Moses, Jeremiah and Isaiah
The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Exodus 20:21 ESV
Far off – When God descends on His mountain, are you near or far off? You might say, “Well, we aren’t at Sinai, so how can I tell?” But if you knew that the idiomatic use of these words was about worship (drawing near) and removal from God’s presence (far off), then you might be able to place yourself in the midst of Israel too. Just where you place yourself depends on the way you understand rahoq, the Hebrew word translated “far off.”
First, let’s look at Moses’ use of the word. In this verse, it more or less describes the physical position of Israel. Of course, it intimates something about their spiritual condition as well. Moses approaches God. They hold back. In context, Moses actually tells the people not to fear YHWH. Moses has just delivered the Ten Words (the ten commandments) but rather than embrace them with rejoicing, the people cower in His presence. They see the lightening, hear the thunder and the trumpet, smell the smoke and they tremble. “You go talk with God, Moses, but we don’t want anything to do with that. We might die. We will listen to you.” To be “far off” is to remove myself from God’s presence because I am afraid.
Then we find rahoq in Jeremiah. Actually, it only occurs once in Jeremiah (2:5) where it describes those who have rejected God’s instructions and are “far off” from Him. Apparently there is more to being removed from God’s presence than just fear of my life. I can also move away from God because I no longer uphold His commandments.
Finally, Isaiah. Five times Isaiah uses rahoq. The TWOT article provides five stages of rahoq. Stage 1: God’s righteousness will not be far off. Stage 2: God will send the enemies so that they will be far off. Stage 3: Oppression will be far off. Stage 4: But sin removes God’s blessing and His judgments will no longer be far off. Stage 5: God Himself becomes far off from His people. What starts as God’s promises not to be distant ends up as the absence of God because of the people’s rebellion. Rahoq covers the whole gamut.
Now we decide. Are we standing with Israel at Sinai, asking God to be far off because we fear for our lives or are we experiencing God’s blessings and seeing our enemies far off? Or perhaps we have reached the end of rahoq and driven God far off with our sin. Just as the famous mantra of real estate is “location, location, location,” the mantra of the Bible is “position, position, position.”
Where are you standing?
Topical Index: rahoq, far off, Exodus 20:21, Jeremiah 2:5, Isaiah 46:13, Isaiah 49:19, Isaiah 54:14, Isaiah 59:9, Isaiah 59:11.
in Christ
Carl,
A friendly question:
What does “in Christ” mean?
A location? A mindset? A worldview? A biological position? A philosophy? A song? A sequence of rules? A metaphysical orientation? A mystical existence?
I’m not being flippant in asking. For many years I heard, learned and inhabited a repository of christian phrases that I regurgitated time and again. The problem I faced was I, along with numerous others, never really understood what all those christian phrases really meant in life, where reality confronted me each day. Long story short, I languished in frustration, doubt and misunderstanding. I struggled in my beliefs, not because I was in rebellion, per se, but because I only had a thin understanding of all that was in the Tanakh and B’riyt HaHhadashah I wandered around my belief system as if in a fog. The christian phrases became entities, idols, if you will, in and of themselves.
The interesting thing is that I was allowed to ‘teach’ Sunday School classes. Why? Mainly because I could parrot all the right terms and phrases. I could answer questions to most everyone’s satisfaction not by really explaining things, but simply by offering the proper, correct and acceptable words and phrases.
One example and I will end.
The ‘leader’ of our home bible study said this one night, “All I know for certain is Jesus is coming SOON. He may come tonight or he may come in a hundred years, I don’t know, but I know it’ll be SOON.”
Nobody in the group said anything in response. They just nodded in silent agreement. I didn’t say anything in response either. I figured it would be pointless to even make a statement with the mindset this group lived in. They heard all the ‘right’ words and phrases so they set aside any discussion on the absurdity of the statement. I was thinking, to my self, that I should ask this guy for a sizable financial loan and agree to pay him back SOON. If a hundred years was SOON to him, I could do pretty well!
Anyway, again, not trying to be flippant, just drawing attention to the real need of explaining so as to understand all the words we use so commonly, easily and often for granted.
I understand, Michael. My wife was searching for the chapter-and-verse source of the term “true church.” Not finding it, she tried “false church,” and then “great false church.” This search eventually led us to Skip’s site, and then to this amazing community. We are learning…and unlearning.
