There is a mystery that has been hidden from ages and generations, but which has now been revealed to His saints. Also in these days God reveals His mysteries only to His saints, desiring to show them the riches of the glory of this mystery. The mystery is Christ in Us. Some people know of this mystery; others see it and rejoice over it; others again have a sense for it; but few people know The Riches of the Glory of this mystery. God Himself will make it known to those who are holy. Read Colossians 1:26-27. The riches of the glory—few people comprehend what this glory consists of. It is not just an emotional state that makes us comfortable; we comprehend it in a different way when our eyes are anointed, so that we receive a clear, sharp vision, and our ears are circumcised so that our spiritual hearing becomes clear. Then understanding will enter our enlightened mind and thus accomplish its work throughout our entire life. There is a difference between John the Baptist’s message and Paul’s message. John the Baptist proclaimed: “Behold the Lamb of God!” John 1:36. Or: Look at Jesus! Paul proclaimed: Christ in us. Col. 1:27. Or as he says, “Christ lives in me . . . .” Gal. 2:20. Or, “It pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . .” Gal. 1:15-16. We also find these two directions in our days. The one is the forerunner of the other. John the Baptist’s message cleared the way for Jesus. In these days the same message also clears the way for Jesus into people’s hearts. However, this is not the final message, the glorious message that leads a person to become perfect “in Christ.” Col. 1:28. We are going to look at the first calling, and later at the heavenly calling. The first calling is: Look at Jesus. Let us just look at Jesus. “Behold the Lamb of God!” as John the Baptist said. They behold and acknowledge that He is good, receiving His grace, and they are blessed. They stand there like a man with a basket and receive—all they do is receive—looking to Jesus to receive more. And so they can praise God for His grace and love for them. They have also much to be thankful for. Let us imagine Jesus among the crowds in Galilee. John the Baptist points at Him, and the crowds behold Him. They see His goodness, His compassion. They see how He feeds the hungry, opens the eyes of the blind, and gives hearing to the deaf. They behold and behold and behold God’s eternal and good love in everything; they arise and follow Him just as Andrew, Peter, and Philip did. However, there is a higher calling. When Jesus began to speak about it, many of those who had “beheld the Lamb of God” went back and walked with Him no more. Imagine that you are not among the crowds up in Galilee beholding Jesus, but that you yourself stand there and see as Jesus sees. You are standing in the midst of the crowd. There are Pharisees, tax collectors, and sinners, and you look at them as Jesus is looking at them; you speak to them as He speaks to them and treat them as He treats them. You act and speak with authority and power, as the Word of God, as Christ. But now the question arises: what is the difference between these two callings? The one who receives looks only at Jesus; he praises God, saying, “We shall look only at Jesus; we shall receive only from Him; we shall not do anything else. We cannot do anything. If we do anything, it will only end up in bondage. God blesses. We receive.” You can hear the shout “Hallelujah!” What they are saying is true; it is true, all of it—from where they stand. However, There Is a Higher Calling The person who enters into the higher calling does not simply receive gifts, grace, and blessings as in a basket, but it is as if God said to him: “Stop now! Put the basket away. You have seen enough to know that I am good, loving, and merciful. Come to Me; let me deal with you on a personal level. Eat My flesh, drink My blood, lose your life, die with Me to yourself so that My personal life can be absorbed by you in the same way as the food you eat becomes one with you.” When you do this, you enter into a totally different relationship to Christ. Then you no longer stand there, simply beholding Jesus and receiving from Him as if in a basket, but you yourself will be molded into a man of God; you receive divine nature; you become gods—just as Jesus speaks about it, or: Christ in us! Then you can ask in your ignorance: “Shall those who have received a higher calling not look at Jesus?” This is a very reasonable question. When Christ is manifested in us, God will make known to us the riches of the glory of Christ. Just as it is written: We behold, as in a mirror, with unveiled face, the glory of the Lord, being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3:18. As God shows us the riches of the glory of this mystery, we are being transformed into the same image; i.e., we become partakers of the nature of Christ; we are being transformed into a man of God. This man of God doesn’t just receive blessings. He himself has become something; he has become an authority, a personality in Christ who can give and act like Christ did. It is not bondage when he does something, because it comes from his new nature; but if the others should do something it would obviously be bondage since they are only in a receiving state and have not come under God’s hands to be broken down and built up. They say: “We shall not; He shall, He shall, only He; just look at Him.” This is right for them. But if they hear the message of a higher life, it is no longer right for them to remain there. Paul promised this heavenly calling, this higher life. He had partaken of God’s nature and had become a man of God. He was not afraid to say “I, I, I, I.” He had received a new life and had become a member of the body of Christ. The flesh with its old “I” and its passions was crucified, and now the new man was active. Therefore he says (for example) to the Romans: “When I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” Rom. 15:29. Take note of this; Paul said: I shall come with blessings, not just Jesus. “No!” people cry out with contempt; “I, I, I, I! We’ve had enough of this ‘I! I! I! I!’ Now it is only ‘He! He! He! He!’” However, in spite of this, Paul says, “Follow me!” 1 Cor. 4:16. Paul writes much about himself. We could almost believe that he was one big “I” if we didn’t know better. “For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you . . . .” V. 15. “I have sent Timothy to you . . . who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.” V. 17. “Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?” V. 21. This goes through the entire Scriptures. Peter said, “Look at us.” Acts 3:4. Paul had become something “not in himself,” as religious people would say, but in Christ. He had become a fellow worker of Christ, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone; a person, a new “I” who without pride and bondage and such things can act joyfully according to God’s will. The difference in the calling between these two kinds of believers is as great as the difference between the person who beholds Jesus and Jesus Himself. The first behold the light. The last become light. The first say that the Word is becoming living for them, but the last say that the Word is becoming living in them, or, it is becoming flesh in them; the Word is manifested in flesh or God manifested in flesh, which is the mystery of godliness. 1 Tim. 3:16. The first are like the earth in relation to the sun. Many good fruits of goodness and love can grow in their lives. The last, on the other hand, become like the sun; they receive its nature. That is the heavenly calling. When these two with their differing callings meet, the result is, as often as not, a struggle. Those who are on the higher level are active as God’s fellow workers in order to get the others up to where they themselves are. But oftentimes the others will resist their efforts because the highest level they have experienced is only to receive, and therefore they say: “Let us receive together and rejoice together. Let us go and be blessed together.” But those on the higher level know more, and as God’s fellow workers they begin to work with the first just as Paul says that the Corinthians are God’s field whereas he himself was God’s fellow worker. But then they often resist, saying: “God alone has to do it. We shall not do anything. We shall not listen to people,” etc. They are offended at eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Paul started with every man, exhorting them in all wisdom, in order to present every man perfect in Christ. Col. 1:28-29. It is impossible for these two kinds of believers to agree concerning their experiences. Just as the first cannot understand the last, so the last can perfectly see through the first because they themselves have passed that stage. John the Baptist says: “Behold, God’s Lamb!” Paul proclaims: Christ in us. May God open your eyes to this high calling. For those who become one with Him are of Him; they are the bride, His own life, His body here on earth, the bride that one day will be caught up.Aksel Smith