THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ
Message Two
The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ in Romans to Philippians
Scripture Reading: Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 2:10; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:14-21; 5:22-32; Phil. 1:19
I. We will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ in the Epistles; we begin with the experience and enjoyment of Christ in Romans; often considered the fifth gospel, Romans is a rich, deep, thoughtful, and logical book—Rom. 6:3-5, John 3:15; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12; 2 Cor. 3:17:
A. Romans 6 presents the Christ who died and resurrected for our experience and enjoyment; we may experience and enjoy Christ in His death and resurrection; the result of such an enjoyment is the free gift in Christ, that is, eternal life—John 3:15; Rom. 6:4; Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3-5, 18-22; Col. 2:12:
1. Through baptism we are immersed into Christ, taking Him as our realm, that we may be united with Him as one in His death and resurrection—John 3:15; Rom. 6:3-4.
2. The believers have been buried with Christ through baptism into death; when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ; when we were buried with Him, we entered into His death—Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3; Col. 2:12.
3. The believers, having been resurrected as Christ was, should walk in newness of life; we were buried with Him in baptism, and we are now growing with Him in His resurrection, in His divine life—Rom. 6:3-5.
4. The believers, having grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death, will grow together with Him also in the likeness of His resurrection—1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 6:5.
5. The Bible reveals that we are free from sin by the death of Christ; by being buried into the death of Christ, we die and our body of sin is annulled; then we are no longer under slavery to serve sin as slaves; thus, we are freed from sin—vv. 18-22.
6. Through baptism we have been identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection—v. 10.
B. Romans 8:9-11 presents Christ as the Spirit of Christ; the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself whom we can experience and enjoy—Rom. 8:2; 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22:
1. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God who dwells in us that we may be in the spirit; the Spirit of Christ implies that this Spirit is the embodiment and reality of Christ, the incarnated One—Rom. 8:9-11.
2. The Spirit of Christ is the very Christ in us; according to the fact, it is Christ; according to experience, it is the Spirit; in our experience of Him, He is the Spirit; in our worshipping of Him, calling on Him, and speaking of Him, He is Christ—v. 10, footnote 1.
3. The Spirit of Christ is also the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from among the dead, dwelling in us to give life to our mortal body—v. 11.
4. Not only that the Lord, the resurrected Christ, is the Spirit but that a believer who is joined to the Lord is also a spirit; in our organic union with Christ, what He is, we are—v. 9; 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22.
II. First Corinthians is a book full of the riches of Christ; the essential and underlying thought of this book is that we should enjoy Christ—2:7-12; 10:3-4; Mark 12:30; 1 Cor. 6:17:
A. Christ as the depths of God; Christ being the depths of God means that He is the deep things of God, the things that are not superficial—2:7-12:
1. To know the depths of God is to know Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion; Christ, the all-inclusive and extensive One, is truly the depths of God—v. 10.
2. When we enjoy Christ, we touch the depths of God, and God becomes the element within us; as we advance in our experience of Christ, one day we will truly know Him as God’s depths—v. 10.
3. According to 1 Corinthians 2:7, God’s wisdom, Christ, is in a mystery; it is a mysterious wisdom; furthermore, God’s wisdom is the wisdom which has been hidden and which God predestined before the ages for our glory.
4. Christ as the depths of God is also the “things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him”—v. 9:
a. Our love toward God is a strong proof that we have been chosen and predestinated to enjoy the Triune God by soaking in His divine glory, which is our destiny and God’s mysterious wisdom—v. 9.
b. To realize and participate in the deep and hidden things God has ordained and prepared for us requires us not only to believe in Him but also to love Him; to love God means to set our entire being—spirit, soul, and body, with the heart, soul, mind, and strength, absolutely on Him—Mark 12:30.
