Christ - Our Life - Part 1

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Jesus doesn't offer an upgrade at salvation. He exchanges our sin for His righteousness.

Our study of Colossians continues today with the refreshing news that Christ is the believer's life. If you thought the Lord would have you to do and being the kind of person you believe God would have you to be. But somehow it hasn't always worked out that way and you probably scolded yourself for it and wonder what it was that you missed. I believe that one of the basic reasons for that is what I want to talk about today. In fact, probably the foundational reason that many, many people really began in their Christian life with all the sincerity of their heart. But somewhere along the way lose a sense of their thrill and excitement, become discouraged and begin to wonder if this book is all it's cracked up to be. If the Christian life is all that Jesus Christ said it would be, or if there's something missing in their life.

And my friend, I want to tell you, for the most part, it may be that you have never given any serious consideration to the truth that I want to share with you today. Now, we're in the book of Colossians, which is an exciting book about our relationship to Jesus Christ. And I want you to turn, if you will, to the third chapter. And in this third chapter, we're talking about Christ, our life. Chapter three, verse one. If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. When you were saved, I'm sure that more than likely you were told that Jesus Christ came to be your Savior. And you were told also that Jesus Christ came to be your Lord.

That is, you're to live in submission to Him. But I wonder how many of you could say, when I gave my life to Jesus Christ, it was explained to me that Jesus Christ came to be my Savior. Jesus Christ came to be my Lord, and Jesus Christ came to be my life.

Nobody explained that to me. It's taken me years and years and years of my Christian life to understand that I could have avoided an awful lot of confusion. I could have missed a lot of heartache. And I certainly could have enjoyed years of my Christian life that were a tremendous struggle with me if somewhat had only explained the simple truth. Because once you're able to grasp the truth, that Jesus Christ not only came to save you, and He did come to save you in order to deliver you from the power of sin in your life and the penalty of sin in your life. He also came to be your Lord because He is the Lord and He knows that you and I need someone to rule over us and someone to submit ourselves to daily. But the Bible says Jesus Christ is our life. I wonder how many sermons you've heard, Jesus Christ is our life. How is it that we could have missed all of these years the most basic principle in the Christian life in order to be, to become, to do, to achieve what God has set out for us?

Because you see, if I don't understand that Jesus Christ is my life, I am missing a basic foundational truth in the Word of God. Now, all of us know lots of verses about how to be saved. We can quote those and Jesus Christ is our Lord. But more than likely, you may not have thought about how many verses there are in the Bible about Jesus Christ and our relationship to Him and His to us as far as life is concerned. So just to save a little time, let's just stick with the book, the Gospel of John and one of his epistles.

And if you'll turn to John chapter 1 and let's go through some of these verses just to give you a little idea, a little background of what we're going to talk about. Jesus Christ, our life. When John is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says in verse 4, in Him was what?

Life. And the life was the light of men. Go to John chapter 5 for a moment, if you will. And notice, if you will, in the fifth chapter of John what he says. In verse 24, truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal what?

Life. And does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life. And then if you'll notice in verse 39 of the same chapter, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is these that bear witness of me. That is the Scriptures Jesus speaks of. And then he says to those to whom he's speaking, And you are unwilling to come to me that you may have what?

Life. Then John chapter 14, look at this familiar passage. Listen to what he says. He says in verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me. I am the way, the truth and the what?

And the light. Turn, if you will, to 1 John, the epistle, Revelation, Jude, 3, 2, 1 John. Look in 1 John, if you will, and look in the fifth chapter of that book, 1 John chapter 5. And let's begin reading in the tenth verse. The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning his Son.

Now listen carefully. And the witness is this, that God has given us what? Eternal life. And this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life.

Let's say it together. The life. He who has the Son has what?

The life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. Now, all these verses that speak of our relationship to Him regarding life. Usually when we talk about Jesus and life, we usually refer to eternal life as that which God gives for the future. But I want you to see the reasons Jesus came to be your life and my life.

And my friend, please don't miss this. Because if you're able to grasp that Jesus Christ came to be your very life, your attitude towards your Christian life is going to change. Your attitude about your own intimate relationship with a man Jesus Christ is going to change. You're going to begin the sense of freedom in your daily walk. You're not going to fret about some things you've been fretting about.

You're not going to worry about some things you've been worried about. God is going to change your attitude about your daily walk if you will grasp this simple truth that Jesus came not only to be your Savior, to deliver you from the power and the penalty of sin, not only to be your Lord because He is the Lord and He needs to rule over us for our own good, but He came to be your very life. Now, why did Jesus come to be our life?

Why did He just settle for the forgiveness of our sins and being Lord of our life? Well, there are several reasons. First of all, let me ask you this question. What is it above all else that a dead person needs above everything in life?

What is it? Life. And that's the reason Jesus came because the first reason is this. Jesus came to give us life because we were dead. Now, what was dead about us? Physically and emotionally, bodily we were alive, but spiritually we were dead. He says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1 and verse 5, that wherein in times past you and I were what? We were dead. What about us was dead? Our spirit was dead so that you and I could have no relationship to God. Oh, we could have relationships with all the people, but you see, the part of us that relates to God is our spirit. And so Jesus Christ came in order to give us life.

Now, listen carefully. He came to give us life by dwelling within us. Jesus Christ is your life and my life.

That which is eternally alive within us is the life of the Son of God. The Bible speaks in terms of being born again. Being born again into what?

