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Time to register
It's time for free registration to the two US seminars on "In Christ, Christ In". Full details are online at http://seminars.peterwade.com/ . For an efficient seminar, we need to know how many will be attending. You can register by email -- simply put "Register" in the Subject line, and send your name, address and contact phone number. You will get an email confirming your registration.
He Revealed the Mystery
"The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:26-27 NKJV).
Everyone loves to discover a good mystery or secret, and here's one that is still a mystery to most Christians today! First the word "mystery" -- it refers to the silence imposed by initiation into a secret society. It was in common use in Paul's day, and here it is given a special twist which we shall shortly see. This mystery had been hidden for a very long time, but now it has been revealed, disclosed, manifested to "His saints", the believers -- so it is no longer a mystery. If it is still a mystery to you, then you are either not yet one of "His saints" or you are still having problems with the integrity of God's Word.
Paul continues by telling us that "God willed" to change the mystery to a known fact. If He had not done so, His saints would not have known the mystery until they got to heaven. But He did disclose it and we do know it! And then we see the figure of hyperbole, exaggeration, as the language is stretched to its fullest in an attempt to describe "the riches of the glory of this mystery". It would have been enough to just say "to make known this mystery", but God wanted to emphasize the glorious wealth of the mystery. The "riches" indicate something valuable or which abounds. In this case, it is valuable to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, who previously had no method of connection with God. "God wanted everyone... to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out" (Message Bible).
Now are you ready for the unveiling of the mystery? Roll the drums, raise the curtain... It is a Person! That's the twist! Other mysteries were keys or principles, but God's mystery is a Person... "Christ in you". Now you know it, do you believe it? Christ is in you, yes, you -- if you are one of His saints. "The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you" (Message Bible). Some scholars prefer the word "among" you, and the Amplified Bible, as it so often does, has a two-way bet with "Christ within and among you". However, the majority prefer "in", and only when you have a group of believers gathered together can it become "among" you.
So what is the practical application of this? If you were to awake tomorrow morning, knowing that you could bring to pass whatever was needed, knowing that you had no excuse for lack in your life, knowing that everything you touched would be a success, what would you do with your day? That's a loaded question, for you now know that Christ, the Son of God, is in you. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). Is there some good you can do today? Is there someone on whom you can "lay your hands and they shall recover" (Mark 16:18). Is there a "word in season" that you can give to help another saint "awake from the sleep" of mediocrity, failure, powerlessness? What a day you are going to have!
And what of the future... it's "Christ in you, the hope of glory", the expectation of sharing in God's glory. The Father sees Christ in me, as me -- "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20) -- so just as "His story" became my history, so His future will become my future. "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (I Corinthians 6:17). Now that's oneness! -- Peter Wade
Insights From Every Chapter Of The Bible
G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer of over 60 books from the first half of the 20th century. In each issue of this newsletter he gives a comment from one verse in every chapter of the Bible. We continue with Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
"Put away the wicked man from among yourselves" (I Corinthians 5:13).
This was the Apostle's final word in dealing with a specific case in the Corinthian Church. One of the members of that church had been guilty of the most flagrant wrongdoing, and no discipline had been exercised by the church. Indeed, incredible as it seems, it nevertheless appears that in some way they were glorying in the matter. It is incredible that they were glorying in the sin. It is more likely that they were glorying in the lack of discipline, probably thinking of it as toleration. It was against this attitude of the church that Paul protested.
Within its borders, no disintegrating leaven must be permitted to remain. The life of the church is a perpetual Passover Feast, and it must be maintained in sincerity and truth. This is a subject of supreme importance. The Church of God is always weakened when it lacks the power to maintain its purity. Toleration of evil in any form within the fellowship of those whose one business it is, individually and collectively, to reveal the Lord to men, must be of the nature of treachery. Yet it should be remembered that discipline should ever be exercised in the spirit of love. Its purpose is not only the purity of the church; it is also the saving of the one disciplined. If in his apostolic authority Paul charged them to exclude the sinning man from fellowship, it was in order that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. This harmonizes with the teaching of the Lord Himself, Who showed that the purpose of discipline was that of gaining our brother (see Matthew 18).
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We still have copies of the latest CD by Peter Wade, "The Hallelujah Principle". To get your copy, go to our secure online store.
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On our internet radio broadcast this week, we continue with a positive look at Psalm 23: "Outface Foes". Next week: "Surely".
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"IN CHRIST" QUOTE FOR TODAY