Hi, Thomas,
In our weekly Sunday night studies, our little group has been reading and discussing Ken Spiro’s book, “Crash Course in Jewish History From Abraham to Modern Israel.” Like the Bible, it condenses a lot in to few words. It is only 458 pages, has 543 footnotes and sixty eight chapters. That covers several thousand years of events and a lot of peoples.
This book, while written from a Jewish perspective, has helped tremendously in grasping a framework in which to better understand the Tanakh and Brit Chadashah. This book wouldn’t have passed the vetting test in the home group I have mentioned previously.
One thing this book has done is open up the world from a different perspective. This perspective is from a people who love Hashem as I do, however, it portrays things outside of the “Baptist Faith and Message” box that I had been crammed in. I certainly haven’t rejected outright the totality of that Baptist stance, but I surely have acquired a better and fuller view of things since allowing critical reviews of books like this one. I would not have found it on the shelves of my church’s library, be assured.
I was an “orphan of the sky” farming in the lower levels of Robert Heinlein’s ship the ‘Vanguard’ for a long time. The view is amazing when you simply step up to the ‘upper decks’ and take a look around. Very invigorating. Very freeing. Very expanding.
I’m going to have to go back and read that book again. I think I’ll have a much greater appreciation for it now.
So glad you made it.
🙂
Me, too!
Very interesting comments, Michael. I think that you are right; there is a lot of Christian ‘jargon’ used within the Christian community, and a lot of it seems to me to be just plain pablum!
Pablum – good word, and unfortunately, very appropriate.
Cheryl Durham, one of our readers, is finishing her PhD thesis on the meaning of “in Christ.” Perhaps she will comment.
Cool. Hope so.
Ask Him.
Thanks, that certainly clarified everything.
If clarity is what you desire, go to the Source. (James 1.17)
Carl,
James 1:17
πασα δοσις αγαθη και
παν δωρημα τελειον
ανωθεν εστιν καταβαινον
απο του πατρος
των φωτων παρ ω ουκ ενι
παραλλαγης η τροπης
αποσκιασματος
“Every giving good and every gift perfect from above is coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom has no place change or of turning shadow.” (A literal word for word Greek/English translation per The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by Rev. Alfred Marshall)
There’s the (a) source. I still have a challenge to understand what the Hebrew thinking writer, who was attempting to communicate to his specific audience via a Greek language translated in to English for a person like me some 2000 years after being written, is saying.
I still have to decide which Greek text, the Textus Receptus of the noted Erasmus, Nestle’s text, or a combination of texts represented by the Majority Text, is best. This huge mountain in my road doesn’t give me pause in reading and gleaning what is said in the Brit Hadashah, however, the heavy challenge of the art of interpretation continually floats about my head and heart always asking if there is a better English translation and hence, more clear understanding of what is said. I want to know, yet Hashem still wraps much of his truths in mysteries. Mysteries that me, and all of us, must dig deep daily to discover and unfold. A simple reading yields truths, but not all of it or its entire breadth.
Unfortunately, “look it up for yourself” may or may not suffice, at least not in the short haul. Further collaboration with like minded souls seeking the valuable nuggets of truth Scriptures hidden in plain sight is needed and coveted. Even the sages proffered at least four levels of meaning, the first being the surface or simple meaning. The deeper meanings required further, more focused and intense digging and studying. A task that demanded a lot of energy, time and effort to bring forth.
An example:
In Luke 3:4 it says (in English – ESV):
“As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'”
This reference is to Isaiah 40:3, supposedly quoting the Neviim book. It says the same thing, right? Well, kinda sorta almost:
Isaiah 40:3 (in English – ESV):
“A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'”
So, which is it? Is it someone located in the physical place in a desert proclaiming something. Or is it someone proclaiming that someone else needs to start in a desert to prepare the way? Seems to have two completely different meanings. I’ve looked at the source and I’ve asked him. I understand each of the two different meanings but why the divergence of words and what is the meaning of that? I’m still stumped. I need more input, more opinions, more understanding regarding the simple and plain words I can read myself in English.
It seems to be two totally different things being said from the same Bible by people separated by many, many years historically. Is one misquoting the other? Is one retranslating the other. Is one making something up to satisfy his own intent in writing? “Asking him and going to the source” simply creates more questions.
