Matthew 28:20 “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The
gospel of Matthew concludes with the comforting and wonderful words of our Lord
Jesus Christ (above). The visitation of God incarnate (literally “in the
flesh”/with skin on) from heaven to earth, God with us – “Immanuel”, wraps up
with this blessed assurance to us. Pastor Garrrit Dawson writes that our lives
get relocated when we are joined to Jesus by the Holy Spirit through faith.
Being born again, born anew, born from above, in the regeneration of the
spirit, that takes off the old man (dead in sins and transgressions) and puts
on the new, is the changing of our life address in Christ. So now our lives are
“hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Our Creator Father “has rescued us from
the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”
(Col. 1:13). God is “calling us out of darkness and into His marvelous light”
(1 Peter 2:9), where Jesus states “I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in
you” (John 14:20). Jesus is with us always because Jesus is where we live.
Believers are forever joined to Him.
Yes, this is a spiritual reality now, as our bodies quite obviously are still here on the ground. The Spirit is the personal presence of Jesus “housed” in us. By the Spirit, the Father and Son make a home in us (John14:23). Pastor Dawson explains that the Holy Spirit ever lifts us up to see that our true life is located there, in Christ. One day, of course, the union will be completed as we receive our resurrection bodies in heaven. “I am with you always” does not mean that we have a miniature Jesus tucked inside us for inspiration amid our ambitions or for comfort when things don’t go our way. Rather, our lives are taken up into the greatness of Jesus. He is with us most profoundly because, by the Spirit, we are in Christ. Jesus is with you and me, always.
In Christ, Brian
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