Into a brand new life. Now we who were dead in trespasses and sins are walking about, the Bible says, in life. What did Paul say? He said, I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. That is, Paul said he was a new creation in Christ. What made him a new creation in Christ? What made him a new creation in Christ is that now the very life of Jesus Christ is living within him. He is abiding within him so that every single believer is one in whom Jesus Christ is living his life.

That's what separates us from all the rest of the world. So one of the reasons he came to be our life is because we were spiritually dead and we needed to be made alive. But there's a second reason, Paul says, and when Christ who is our life shall appear. That is, Jesus Christ came to give us life in order to deliver us and to replace the old life.

Now what have we said so often? Paul said, I've been crucified with Christ. What died? His old sinful nature died. He says, now it is no longer I, but Christ living within me. So this old life he used to live, which was dominated and controlled by sin, Paul says, he says, when Jesus died, I died.

What died? Not his physical life, but that old sinful self of his, he said he died. Now he says, I have Christ living within me. He says, there's a new life.

I'm a new creation. Jesus Christ came to live his life within us. He came to be our life in order that the life we once lived, we no longer have to live.

Because, you see, the Bible says that that life died. And now we're not somebody who's patched up. We're somebody whose old life has been replaced by the life of Jesus. Jesus did not come to patch up what I was, to improve what I was dominated by the power of an old sinful nature.

Jesus came not to improve it, but to replace it. Jesus came to exchange for me from my old life, his brand new life. So that every single one of us who is a believer is indwelt with the very presence of Christ. Every believer has within his spirit the very life of the Son of God. That's why he sitting at the Father's right hand can likewise be in your life and my life. Because, you see, the Bible says that in Jesus Christ is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And Jesus says, I'm going to be abiding in you. So that in every single believer is the varied life of God. That's what makes us a child of God, that we are indwelt by the varied life of God himself. We are the children of God.

Why? Because we have the life of God. That's one thing for me to view myself in the Christian life as Jesus up there, I'm down here and I'm going to do the best I can with his help up there to live the Christian life.

That will result in total defeat. And this is the beautiful thing. Jesus said, I didn't come to improve you.

I didn't come to help you. I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. That is real life.

That is true life. That is the life of the Son of God himself. So he came to replace the all, not to improve it, to exchange our life for his life so that every single believer is indwelt by his life. And that's why Paul says, when Christ who is our life shall appear. Now, there's a third reason he came to give us life. And that is that you and I could begin living eternal life here and now. The average person, if you ask them, when does eternal life begin, begins the moment you die. But that's not true, because the truth is that Jesus Christ is eternal life. There is no such thing as eternal life apart from the very presence of Christ. He's not just the source of it.

He is it. That which is within us that's going to live forever is that which is indwelt by the person of Jesus Christ, which is our spirit. But you see, eternal life doesn't begin at death.

That's man's thinking. When Jesus Christ came into your life, eternal life for you began right then and there. So that what he did was simply this. The Bible says he took you out of the stream of Adam, which was poisoned and placed you in the stream of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ so that every single one of us now who is saved is living in the stream of life eternal. We're a part of that life. That life is within us.

We're a part of that. We are eternally the sons and daughters of the living God. He came in order that you and I may begin now to live eternal life, possessing it for ourselves, even in this moment in our life. Now, if you have the idea that life really begins on the other side of death, you know what will happen? You'll go through life seeing God up there and you down here, struggling over areas of your life that God never intended you to struggle over. But if you see yourself as such an intimate part of a relationship with Jesus Christ that already eternal life, which is not only a promise, but a present reality within us, you begin to look at life a little different.

Some things that used to frighten you won't frighten you anymore. You're eternally secure in him because his eternal life is within you. It is a part of you. It is your possession because Christ is now living in and through your life. But there's a fourth reason that he came to be our life. And that is it is the fact that Jesus Christ as our life is our ultimate assurance of eternal security. My friend, when you understand what the Bible teaches about the atoning death of Jesus Christ and when you understand what the Bible teaches about our relationship to Christ, that he has become our life, when you understand those two basic principles, you understand why we are eternally secure, because our security is not based on performance.

It is based on an intimate relationship that can never be severed because Jesus didn't come to patch me up and didn't come to help me be better. He came, took care of my old life, gave me his life. Now I am abiding and indwelling in the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ in the stream of life eternal. And that's why Jesus could say, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. He doesn't say I give unto them eternal life until, if, since, when, but. He says I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.

If you and I understand what eternal life is, it isn't a package I add to my Christian experience. It is my very life, the old life exchange, the spiritual life of living within you is the life of Christ. He has adopted you into the kingdom. He is the one who's made you a child of God. He's the one who's redeemed you.

He's the one who's pardoned you. He's the one who has given you all the hope. Our whole life is not only centered in him, our very life is Christ. So that's the reason Paul could say set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. Keep on seeking those things above where Christ is seated at the Father's right hand.

Why? Because Christ is our very life. We live in this world but we live with a whole new life. Our lifestyle is to be different because the source of our life is different. The nature of our life is different. The character of our life is different.

Everything about our life is different. Those who live in this world apart from God see this world as their place of existence. Their life to them is a life separated from God.

They don't think in terms of spiritual life and hereafter. But we who believe us understand that we're living in this world for a short period of time having been already invested with a wonderful, marvelous, unending gift of eternal life and we have pilgrims down here on our way learning and discovering who this Christ is who is living within us with whom we're going to live eternally forever and ever and ever. We're just pilgrims passing through.

That's who we are. Thank you for listening to Christ Our Life. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by In Touch.org. Next weekend on Songs of Spirit and Truth, we'll meet a disabled couple who felt unwelcome and unloved in their culture. Hear how God lifted them up and provided. Find this audio series at InTouch.org slash global. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.