5. In verse 10 Paul tells us that the Spirit searches all things; the Greek word rendered “searches” is used in reference to active research, implying accurate knowledge gained not by discovering but by exploring; the Spirit of God explores the depths of God concerning Christ and shows them to us in our spirit for our realization and participation:
a. In order to partake of the deep things of God, we must exercise not merely our mind but our spirit—v. 10.
b. The best way to exercise our spirit is to pray-read the Word; the more we pray-read with an exercised spirit, the more clearly we see a spiritual vision of the deep things of God—Eph. 6:17-18.
B. By means of the mingled spirit alone can we discern the depths of God, the different aspects of Christ as our portion for our enjoyment; if we exercise the mingled spirit, we will enjoy Christ, not in a superficial way but as the depths of God and even in the depths of God—1 Cor. 6:17.
III. We will begin to consider aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ as revealed in 2 Corinthians—1:21-22; 3:17-18; 12:9; Gal. 4:19; 55:
A. “The One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God, He who has also sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge”—1:21-22; Gal. 4:19; 55:
1. God firmly attaches the believers together with the apostles unto Christ; this means that God has attached the apostles, the ministers, with all those to whom they ministered—2 Cor. 1:21-22.
2. God attaches the apostles with all the believers unto this anointed One; the ointment flows in us because we have been attached to Him; since we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are spontaneously anointed with Him by God—vv. 21-22.
3. Since God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him; we are first anointed that we may receive the divine essence into our being; then we are sealed that we may receive the impression of the divine image—Gal. 4:19.
4. In 2 Corinthians 1:22 Paul also says that God has given the Spirit as a pledge in our hearts; the pledge of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the pledge; the Spirit within us is the pledge, an earnest, of God as our portion in Christ—5:5.
5. As believers, we have the Holy Spirit as the anointing, the seal, and the pledge, all of which are for our full enjoyment of Christ; day by day we should be under the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging of the Holy Spirit.
B. In 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Christ is presented as the Spirit and the Lord Spirit:
1. The Spirit is the Lord and the Lord is the Spirit and that the Spirit and the Lord are one; “the Spirit”, the Spirit who gives us the divine life and frees us from the bondage of the law—Rom. 8:16, 23, 26-27; 2 Cor. 3:6; John 6:63.
2. In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom; the Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself, with whom is freedom:
a. Christ as the freeing Spirit is within us, we are free from the law, regulations, and dead letters—v. 6.
b. We must turn our heart to the Lord, who is the Spirit, and set our mind on the mingled spirit; then the Spirit will free us that we may enjoy the full freedom in grace—v. 16.
3. The Lord Spirit is the transforming Spirit; he transforms us into the image of the Lord of glory from one degree of glory to another degree of glory:
a. When we open to Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, we are under the process of transformation; all that He is, is transfused into our being; through being transfused with what He is, we will be completely transformed—v. 18.
b. The more we live and walk in the life-giving Spirit, the more glory is added into our being, and the more we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory.
C. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Christ is revealed as the embodiment of grace; Christ is not only the factor of grace but also the embodiment of grace; that is, Christ is grace itself:
1. Grace is Christ, not in doctrine but in experience, because grace is Christ with all He is for our enjoyment; this includes life, power, and His other divine attributes—v. 9.
2. We need to learn not to expect to receive something outwardly or to have something done by the Lord for us; rather, we should expect to simply enjoy the Lord Himself as grace—v. 9.
3. The grace of Christ is the power perfected in weakness that, as a tent or a tabernacle spread over us, overshadows us in our weakness—v. 9.
IV. We will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in Galatians; the subject of Galatians is Christ replacing the law and being versus religion and tradition—Gal. 1:16; 6:15; 2:20:
A. In Galatians 1:16 Christ is presented as the One revealed in the apostle; here Paul did not say that Christ revealed Himself to him but that the Father in His pleasure revealed Christ into Paul; this revelation was not merely an outward vision but an inward seeing—4:4, 6; 3:13-14, 26-28, 6:15; 1:13-14:
1. The apostle received the gospel through the revelation of Christ; here the revelation of Christ does not refer merely to a revelation received through Jesus Christ or to the revelation concerning Christ; rather, it refers to the person of Christ, who was revealed in the apostle; Christ, a living person, is the focus of Paul’s gospel; hence, the book of Galatians is emphatically Christ-centered—v. 16.
