Christ In Us, With Us, Here - Now!

I’ve always thought that the Bible verses about Jesus experiencing everything that we’ve experienced meant that yes 2000 years ago, Jesus got hungry like we get hungry.  He ate like we eat.  He got tired like we get tired.  He had friends that deserted him like we do.  In all things, it says He knows our temptations and yet he resisted them when He was tempted.  The idea taught to us is that we can believe that Jesus is for us and we can come to Him in prayer because He will understand exactly what we’re going through in our lives now.  I’ve never fully believed that because there are a lot of things that Jesus hasn’t done the same as me.  There are things that people have experienced in their lives that the Bible says He never did.  Jesus never got married and had three children like me.  I don’t know, but He was probably never fired from a job.  He never had to face the pain of growing old and having his body break down and fail Him because never lived to be 93-years-old.

Then, my wife made a comment that made me reevaluate this whole idea.  She said, “If Jesus has been with us (in our spirit) from birth or from our baptism, then He has been with us OUR whole lives – and has experienced everything that we have experienced because He’s been THERE.”  Not that He’s “been there” – experiencing something similar to our experience 2000 years ago, but instead, Jesus was there with us through every moment of OUR history and is still here with us now experiencing our exact experiences.

That’s how we know He understands our situation.  Not because He’s been through a similar one in His lifetime, but because He has come through all our experiences with us as we’ve had them in our timeline.  That’s what we say we believe as Christians isn’t it?  “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” ~Hebrews 4:14-16/NIV.  Christ is our advocate.  He, through His Holy Spirit, intercedes for us with God – explaining our case, our needs, our concerns, and our wants.  He knows them intimately.  He was here when we had them.

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” ~Romans 6:8-11/NIV.  Haven’t we died in Christ and lived in Him?  How can we live in Him – if He isn’t here inside of us so we can live in Him?  If this isn’t true, then no Christian on earth has Christ in Him now, nor will have Christ in him, until we physically die and live again in eternity.  I know many people, including myself, that would argue that God must live in us, because it's impossible for me to believe that all the good I do could come from me.  I've done some amazing things for good.  I've also done some amazing things for bad and it's encouraging to know that not all those have come from me either.  There are forces at work within us and without.  Which ones will we let rule the day?  It's our decision how we will live our lives, but God is with us, and that is Good News!