Colossians 1:27  “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

How wonderful is this truth, that our Lord actually indwells the hearts of His people! In the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament many and varied aspects of the coming Christ are pre-envisaged, but nowhere are we told that He would actually indwell His people.

As Paul tells us in the verse preceding our text, that was part of a divine “mystery,” or sacred secret, “hid from ages and generations.”  Here is the full verse:

Colossians 1:27  “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

These words, “Christ in you,” remind us that if our Christian experience is to be rich in quality and alive with transparency, we need to know Christ in three ways. Putting it in the first-person singular, I need to know Christ for me; Christ in me; and Christ through me.

Christ for me is Christ dying on the Cross.
Christ in me is Christ living in my heart.
Christ through me is Christ speaking by my life.

Christ for me is my substitution and sacrifice.
Christ in me is my sanctification and satisfaction.
Christ through me is my service and sufficiency.

Christ for me is my only acceptable standing before God.
Christ in me is my only true victory over sin.
Christ through me is my only real power for spiritual ministry.

As a consequence to this for and in and through trio, I am to sustain a threefold relation to Christ, represented by the three words, purchased, possessed, permeated.

His dying for me means that I am Christ-purchased.
His living in me means that I am Christ-possessed.
His working through me means my being Christ-permeated.

Oh, that all of us who call Him Saviour might be fully possessed and permeated by His life and love and grace and peace and power!

Dr. F. B. Meyer used to say: “In all His people Christ is present. In some He is prominent. In a few He is pre-eminent.”

Those who are indwelt and controlled by Christ, find in Him their all-in-all. He is Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, for spirit, soul and body.

May we be able to say with A. B. Simpson:

I take salvation full and free,
Through Him who gave His life for me,
He undertakes my all to be:
I take – He undertakes.

I take Him for this mortal frame,
I take my healing through His name;
And all His risen life I claim:
I take – He undertakes.