You know, oftentimes we’ll be talking to someone and they’ll say this: It doesn’t matter what you believe. It doesn’t matter what your faith is, just as long as you believe in something. Some people say all gods are really the same god and there’s no diffference between the Christian god and the Buddhist god and the Islamic god and so forth. But those of us who know Jesus Christ in a personal way, would say no, no no! There are so many different ways that make Christianity unique.
We might say first of all what makes Christianity so unique is the resurrection of its leader. In every other religion there is a leader who lived and died. They’re dead, but only Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Others might say you know Christianity isn’t even really a religion. You see, religion is man struggling and striving to discover God. But Christianity isn’t man trying to figure out God, it’s God revealing Himself to man. And how wonderful it is that God gives us His Word and His Spirit to reveal who He is. We don’t have to figure Him out and try to figure out what He’s like because the Word tells us that.
Others might say well, it’s the Scriptures that we have. This book is a unique book! I mean, there are prophesies in it that we see fulfilled accurately and perfectly in Jesus Christ and many of the things about the nations have been fulfilled. The other books are just rules and regulations, dos and don’ts. But we have the wonderful Word of God.
There are many, many things that make Christianity unique. Above all else is the way to get to know God in the first place. Every other religion, every other faith says you’ve got to work your way there--you do five of this and three of that, or this step and that step until finally you’ve arrived. But we know the Bible says it’s not by works we have done, but only according to His mercy He saved us. And so what makes our faith so different is that we’re in a right relationship with God, not by works but by faith in trusting in Jesus as our Savior.
There’s one other vital, important aspect of that faith--one that sometimes even we, who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, seem to forget. And to me, it’s that part of our faith that is so awesome, so wonderful, and so phenomenal that it’s even beyond our own understanding and comprehension. And that is this truth: that Jesus Christ who is alive and reigns and rules, lives inside the life of the believer. The Bible says that Christ lives in the heart of the believer. It is wonderful to follow Jesus Christ! It’s wonderful to have Jesus Christ walk with us! It’s wonderful that he can be our Friend, our Brother, our Lord, and our Master; but above all those things, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ lives inside the true believer.
Now there are many verses in the Scriptures that affirm that. I want to share with you just a few of those to show you that this truth is found all throughout the New Testament. Jesus Christ said this in John 14:20 "on that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me..." and notice that He said this "and I am in you". He’s talking here about sending the Holy Spirit saying, you’re not going to be left orphans. I will come again. I will be inside of you. He said, I’m with you now.
Some people say, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have Jesus back with us so He could walk with us and talk with us; and we could be back there during that time? But He says, I have something so much more for you! I not only will be with you, I will be inside of you.
Romans 8:9 says "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if..." notice again "the Spirit of God lives in you." Not with you. Not beside you. But in you. "And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." The Spirit is in us. Jesus said, I am in you. The Spirit of Christ is in you.
In II Corinthians 13:5 there’s a test. How do I know that I know Him? We say, well I’m a Christian. I believe in Jesus. My faith is in Him. My trust is in Him. How do we know that we know Him? Good question! The Bible gives us that answer. "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." Here’s the test. What’s the test? Have I done these five, or these seven? Am I doing this or doing that? It doesn’t say anything about that at all! "Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you?" How do I know I’m in the faith? Because Christ Jesus is in me. And then the Word says, "unless, of course, you fail the test." If He’s not in you, you’re not of the faith. So here is the test: Do I know that Jesus Christ is inside of me?
Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live..." the "old" me is dead "but Christ lives.." where? "in me." Inside of me! "The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Again, it is Christ living in me.
In Ephesians 3:16-17 it says, "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that..." what? "Christ may dwell..." where? "in your hearts through faith." Again, Christ inside of me!
Turn to Colossians 1:26-27. The Old Testament saint didn’t know this. It was a mystery! He didn’t know what it was like to have the Lord inside of him. He looked forward by faith to the cross of Christ, his Messiah. "...the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints." What is that mystery that we now know? Christ where? "...in you, the hope of glory."
