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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