2. God’s heart’s desire is to reveal His Son in us that we may know Him, receive Him as our life, and become the sons of God; as the Son of the living God, He is far superior to Judaism and its traditions—v. 16.
3. The apostle Paul did not preach the law but announced Christ, the Son of God, as the gospel; he announced not merely the doctrine concerning Him but the living person Himself; the proper preaching of the gospel is not the preaching of a doctrine; it is the preaching of the person of the Son of God—v. 16.
B. In Galatians 2:20 Christ is presented as the One who has given Himself up for the believers and who lives in them; we must experience and enjoy Christ in this aspect:
1. It is only when we come to know Christ as the One who lives in us and we live by Him, not by ourselves, that we can enjoy Christ as the One who rescues us out of religion—v. 20.
2. In our Christian life there should come a day when the Holy Spirit shows us that we have already been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us; when we truly see this fact, we will not do anything by ourselves, for a dead person can neither do good nor have any hope——v. 20.
3. We need to continually exercise to live not by ourselves but by Christ; in every action, word, and thought we should practice living by Him and living because of Him—v. 20.
4. The divine life, the spiritual life in our spirit, is lived by the exercise of faith, which is stimulated by the presence of the life-giving Spirit—v. 20.
5. The more we appreciate Christ’s constraining love, the more faith we will have; since Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us that He might impart Himself as the divine life into us, we should now love Him and live by Him—v. 20.
V. We will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ unveiled in Ephesians; although the New Testament reveals many aspects of Christ for our experience and enjoyment, the aspects of Christ in Ephesians are much deeper than those in other books of the New Testament—Eph. 2:11-22; 3:14-21; 5:22-32:
A. Ephesians 2:11-22 unveils that Christ is the Creator of the new man—1:7; Col. 1:20:
1. Once we were far off from Christ, from the commonwealth of Israel, and from the covenants of God’s promise; this equals being far off from God and all His blessings; but the redeeming blood of Christ brought us back; hence, in His blood we have become near both to Israel and to God—Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:20.
2. Ephesians 2:14-15 indicates that Christ’s death has abolished the law of commandments in ordinances, broken down the middle wall of partition, and slain the enmity to create the two in Himself into one new man.
3. By Christ’s abolishing in His flesh the separating ordinances, that is, His slaying the enmity, and by His creating the Jewish and the Gentile believers into one new man, peace was made between all believers; there is a real peace among all the believers in Christ—vv. 14-15.
4. As the Creator of the new man, Christ has reconciled the Jews and the Gentiles in one Body to God in one Spirit—vv. 14-15.
5. The actual building of the church as the house of God is by the believers’ growth in life; the entire building of God’s house, God’s sanctuary, is in Christ the Lord; such a building has the wonderful Christ as the joining cornerstone—vv. 20.
B. In Ephesians 3:14-21 Christ is revealed as the Settler in the hearts of the saints:
1. 14-16 records Paul’s prayer to the Father for the believers in Ephesus: “He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man”:
a. The apostle prayed that the Gentile believers might experience God in a full way according to the riches of His glory, that He might be expressed through the Gentile believers by their experiencing Him in a full way—v. 16.
b. We need to practice praying to the Father that He would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner man; we should experience the Father’s strengthening us into our inner man every day by spending time with the Lord in prayer—v. 16.
2. Ephesians 3:17 indicates that the result of the Father’s strengthening us into our inner man is that Christ makes His home in our hearts through faith:
a. When we exercise our spirit so that our spirit is strengthened through the Spirit, we will automatically forget about our self, reject our self, and thereby put off the old man; spontaneously, Christ will have the opportunity and the full ground to take possession of our entire inner being—v. 17.
b. In order for Christ to make His home in our heart, we need to take Him not only as our life but also as our person—v. 17.
