CHRIST IN THE HUMAN HEART
“So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, 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 observe 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).
The entrance of Jesus Christ into the world signifies, as Matthew reveals, that God is with us. This is the everlasting covenant of how much worth we have before God. God is with us because God is for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us? The ever-present reign of Christ reveals the nearness of God. He is not far from any of us, as Paul pointed out on Mars Hill, and that “not far” becomes “in us” when it is the believer under consideration.
The dwelling place of God in ancient times was in the wilderness Tabernacle, and later, in the permanent structure, the Temple. 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; so near in fact, that he “dwells” among us. God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, and because of that magnificent incarnation in the flesh, and the things that he accomplished while tabernacled 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 through faith...” (Eph. 3:17).
So many Christians fail to recognize the presence of Christ within them because they go by feelings rather than by faith. How does Christ dwell in our hearts? Paul tells us: Christ dwells in our hearts “through faith.” Where there is faith, there is the presence of Christ. Should one feel that they are far away from God, or that God is far from them, they should exercise the gift of faith immediately. 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.
We seek him by faith. Salvation is “from faith to faith” and there is no one who will ever find God without it. Faith means that I cast myself upon him and trust his promises to me. I take him at his word. He has promised his presence with me until the end of the age. That is a promise that I will experience only by believing it. This is the operation of God. His blessings and benefits are gained only when we believe what he tells us. When I look to the cross in dependence, and walk in a state of continual dependence upon him, he dwells in my heart.
We may not understand all the dynamics of this principle, but we may still embrace it with joy and live our lives knowing it is so. Christ is in us if we have faith in his. “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” (2 Cor. 6:16).
The process of continual seeking is one of tremendous importance. This is the same as speaking of a continual faith. Faith does not have to continue in the sense that every moment I consciously embrace the reality of Christ’s indwelling. It means, rather, that I accept it is a reality just as I do others that exist in my world.
The sun shines whether I think about it or not. I never question the sun’s presence, or the blowing of the wind, of the fact of electricity. I know these things are so because at some point in my past experience I have come to have faith in their reality. It is much the same way with the indwelling of Christ. Once I have come to see that Christ is there, dwelling in my heart, I can go about the business of serving God confidently without thinking of that fact every moment. His presence should be looked upon as an objective reality, one that is as certain on my bad days as on my good ones. He does not move in and out in conjunction with the fickle dictates of my emotions. He lives within my heart eternally because that is the choice he has made.
Yes, the mystery of godliness of is great (1 Tim. 3:16). There are many aspects of Christ’s presence that I do not understand. But do we understand our own breath? Do we understand the biological processes that produce sight within our eyes? Do we have to think of our hearing consciously at all times to benefit from it? You may take a deep breath and relax, yet have no understand the functions of the human lungs.
And you may rest in Christ, knowing that the saving work is done, that he is within you as evidence of the finished work of salvation. You may enjoy the presence of Christ without understanding it, and you live your life from the power source that is there even when you do not consciously think of it. Christ has done it all, and the outplaying of his power and merits continue to shine in the heart of his people.
Dewayne Dunaway
