Christ in You: The
Apostle's Secret
by A. B. Simpson
Ancient mythology
recognized some union of God with man, but it was a union which only
degraded the gods and did not lift mankind. It still left a great gulf
between the earthly and the heavenly.
It is this Paul
refers to when he exclaims: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared
for them that love him" (I Cor. 2:9).
The apostle's secret
of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27) is one which the
world cannot grasp. Think of it and try to realize it. God is not only
a God who mercifully pardons our guilt and saves us from its
consequences, not only a God who gives to us a new nature that loves
to do the right which once we hated, not only a God who comes to our
aid in temptation and trial and interposes His strength and His
providence for our deliverance, but above all this He is a God who
comes Himself to live His own life in us.
He takes us into the
divine family, makes us partakers of the divine nature, undertakes our
life for us, becomes the Author and Finisher of our faith, and works
in us "to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). This is
incomprehensible to our finite minds.
What does human
poetry, human philosophy, the purest form of human religion know of
anything like this? No wonder Paul was aflame with the enthusiasm of
his glorious discovery and
longed to sweep like an angel flying in the midst of
heaven to tell our helpless race the mighty secret - the secret that
God not only had come down to visit men with a message of mercy, but
had come to stay and live within them with "the power of an endless
life" (Heb. 7:16).
It is still a secret, except to the initiated. Not only
did it need a divine revelation to make it known to the world, it
still needs a divine revelation to make it personally known and
experientially real to the individual heart.
This is what the apostle means in I Corinthians 2,
where with great clarity and force he argues that the mere human
intellect cannot comprehend the things of God, but that we need a
divine mind to be added to our human understanding before we can
enter into the realm of spiritual truth.
It takes the mind of a man, Paul says, to understand
the things of a man; and it takes the mind of God in us to understand
the things of God. So he adds, "We have received... the spirit which
is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us
of God" (I Cor. 2:12). Later he states the profound and extraordinary
fact, "We have the mind of Christ" (verse 16), meaning that God gives
to us a supernatural revelation of Himself and a supernatural capacity
to understand that revelation.
Therefore the moment that this great mystery becomes an
experience in the life of a soul is a transcendent moment. It is one
of the mountaintops of life. It is the crisis of existence. It is the
°eniel where God declares, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob,
but Israel" (Gen. 32:28) and where transformed Jacob can say, "I have
seen God face to face" (verse 30).
Have you entered into that sublime, supreme mystery?
Have you passed through the veil into the Holy of Holies, so that you
can say triumphantly:
I have passed through the veil to the
Sacred Abode
Where His glory the Savior reveals to His own:
And now, in the innermost presence
of God,
I am dwelling forever with Jesus
alone.
It is always a mystery, because even to the initiated
there are still depths and heights of yet undiscovered glory and
blessing. The apostle himself declares, "The Spirit searches all
things, yes, the deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:10).
Further, he prays that believers may fully know the
riches of the glory of this mystery. He declares, "The love of Christ
... passes knowledge" (Eph. 3:19).
This glorious secret will unfold in ever-richer, fuller
splendors till the end of time and through the never-ending ages of
eternity. All that we know of it already is like the pebbles that a
child has gathered on the shore while the depths of the boundless
ocean stretch out unexplored beyond.
Artists tell us that the secret of genius in any great
work of art lies in the depth of the painting. Some pictures seem all
upon the surface; others open to the observing eye infinite depths of
suggestion and imagination.
But the mystery of Jesus surpasses all human thoughts,
visions or imaginations. Every day unfolds some new charm. Every
experience presents in it some new and living glory.
Like Aaron's rod, it is ever budding, blossoming and
bearing new fruit. It never will cease to be as fresh as in the hour
its glory first burst upon our transported view. And on and on through
the cycles of eternity we shall still sing with wonder and adoration:
His love what
mortal thought can reach,
What mortal
tongue display?
Imagination's
utmost stretch
In wonder dies
away.
