CHRIST WITH US
“So all this was done that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying: Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us.” (Matt. 1:22-23)
“The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” (Ps 46:7).
“Teaching them to obey all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” (John 1:14).
Notice the emphasis in the above verses on the fact that God through Christ is “with us.”
The entrance of Jesus Christ into the world signifies, as Matthew reveals, that God is with us. This is the everlasting covenant which reveals how much we mean to God. God is with us because God is for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)? The ever-present reign of Christ reveals the nearness of God. He is not far from any of us, as Paul pointed out in Athens (Acts 17:27), and that “not far” becomes “in us” when it is the believer under consideration.
God’s people in the Old Testament would have thought of the Tabernacle—and then later the Temple—when they thought of the “House of God.” To them, the dwelling place of God was in these two structures—the temporary Tabernacle and the more permanent Temple. Practically everything about the Tabernacle pointed to some spiritual reality regarding Christ (Hebrews 9:8-9).
There were two parts to the Tabernacle and Temple. They were both called “the house of God,” but God dwells both in heaven and on earth. He is “Lord of heaven and earth” (Acts 17:24), so His house—the Tabernacle/Temple—had two compartments. One represented His heavenly dwelling place, the other His earthly one.
The Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies) represented heaven (Hebrews 9:8-24). The Holy Place represented the body of Christ on earth (Acts 15:13-17). The Tabernacle then, represents the perfect picture—“type”—of God’s house. It is heavenly and earthly. God dwells both in heaven and on earth. We cannot understand the Temple without understanding that it described and pictured the church (1 Corinthians 3:16). The body of Christ is the real house of God (1 Timothy 3:15).
God’s desire since the foundation of the world has been to dwell in His people. God does not dwell in any literal way in “temples made by [human] hands” (Acts 7:48; 17:24). A physical structure can never contain the presence of an omnipresent God. The life of His child is the dwelling place of God.
God has come near in Christ. It is accurate to say that this is what God’s actions have been all about throughout history. God “dwelt” among us (John 1:14). God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, and since He lived as a human being in a body on this earth, and since He accomplished what He did while dwelling among us in human form, He lives among His people forever. Christ has come to dwell in the hearts of His people. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith...” (Eph. 3:17).
This whole issue is a matter of faith and not feelings. Faith and feelings must be kept distinct in our minds. So many Christians fail to recognize the presence of Christ within them because they go by feelings rather than by faith. Feelings can tell us nothing about spiritual reality. Every religious group on earth has feelings attached to it. But that doesn’t mean that the feelings are based on reality.
How does Christ dwell in our hearts? Paul tells us: Christ dwells in our hearts “by faith.” Where there is faith in Christ, there is the company of Christ. If we find ourselves doubting the intimate nearness of Christ, we should exercise the gift of faith immediately. He is as close to us as our confidence in His presence is. Those who trust Him become His dwelling place. God does not have to be coerced or persuaded to indwell us—He wants to do so. God made us so that we would seek Him, “and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). Sinful human beings do not just “hope” to find Him, we will find Him when we seek Him by faith.
Dewayne Dunaway