Well, if I just go “ask Him and go to the source,” I’m still faced with issues of understanding. I’ve tried the osmosis approach wishing I could just bypass all the hard work, laying my hands on the Bible and asking Hashem to just tell me, straight, simple, and completely. I haven’t been granted that gift, much to my disappointment. 🙁 I’ve been relegated to the discipline of learning how to study and decipher the Scriptures the painstaking way. Something that wasn’t taught most of my church-going years. Why?
Sometimes I stay up until two and three o’clock in the morning (more often than I’d like sometimes) and I still only come up with more questions. I’ve learned that more questions are actually good in that often times new questions actually answer some old questions while advancing my understanding. Sometimes I learn an answer simply by someone else asking me a question that ignites and invigorates my own thinking enough that an appropriate answer is realized. Amazing, and by the way, and very rewarding.
In the end, Carl, I am not in a battle with you. On the contrary, I am seeking to draw you out to express what all the Bible verses you share on here actually mean. I can read those myself. A surface English reading doesn’t always reveal itself as what I think it’s saying. I do read them. And I struggle to understand them. I need help. Skip’s help, your help and others help who offer input on here.
The reason I frequent this blog is simple. Skip doesn’t just throw out Bible verses with the implication that if I’m spiritual enough or mature enough I can simply divine the depths of its meaning on my own. Sometimes I can, most times I cannot. Skip takes one, maybe two words from the original languages and puts a scalpel to them. He dissects them of their core meanings, truths, and implications. That is very helpful. Very insightful. Very informative.
If all we need to do is ‘ask him’ and ‘go to the source’ we certainly wouldn’t need preachers, teachers or ANY other books than those collected as Scriptures, would we?
I think the most prevalent challenge we have in society today is miscommunications, bad communications, poor communications and lack of communications. I recognize a communication problem between me and the scriptural writings from a couple thousand years ago. I want to resolve those challenges as best I can. A lifetime isn’t enough time, but I’m going to make a stab at it.
Please feel free to share as much scriptures as you like. Something that I would covet is how you understand those scriptures specifically in your own life. Hopefully, some of your insight as to what the scriptures mean, beyond simply quoting them or preaching them can and will open my eyes to new and deeper understanding of the Memra.
Shalom.
P.S. You’ve inspired me to lengthy use of words again. 🙂
So then this is really about Israel as a nation? Can it also be on an individual level?
I see this country (America) as being far off from Y-H presently. We no longer as a nation uphold His commandments and I don’t think that is out of fear but rather rebellion.
The small group we meet with from time to time have raised the question as to why we don’t see great things happening even among Y-H’s people. For example, we read about and hear about obvious healings taking place in other places but we do not see them here. (at least where we are located physically) We have had instance within our group of great physical issue and all have prayed and even laid on hands and no healing.
Could it be that Y-H has removed His presence because of the greatness of the nations rebellion?
Israel was/is judged as a nation and yet we know that there was/is always a remnant of true believers.
Could this be why it seems as though the gifts/power that Jesus said we as believers would have as believers seems to be missing?
Maybe this was part of Jeremiah’s angst, he was near but the nation was far and so he suffered along with them and saw what happens–if only they would return to the one true God!
I am rambling here but really hoping to understand this better. 🙂
I struggle with the individual/national group concept also. I came across something late last night that lent itself to this connection of YHVH dealing with the nation of Israel as well as the individuals.
There are 613 mitzvos corresponding to 613 referent functions in the body. 248 positive mitzvos ( “ do’s ”), 365 negative mitzvos ( “ dont’s ”) correspond to 248 “ limbs ” and 365 “ sinews ” in the human body.
It is taught that the physical reflects the spiritual on most every level. Sages teach that they are so connected that there is a vital and tangible connection between our bodies and our souls. It is said that many of the most learned sages could ‘read’ what was wrong spiritually with a person by looking at the working of their bodies. Nobody knows really how they did it, but stories purport sages could look at x-rays of the body, study the physical aspects and discover the correlating spiritual illness that accompanies it.
The idea being that if one little part of a physical body is defective, it can and does have profound impacts on all the other parts of the body. I can attest to this when one little nerve is out of whack in my right hip/leg area. My whole body knows about it!