3. The result of Christ’s making His home in our hearts is that we are full of strength to apprehend the dimensions of Christ—the breadth, length, height, and depth—and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ; the result of apprehending the dimensions of Christ and knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ is that we are filled unto all the fullness of God—v. 18.
C. In Ephesians 5:22-32 we see that Christ is the Husband of the church:
1. Christ is not only the Head of the church but also the Savior of the Body; we must be subject to Him as our Head, and we must love Him as our Savior—v. 25.
2. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her; Christ’s loving the church and giving Himself up for her was for redemption and for the impartation of life—v. 25.
3. He “might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word, that He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish”—vv. 26-27:
a. After the church has come into existence, the church needs to be sanctified; the process of sanctification includes saturation, transformation, growth, and building up; only through an all-inclusive process of sanctification can the church become complete and attain to the measure of the stature of Christ’s fullness so that Christ can present a perfect church to Himself—v. 27.
b. We need to be encouraged to abide in Christ as the source of nourishment and to contact the Word to receive the nourishing element so that we may be washed organically and metabolically from all defects and oldness; by means of such a washing, the church will be perfected and become glorious—v. 26.
4. Ephesians 5:29 says, “No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church”:
a. To be nourished by Christ is to be supplied with His riches; if we take Christ as our person, we will experience Christ nourishing us; we will continually have the sense of His inward nourishment; we need to experience the nourishment that comes from taking Christ as our person—v. 29.
b. The Lord warms us and softens us as we enjoy His tenderness, sweetness, and lovingness; when the Lord sanctifies, cleanses, and nourishes us, He cherishes us with His tender warmth; his cherishing comforts us, soothes us, and calms us—v. 29.
5. The mysterious life union of Christ and His Body, the church, is the great mystery in the universe; this mystery is the processed Triune God being joined and mingled with the regenerated and transformed tripartite man to become a universal couple; this is the ultimate point of the mingling of God and man—v. 32.
VI. We will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in Philippians; the subject and the controlling concept of the book of Philippians is the experience of Christ; the experience of Christ is the master key which opens this book to us—Phil. 1:19; 2:5-12; 4:4, 11-13:
A. Christ as the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the bountiful Supplier—1:19:
1. Christ as the bountiful Supplier is the Spirit of Jesus Christ—v. 19:
a. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is “the Spirit” mentioned in John 7:39; this is not merely the Spirit of God before the Lord’s incarnation but the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit with divinity, after the Lord’s resurrection, compounded with the Lord’s incarnation (humanity), human living under the cross, crucifixion, and resurrection.
b. The holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30:23-25, a compound of olive oil and four kinds of spices, is a full type of this compound Spirit of God, who is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
c. With the Spirit of Jesus Christ there is a bountiful supply; this supply is an all-inclusive drink containing many ingredients. Everything we need is in this divine beverage; when we pray in a genuine way and when we call on the name of the Lord, the compound ointment is applied to us in our situation, and we enjoy the riches of the bountiful supply of the Spirit—Phil. 1:19.
2. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is for us to live Christ—v. 20:
a. To live Christ is not merely to have a holy life or to live holiness; to live Christ is to live a person; we should simply live Christ; we should live a life which is Christ Himself—v. 20.
b. In order to live Christ, we must take Him as our person and as our life; we all must fight and struggle to enter into the genuine living of Christ in a practical way; God wants His people to live Christ; we should focus our whole attention on living Christ and care only to live Christ so that He might be magnified in us—v. 20.
B. Philippians 2 reveals that we may experience and enjoy Christ as our pattern; this pattern is the standard of our salvation—vv. 5-12:
1. The Lord’s humiliation involved seven steps: (1) emptying Himself; (2) taking the form of a slave; (3) becoming in the likeness of men; (4) humbling Himself; (5) becoming obedient; (6) being obedient even unto death; and (7) being obedient unto the death of the cross—vv. 5-12.
