"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross." (Col.1. 19,20 NRSV).  To discover the need of this process of reconciliation we must go back to the days of Creation where, in a garden, God gave life to humanity by breathing into Adam's nostrils so that he became a living being (Gen.2.7.NRSV).  Not only did God give life but he has sustained life ever since and when He removes life we die. So states Psalm 104. 29-30 and Elihu in Job 34.14.15. When Paul spoke to the people of Lystra on his first missionary journey, he did not introduce the Gospel with the Law of Moses as he did when speaking to Jews. Rather he brought to the Gentiles' attention the facts of Creation and God's control of all living things (Acts 14. 15-17).  Later in his ministry, answering the wise men of Athens, he spoke of God's control of human history (Acts 17. 26,27).  It is clear from his remarks that God has always been interested in the well being of His whole creation and not just in a limited elite as ancient Israel, and more recently the Church, have thought,.  Jesus came into the world to save all mankind (John 3. 16,17) not just Israel and the Church. As the old hymn has it, "The whole Creation is Thy charge but saints are Thy peculiar care."

There was a time when God shared evening walks and talks amid the beauty of the Earth with our first parents but disobedience to His known will brought sin into the world and reason for them to hide from Him.  This thought was expressed in the poetry of Israel when the prophet wrote "The Lord's hand is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear." (Isaiah 59.1,2 NRSV).  Sin separates from God, yet He has been watching over His Creation in His love.  Many a person has benefited from that watch care unbeknown to them, as curious 'coincidences' occur in their lives.  God never cuts Himself off totally, nor did He do so when Jesus hung on the cross. Maybe God did hide His face from His Son when Jesus cried out "why have you forsaken me?" for in that moment the Son discovered what humanity had suffered in being hidden from Father. It may be, that idea of 'God hiding His face' explains many of the experiences of mankind and many of the records, hard to understand in the Bible just as Job's spasm of suffering also gives us clues.

God's concern for the 'nations' was shown by Jesus when He spoke to the people of Nazareth in their synagogue recorded in Luke 4.25-27.  There had been many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah but he went to the foreign lady of Zarephath.  There had been many suffering from leprosy in the time of Elisha but he healed the foreign general from Damascus rather than his compatriots.  In Acts 17.28 we have the wonderful thought that "In Him we live and move and have our being"; that applies to all mankind.  Paul quoted from a pagan poet about an idol god, yet in that poetry there are fragments of truth that came from earlier ages when mankind understood something of their Creator's purpose. They wanted their own way to do what they liked and so they invented gods in their own image from their own imagination.  Originally they had been made in God's image and veiled reflections of Him linger in their faces.

The age-old question must be asked again.  Why did God make humanity so that it could turn away from Him and thereby do such dastardly things to each other as we see today.  The solution to the problem lies in the fact that men and women try to go it alone without God. They devise wonderful philosophies for living, sometimes labelled 'humanism'.  Some try so hard to live rightly without God.  But they have not the power of His loving Spirit to enable them to obey His simplest rules and until they turn to Him they will make no real headway.  While one or two are seeking to give life and hope to their fellows, there are thousands ready to destroy those around them. Why then did he make us so?  Would we challenge God's wisdom as did Job?  Would the pot question the potter's skills.  Creation is out of gear through disobedience and it will not be right until the Potter decides it is the right time to remake the pot as Jeremiah and Paul discovered.  And as old father Abraham asked a long time ago, "Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?"

God began to put things right first with one man, Noah, after the Flood.  He made a covenant with him and set His bow of promise in the sky for all to see.  Then he took a family, Abraham and Co., and again made with them a covenant.  Genesis 15 describes the making of that covenant.  It seems to be similar to the Hittite ceremony at the time of Abraham whereby they made a covenant bond with conquered tribes.  The blood of a sacrificed animal was sprinkled on both parties to the covenant.  They were then bound together in the life of the animal. An attack on one was an attack on the other. Modern nations have made similar 'treaties'. Something like this appears to have happened when Abraham divided an animal into two sections and then fell into a deep sleep.   Symbolically his life was now bonded to God.  A similar ceremony is recorded in Exodus 19 and 24 when the blood of a sacrificed animal was sprinkled on the 'altar' representing God and the people.   Nothing could more fittingly describe how Christ's sacrifice binds us to God and brings reconciliation and peace 'through the blood of his cross".

Thus God began the process of reconciliation to a nation through the ceremonies of Sinai. The covenants that followed in the history of Israel were really renewals and extensions of that original covenant.  There is an interesting expression in 1 Cor. 10.2,3 where Paul writes of Israel being baptized into Moses and he was the mediator between God and His people.  So Paul writes in Rom.6.3 we have been baptized into Christ Jesus (not into a church or sect or denomination).  The old life has gone and now we 'are married to another' or as the RV has it 'joined to another' (Rom.7.3).  There is a sense in which partners in marriage become one flesh and this is a truly Bible concept stated at the beginning of Genesis and echoed in the words of Jesus.  Marriage is the deepest, richest and most satisfying human relationship; surrender without absorption; service without compulsion; love without conditions; illustrating God's love and grace. Oneness with Christ describes a personal relationship in which a disciple remains a distinct individual; developing into the new person"

So in Him were all things created and in Him all will be restored (Col.1.15,16)   The whole fundamental doctrine of the Atonement upon which the work of restoration is founded operates simply by being 'in Christ'.  It requires no long complex understanding of theological processes, interesting though they may be.  Paul states it in a nutshell in 1 Cor. 1.30 "It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God, that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.."  God is the author, initiator and source of our salvation and will see us through until final deliverance. Paul in Romans 8.1 (REV) defines that so well in the words "there is now no condemnation for those who are united with Christ Jesus".  Being in Christ means so much, but what does it mean to us in practical terms?  Paul uses several expressions such as 'in the Lord' and 'Christ in you'.  While we live in the old nature (flesh AV) our hands and feet obey sin.  When we live in the spirit, Christ becomes our environment.  It is the closest possible relationship and Jesus used the wonderful pictures from the Old Testament to describe what 'abiding in Him means'.