The teaching is that the mitzvot are graciously given to be followed so that all is healed, all is well, and all is continuously in sync with Hashem’s will. Mitzva are opportunities given us to participate in tikkun, the healing of all that is not within the light of Hashem’s ways. The mitzvot (all of them) have concrete relationship to our physical continuity. When we fail to abide in them, we are sick and feel the consequences of it. When one simple muscle (commandment) is unduly exercised, the body (and soul) feel the repercussions.
Thus, translating this to the individual/national identity of Israel, when one individual gets off the path, the whole nation reels as a result. Salvation of the nation is salvation of the individual parts. Salvation of the individual parts is salvation of the nation.
Not sure I totally grasp it all, but it was some interesting insights.
I was looking at this around 2 a.m. last night, so I am sure I need to go back and chew on it some more.
This is what we know.
We know that God is love, 1 John 4:8 and we know God loves the world, John 3: 16
But does God love the individual? Does God love me?
Does He love me who lives in America, a country that is very far from Him?
(55 million abortions — homosexual pride — far far . . .)
Scripture is FULL of God’s love for individuals.
The O.T. doesn’t dwell merely on the history of a people group.
In it we meet the men and women with whom God spoke and interacted. Moses, Joseph, Jonah, Job, David, Esther, Ruth, Jabez, Hagar, and more. God cared about these individuals, and not all of them were Israelites.
A most touching chapter is John 17, which records Jesus praying for His disciples. He also prayed for future believers – us. (I don’t read about a nation, I read His prayer for people.) yay!
Matt. 10: 30-32 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered…..”
I don’t know if these words matter to you, Dawn, I have only touched on the one item (that He cares for us) that jumped out at me and the words bubbled up! 🙂
Yes indeed these words matter to me! You are right-there are many stories of individuals contained in scripture that are encouraging and I am convinced, meant to be that way.
Thank you for the reminder.
Yes, and if you read Scripture with a Greek mindset, you will see individuals and individual trials and forgiveness. But that’s because you bring the focus on the individual to the text, and guess what, you find it. You must step back and see the connectedness of the community, the nation, the cosmos – written in the stories of individuals. To look only at the ant means you don’t see the ant hill. God demonstrates His love for us in the process of His restoration of all His creation. His love for each of us is real, but it is only a slice of the bigger reality. Don’t lose that. It is the Hebraic underpinning of all that God is doing.
I have thought about your post since last evening when I read it. It is clear that I have much to learn about a Hebrew mindset and much Greek to diminish. I see your point. It is always about the bigger picture of what Y-H is doing in His people. Yes, I get what you are saying here.
It’s funny–I find myself not liking the Greek way of things very much. No room for Y-H there. Its all about man and his abilities and so forth. What a discouraging way to live. (Greek that is)
Its a Biblical mindset.
His love for each of us in not ‘the process’, its ‘the GOOD NEWS’!
I can look at just one ant and see His tender care and provision for the tiny creature.
Proverbs 6: 6 “Go to the ant you sluggard and consider her ways and be wise.”
With regard to the ant analogy, I’ve never really observed a single ant thriving that wasn’t in community with many more ants. As far as I can remember I always see ants in community, moving mountains together. If I ever saw a lone ant, I can only recall that it was somehow displaced from the group. It’s difficult to envision a solitary ant surviving very well outside a community.
Just an observation.
Can’t have an ant hill without the individual.
But the subject is not ants
Communities can loose the individual, but God never does.
Communities can chain up an individual as a maniac, but Jesus goes straight to him and sets him free, for He see the forgotten and the unjustly judged and shunned. The man was a heathen, but he ran and worshiped Jesus with no teaching at all.
But lest you get lost, the subject is still not the Gadarene,
The subject remains God’s love for the individual.
You can’t disprove it, you can only be amazed by it!
Further contemplation:
“Consider “the” Egyptian and consider “his” ways and be wise.”
A rephrase in comparison to the ant verse. We could be commended to consider the Egyptian regarding the amazing building of the Great Pyramid. As we look at one single Egyptian we realize the enormous effort involved of not one single Egyptian, but the cooperation of an entire people working together to produce something almost unimaginable. Could this be fairly compared to the ant/ants? The single ant has no real identity apart from the colony. It is a communal creature surely, just as we wouldn’t realistically attribute the building of the great pyramid to a single Egyptian. But the ‘ways of the Egyptian’ (a singular word communicating a plurality of people) clearly crafted a magnificent feat. Also, “his” ways grammatically would include both sexes, all of humanity.