2. The pattern presented in Phil. 2:5-8 is now the life within us; this life is what we call a crucified life; the seven steps of Christ’s humiliation are all aspects of the crucified life.
3. Christ is not only an outward pattern for us; He is also the life within us; as this inner life, He would have us experience Him and thereby live a crucified life; Christ’s crucified life should be our experience; we need to experience Christ in His humiliation; this means that we need to experience Him as the One who emptied Himself and humbled Himself—vv. 5-12.
C. Christ is the secret and the power for us to enjoy; Christ as the One who empowers us; this is a very precious aspect of Christ for our experience and enjoyment—4:4, 11-13:
1. In Christ as the motivating strength that empowers us all the time, we can do all the things that pertain to our experience of Christ as revealed in Philippians 4, including standing firm in Christ, rejoicing in Him always, letting the peace of God guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ, being content through Him as the secret, and having God fill our every need in Christ—v. 4.
2. We need to experience and enjoy Christ as the One who empowers us so that we will stand firm in Him, rejoice in Him always, let the peace of God guard our hearts, be content all the time, do all things that express the highest human virtues, and have God fill our every need in Christ; when we enjoy Christ to this extent, although there may be many problems in our circumstances, in Christ and with God they will be solved—v. 13.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE BELIEVERS HAVING BEEN BAPTIZED INTO HIM,
EVEN INTO HIS DEATH
The believers have been baptized into Christ, even into His death. Baptism is not a form or a ritual; it signifies our identification with Christ. Through baptism we are immersed into Christ, taking Him as our realm, that we may be united with Him as one in His death and resurrection.
Being Baptized into Him
We were born in one person, Adam, but when we believed and were baptized, we entered into another person, Christ; whether we were good or bad, we were born in Adam. By being baptized into Christ, we entered into Christ and became a part of Him. The meaning of baptism is to put the believers into Christ. Baptism, therefore, is an extremely significant experience, for in it a transfer takes place. Baptism is an act in which we put the members of Adam into death, thereby transferring them out of Adam into Christ. This means that we have been baptized out of one realm, one sphere, into another realm, another sphere, that is, out of Adam, the first man (1 Cor. 15:45a, 47a), into Christ (1:30; Gal. 3:27), the second man (1 Cor. 15:47).
Being Baptized into His Death
The resurrection of Christ carries the element of His effective death. Thus, when a believer is baptized into Christ, he is spontaneously baptized into the death of Christ. It is impossible to separate Christ’s death from Christ Himself. The being of the resurrected Christ includes the element of His effective death. The effectiveness of Christ’s death is one of the ingredients of His all-inclusive being. Therefore, to be baptized into Christ is to be baptized into His death.
THE BELIEVERS HAVING BEEN BURIED WITH HIM
THROUGH BAPTISM INTO DEATH
The believers have been buried with Christ through baptism into death. Romans 6:4 says, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death.” Here Paul introduces the thought of burial, indicating that we may experience Christ in His burial. In the natural realm death always comes before burial, but in the spiritual realm burial comes before death; when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ; when we were buried with Him, we entered into His death; we do not die directly; we enter into Christ’s death through baptism.
Furthermore, the believers, having been resurrected as Christ was, should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 continues, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.” We were buried with Christ into His death, and now we have been resurrected as He was. Hence, we should walk in newness of life. This newness of life is very much related to the life-giving Spirit, who is Christ Himself in His resurrection. The way to walk in newness of life is the Spirit.
Romans 6:5 reveals a crucial point of truth: the believers, having grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death, will grow together with Him also in the likeness of His resurrection. This verse includes two steps of our growth in Christ. The first step has already taken place, whereas the second step is progressive. On the one hand, we have grown together with Christ in baptism; on the other hand, we will be growing together with Him in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, in the newness of life.
