Message in a Bottle

One of the greatest promises in Scripture is that we are not alone. And the outworking of that is perhaps one of the most mysterious concepts in Christianity: that we are in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is in us, and Christ is in God.

Take this verse from Colossians 3:3 - "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." It's one of those paradoxes of faith: Because we are dead, we are actually more alive than ever! The next verse is the key - Christ IS our life.

 

We are united with Christ through his death. That's what Paul said in Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." If we have surrendered control of our lives to God, then Jesus Christ becomes our life. He doesn't just become priority. He doesn't become a crutch. He doesn't become #1. He doesn't become an addition. He becomes everything. He lives by His Spirit inside of us, and therefore we live according to a new nature. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 states: "Now it is God who makes...you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

So here is this big mystery: we are united with God. The reason Christ came to earth and died is so that our relationship with God, which was broken because of sin, could be restored. Our lives are completely transformed as we take on a new nature, being hidden with Christ in God. It can be tricky terminology, because there are a lot of religions that say similar things. Buddhists meditate in order to 'become one with god'. New Age says that 'god is everything, and is in everything.' But according to  Christianity, based on the Bible, our being remains the same: we are humans, and God is and forever will be God. He is Other, and nothing can compare to Him and nothing is His equal. At the same time, because of His great love for us, He offers to change our spiritual reality (we are made up of body, soul and spirit). Because of our human nature we are all subject to the "law of sin and death" (Romans 8). But Christ Jesus came and fulfilled the requirements of that law so that we don't need to, and so we don't have to suffer the consequences of not being able to anyways. And he replaced it with a higher standard: the law of the Spirit. "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires...You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you."

The Spirit of God lives in us. 

We are in Christ. 

Christ is in God.

When you read (in John 17) Jesus' prayer to His Heavenly Father for all those everywhere who would ever believe in Him, you see Him use this kind of terminology too. He prayed that Christians would be united as one - "just as You are in me and I am in You." Jesus in God and God in Jesus. Then He prayed, "May they also be in Us." So us in Jesus in God and us in God in Jesus. He said that He even gave his disciples His glory, in order "that they may be one as We are one, I in them and You in me." Christ in us and God in Christ.

It can all sound rather complicated, but I find a picture helpful:

 

{Imagine that you are the bottle (but the lid is open). You are in the water, but the water is in you. Your life is surrounded by the vast ocean, yet inside of you is a part of that ocean. And in this case, the message in the bottle isn't meant to be closed and protected - it's supposed to be soaked, drenched, and saturated with the ocean! 2 Corinthians 3:3 says, "You show that you are a letter from Christ...written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God." Our lives are a letter from God to the world. We are hidden inside of Christ, and surrounded by God. The Holy Spirit carries us along, and when people read the letter that is our lives, they should feel, see, smell, and be overcome with Christ in us. }

So what does all this mean? First, it should give us great comfort and hope. We are hidden, protected, surrounded. And "when Christ, who is [our] life, appears, then [we] also will appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:4). We are not alone in this life, and we have the hope of eternal life, where we will be seated with Christ.

Secondly, WE HAVE THE LIVING GOD INSIDE OF US!!! That ought to change the way others read the letter of our lives. Right before the promise that our life is hidden with Christ in God, there are two exhortations: "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." We not only died with Christ; we were also raised with Him. We are not our own; we have been bought with a price - the precious blood of Jesus. So our lives ought to be different! Our focus is not on earth; it's on heaven. 

Our hearts - our emotions, our desires, our will - are not on our own selfish wants, but are to be focused on the things above, where Christ is. Where Christ is there is Freedom. Joy. Hope. Peace. Love. Perseverance. Selflessness. Righteousness. If we fix our focus on what is often the bitter reality of this life, we succumb to depression, fear, anxiety, and bondage from the enemy, who comes to steal, kill and destroy. And our minds - our understanding, our thinking, our rationale - are also to be set on what is above. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). It's a battlefield! But that's where the victory is won. We are to have pure thoughts. We are to set aside our own limitations, and in faith grab hold of the promises of God - that with Him nothing is impossible.

We may never know all the people who read the letter of our lives. But we can choose to make it a letter that is drenched in the living water that is Jesus Christ, instead of a dried up letter that is irrelevant to a broken world.

How does your letter read? Is your bottle open with fresh water constantly flowing in and out, or is it closed with stale water locked inside?