Perhaps we do not ponder the reality of our own personal existence as often as we should. The early apologist, Augustine, left for Christian posterity his own questions reflecting such a pondering. In Book I.2, here is the conclusion he draws after posing agonizing questions trying to figure his own existence:
“So, then, I should be null and void and could not exist at all, if you, my God, were not in me.” [Augustine, Confessions. Penguin Classics, page 22]
The meaning and purpose of our individual existence is made real because God is in us. Not only are we made in His image, but His actual being and presence is in us. Christ is in us. And the Holy Spirit is in us. T
This is more than just the “breath of life” being breathed into us. We are a living soul, and when we are in covenant relationship with God, He is in us. Listen to how John the apostle expressed it in his later years…
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them”( 1 John 4:16).
We can elaborate on Augustine’s conclusion when we bring the Apostle John into the conversation. Not only do we not exist at all unless God is in us, but neither can we have love for others, and express love for others unless God lives in us.
God lives in us! What in incredible thing to think about. No empirical test nor sophisticated argument can negate this transcendent reality! God, other than us, becomes God in us! We are the pinnacle of God’s creation, and I suspect that one of God’s greatest delights is to dwell within His people! His greatest desire is to love His people, and to see His people love him.
One thing for sure…I could not exist at all without God! Does my life of love demonstrate that dependency?
In Christian love, Curtis
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