Our old man has been crucified by His death that our body of sin might be annulled. Because of the fall, our body is a body of sin. It is the body indwelt, occupied, corrupted, possessed, utilized, and enslaved by sin so that it does sinful things. This body of sin is very active and full of strength to commit sins. As such a fallen body, it is good only for committing sins. In this body there is nothing but sin. The sin dwelling in our body makes it the body of sin (Rom. 7:19-20); when a person dies, immediately his body loses its job. Likewise, because our old man has been crucified with Christ, the body of sin has lost its job of sinning. It has become of no effect because the sinning person, the old man, has been crucified. The body of sin is not the sinning person but the sinning instrument utilized by the old man to express himself by committing sins; it is the means by which the person does sinful things. However, now that the person, the old man, has been crucified, the body of sin is unemployed. Christ’s death made the body of sin jobless and therefore of no effect. Because the body of sin has lost its job, we no longer need to serve sin as slaves. This means that we have been freed from sin. Since our old man has been crucified and buried with Christ, we have been freed from sin (6:18-22) and no longer need to be under the bondage of sin to serve sin as slaves.
The Believers Dying to Sin in Christ and Living to God
When we go into the water to be baptized, we enter into the death of Christ by faith, allowing ourselves, everything that belongs to us, and everything that is related to us to be buried in the tomb of the water of baptism, that is, in the burial of Christ. Then by faith we come out of the water, and in resurrection we allow the resurrected Christ to live in us that we may live by Him and with Him. Therefore, through baptism we have been identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. His death and burial, on the negative side, terminated us and everything that is of us that we may be delivered from the self, sin, the world, and everything that is of the old creation, everything that is of Satan, and everything that is outside of God. His resurrection, on the positive side, has made us a new creation to partake of God’s life and all its riches in Christ, and has brought us into a new realm of resurrection in which the old things have passed away and have become new. This is our experience and enjoyment of the Christ who died and resurrected. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 299)
The Spirit of Christ
Romans 8:9-11 presents Christ as the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself whom we can experience and enjoy. If Christ did not become the Spirit after His death and resurrection, He could not be experienced by us. If Christ were not the Spirit, He could never enter into us. It is impossible for Christ in the flesh to enter into us; it is only as the Spirit that He can enter into us.
In Romans 8:9 Paul says, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” This verse indicates that the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God who dwells in us that we may be in the spirit. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are not two Spirits but one. Paul used these titles interchangeably, indicating that the indwelling Spirit of life in verse 2 is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of the entire Triune God. God, the Spirit, and Christ—the three of the Godhead—are all mentioned in verse 9. However, there are not three in us; there is only one, the triune Spirit of the Triune God (John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:11). The Spirit of God implies that this Spirit is of the One who was from eternity past, who created the universe and is the origin of all things. The Spirit of Christ implies that this Spirit is the embodiment and reality of Christ, the incarnated One. This Christ accomplished everything necessary to fulfill God’s plan. He includes not only divinity, which He possessed from eternity, but also humanity, which He obtained through incarnation. He also includes human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This is the Spirit of Christ in resurrection, that is, Christ Himself dwelling in our spirit (v. 10) to impart Himself, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, into us as resurrection life and power to deal with the death that is in our nature (v. 2). Thus, we may live today in Christ’s resurrection, in Christ Himself, by living in the mingled spirit.
Being Christ in Us to Make Our Spirit Life
Romans 8:10 reveals that the Spirit of Christ is Christ in us to make our spirit life: “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” In this verse the Spirit is not mentioned, for here the emphasis is that Christ today is the Spirit and that the Spirit of Christ is the very Christ in us. According to the fact, it is Christ; according to experience, it is the Spirit. In our experience of Him, He is the Spirit; in our worshipping of Him, calling on Him, and speaking of Him, He is Christ; we receive Him as our Savior and Redeemer, but He enters into us as the Spirit. As the Redeemer, He has the title Christ; as the Indweller, He has the title the Spirit. These are not two who dwell in us but one Dweller in two aspects.
