“In Christ” is the place for security.
“Christ in us” is the ground for joy and peace that passes understanding.
There are sixteen Scriptures that speak of Christ’s ministry and work in us. I can only refer you to a few of them, but they are tremendous in their possibilities for the believer.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
The One with whom Paul was crucified, the One who loved him and gave Himself up for him, now dwells in him.
One can hardly take it in.
Here is unveiled to us the most beautiful, thrilling revelation—that this Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us, has come into these bodies and made them His home!
There is a challenge as well as a promise in this Scripture:
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)
These frail bodies of ours that have been sin-touched and disease-marked are His tabernacles. They are His home, His place of abode. He lives in these bodies now.
Who can estimate what that means?
The same power that wrought in the dead body of Jesus is resident in me. (See Ephesians 1:19–20.)
Speaking by the Spirit, Paul said, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
God at work within me, in my body, in your body.
When we grasp this, disease has lost its power and its place.
Disease cannot do much when you are actually conscious of the indwelling presence.
John says:
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
The great, mighty Omnipotent Creator God, who spoke worlds into being, dwells in these bodies of ours.
You see, when God comes in to take possession of us, He can think through our minds, love through our affections, and will through our wills.
He can embed Himself, so to speak, in our spirits, and through our spirits dominate our spiritual and physical life.
He can dominate over the members of our bodies until the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts will be acceptable in His sight, until we live and love and have our being in Him.
Can’t you see how mighty it makes us?
Can’t you see why Paul said he was independent of circumstances?
Can’t you understand why the Spirit said, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)? That is us, we who are in Christ.
We are more than conquerors; we are more than victors; we are more than overcomers through this marvelous, matchless grace of God, the indwelling God of all grace.