the mystery that has
been kept hidden for ages and generations,
but is now disclosed to
the saints.
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. Colossians 1:26-27
And let me make it quite clear when Christians
say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or
moral. When they speak of being 'in Christ' or of Christ being 'in them', this
is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying
Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole
mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts—that we
are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains
one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely
mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It
is not merely the spreading of an idea; it is more like evolution—a biological
or superbiological fact. There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God.
God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses
material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think
this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes
matter. He invented it.
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