Christ
in you, the hope of Glory.
In fact Christ in us is our only hope of eternal
Glory!
Galatians 2:20 says
It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. No other verse captures the truth of the
indwelling Christ, living in us, through us, as us, so well.
Now Let me just also disclaim any
originality for what I plan to share with you. It all comes from the Word of
God. It is my deepest prayer that trough my teaching on the union of the
believer with Jesus Christ that it be for the growth of the body for the
building up of itself in love. And I pray that you drink deeply of the water of
life who is Christ, knowing the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that
you may be filled up to all fullness of God.
Jesus Christ living in us and through us, as
us, is the only hope we have of experiencing the Glory God intends for our
lives. I want everyone; I want to help everyone, to enter into Christ’s
fullness in their life. So that is our goal…. Christ’s fullness in your life
Now there is a flip side to “the hope of
Glory,” Yes, Christ in us is our only hope of experiencing God’s glory
ourselves. But we must understand that it is also the way that God has chosen
to eternally manifest His glory by living His life in and through a host of
sons and daughters. I want to begin this emphasis, the emphasis that I pray
this series of sermons explains, with a discussion of not the Glory we receive from God, but the glory He receives through us.
If we do not begin from God’s point of view,
we end up with man at the center. That is true even in the way we approach the
Word of God. For instance we often begin our study of the Bible with the fall
of man into sin. We then perceive that after mans fall the entire Bible is a
chronicle of God’s redemption of man. That is true, it is. It can appear
however and is often preached, that God’s ultimate purpose is the rescue of
man. So the whole matter focuses on us.
But if we just back up, and begin as the
Bible does with before the foundation of the world, before Gen. 1:1, we start
from another point of view. We start with the question: what is God’s intent?
Galileo and Copernicus discovered that the earth was not the center of the
universe, or at lest our little solar system. The Sun is. My dear friends IM
here to remind you today we are not the center of the universe. The Bible says
the Son is. The SON
It
is very easy to live as if we are the center of the universe. We would not ever
say it, or even think it consciously, but it is easy to live as if God is here
for us. That sort of teaching has in fact become very popular the past few
years. That God is here to bless you that we ought to be wealthy, prosperous.
We are due it, we are owed success, owed getting ahead. That God must respond
to our faith. God has obligated Himself to bless us if we just do the right
things. All of which means we are the center of the universe.
But if we start before the foundation of the
world, we discover that God has a plan, a plan conceived before time began.
Paul revealed God’s plan I think most clearly in the first chapter of his
letter to the Ephesians.
Ephes. 1:3 Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, … Is it God’s intent to bless us. Yes, that is
an absolute fact. In fact,
He
has already blesses us with every possible blessing
in
the heavenly realm. V.4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world God had a purpose for us before the foundation
of the world. He chose us for that purpose.
that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love V. 5 he
predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, Gods plan involved having
many sons and daughters who would be holy and blameless in His sight. Through
the subjection of the Son to the cross, God intended to bring many children
into glory. Why? Paul continued, …
according to the purpose of his will, V. 6 to
the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
And just to make sure we do not miss
the point, he repeated it six verses later: V. 12
so that we who were the
first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. And again two verses later V. 14 the Holy
Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of
it, to the praise of his glory.
See here, We exist for the praise of
His glory. God works all things according
to the council of His will, v.11, to
accomplish that purpose. And what exactly is it that glorifies God? What has He
set out to accomplish from before the foundation of the world? V. 8-10 he
lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of
his will, according to his purpose, which
he set
forth in Christ as a plan for the
fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and
things on earth.
God’s
plan
was to bring into being many sons and daughter whom He would indwell; through
whom He would live and manifest Himself; and in and through whom Christ would
reign supreme. We Christians, are the beneficiaries of that plan. God, in His
love and grace, has made us a part of His plan. But…we are not the center of
it; Jesus is. We are participants in the plan, participants whom God loves and
cherishes, and nourishes, as a husband does his
bride. (Eph 5:25-32)
We are God’s
inheritance. We tend to focus on what we inherit in Christ. We are God’s
inheritance: V.18
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope
to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in
the saints,
His inheritance is
His body—the Body of Christ—accomplishing His purpose. And though the Bible records
mans fall, that calamity has not done one thing to delay or change God’s
purpose. His intention was always to have a vast family of sons and daughters.
The fall did not deter that plan. God incorporates our redemption into that
plan, but the plans goal is still the same. We are here for the praise of His
glory. Romans 11:36 says this so well, for from him and through him and to him are
all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
From-Everything comes
from God.
Through – By means of
God.
To—The ultimate end
is unto God. Not Him unto us, but us unto Him.
Everything we need to know for experiencing
God’s abundant life is found in the cross of Christ. We look at the cross and
see what God did for us there. I praise God for this truth. That was Christ’s
work on our behalf.
Even more than that though, the cross was
Gods work on His own behalf. Through the cross God accomplished what He needed
to fulfill His own eternal purposes, that all things might be summed up in Christ.
Christ in you, the Hope of Glory is
primarily His glory. Christ lives in us to manifest His life through us, but
His plan encompasses more than just that. He is working toward His own ends,
and we are the vessels through which He works. We are the visible manifestation
of what God is doing, with Himself as the ultimate goal, what is it, that God
may be all in all. (1 cor. 15:28)
That is why the Father wants us to be filled
up to the fullness of God. And that is what this emphasis, Living Above The
Line is all about; our being filled to all the fullness of God, to the praise
of His Glory
