“The Gift of Himself”

     To be alive, as God defines life, requires vital spiritual union with the Christ who declared, “I am… the life” (John 14:6).

     “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (I John 5:11).

    We exist to be “the habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).  Faith in the Lord Jesus ushers us into such amazing relationship with the Creator and Sustainer of our being.  God draws nearer to us than our next breath, as it were, and our spirit becomes the central core of our self and personhood.  “Ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you” (Romans 8:9).  The Holy Spirit births the person we were made to be, enlivening us by uniting us with the Lord Jesus in a bond closer than His disciples knew during their three years of walking in physical proximity with the Savior.  “The Spirit of truth… He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17).

     Our response to this wondrous teaching of Scripture involves many aspects of faith, expectation, application and submission.  First, however, we must simply accept and believe that the Truth is, in fact, true.  In principle, most born again believers understand and affirm the gift of life in Christ.  Our Heavenly Father, however, desires far more than mere intellectual assent to the presence of Christ’s life within us.  He would have us remember and believe in times of blessing, challenge, and perhaps most difficult of all, in times of the mundane, everyday realities of life.  Indeed, a greater and transcendent Life, the risen life of the Lord Jesus Himself, pervades all.  We often don’t think about it, we forget, or we may at times even choose to disbelieve that God is present and active in every moment.  Nothing changes the truth, however.  “To live is Christ” (Philippians1:21).

     This is written as a simple reminder of a Truth we believe, but which requires frequent refreshing in our hearts and minds.  At the greatest cost to Himself, the Lord Jesus has drawn nearer to our trusting hearts than we can presently fathom.  He will never leave, and in this moment and forevermore, our Savior is the very Life of our lives.  No greater gift could He have given to us so freely, the gift of His living presence, the gift of Himself.

“Your life is hid with Christ in God.”

(Colossians 3:3)