Could it be the writer of the proverb was conveying that the wisdom from considering the ways of the ant are directed to the people of Israel? That is, consider the way wisdom of the ant. See how they collectively work and live together accomplishing much, exactly how I designed them. Now, Israel, my son, come and work together as a people accomplishing much that I have created you for.
Just some thoughts from the proverb of the ants.
Dawn and Michael C,
Here is something to hopefully stimulate your thinking on the individual/national themes of the Bible.
This is taken from Richard Bauckham’s book “Bible and Mission – Christian Witness in a Postmodern World” pp. 15-16
“The movement of the biblical narrative thus moves from the particular to the universal in all three dimensions of time, space and human sociality. Many specific stories in the Bible portray instances of this movement from the particular toward the universal in all three of its aspects. Abraham surveys the land his descendants will day populate. Ruth the Moabite throws in her lot with her mother-in-law and her mother-in law’s people and God: she finds a new future, in a new land, among a new people. The prophet Elisha sends the whole Syrian army home with not a drop of blood shed. King Nebuchadnezzar recovers his reason and with it the knowledge that God’s is the only truly universal and eternal kingdom. . . These examples have been chosen almost at random. Once we grasp the threefold movement of God’s purpose we shall readily find it instantiated in endlessly varying ways from Genesis to Revelation. In order to understand the relationship of particularity and universality in Scripture we need to focus both the unique particularities of all of these stories and also the universal horizon to which they are oriented by their place in the overall metanarrative of Scripture.”
PP. 93-94 – From the same book:
“Those who try to map the broad outlines of the biblical narrative, discerning the purposes of God portrayed in it, are often tempted to override the untidy complexity of the actual narrative and non-narrative contexts of Scripture. For the systematic theological mind the little stories too awkwardly resist their easy assimilation into an an overall plot. There are too many fragments that seem to lead nowhere and too many that seem to point in opposite directions. It is tempting to take the principle of a canonical hermeneutic, that the parts must be understood in the light of the whole, as a reason for simply suppressing the not readily assimilable parts. But these inescapable features of the actual narrative form of Scripture surely have a message in themselves: that the particular has its own integrity that should not be suppressed for the sake of a too readily comprehensible universal. The Bible does, in some sense, tell an overall story that encompasses all its other contents, but this story is not a sort of straightjacket that reduces all else to a narrowly defined uniformity. It is a story that is hospitable to considerable diversity and tensions, challenges and even seeming contradictions of its own claims.”
Brian,
Some interesting observations. I am continually amazed at how relaxed Hashem appears towards us much of the time even though I know he is intimately concerned about us. For example, he doesn’t drop medicinal cures out of the sky for us, instead he allows diseases to take many lives until some focused individual discovers a ‘cure.’ He doesn’t explain how DNA is structured and ordered, he simply allows us to use the minds he gave us to figure it out on our own. And so on.
This observation seems to fit the scheme of Hebrew thought in general in that what is important is what you do with what you already know of what Hashem HAS, in fact, revealed – Torah. Walking in the path of Torah heals what ails us in all facets of our lives. Doing Torah leads to being drawn near to Hashem which naturally leads to more and deeper understanding. The goal is not to understand so as to obey, but to obey in order to see, understand and be that which he has created us to be, a much higher calling than that of the U. S. Army.
Our physical bodies work amazingly well in protecting us from diseases, providing all essential components for all things living and housing our souls for daily worship in nearness to him. I’m grateful my individual parts cooperate to sustain me. I am singularly focused on fixing any body part that fails or starts malfunctioning. Would that I, individually, prove more supportive, healing, and life giving to those chosen and those grafted in, the whole of the body. Would that I become as singularly focused on healing parts of his body that are failing or malfunctioning. How evident the Kingdom of God would be here on the earth if we all simply did so.
Thanks for the response. I am still looking for some thoughts on the healing aspect that I mentioned above though.
In Mark 16:15-18 Jesus talks about the power that believers will have will have as they proclaim the Good News. Why do we not see these today? At least here in this country. In verse 20 (same chap) it says that their words were confirmed by the miracles that followed. They did happen but when did they stop–or did they stop?
I am still wondering about the “being far away” from God for this nation? Do all suffer then as a nation. Even the true believers?
Why do we not see these today?
