Guest Article: God In Us- 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

Original picture by Ariely and obtained under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Several weeks ago when I asked for suggestions to write about when considering the promises of God, I got one request to write about the idea of God living in us. Because of the thought put into the request itself, and because of the respect I have for the person who suggested it, I asked that person it if they would be interested in putting some thoughts about it down. The following is what they sent, but they wanted it to be anonymous.

--------------------------------
What would it look like if Jesus decided to come down here and become YOU?
 
Would people notice the change? What would be different? How would your life make Jesus look?
 
Having Jesus become me... is that possible? Is it something that I would even WANT to happen?
 
Yet in Scripture, this gets repeated...
God IN you.
Christ IN you.
The Spirit IN you.
 
John 14:23... Jesus said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

Romans 8:9-11... Paul wrote to the followers of Christ in Rome,
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives IN you.
And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
But if Christ is IN you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living IN you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives IN you.”
 
(Those “ifs” are hard to ignore.)
 
Galatians 2:19,20 ... And Paul wrote this to the Christians in Galatia,
“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives IN me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
 
Colossians 1:27 ... And he wrote this to the ones in Colosse,
“...God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ IN you, the hope of glory.”
 
Paul personified the Spirit when he wrote these words to followers in Corinth:
2 Corinthians 3:17,18 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
 
Is it easy for me to wrap my head around this? No. But I am working on it.
 
It’s hard for me to believe that the LORD, who is the Spirit, would want to come live in my flawed life.
 
But I do believe that he is able.
--------------------------------

Amen. May we live with the knowledge of "God in us" in ever increasing ways every day, and may our lives reflect that knowledge more and more as we grow in it.