Understanding the Red Letters Part 36
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:18-20).
The Holy Spirit has often been referred to as the person of the Trinity that indwells believers. In fact, several of our recent posts have been on this very topic, “And [the Helper] will be IN you” (John 14:17). But now Jesus extends our thinking to more than just the Holy Spirit inside with words like, “I will come to you … I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Does “Christ in you” sound familiar? As in …
- “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
- “And since Christ is in you” (Romans 8:10).
- “But Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
- “I [Jesus] in them and You [Father] in Me” (John 17:23).
The bottom line is that God is in you in whatever fashion He chooses. I think sometimes we put too much separation between the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and their roles. God is in you in all forms of Himself, living His life through you. I like to focus on Christ in me because Galatians 2:20 makes such a clear case of the old me having been crucified with Christ and the resurrected Jesus living His life through the new me.
And the greatest beauty of “Christ in us” to me is that it will never end. Jesus promised in our verses above, “I will not leave you as orphans.” He will never leave us. Christ will always be in us. How can we be so sure?
Because the “always” does not depend on us. Do you see the sheer beauty of this? Christ is in us because He came to live inside forever. He is the one who accomplished this indwelling. It was 100% His doing. Because He is the one who brought it to pass, we are powerless to undo it. His presence will never depend on my actions, my feelings, my failures, my love growing cold. It will always depend on His promise. He will never leave us as orphans.
In the setting of the upper room, Christ could tell the disciples that the world would soon behold Him no longer. Why? Because, following His death and resurrection, Christ was going to the Father. But the disciples would behold Him, both in His post resurrection appearances and in their forever. Because Christ now lives, we will live also.
And in our living, Christ will live in us on this earth and with us in our forever. “Because Christ lives, we will live also” (John 14:19).