I have been having a surprising number of conversations with people regarding the new covenant life we have in Christ as He lives His life in us.  At least six separate conversations this week.  People are hungry for the truth of our new covenant life in Christ.

Why are so many becoming hungry to learn of this life?  I believe it is because our God is at work stirring hearts, drawing people into this life.  This is happening in locally where I live as well in other locations around our country and the world.

People are no longer satisfied with our western Christian religiosity.  People are hungering for their God, for the reality of the God-life in them every day.  Religiosity simply cannot deliver this for them.  Interestingly, the fastest growing demographic in church survey results is the category called “Dones.”  These are people who indicate they are done with institutional religions but are seeking their God in new contexts.

What is it about the new covenant faith that is so attractive to this growing number of people, including those from our religious institutions?  I believe it is that this faith is focused on the very life of God poured out in those who are seeking Him and have surrendered all their living to Him.  Once one has tasted of this life of God living in and through them, they cannot be satisfied with less.

The book of Colossians is one of many Bible books that reference this new covenant life of our God in us, this union with Himself into which our God is inviting us.  Let us look at what Colossians 3:1-4 is telling us that helps to make our picture of this life a little clearer.

3:1-4 “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

The point of this passage is our union with our God in Christ.  This union is described here as our life being “hidden with Christ in God.”  Note that this is not a future tense statement, but a statement of the current condition.  Our life is hidden with Christ in our God now.

But more than just taking up residence in us, Jesus Christ is “our life.”  He is all of life to the one who is fully surrendered to Him.  What a great promise to us!  Not my small and seemingly inconsequential life here on earth, lived on my own largely by my own efforts to be holy. The promise is the very Life of God lived in place of my own life.  Like all of us, I am offered a huge, expansive, infinite, eternal and overwhelming life, the very life of my God, not simply me going about my stuff.

Just a few sentences later, Paul the apostle and writer reinforces his point with these words in 3:11 “But Christ is all, and in all.” When we fully surrender to our God, the resurrection life of Christ Himself becomes our life.  We are renewed completely, and the life of Christ takes over in us and fills all our being.  Christ goes from being all in all in heaven to all in all in us.

Ian Thomas refers to this indwelling life of Christ as “All of Him in all of me.”  As He takes over my living, the promises of our God concerning abundant, holy, godly living become active and real in me.  This is what is meant by “letting go and letting God” live in you. 

Letting go and letting your God live His life in you. This is not some higher or deeper experience of the Christian faith. This is the Christian faith. And in this faith, it is no longer we who live but Christ Jesus who lives in us by His Holy Spirit. all the promises of the life of faith come to those who let go of their own lives and let God live His in and through them.