Christ in you and you in Christ

"Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are."
― Søren Kierkegaard

The Christian life is the process of catching up with the life you have already lived.

By this, I mean that to have become a Christian means to have accepted the life that Christ lived as your own life. Having accepted it means that His completed, historical life is reckoned to you by God as the life that you have lived. In this sense, Christ's life is the life that you have already lived. It cannot be taken from you, for it has already been lived.

Yet, you also live in the present world. This present world is the world of your existence. You have a life to live there too. In this present life, Christ wants to live through you. While He lived His own life two millennia ago, He now wants to re-live in His creation, as you, through you.

You are in Him. This gives you His historical life as your life.

He is in you. This gives your present life as His life.

Your present life is the incredible chance for Jesus to live once again on this earth. As those who bear Christ, allowing Christ to outlive through us is our highest honour and calling. A life so lived will represent a part of the life that Christ has already lived - for Christ cannot be inconsistent with His previous life.

It is only by facing the facts of what you are in your natural state that it makes any sense at all that Christ's life ought to be your life. Once the facts of your life sans Christ are faced can Christ enter and live the life of His preference through you. And this, in my understanding is precisely how we change for the better.