Col. i. 27. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
THE Gospel is a "mystery," "the riches" of which are unsearchable, and " the glory" incompre- hensible. But the sum and substance of it is con- tained in few words : it is briefly this ; " Christ in us, the hope of glory." In the margin of our Bibles it is translated, " Christ among us, the hope of glory ;" and each of these translations has its zealous advocates : but we may easily and properly comprehend both, by saying, that Christ is the hope of glory to us,
I. As revealed in the Scriptures —
The way to the tree of life is guarded by a flaming sword • and there is no access to it for fallen man,
but by Christ, as the appointed Mediator. He, as St. Paul says, " is our hopea ;" and through him there is hope for all : through him,
1. As a dying Saviour —
[It is he who lias made atonement for our sins, and " re- conciled us to God by the blood of his cross." Through his vicarious sacrifice every sinner in the universe may come to God ; seeing that " he is a propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world." However great the debt which we owe to Divine justice, we may regard it all as paid by our Divine Surety ; and may assure ourselves, that, if we believe in Christ, " there neither is, nor ever shall be, any condemnation to us" ]
2. As a living Saviour —
[It is worthy of particular observation, that in the Holy Scriptures a greater stress is laid upon the life of Christ in glory, than upon his death upon the cross. St. Peter speaks of him as our hope, in this particular view : " God raised him, up, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in GodV St. Paul, too, represents the life of Christ as more efficacious for our salvation than his death : " Who is he that condemneth ? it is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again ; who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for usc." And still more forcibly, he says in another place, " If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his lifed." In heaven we view the Lord Jesus as our advocate with the Father, maintaining continually our peace with him ; when we, by our innumerable departures from him, should entirely destroy all our hope of final accept- ance with him. We view Him, also, as the one source of all spiritual blessings, the first cause of all the good that is in us, the protector of his people from all their enemies, and " the finisher" of the work of which he has been " the author." It is from this view of him that the weakest of his people is enabled to say, " Because he lives, I shall live also" ]
But he is our hope yet more especially,
II. As dwelling in the heart —
All that the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us would be in vain, if he did not also work effectually in us. But this he does,
a 1 Tim. i. 1. b ] pet. i. 21.
c Rom. viii. 34. d Rom. v. 10.