The Greater One In Me

One evening, a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to speak with Jesus. Though he was a religious leader, what Jesus tells him seemed to shock him. Jesus said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:1-8) 

This has become known as being "born again" or becoming a "new creation in Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:17) This deals with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit which happens immediately when one confesses the Lord Jesus Christ and receives Him as Savior. Concerning the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says this, "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17) I want to focus our attention on the phrase, "for He (the Holy Spirit) dwells with you and will be in you."

Being born again is not just an experience, but rather, it is being completely transformed, given a recreated spirit and receiving the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who comes to make His home in every one who confesses Christ as Lord and receives Him as Savior. There is no need for any believer ever to feel helpless or hopeless. Christ's purpose in sending the Holy Spirit was to come and live in us, taking the place of Jesus, who is at the right hand of the Father. The New Testament gives us three relationship levels that God sustains toward believers; God is for us; God is with us; God is in us. God being for us, guarantees our success; With God on our side, we are sure to win in life. If God is for us, and we know that He is for us, we become utterly fearless in life, no matter how difficult the situation may be and no matter how dark the clouds that hang upon the horizon of life may be, we are calmly assured that we win in every circumstance, no matter what, simply because God is for us.

The Bible tells us that we have a better covenant (the New Covenant) established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6), than the people of Israel under the Old Covenant. Under the Old Testament, God was for Israel and with Israel, but He was not in Israel, that is, in their physical bodies. However, in the New Covenant, God is for us, He is with us, but even far greater, He is in us. God is actually making His home in our bodies as His Temple. Of all the great truths in connection with our redemption, this truth is most likely the apex of the reality of our redemption. The Apostle Paul tells us, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19) No longer does God dwell in the earth-made Holy of Holies made with mans hands, but in fact He dwells in the believers body which has become His Temple. PTL

Under the Old Covenant, God's Presence was kept enclosed in the Holy of Holies or occasional given to a select number of people, such as judges, kings, priests and prophets, for a particular purpose and time. However, on the Cross just before Jesus died, He said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). He was not referring to the New Covenant, but the Old Covenant being finished or completed in Him. The New Covenant wasn't instituted and ratified until Jesus was raised from the dead, ascended on High and entered into the heavenly Holy of Holies with His own blood. (Hebrews 1:3, 10:12) Once Jesus obtained eternal redemption for us, as the writer of Hebrews records, then and only then were the terms of the New Covenant consummated and ratified.

Also note, that when Jesus died on the cross, Matthew records that the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, (Matthew 27:21), also signifying that the Old Covenant was finished and that God's Presence would no longer be kept shut up in the man-made Holy of Holies. Notice that the curtain was not torn from the bottom to the top, as what might have happen if the curtain were torn by a person or persons. This indicates that the curtain was not torn with human effort, but through divine intervention. When that happened, God's Presence which had been kept in the Holy of Holies, moved from there to take up residence in His New Temple, the born again believer.

The Apostle John tells us, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4) The Greater One, God Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, is in you if you are born again. All that God could possibly be to His children and do for His Children, the Holy Spirit through His indwelling Presence is to you, for you and in you. As believers become more conscious of the Greater One in us, every bit of fear, of the devil, sickness, disease, poverty or any such thing will flee. We will walk in the assured confidence that God is with us, for us and in us, that the Holy Spirit in us is everything that the Scriptures says He is and that He will do everything in and through us the Word says He will do. So, let us make a daily confession of our faith by stating with confidence, "He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world."