The greatest blessing offered to us is living in grace and truth of the resurrection life of Christ. Consider the powerful revelation that Paul caught. He refers to it as “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
RELEVANCE
So, what is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”? For one thing, it is living in the reflection of Christ’s magnificence, His beauty, His light. More importantly, it is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within you.
Truly, the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. However, Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter dwelling in us, guiding us, strengthening us, empowering us with a host of grace gifts.
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. (John 15:26)
…when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-14)
As we grow in Christ and yield—or submit—to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit grows fruit within us. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
We also come to learn God’s perspective of things. So, we learn that hope from God’s perspective speaks of certainty, something based on God’s promises, truths and faithfulness. This builds our faith. It enables us to gain confidence and trust—in God. Truly, God’s Word sealed by the Holy Spirit within us gives us confidence that we can trust in God’s faithfulness.
So, living in Christ’s resurrection life brings us to experience the resurrection life or new life of the Spirit. This is an awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence, joy and activity in our life. It is a mystery until we truly experience Pentecost—the promises of God’s Word and Spirit converging in a personal and real way through God’s grace transmitted in His love—in His resurrection power.
In addition, through His resurrection life in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit, we find some of the greatest revelations and expressions of the Christian life as God meant them to be expressed. We get to experience the reality of grace and truth in Christ. So, we see the greater reality of what Paul expresses to encourage us to live in great hope.
It’s also where we find our greatest strength developed in His grace and joy, even resilience to combat the intense forces of darkness that work to knock us down and knock us out. Furthermore, it’s where we find solutions in Christ to overcome the darkness of fears, rejection, negativity, depression, ambivalence and arise victorious through all sorts of hardships. Yes, His grace and truth is truly glorious!
It’s where we also find faith and stamina to endure and overcome all situations. We can see strongholds in our life demolished and argumentative thoughts and high things of pride contrary to God’s thoughts, will and way brought down. We also experience our mind brought into the captivity of the obedience of Christ—or come into alignment with God’s higher thoughts and higher ways. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)
In summation, it’s where we find God’s solutions to experience the new life in Christ by exchanging the falsehoods of the philosophies and ideologies of the world with the higher truths, spiritual realities, principles and wisdom of God. (Romans 1:25; John 3:30) It’s also where we see the dynamics of the kingdom of God working in real-time and bringing pivotal paradigm shifts in our life.
This is what the first century church experienced. “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33) This same resurrection life is available to all of us. It comes through active faith in Christ, believing and trusting in His promises.
REFLECT, RELATE AND RESPOND
Spend some time meditating on what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 14:15-18; John 15:26; John 16:12-15. Invite the Holy Spirit to stir you in God’s great love. Know that the Holy Spirit is the presence of God dwelling inside you.