming to the well at this odd time of day to avoid the stares and condemnation of her neighbors. Jesus spoke to her, in love, and transformed her life.
Notice a small detail with me. “Jesus, tired as we was…” It was His humanity that opened the door to ministry. His fatigue created the opportunity for God to work. It was an elixir of Jesus’ human weakness and His divine submission that made Him available for loving ministry and a transforming conversation.
Christ in us is the same. When we remain as submitted to Him as we know to be, we are covered and empowered by His grace that is always sufficient no matter how weak and undeserving we are.
Understand, that is not an excuse to remain in sin or to gloss over repentance. Christ in you, the hope of glory, is an opportunity and an invitation to repentance. The goal of our lives with Jesus is to be so powerfully and completely in love with Him that our obedience flows from desire, not duty. We are to be so powerfully and completely in love with Him that our disobedience flows from a place very foreign to us, a place we hate, but a place to which we invite our Savior to offer His grace afresh.
Are you tired? Jesus was as well. Yet a glorious hope was birthed there. Perhaps, in our humanity, as I write these words and you read them, we can also find a glorious hope.
Walk WITH Jesus,
Jim