What does it mean to be “in Christ,” and what does it mean to have “Christ in you”? We go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah. The Creator’s presence goes into us by way of the Messiah.

Among the biblical symbols of Sukkot (festival of Tabernacles, or Booths) is the tent, the temporary dwelling. It reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going. The sukkah is also a visual representation of how to have “Messiah in us” and to be “in Messiah” at the same time.

Most of us have times when we wish we could hit the reset button before the Creator of Heaven and Earth. The biblical fall appointments with Him — Yom Teruah (Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Atonement), Sukkot (Tabernacles) and Shemeni Atzeret (Eighth Day) — are memorials of how the Holy One is resetting the people of God collectively and individually. We go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah. The Creator’s presence goes into us by way of the Messiah.

“Of [this assembly] I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” (Col. 1:25-28 NASB)

The world claims to desire “hard facts” but we live on a whole lot of faith. When we enter into a skyscraper and use the elevator without thought, we are acting in faith. We did not see the construction of the building, there’s no guarantee whatsoever. Someone else designed and built it and we have faith it won’t fall down when he walk up the stairs. When we buy a bag of chips and simply break into it and start nibbling, we are acting on faith that the food company who made it isn’t trying to kill us.

This idea that God is an absentee landlord who simply made us and sent us on our merry way to fumble around on our own is not backed up by evidence, yet many people believe that fable, too.

Lessons from the sukkah

God told the people He wanted to live with them in a tent, just as they were living in tents around it. It was His house with very specific invitations on entry, even the High Priest only entered once a year, symbolically covered in blood and literally covered in the smoke of incense, where the smoke of the incense mingled with the heavenly cloud. That is an excellent picture of being in Christ.

This is why we can enter in with confidence but not with arrogance. There is a way into the land of rest, but you might not want to enter in. You can be confident of its existence but you have to desire to go in and to go in the right way. If we forsake the offering of Christ, there is no other way into the presence of God.

Among the biblical symbols of Sukkot is the tent, the temporary dwelling. It reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going.

“‘You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’”(Leviticus 23:42–43 NASB)

God is their deliverer. They were called to live in booths to remind themselves of God’s protection. They were in transit between Egypt and the Promised Land, the house of bondage and the land of rest. This picture of the sukkah is a picture of being in transition, a temporary situation, not a place where you live for all time.

Hundreds of years later and after becoming puffed up with what was thought to be permanent residence,