Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (I Cor 6:19-20)
Praise you, Father, for you have made me a dwelling place for your Spirit, unworthy though I am.
Christianity calls you and me to live a life that seems impossible, and, indeed, would be impossible if it was not for the fact that Christ makes us new and indwells us through His Spirit. He makes us new through the Cross and Resurrection, by canceling our sins, making us clean, crucifying our old sinful nature, and raising us to new life as new creatures. We are born again – to use Jesus’ term.
In this sense, we are now saints – that is, people who have been sanctified. This means that, in one sense, we are holy. Not “we shall be holy,” but “we are holy.”
Yet in another sense, we must put into practice our holiness, and this putting holiness into practice is a lifelong process and struggle. We do not always live up to who we are. Sometimes Christians still sin, even though they are already sanctified. This idea that we are holy in one sense but working on our holiness in another can be hard to grasp, so let me try to illustrate.
Scripture says that husbands and wives are one flesh. But sometimes they live as two, even though in reality they are one, and the fact is that they are still one even when they do not live that way. Their life does not change the reality of what God has done. Or try this picture. Sometimes citizens do not live as citizens ought, but the fact is that they are still citizens even when they do not behave as such. There is an intrinsic reality, and there is a life, and the life does not always align with the reality. This is how it often is with the Christian faith. In reality, those in Christ are saints, dead to sin, alive to God, born again, new creatures, sanctified, holy. This is the reality. Christians, however, often fail to live out this reality perfectly.
But the genuine Christian takes seriously the business of living in holiness. The genuine Christian pursues a life that matches his or her reality in Christ. The genuine Christian life changes and grows in the direction of the reality. Christians fall as they grow, just a toddler falls when learning to walk, but they walk the path that pursues a life that reflects who they are. They are learning to be who they are, just as a new graduate is learning to be a graduate. Before the Christian became a Christian, he took his imperatives from the world around him. But now that he is in Christ, he takes his imperatives from Christ. His imperatives must reflect the indicative of who he is. The life must match the reality. And the reality is foundational to the life.
To live the Christian life requires first the reality. You must be a new creature to live a new life. But even then, this living of the new life is difficult. We live in a fallen world, and while we may be dead to sin, we still listen to it.
But God does not leave the Christian to live this life all on his own. In addition to making us new, He gives us His Spirit. Now the transforming work of the Cross is essential for the presence of the Spirit, for the Spirit is holy, and holiness will not dwell with impurity. The mere fact that the Holy Spirit indwells the Christian shows that, in some sense, the Christian is holy. The work of the Cross in making us new paves the way for the presence of the Spirit. The work of the Cross builds out of us a home for the Spirit. The Cross makes us into a temple for God’s Spirit (I Cor 6:19-20). No Cross and no Resurrection equals no indwelling Spirit.
But in Christ, we do have the Spirit. This is the next essential piece to the reality of the Christian life. Not only are we new creatures in Christ, but we have God Himself, through the Spirit, living inside us. God has changed who we are, and God has come to dwell in us.
Stop.
Meditate on that.
God has changed who you are.
And God now dwells inside you.
Hallelujah! That is good news
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