Christ lives in you!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the restoration of life. How does the restored life of Jesus affect your daily life? In his letter to the Colossians, Paul reveals a mystery that can breathe new life into you: “You have been told what has been hidden from you since the beginning of the world, indeed from all mankind—a mystery now revealed to all Christians. It is an incomprehensible miracle that God has prepared for all people on earth. You who belong to God may understand this mystery: Christ lives in you! And with this you have the firm hope that God will give you a share in his glory.” (Kol 1,26-27).

The role model

How did Jesus experience his relationship with his Father when he lived on this earth? “For from him and through him and to him are all things.” (Röm 11,36)This is precisely the relationship between the Son as God-man and his Father as God. From the Father, through the Father, to the Father! “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said to God: ‘Sacrifice and other offerings you did not desire, but you have given me a body, and this is to be the sacrifice; burnt offerings and sin offerings are not pleasing to you.’ Therefore I said, ‘I have come to do your will, my God.’ This is what is written about me in the Holy Scriptures.” (Hebr 10,5-7)Jesus offered his life unconditionally to God so that everything written about him in the Old Testament could find its fulfillment through him as a person. What enabled Jesus to offer his life as a living sacrifice? Could he do this on his own? Jesus said, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father, who lives in me, does his works.” (Joh 14,10)The oneness in the Father and the Father in him enabled Jesus to offer his life as a living sacrifice.

The ideal idea

The day you accepted Jesus as your Redeemer, Savior, and Redeemer, Jesus took form within you. You and all people on this earth can have eternal life through Jesus. Why did Jesus die for everyone? “Jesus died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2. Kor 5,15).

As long as Jesus inhabits you through the Holy Spirit, you have only one calling, one purpose and one goal: to make your life and your whole personality available to Jesus without restrictions and unconditionally. Jesus started his inheritance.

Why should you let Jesus completely take over your life? “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Röm 12,1).

To surrender yourself completely to God is your response to God's mercy. Such a sacrifice means a transformation of your entire lifestyle. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Röm 12,2)James says in his letter: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.” (Jak 2,26)Spirit here means something like breath. A body without breath is dead. A living body breathes, and a living faith breathes. What are good works? Jesus says: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (Joh 6,29)Good works are works that originate in the faith of Christ dwelling within you and that are expressed through your life. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." (Gal 2,20)Just as Jesus lived in unity with God the Father when he was on earth, you too should live in a close relationship with Jesus!

The problem

For me, the ideal is not always true in every area of ​​my life. Not all of my works have their origin in the faith of the Jesus who is in me. We find the reason and the cause in the story of creation.

God created human beings to enjoy and to express His love in and through them. In his love he placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and gave them dominion over the garden and all that was in it. They lived in Paradise with God in a close and personal relationship. They knew nothing of "good and evil" because they believed and trusted God first. Adam and Eve then believed the serpent's lie that they found the fulfillment of life within themselves. Because of their fall, they were expelled from paradise. They were denied access to the "Tree of Life" (that is Jesus). Although they lived on physically, they were dead spiritually. They had left the unity of God and had to decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong.

God has ordained that blessings and curses are inherited from generation to generation. Paul recognized this original sin and writes in Romans: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” (Röm 5,12).

I inherited the desire to realize myself and to live from my own self from my first parents. In life in communion with God we receive love, security, recognition and acceptance. Without the personal and close relationship with Jesus and the absence of the Holy Spirit, a shortcoming arises and leads to dependency.

I filled my inner emptiness with various addictions. For a long time in my Christian life, I believed that the Holy Spirit was a force. I used this power and tried to overcome my addictions or lead a godly life. The focus was always on myself. I wanted to overcome my addictions and desires myself. This fight with good intentions was fruitless.

Recognize the love of Christ

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit of God? I learned the meaning in the Letter to the Ephesians: “That the Father, according to his glorious riches, may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And being rooted and grounded in love, you, together with all the saints, may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3,17-19).

My question is: What do I need the Holy Spirit for? To understand the love of Christ! What is the result of this knowledge of Christ's love that surpasses all knowledge? By knowing the incredible love of Christ, I receive the fullness of God, through Jesus who lives in me!

The life of Jesus

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is of profound significance for every Christian, indeed for every person. What happened then has a profound influence on my life today. “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Röm 5,10)The first fact is this: Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I am reconciled to God the Father. The second, which I had long overlooked, is this: He redeems me through his life.

Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (Joh 10,10 (out). What human being needs life? Only a dead person needs life. “You too were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Eph 2,1)From God's perspective, the problem isn't just that we are sinners and need forgiveness. Our problem is much bigger: we are dead and need the life of Jesus Christ.

Life in paradise

Are you afraid that you can no longer be the person you were because you have given your life to Jesus without reservation and unconditionally? Jesus told his disciples, shortly before he suffered and died, that he would not leave them as orphans: “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (Joh 14,20).

Just as Jesus lives in you and works through you, so too do you live and work in Jesus! You live with God in fellowship and connection, as Paul recognized: "For in him we live and move and have our being." (Apg 17,28)Self-realization within one's own ego is a lie.

Jesus explains the fulfillment of the paradisiacal state shortly before his death: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Joh 17,21)Being one with God the Father, Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit is true life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life!

Since realizing this, I bring all my problems, addictions, and weaknesses to Jesus and say, “I can't do it, I'm unable to get these out of my life on my own. In unity with you Jesus and through you I am able to overcome my addictions. I want you to take their place and I ask you to undo the inherited debt of independence in my life.

A key verse of the Epistle to the Colossians, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Kol 1,27)This says the following about you: If you, dear reader, have turned to God, God has brought about a new birth in you. You have received a new life, the life of Jesus Christ. Your heart of stone has been replaced with his living heart. (Hes 11,19)Jesus lives in you through the Spirit, and you live, move, and have your being in Jesus Christ. Oneness with God is fulfilled life that will last for all eternity!

Thank God again and again for the fact that he lives in you and that you allow yourself to be fulfilled in him. Thanks to your gratitude, this important fact is taking shape in you!

by Pablo Nauer