Why do we consider ourselves separate from God? Why are we afraid of Him? Adam and Eve hid from the Lord in the garden after they partook of the fruit of Lucifer’s kingdom. They were afraid of being destroyed for what they had done. And that fear introduced the workings of death within humanity.

But what if we didn’t have to be afraid of being destroyed by God? What if God did something to change all that? What if He sent Someone to change history, Someone with the power to reconcile us, or bring us close to and in relationship with God Almighty?

God did do that. Jesus came in the flesh and fixed our separation problem. Now we are not separate from God…

We are One with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit!

It takes a renewed mind to be able to see this important truth. And this revelation, of being one with Christ and one in Christ will completely revolutionize your life, if you let it, if it hasn’t already done that.

It takes a view of the Kingdom of God, the ability to see the Kingdom, like we talked about two weeks ago, in order to see this truth. It’s a completely new and different paradigm of operating. 

Remember this verse? 

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

Thinking of yourself as one with Christ to some is close to blasphemy.

They say, “How could you or I, horrible sinners, even get close to a Holy and Righteous God?”

These are the same people, who, when you talk about sharing in God’s glory, will say something like, “Oh, don’t you know that God doesn’t give His glory to another?”

These same people say things like, “Don’t trust your heart. It’s deceptively wicked.”

Here’s another one, “God can’t be in the presence of sin.” And by implication, they mean: God can’t stand to be around you because you’re a dirty, rotten sinner.

They see God as separate from themselves, way high above in Heaven, and we’re down here on earth, just trying to make it by, struggling with the same old things, and hoping just to make it through one more day of struggle in this miserable life God has given us. And maybe one day, when we die, we might get to go to Heaven and be bored. They trust in death as their savior more than Jesus as their Savior.

Let me tell you Church: this pattern of thinking needs to die. It needs to shrivel up and die. I am convinced of this: God doesn’t want us to think like this anymore.

He wants us to see ourselves as “in Christ.” God wants us to see ourselves as saints instead of sinners. He wants us to see ourselves as washed, clean, set free, holy, righteous, without fault, reborn, regenerated, renewed IN CHRIST.

This is why the gospel is such a mystery. It flies in the face of old religious thought. Instead of changing our behaviors to gain acceptance of a holy and righteous God, we are transformed from the inside out, having access to God Himself, and allowing Him to heal our wounds and save our souls, allowing Him to activate our spirits and bring in Heavenly changes to our lives.

The Mystery of Christ in You

So we’re going to talk about this mystery of our union with Christ and in Christ.

Paul, here in Colossians, is writing to them about the Church, saying:

“Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:25-27 (ESV)

This mystery that was hidden for ages is now revealed to us, His saints. To us, God has made known the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is: Christ in you, the hope of glory!

And what is glory? According to the Blue Letter Bible, glory in the New Testament is this: always a good opinion concerning someone, resulting in praise, honour, and glory, splendour, brightness, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, and grace.

In Christ, we can have the joyful expectation of all of these good things. Why? Why do we get to participate in these things? Because they are Christ’s things. And Jesus is really good at delegating.

Remember, in John 17 when Jesus was praying to God, He said:

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” John 17:22-23 (ESV)

Wait, but you thought He doesn’t give His glory to another? Here’s the bombshell revelation: He doesn’t consider you as another! He considers you as One with Christ.

You are not separate from God. There is no distance and separation between you and Him, as our pastor friend Bill Vanderbush would say. There is no distance and separation between you and Him!

In that day you will know…

Speaking of Bill, one of his favorite verses is this one:

[Jesus speaking] “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” John 14:20 (ESV)

In that day: the day the Holy Spirit is revealed, the day of Pentecost. For us this is past tense.

We know that Jesus is in the Father; we are in Jesus, and Jesus is in us.

Let’s turn this into a personal declaration:

Today I know this important truth: Jesus is in the Father; I am in Jesus, and Jesus is in me.

Do you know this truth? Has this truth transformed your life? Has it dropped from head knowledge to heart knowledge? For me it has. For me, this transformed my life. This knowledge completely shifted my identity. I was no longer defined as dirty rotten sinner on the bottom of Jesus’ sandal. No! Instead, I was one with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was in me, and I was in Him. There was no longer any separation between God and me. I was no longer considered another, but I was invited into the Trinity! I was invited to be one with God Himself in this incredible mystery that’s called “Christ in me, the hope of glory.”

Sons of God

This was a mind shift. I now consider myself a son of God. Now some may even see this as blasphemous, because they say there’s only one son of God. Well, I wonder if they’ve read their Scriptures, because this one is pretty clear:

“for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” Galatians 3:26 (ESV)

Or what about this one:

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 (ESV)

And there are others too. But do we believe this? How do we convince ourselves of this truth? How do we embrace this truth and make it part of our beings? It’s a journey, no doubt.

Is This Pride

When I was discovering this truth and starting to embrace it more and more, I was describing this to a church acquaintance. This man I was talking to listened as I explained what our true identity is according to Ephesians chapter 1, that in Christ, we are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love.

After I explained these things, he literally pointed his finger at me and said, “Isn’t it prideful to think of yourself that way? I like to think of myself as a dirty rotten sinner in order to stay humble.”

I was about to respond, but we were interrupted and never returned to the conversation. That night as I drove home, I asked the Lord, “Is he right? Is it prideful to think of myself in this way?” A few moments later I heard the Lord say, “No, he is the one struggling with pride.” This blew my mind. I had no idea.

Over the next several months, the Lord systematically taught me why this is considered pride.

When we believe something about ourselves that God doesn’t believe about us, we’re believing a lie. If we double down on the lie because we think we know better than God, that’s pride. And that’s exactly what Lucifer did that got him kicked out of Heaven.

I hope you are beginning to see and take hold of the truth that you are a son of God. You are no longer a “dirty, rotten sinner,” rather you are made holy and blameless. This is true because God says so. Next week we are going to look at this more in depth. I hope you will join me!