Then in I John 4:12-13 we read this truth: "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives..." where? "in us and His love is made complete in us. We know that we live in Him and He in us..." How do I know? "because He has given us His Spirit." Over and over again, the Bible affirms this wonderful truth of our faith--that for the true believer in Jesus Christ, He lives inside of us by His Spirit; that the Jesus Christ who lived and walked the perfect life lives inside the believer.
Now the question we must ask ourselves is, how does He get there? Does he just force His way in and invade our lives? Does he just say, here I am ready to take over? Does he come into our lives because our parents have us baptized or do something for us, or is something passed on as we are conceived and we just all of a sudden have Christ in us? The New Agers would have you believe that God is in everybody. We just have to discover Him. But what does the Bible say? The Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ comes into our life in one way and one way only--by personal invitation.
Look at John 1:11 and see what the Scriptures say about Jesus Christ. We see that Jesus Christ comes into our lives by His Spirit through personal invitation. "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him." His own people, the Jewish people, many of them did not receive Him. "Yet to all who..." notice "received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God..." Notice there’s a receiving, a believing, and a becoming. I receive Him into my life, I believe upon Him in my heart, and I become His child. Now look at verse 13. I become his child "born not of natural descent..." not because my parents were believers and they passed it on to me; "nor of human decision..." not because someone said, well now you have that; "or by a husband’s will..." the husband can’t say, my whole family is Christian; "but born of God".
Now here is the most phenomenal, the most wonderful truth of being a Christian: that anybody can invite Jesus Christ, the resurrected Christ, by His Spirit to live inside of him! That’s what it means to believe in Jesus because it says if you receive Him, believe in His name, you will become His child.
What does that mean? Well, we know that we have two basic parts to us. Two or three. We have the outside we can see, the body. But we know that we’re far more than just a body that walks around and does various things. There’s a part we don’t see, our soul or our soul and spirit. Sometimes the Bible talks about the body and soul, sometimes the body, soul and spirit. Inside, our soul is made up of different aspects of what you don’t see. For example, thinking or reasoning. We don’t see any of that, but we have a mind and we think. We call that our intellect. And we know that oftentimes things that we think are pretty rotten. We can be really nice and sweet to someone (oh, you’re so wonderful!) when inside we’ve got the rottenest thoughts. Don’t we? So our minds can be really fouled up. We can have thoughts of pride or we can have condemnation and judmental thoughts toward others that people don’t know about, but it’s really rotten. We can see filth, trash, pornography, or movies and things. We can have those evil fantasies that go on in our minds. You know, our minds can really be foul. And yet we can have our little plastic smiles on.
So we have a mind and we also have emotions we call feelings. Right? And sometimes those feelings can really be messed up. We can get into some bitterness or anger or resentment or hatred that well up inside our feelings.
So we have our intellect, our emotions, and we also have our will. Our will is our actions--what we do. I choose to go to work or not go to work. I choose to go here or do that. I can choose to walk the wrong way. We have a will. So what we don’t see--where on the outside, we can be all kinds of pleasant and sweet and wonderful and acting out a part--is on the inside. Our thoughts, our feelings, or what we want to do is corrupt. And we all know that we’ve had wrong thoughts. We all know that our emotions have been wrong and that our actions have been wrong. The Bible calls that our sin nature--our "old" us, the ugly old "flesh".
But when we invite Jesus Christ to come into our lives, He comes in the same way--in thinking. The Bible says we can have the mind of Christ--not the corrupt mind, the corrupt thinking, but the mind of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians about having the tender mercies or compassion of Christ, that we can have the feelings of Christ. And of course, we can have the will of Christ. We are to do the will of Christ.
So we are the "old" us that is corrupt, sinful, and rotten evil. The apostle Paul said, I know what is in me. I can do no good thing! But when we invite Jesus Christ to come into our lives, He comes in and wants to take over our lives. Now many people think, well I’ve invited Jesus Christ to come in. Now let me get on with my life. Or, I’ve invited Jesus Christ to come in. Now I’m going to really work hard. Oh, this Christian life! I’m going to try here. I’m going to strive there and I’m going to try to do that. And many of us wind up frustrated because we fail.
