#84 Christ in us

From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich

I John 3:1

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:

This, John ascribes to the love of the Father and every pardoned one admits, that, in regard to himself, no more worthiness or aptitude for love could be found in him than in any other sinner. Wherein then does the difference lie between those who attain to sonship of God and those who do not? Could God’s love be partial? Does He love some and not others? No, God so loved the world – the ungodly, evil, sinful, lost world—that He gave His Only Begotten Son for it; and just as there is only one God, so there is only one Mediator between God and us, and God desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

But when He begins to disclose men’s corruption to them, their evil first principles, so that they might be healed, they will not permit Him to do it. They do not wish to be "nothing" in their own eyes and consequently have no need for Christ as a Physician and Savior. But those who let themselves be undone, become something to the praise of the grace of God in Christ, for out of Christ they are all as nothing before God. It is ever and eternally only Christ the Son of God, the Seed of Abraham and Heir of All Things, and no one else. Thus if one shall really be a child and an heir of God, he must be found in Christ as a new creature, created after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, where there is no longer Jew and Gentile, etc., but all and in all Christ, and they all one in Him—One new man—as many as there are of them; and because they are in Him, they are also (as He Himself is) the seed of Abraham and, according to the promise, heirs.

But we cannot be otherwise in Him, than that He be also in us as the eternal life, or we might be more faithful than He is and might outdo Him in something. But Christ’s life in us is the sure mark and seal that we are in Him. Many could say and maintain, "We believe in Christ and have been justified of our sins,” without having valid proof of it, namely in His holy, godly life. To be in Christ by faith is the letter of pardon of the children of God, but Christ in us by His Spirit is the seal on the letter. And if Christ is in us, there is no longer a question what man in and by himself is able or not able to do, but what Christ the Son of God is able to do in regard to a holy walk.