We have considered the first two steps involved in this process: a change in orientation and having a mindset of a servant. Today we consider the third step.
Growing in our understanding of the mystery.
In Colossians 1:26-29, we read, "26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 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. 28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me."
Christ not only died for the forgiveness of our sins, He also died that He might live in, to and through us. It is His life within us that is the means by which we are transformed and enabled to relate with God and others.
"Christ in you" is the mystery and is surely the most astounding revelation in the Bible. The Lord Jesus is the secret behind any success in the life of the believer.
This mystery "has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people." The Apostle Paul used the word mystery twenty-one times in all of his Epistles. There are hints in the Old Testament of this mystery, but nowhere in the Old Testament do we find a single verse that describes this mystery.
When we understand that the Lord Jesus lives in us, we discover that we have access to a new hope, a new source of power. And, if we are honest, we can not do what is required of us to have the life that the Lord Jesus died to give us. He must do it, thus He indwells us through the promised Holy Spirit.
In addition, we also have a new motive to obey, to read, to study, to learn, to grow in this newfound relationship. God did it this way in order to present us "mature in Christ." (see v.28)
The goal of our new birth is to make us spiritually mature. This transformation occurs only by coming to understand and practice the mystery of Christ within us. We must incorporate relational skills with Christ Himself in order for us to experience that which Christ has died to give us.
Philip Yancey once said, “Hope cannot exist in a vacuum where facts are ignored.” And the fact is, we will never get life completely right. This is why we need the indwelling Lord. As is evidence in many biblical characters, “God shows us our inability, so that we will depend upon Him.” Dependency upon God is the womb of true spiritual maturity.