But not only do we invite Jesus Christ into our lives by personal invitation, we allow Him to live His life through us through crucifixion. You say, why should I allow Jesus Christ to live His life through me? Because He is the only One who ever lived a life of total victory! And not only does He want to be in my life, He wants to live His life through me. So it’s not me in my old way of thinking, in my old way of feeling, in my old way of acting, but it’s Him. So I will think the thoughts of Christ, I will have the compassion and emotions of Christ, and I will walk in the way of Christ. That’s done through death to me.
The truth of the Scripture is that the "old" me has to die--the old thinking, the old feelings, the old actions, the wrong way--so that the resurrected Christ will be through me; and it won’t be the old me, it will be Jesus in the new me.
Now look at Galatians 2:20 to see this truth. Though I invite Christ into my life by invitation, He lives His life through me through crucifixion. Many of you have probably memorized this verse. If not, it’s a good one to memorize--a good reminder for us of how we’re to live the life in this body. "I have been crucified with Christ..." that means death "and I no longer live..." that’s the old me. So what does that mean? "but Christ lives in me." It’s Christ in me, living through me because I am to die to that old self. "The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." So if the old me dead, if the old me is to die, if the old me is put to death, then it’s not me. It’s Jesus Christ living His life through me--in my thinking, in my feeling, in my acting.
Now notice the further explanation of this in the book of Romans 6. Again the crucified life is mentioned, but it’s expanded upon. You say, well that’s great! I want to die, I want to get rid of my old thinking, and my old feelings, and my old actions. Those are corrupt and I know it. I want Jesus to flow through me, but boy a lot of times it’s just not Him. Well, I want you to notice what’s addressed in Romans 6:6 "For we know that our old self was crucified with Him..." all right, Galatians 2:20 said that "so that the body of sin might be done away with..." Literally, that means rendered powerless. Why? So that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Now how does that happen? Verse 11: "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." I have to consider myself dead and say, I am a dead man. The old me is dead, so it’s got to be Jesus living through me. That’s why Romans 12 says, "offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God." I crawl onto that altar and say, God here I am. I’m laying myself on the altar offering myself to You so it can be Christ living through me.
Now if I realize that I count myself dead, (Galatians 6:12) "therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." How do I do that? In verse 13, I want you to notice the key word "offer". "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness." So as I offer myself to God--not to the old man, not to the old self, not to the old way, but I present myself to God and offer myself to God--I let Him live His life through me because I’m crucified with Christ. The apostle says (verse 19) "I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and ever increasing wickedness..." He said, before you were a Christian, you just offered yourselves wholeheartedly to wrong thinking, wrong feeling, wrong acting. Stop offering yourself, because the old man needs to die and he says "offer them in slavery to righteousness.." We are to offer them to God.
Now the wonderful truth is this: As I see myself being crucified with Christ (the old me dead--the new me, which is Jesus Christ in me resurrected and living through me), I am transformed. So that when I speak, Christ speaks through me. My heart is the heart of Christ. My actions are the actions of Christ. Our lives would be totally changed if we would have the old self dead and Jesus Christ living and flowing through me.
A story is told of the pastor who drove by a bar one day and he saw one of his deacons there at a bar stool. He wanted to know how he was going to confront the deacon about being in this bar. So one day he said to him, dear Brother So-and So, do you believe that Jesus Christ lives in the believer and that He lives His life through us? And the guy said, oh absolutely pastor! I believe that. He said, well what was Jesus doing in the bar last night? He confronted him in that way, the man wonderfully repented, and God did a work in his life.
Interestingly, I picked up a book just a few weeks ago. I’ve been getting some books on communication and marriage to help some people because that’s a big problem. And I picked up this book called He Said, She Said. I thought, well that sounds like a good book on communication. I found that it really isn’t on communication. In fact, well before I picked up this book, the Lord layed this subject on my heart to share with you today, but I found this very interesting opening paragraph about how to bring happiness into marriage--how to have a wonderful relationship in marriage. Listen to how they begin this book. "There must be hundreds of good books and seminars on the subject of marriage. Why should we write another one? Is there some dramatic new discovery which will turn a sour marriage into a sweet one? Something that can transform a good one into a great one? Yes, we believe there is. Our discovery is as old as the New Testament. Yet to the Christian who has not yet grasped it, the idea will seem new. We’re talking about the mystery of which Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians. As husband and wife, we’re the first to admit that we’ve been unable to make our own marriage succeed. But we’ve learned that Christ living through us is not only able to make our marriage work, but work beautifully." And then they say this: "Our discovery for miraculously improving marriage in every aspect of our lives is allowing Christ to live out our daily existence through us." This whole book is dedicated to that principal--that as the husband submits to Christ, as the wife submits to Christ, as it is Christ who is in them and Christ who is through them--it’s not them, but Christ.
