Just think if you could get into a time machine and go back to the time that Jesus was walking on the earth. Can you see yourself finding the crowds of people gathered around Jesus? Imagine yourself at the back of a huge multitude of people. You press your way in. Slowly, you are able to make your way to the front. You are getting closer to Jesus. Finally you get there, face to face. What do you do now that you are right in front of your Lord? Would you fall at His feet? Would you ask Him a million questions? Would you look into His eyes and just gaze at Him? Would you hug him and just receive his loving embrace?
Although this would truly be a wonderful experience, because of the gospel, you now have something better than being physically face to face with Jesus.
Our tendency is to not really believe this however. We therefore limit ourselves in our experience of Christ.
The scripture says that “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28). We also know that “we are in Christ.” (Rom. 8:1, 1 Cor. 1:30, 2 Cor. 5:17, Col 3:3). The scripture also teaches us that “Christ is in us.” (Rom 8:10, Eph 3:17, Col 1:27). Rom 5:5 says “…the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
This is not just spiritual, religious talk. These two simple truths, that you are in Christ and Christ is in you, are both completely amazing. We are far more near to Christ than if He were hugging us physically. We are closer to Jesus now than if He were right in front of us. He is in you and you are in Him – and the Spirit of God is a person. Jesus is already hugging you – this very moment. This is an unseen spiritual reality, in which we are mostly unaware of.
So many Christians are longing for the nearness of Christ. So many people are hungry for just a touch from God. That’s not a bad thing at all. But, it is as though we are wandering around in the forest unable to find any trees. “I wish I could find a tree, I’ve been searching my entire life for a tree.” Out of total exhaustion from our quest to find trees our whole life, we sit down in the forest and lean against a tree to take a rest. “I wonder what they really look like.” We lean the back of our head against the tree and gaze off into the distance wondering why trees have escaped our grasp for our entire lives.
We must realize the truth that we are in Christ Jesus Himself. We must realize that it is already true that Christ Himself is in us. Believe the truth and let down to enjoy it. To say that Christ is very near is still short of the truth.
It is as though we were perforated with hundreds of tiny holes. If we were to be submerged into water, the water would fill us and be in us, yet we would be in the water as well. Yet, the water would be the person of Jesus. Because the water is a person, the water is actively loving us, speaking to us, and listening to us – all the things that would be true of a relationship with a human being. We are submerged into the person of Jesus Christ. We are completely encompassed within the pure love and tenderness of Jesus Christ. He is our environment. “For in Him we live and move and exist.” (Acts 17:28).
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:14-21).