Hi Dawn McL,
I saw a great movie with Robert De Niro on this very subject last night
My dog Max needs to meet with his friend in the park in a few minutes
But when I get back, I’ll share the movie with you 🙂
Third and fourth line of the first paragraph: “Abraham surveys the land his descendants will day populate.” Should read: “Abraham surveys the land his descendants will one ‘day’ populate.”
Thanks.
YHWH is King!
In Christ!
When I hear those words “in Christ” I think of the proximity suit
that firemen wear to fight in very high temps, as much a 2,000 degrees F,
such as in aircraft fires.
Inside that suit a man can literally walk thru a blazing inferno.
If not for that protection, …. ! (I don’t need to draw a picture!)
In Christ is like that, — but as superior as the sun to a candle!
Several places in Scripture refer to believers being “in Christ”
1 Pet. 5:14 — Phil. 1:1 — Rom. 8:1 — Gal. 3: 26
Col. 3:3 says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
“in Christ” = peace, peace, peace
regret things you have done? peace
regret how you raised your kids? peace
regret lack of love toward someone and now its too late? peace
In Him, its okay — you’re forgiven. peace
fears of the future … p e a c e, lovely peace.
When I think of being in Christ, I think of trust in Him.
“Draw me! We run after You.” Song of Songs 1:4
When ABBA draws me, will I resist, or will I run after Him, with such joy.
When YHWH draws me/us, all beastly nature acquired through the Tree of Knowledge
that gives rise to envying, rebellion, self-worship, greed and so forth, must DIE.
We have got nothing to lose, but self. HalleluYAH!
That surely must be the criteria of a renewed person having the Torah written in their hearts.
The Ruach, or the Spirit of Yahushua is right there from the beginning of time in the Tanakh- all prophecies come from the Ruach!
Miracles are still taking place in our midst-how about the greatest miracle of all-that of a person coming to repentance, of returning to YHWH.
Another example-that when we speak of the wonders of YHWH, and a person could respond joyfully, that would be another miracle!
Signs and wonders of miracles are to draw folks to Himself, and it is happening daily in a person’s life without him/her even realizing it.
Miracles of transformation of character in a Believer is what YHWH is looking eagerly for, not for how much Biblical knowledge he has!
As for me and my house, we want to draw closer and closer to YHWH.
“Draw me/us close to You,
Never let me/us go…” Amein!
In Christ.
Me thinks one’s steadfast grip on his/her faith coupled with their openned obedience to
God’s Word (and still small voice), might have something to do with the Holy Spirit
actually being “realized” and thus enabled to continually reveal Himself to our own
“tuned in” spirit. His Word is living and active!
How ofter Jesus slipped away to spend quiet time with the Father in the secret place
of prayer. He modeled for us His deep relationship of faith and obedience with the
Father and the Spirit. In JN 15:4 He got specific: “Remain in Me, and I will remain
in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you
bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”
In Philippians, Paul speaks about “being united in Christ” and in Chapter 2:13 says:
“for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.”
The more I get out of the way, the more He has His way.
Let me share with you my musical take on this. How does one get “into” a piece of music from a compositional perspective? Well first, you listen to it, repeatedly, because you can’t draw everything from it in a single sitting. You have to listen repeatedly.
Then you have to reflect on it. Think about it. Ponder it. Remember it. Sing it or hum it if you can.
Through this approach, you begin to make it a part of you.
Then you analyze it and you get it into you from another perspective.
Finally, if you intend to write music, you must take what you’ve learned, absorb it, then repeatedly do it. That is how you get into a piece of music, and conversely, how it gets into you.
To be in Christ is to recognize that there are multiple literary grammatical devices describing the same thing but from different perspectives.
Christ is in me through the Holy Spirit. He resides in me.
I get “into” Christ through:
setting aside time to build the relationship and learning how to love (agape) Him heart, soul, mind and strength;
speaking His words aloud per Joshua 1;
singing to Him from my heart;
praising and thanking Him;
doing what He says to do (which per Jesus demonstrates that I agape love Him).
Now my experience on this latter statement is that it’s doctrinally contentious because through various doctrine we put to the side much of Yeshua said to do, meaning, decisively in our going to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, herald the good news.
As I wrote to one NT prof this past week, I think it’s a lot simpler than we make. Jesus was pretty direct when He said, “Why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I say?”
To find out how to be in Christ doing what He said to do is a good place to start, especially if you keep at it.