Lord, Thou has made Thyself to me,

A living bright reality,

More present to faith's vision keen

Than any earthly object seen,

More dear, more intimately nigh,

Than e'en the closest earthly tie.

When did Jesus begin to teach His disciples about this relationship?  Quite early in His ministry He said to His disciples "He who receives you receives me" (Matt.10.40).  Much later he spoke in a parable of those who fed Him when He was hungry, those who gave Him a drink when He was thirsty, those who took Him in as a stranger, those who gave Him clothing, those who cared for Him when he was sick, those who visited Him when He was in prison for as much as these things are done for the least of His brethren, they are done for Him (Matt.25.35-45). On the Damascus road, Saul of Tarsus began to understand the closeness of the disciple to his Lord. "Why do you persecute me?"  The persecution, the suffering and destruction of Christ's people was suffering shared with Christ.  He knew their pain.  Ananias who went to Saul and put his hand on him and said "Brother Saul"could never have done so unless he knew His Lord very well indeed.  He knows our pain too and shares it.  The analogy of Christ's unity with His church expressed in the human body so readily fits Paul's own experience.  If one member suffers, all suffer, and if the body suffers, so does the head.  Members of the body not only need each other but operate only by complimenting each other. Just before He died Jesus taught about abiding in Him.  The lessons of abiding or remaining in Christ in the picture of the Vine, was specially vivid to John and in his first letter (2.6) he presses home the point that those who wish to abide or remain in Christ must also live as He did.  Again the vital issue is not what you know but whom you know (2 Tim.1.12). There is nothing dramatic or clever here. As our Lord pointed out, those who claim to be His people because of what they do, are in for a surprise. Sadly, He does not know them (Matt.7.23; 25.12).  We get to know someone by walking and talking with them, day by day.  That is what the Lord wants with each of His own brothers and sisters.  Study and service only produce fruit if they are applied in the life.

It is a useful means of measuring our behaviour to ask, in a given situation, "What would Jesus do?"  But the question needs to be pressed a little further by asking "What would Jesus have us do now?" or even further still by asking "Can Jesus do this through me now?"  Yet it is important to realise that this relationship is very different from the mystical experience of occult philosophy.  In Christ, a believer's identity is assured. This is not 'absorption into the deity' of an eastern religion and great care is needed in matters that are sometimes called 'religious experiences'.  Nevertheless, being in Christ is a very real experience and He does live in us.  Sharing with Him, as already discussed means walking the valley of shadows with Him as well enjoying the hill top pasture.  In Galatians 2.20 Paul writes of being crucified with Christ. In some ways he reaches the most profound yet most simple expression of what being in Christ means in his personal letter to the Philippians, chapter 3 where he writes that all that is of value to him by human standards is now no more than rubbish.  He wants to 'gain' Christ and be found in Him. He knows that there are yet greater heights and depths to be discovered so he must press on with the heavenly call ('high calling' AV) because he wants to spend eternity with someone he has found so precious.  Some have spoken and written of this 'calling' as if it were like joining a club requiring special skills or ideas before given admission.  This 'prize' is not to be obtained by learning some great teaching nor by doing some dramatic work for the Kingdom of Heaven.  This is within the grasp of all who genuinely want Christ in the way Paul wanted Him.  While some sit with their learned tomes and treatises and others are doing mighty works in His name, the real business of being a Christian is much like being a good wife.  A husband who really adores his spouse will be conscious of the quality of her intellect or the brilliance of her craft skills.  But that's not what he fell in love with - it is the compatible companionship that he will treasure most.  So with Christ.  He is glad when we use our skills for Him but it's walking and talking with Him every day that really makes us one with Him.  Paul so wanted to know the Lord and we can emulate Paul but it will not be achieved by being absorbed in this world's ambitions. From now on it will be, not I but Christ that is honoured, loved exalted…and we shall sing 'O to be saved from myself dear Lord, O to be lost in Thee. O that it may be no more I, but Christ that lives in me.'   When our affections are centred above rather than below (Col.3. 1- 4) we discover the hidden life in Him.  Like marriage its not a secret society for the hidden few but a shared secret with a widening family. Then at last we shall find that we really belong to Christ and Christ to God. (1 Cor.3. 23 NIV).  

Ultimately, the vast enterprise is that of all things being reconciled to Him, in Earth and Heaven and on throughout the universe until all is to be found 'in Christ' and that is the goal of 1 Cor.15. 22,28.  All that was lost in Adam will be regained, yet much more, for our loving Father has not allowed all this suffering for nothing - characters will be so much richer for what now seems to so many, to be a terrible tragedy. Meanwhile the sentiments of an old hymn continue to be our experience, or they should be:

I have a friend so precious, So very dear to me

He loves me with such tender love; He loves so faithfully.

I could not live apart from Him, I love to feel Him nigh;

And so we dwell together, my Lord and I.

DN