The Pauper in the Prince in the Palace

“The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”[1] 

What special words!  Eternal glory is like a spiritual palace.  The Palace of the never-ending dominion of the King of Kings.  This Palace is located in a land called Glory to which all villagers dream to enter.  All villagers are peasants, paupers who long to be found living in the Palace of glory.  To live in the Palace with the King and eat of His delicacies day and night for all eternity fills their inner soul to the top with satisfaction.

Entering the Palace

Many peasants try to break through the Palace walls by force (or sneakery).  They may have no ill will against the Prince (through Whom we enter), but they think too highly of their efforts.  These peasants are greatly deceived.  No, the palace walls cannot be scaled nor broken through; they are eternally too high to scale!  Our best works bump against the outside of the Palace and fall apart like filthy rags. 

Other peasants realize they can never be good enough to be called into the Palace.  They are right.  Only the Prince may enter the King’s Palace of glory because only He is perfect.  But instead of entering through the Prince they give up on this best of lives – life lived in the Palace.  They numb their thoughts through empty pursuits and silly games, to try to keep their attention away from the fact that they live outside of the Palace.  But the King has commanded them to enter.  Those who do not obey what He commands will never see life.  A death sentence is on their heads.

 

Most other peasants in town make up their own glory palace.  They don’t seek after the true King and His Palace, but try to make themselves a kingdom of sorts where they can be their own king.  I’ve seen them rummage through the barn yard garbage to place together crusty dung from last week’s cleaning.  They sit around with dung cakes and make up palaces for their own imagination.  They were made to live in the Palace, but are too proud to accept the King's terms so they fashion their own palace.  They look pitiful trying to find contentment in dung.  Why do they play this way when they could enter the true Palace without cost?

Some peasants, still paupers, enter the Palace of glory without cost.  They enter through the Prince.  The Prince of the Kingdom of glory came and lived in the village for a time.  The Prince paid a precious price to offer to all paupers the same position He has in the Palace.  If you take Him at His Word you enter Him – his position as a joint Heir of the Palace becomes yours as well as all that the King of King owns!  All paupers who take Him at His Word enter Him.    When the Pauper is in the Prince he is in the Palace.

Living in the Palace.

Being in the Prince means that the Pauper has all that the Prince has.  He is no longer a pauper because he is in the Prince!  The joy of those who enter the Palace is unrivaled.  It is a status that is filled with all of life’s best things.  They are set up with a new citizenship based on the Prince.  They are given the Prince’s life inside them to live like Him.  Living like Him is the way the villagers were made to live.  It is gloriously satisfying.  And it is how their lives are lived best.

Some of those who are in the Palace refuse to live like they are in the Prince.  These feel like they have to maintain their spot in the Palace by appeasing the King.  You would think that they actually gained entrance into the Palace by their own merit.  But the truth is, when once in the Palace by being in the Prince you are always in the Palace by being in the Prince.  Those in the Prince are treated as the Prince.  They are accepted as and loved by the King as much as the Princes is accepted because they are in Him.  It is the King's great pleasure to give them the kingdom!

Other paupers who live in the Palace look out the windows of glory at others who are not in the Prince with disdain.  What an ungrateful attitude!  With pride they look down on those whom the Prince has not yet changed.  They see some of the dirt of the villagers’ clothes, or their playing in the dung.  These are sad scenes.  Although all paupers should admit playing in the dung before the Prince set them free, these forget.  So with smirks on their face they look out at the rest with a sense of achievement or an air of superiority.  The truth is that all are that are in the Palace are just as filthy as all outside the Palace.  The only difference is that those who are in the Palace are in the Prince.

Others, sad to say, still fancy making dung pies in the Palace.  They forget that their robes are washed and their citizenship is different.  Instead of feasting at the table of unthinkable riches, they feast their heart on flies and worms.  Instead of being preoccupied with the glorious business of the King, they play on the floor with worthless things.  How sad that they return to the dung as a dog returns to vomit.  All who are in the Prince must see that knowing the Prince better and living for His causes is their greatest goal – all else is dung.  With gratitude we live for the Prince who brought us in Him into the family of the King. 

You are a villager.  Let me encourage you to enter the Prince today.  And if you have entered Him, live like a Prince and not like the pauper.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [into] Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

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[1] Being “in Christ” is a common theme in Scripture.  If you examine the references you will learn that it primarily has to do with the benefits that are ours because of our relationship with Jesus in the Gospel.  Believing the Good News that Jesus died for me, and rose again from the grave for me places spiritual realities in my life that are actually spiritual realities that belong to Jesus Christ and are transferred to me spiritually.  So my relationship, or often “union” with Jesus makes many things true of me that can only be true of Jesus.  Many of these are positional things – no condemnation (Romans 8:1), redemption (Ephesians1:7), being complete (Colossians 2:9-10).  These are all things that are mine because of my union with Christ.  But there is another bunch of these “In Christ” verses that refer to what has been called a mystical “in Christ”ness (Barrett, Complete in Him).  These are illustrating here.  Think of “sitting in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:19)", or having "every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3).  We are brought near to God because we are in Christ (Ephesians 2:13).  I like to think of this in a locative sense.  That I can enjoy all these things in Christ is only because I am located in Him.  How could I pass as Him before the Father?  Well, I look nothing like Him, so the only way to get through that security check would be if I were not hiding behind Him, not just wearing His clothes, but actually being "in Christ."