So the Bible says not I, but Christ lives in me. And you and I have to ask ourselves this question: As I relate to my spouse, as I relate to my children, as I relate to my friends, as I relate to those around me, do they see Christ or the old me? If you would take 24 hours of the day--say yesterday--we’d say how much of what I said and what I thought and what I did was Christ and how much was the old me?
Augustine, who lived in the 4th century A.D., had a lot of neat things to say. Some of those things are so relevant today. He said this truth: Always preach the gospel. If necessary, use words. What he’s saying is this: If we live our lives in such a way that it’s Christ through us, living His life through us, we are speaking all the time!
Now the crucified life is not me but Christ. And if you really want to test yourselves, and you’ve got a lot of courage, say to your spouse this: Honey, any time that I say anything or act in any way that is not Christ, would you tell me and I’ll receive it? Don’t have a spouse? Say it to a friend that you can be accountable to. Say, if you ever see me acting in any way that is not Jesus Christ, would you tell me that? Cause you see, most of us live our lives in such a way that it’s more of us and less of Christ. The real Christian life is not me striving--oh, I’m going to try harder! I’m going to do more! I’m just really going to push! Just say Lord, I’m dead.
Why did the apostle Paul say in the Scriptures, "I die daily"? It wasn’t physical. It was the old self so that the resurrected Christ could live through him. I want Him to so transform my relationships that it isn’t me, but Christ--that my thinkings would not be those judgments, those criticisms, those putdowns and those negative thoughts, but the mind of Christ. And my feelings would not be that anger, that rage and all those feelings of wanting to get back at and get even, but of Christ. What would happen if we relate to the people that hurt us most with Christ’s compassion and not the old feelings that are there? And that where I went and what I did would not be me but Christ? That’s why Paul said in Colossians 1:27 "Christ in you, the hope of glory".
So Christ comes into my life by invitation, but Christ lives His life through me by crucifixion. It’s not enough to say, well Jesus is in my life. Let me go on now. We need Him to do more and more, as Steve Green sings in his song "to die a deeper death". So it’s less of me and more of Him.
Now there are many truths about Christ being in our lives, but let me share with you one more today because we might say to ourselves, but I offer myself to God! Every time there’s an altar call, I’m on my face and on my knees saying God take over my life! God live your life through me! Why is it I haven’t arrived? Why do I still have the thoughts that I have, the feelings that I have? Why do I do what I do in my life? Well, once again this truth of Christ in you is spoken of and I want you to notice the truth that’s mentioned. Colossians 1:27-28 "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery..." here it is again. What’s the mystery? "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Hallelujah, that’s it! God, You’re in me! God lives through me! But I want you to notice what this text says concerning that. The apostle says "We proclaim Him..." That’s Christ in you. Now, what relates to Christ in you? "admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ."
The apostle Paul said, our goal is to present you perfect in Christ. You say, I’ll never be perfect, not until glory. And that’s correct, but the word "perfect" here means "complete" and "mature". With Christ in my life, with Christ living His life through me, how do I become mature in Christ? Notice it says, "We proclaim Him..." verse 28 "admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom". The apostle said, Christ is in you. That’s the hope of glory. Maturity is where you’re focused toward to be complete in Him, but it requires admonishing and teaching.
You say, I need admonishing? What’s admonishing? Well, some translations say it’s warning, some say it’s instructing, some say it’s counseling. This is a very interesting word. It’s found in about a half dozen places in the New Testament. It comes from a Greek word which literally means "to put in your mind". What it means is that a brother or a sister will in a loving way give a word of correction--a word of counsel. Sometimes we think that when things are so bad and things are so tough, I’m finally at the point where I need some counseling. You know what? Every believer needs counseling.
