When I was six years old, my mother was pregnant with my youngest brother. I was told, “You’re going to have a baby brother or sister, and that baby is inside mother’s tummy.” That was a difficult concept for me to grasp. It also generated a number of questions about how, when, and why all of this was going to take place. But I did understand it was an important event that was going to change our family dynamic.

Throughout the letters of the Apostle Paul, he expresses a somewhat parallel concept. In II Corinthians, he asks the question: “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you…” (13:5). When first declared to these saints, they too may well have been confused and had many questions. They had been taught the Lord Jesus Christ had died for their sins and rose again to ascend into heaven where He is presently seated on the right hand of the Father until He returns to rapture us into the heavens. How then could He be within these often sinful believers at Corinth?

Several passages further explain how Christ lives in believers today. Paul’s description is, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith…” (Ephesians 3:17). Christ lives within us in a figurative sense the moment we trust in Him alone for eternal salvation. He is still seated in the heavens but, as omnipresent God, He also lives within the heart of His children of faith. The moment we trust in Him, we are instantly “baptized into his death…” (Romans 6:3-4), His burial, and resurrection (8:9-11). Baptism by the Holy Spirit is an identification with His sacrifice for our sins and a new standing in His righteousness. So, we are in Him, identified with His righteousness, and He in our hearts by faith. But Christ is also in every believer through the person of the Holy Spirit. Paul explains, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you…and if Christ be in you…the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:9-10).

It is a marvelous truth that Christ, the Creator of the entire universe, lives in us today. We have the presence of God the Son within us everywhere we go. We are never alone. This truth gives us cause for rejoicing, holiness, constant fellowship with Christ, and service for His cause.