So not only do you have Christ within, living your life for you in the smallest matters, but you also have Him without, controlling every move of the universe in your favor! You have the greatest set-up imaginable! Even your sufferings are preliminaries to greater manifestations of Christ's presence in your life (8:17). But suffering must come, because that is what His life in you will do. Union with Christ means that you "carry about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in [your] body"(2 Cor.4:10). Once His life enters you, it will die and rise again like a seed in order to multiply itself (John 12:24). Only in this way will others benefit from His presence in you (2 Cor.4:11). Because of this, Paul describes his life's passion in this way: I want to know [Christ] and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil.3:10-11) He speaks here of a resurrection and a power which belongs to this life, not merely to heaven someday. "Indeed we suffer with Him so that we may be glorified with Him" (Rom.8:17).

But Paul makes it clear that the ultimate, future realization of this glory shines so bright in his eyes that he can hardly see his present sufferings (Rom.8:18). Coming from a man who has been through what he has been through, those are encouraging words! All of creation eagerly anticipates that glorious day when God will unveil His vast family of sons (vv.19-23). The redemption of our bodies on that day will not only complete our own salvation, but will also inaugurate the New Heaven and the New Earth (Rev.21:1-4). Thus, Paul calls us the "first fruits" of this glorious new creation (Rom.8:23). On that day, God will remove the one remaining encumbrance to our faith: our weak bodies. We look forward to this wonderful day with a hope that will give us patience to endure our sufferings (vv.24-25).

In the meantime, take a look at your present life from God's perspective: You have Christ within, and without. What could possibly interfere with such a relationship? In God's unrivaled sovereignty He controls everything that happens to you (v.28). Everything which happens to you therefore can only move you towards an outward manifestation of an inward reality—you end up looking just like Christ. And if God, the One we call our "Daddy," gets to call all the shots in this matter, then what do we discover about our lives? This whole thing is rigged!! That's what Paul means when he says we are "more than conquerors"(8:37). It's not enough to say we will beat our opponents . . . in this case our Daddy owns them, too! Like a boxing match where one manager owns both boxers, and he tells one of them to take a dive, so even our adversaries are merely pawns in the hand of our loving Father, used only to strengthen our walk with Him. Talk about safety! This is the same loving God who for our sakes delivered his own Son to the cross—what would He ever hold back from us (v.32)?

God has so submerged us into Christ that all we see is Him. This is what it means that "Christ is our life" (Col. 3:4). We begin to see how Paul could spend up to 18 months teaching about nothing but Christ and His cross. But he has much more to say. His letters to the Ephesians and to the Colossians together could constitute years of teaching and experience. Christ is much bigger than we ever knew, and His death and resurrection achieved more than we would dare to claim on our own. Believe what God has said, and you will enter into His rest (Heb.4:9-11).

In closing, I would like to share a few last words about applying these truths to your life . . .

<on to Conclusion> (How Does This Work?)

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