We read in Romans 15:14 that the mature believer is confident to counsel another believer. In other words, we can all help each other grow in Christ. We need admonishment. It means that there are areas in my life which I need help in and that I don’t see and I need loving brothers and sisters to help me grow in Christ. Believe it or not, our spouses can be a great help to us. People that love us, our friends and family, can be a great help to us if we receive it. Some of us think we need counseling and then we just want to go and cry on someone’s shoulder and boo-hoo and pour our hearts out. That’s not receiving counseling. Some of us think, well I’ve got to let this person see my perspective so they’ll agree with me--and that’s not counseling. Counseling is being vulnerable to say, I need help in my maturity in Christ and I need someone to lovingly point out what is not Christ in me. And I submit myself to others to do that. We all need admonishment.
A number of months ago, a dear pastor friend came to my office and said, you know, I see some things. Can I share them with you? And I said yes. In a loving way, he admonished me. And I thank God for admonishment. You see, we need to be able to receive that. So many of us just want to defend ourselves--well this is the reason why I do this and this is the reason I’m this way!--instead of saying, I’m vulnerable. I’m open to correction and I’m open to maturity in Christ and I need help. Now that’s true counseling. What we need to do is perhaps go to several people who love us and whom we love and trust and say, help me grow in Christ. When you hear or see something that’s not Christ in me, will you lovingly tell me?
You see, the apostle Paul says we need admonishing to be presented mature in Christ. One of the hardest things for us ever to receive is correction and admonishment. But unless we are willing to open ourselves up to it, we will not mature because we read that part of our maturity is just that. And that’s his teaching. Sometimes we say, well I’ve been a Christian for ten years, or twenty years, or thirty or forty years. We pat ourselves on the back because, you know, we can find Zephaniah in the Bible without help! We haven’t missed a service in years! I mean, we’ve done this, been there, done that! We’ve even gone to the Holy Land! I mean, we’ve arrived, right? But we always need to grow.
I love it when I meet saints who are in their seventies and eighties and they just have a hunger to learn more. They say, I just learned this in God’s Word today! We always need to be in a place of receiving and learning. We read here in the Scriptures that every one of us needs admonishment. Every one of us needs teaching for maturity in Christ.
So, yes, we receive Christ into our hearts by invitation. Yes, by crucifixion, Christ lives His life through us. But by admonishing and teaching, we are to grow mature in Christ. We have to ask ourselves, am I open to receive it--not to defend me, not to fight about what’s being said, but to receive it? Because there are things about me that I don’t see. And every one of needs those words of admonition and the teachings of the Lord.
You know, when Paul wrote to the church in Rome--we just looked at that passage--he was talking about the old self (the old nature) and the new nature. He talked about the body of sin and death being done away with. He was probably thinking about a means of torture and death that the Romans used. Now the Romans were very cruel. They’re the ones that, if you can say it that way, perfected crucifixion to make it the most torturous in suffering the agonies of death. And they used it more than anybody. But they also had other terrible means of killing people, some by a very slow death. One thing that they would do is tie a dead body onto a live person so that you couldn’t take the dead body off. As the dead body would decay and bacteria would invade the body of the dead person, it would begin to invade the body of the live person as well. Then as maggots would begin to infect the dead carcass, they would begin to infect the live carcass. And in a slow, agonizing way, the stinky, smelly, rotten stench of that body of death would destroy the living person. The illustration is that’s the old me--that stinky, rotten, foul, decaying flesh. The apostle Paul said that by crucifixion we’re to be free from that body of sin and death. But some of us like to every day dig it up to carry it around again instead of allowing the old man to be dead and letting the Lord live His life through us.
When people see me and know me and understand me, what do they see? Do they see the old way and say, man, those thoughts! What a foul mind! And those lousy attitudes! Oh, that anger, that bitterness! Oh, that person! Man, they’re really an angry person! Is that what they see? If they do, that’s not Christ. That’s the old, rotten carcass. Or do they say, boy I see Jesus--the mind of Christ, the heart and will of Christ. That’s the Christian life, Christ in you. Christ in you, Christ through you, Christ changing you. So it is not me, but Christ who lives in me.