From Hope To Home

From Hope To Home A. W. Tozer, the author of such Christian classics as Pursuit Of God and Knowledge Of The Holy, never preached the message he prepared for Sunday, May 12, 1963 - because on that day God called him home to glory. The title of that message was “God’s Greatest Gift To Man.” To Tozer, the greatest gift was not the gift of salvation (Jn. 3:16), or the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:8), or eternal life (Rom. 6:23), or faith (Eph. 2:8) or grace (Eph. 3:7) - but Christ Himself. And not only the Christ who came to save us, but also the Christ who actually indwells the believer. The theme verse for his last message was “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27) - the same as this month’s features. I discovered all this in Tozer’s biography. Christ indwelling the believer was one of Tozer’s favorite scriptural concepts, but one he was afraid not many Christians thought much about. It is one thing to gain the victory over the eternal punishment for sin because of our Savior’s death and resurrection; it is quite another to have the power to overcome daily temptation because our Lord actually indwells us. To paraphrase a Tozer analogy: tell a mugger that you know the heavyweight boxing champ, and he may let you go; show him that the power of the heavyweight champ dwells within you, and he will let you go. When the “Christ in you” portion of Colossians 1:27 becomes a living reality in our lives, it has a tremendous impact on the “hope of glory” portion. Too many weak Christians mistakenly translate the phrase “hope of glory” as “wish for glory” because they are not enjoying the full assurance that comes with Christ’s indwelling. “Hope of” actually means “pleasant anticipation” or “confident expectation.” When our present relationship with Christ includes an understanding that He actually indwells us, all doubt about our future relationship with Him fades. Like Tozer, we will live with the confidence that when we are called home, home will be with Christ in glory, because He is with us and in us now. By Larry Ondrejack