The Spirit of Christ is also the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from among the dead, dwelling in us to give life to our mortal body. The phrase give life to your mortal bodies does not refer to divine healing but to the result of our allowing the Spirit of God to make His home in us and saturate our entire being with the divine life (Eph. 3:16-19). In this way He gives His life to our mortal, dying body, not only to heal it but also that it may be enlivened to carry out His will.
Having This Spirit of Christ,
That We May Be of Him
Romans 8:9b says, “Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” This verse indicates that having the Spirit of Christ, we are of Christ. In other words, because we have the Spirit of Christ in us, we are of Christ. This shows that our being of Christ depends on His Spirit. That we are of Christ refers to the unchangeable source and position rather than to the changeable condition and experience; we have the Spirit of Christ according to the source, the new birth; hence, we are of Christ and belong to Him. In our present experience and spiritual condition, however, we need to be not only of Him but also in Him. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 302)
THE DEPTHS OF GOD
God has predestined Christ for us, He has prepared Him for us, He has revealed Him to us, and He has given Him to us as the deep things of God, the depths of God. These depths can be realized and discerned, not by our philosophical mind but only by our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. By means of the mingled spirit alone can we discern the depths of God, the different aspects of Christ as our portion for our enjoyment. If we exercise the mingled spirit, we will enjoy Christ, not in a superficial way but as the depths of God and even in the depths of God; we will enjoy Him in a way that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, mind has not thought, and heart has never imagined; we will enjoy Christ in a way beyond all we have ever dreamed; we should praise the Lord that He is our portion through the mingled spirit. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 308)
The Anointed One
Christ is also the anointed One. “The One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God, He who has also sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (vv. 21-22).
As believers, we have the Holy Spirit as the anointing, the seal, and the pledge, all of which are for our full enjoyment of Christ. Day by day we should be under the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging of the Holy Spirit. These three matters—the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging—are actually one. They are one thing with three aspects. First we are anointed, then we are sealed, and then we have the pledge as a guarantee; we have the essence, the image, and the guarantee, all of which are the processed God who is now the Spirit. The Spirit is the ointment with which we are anointed, the essence with which we are sealed, and the pledge which guarantees that God belongs to us and that He is our portion. Because we have been anointed and sealed and have received the pledge, we are now qualified and equipped to live the unchanging Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 315)
THE SPIRIT AND THE LORD SPIRIT
In 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Christ is presented as the Spirit and the Lord Spirit.
The Spirit
The Spirit, who is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, was not yet in John 7:39, because at that time Jesus had not yet been glorified. He had not yet finished the process that He, as the embodiment of God, had to pass through. After His resurrection, that is, after the finishing of all the processes, such as incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, that the Triune God had to pass through in man for His redemptive economy, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In the New Testament, this life-giving Spirit is called “the Spirit” (Rom. 8:16, 23, 26-27; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 6:8; Rev. 2:7; 3:22; 14:13; 22:17), the Spirit who gives us the divine life (2 Cor. 3:6; John 6:63) and frees us from the bondage of the law.
The Spirit is the liberating Spirit; where life is, there is always liberation. The more we grow in life, the more we become liberated. The more mature we become in life, the more we are freed from all kinds of bondage. The many habits that we have according to our flesh and our natural constitution are bondages. The liberating Spirit can free us from the bondage of our habits. Many of us are bound by religion and religious practices; hence, we need to experience the liberating Spirit. As we grow in life, we are released from our bondage. To enjoy the liberation of the Spirit to the uttermost, we need the growth in life.
The Lord Spirit
The Lord Spirit is the transforming Spirit. He transforms us into the image of the Lord of glory from one degree of glory to another degree of glory. Today we should be constantly under this transforming work. Surely this experience of Christ as the Lord Spirit is full of enjoyment.
When we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the element of what He is and what He has done. In other words, He dispenses this element into us. The result is that we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; we are then transformed into His image. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 316)
THE EMBODIMENT OF GRACE
Grace is mainly not the work that the Lord Jesus does for us; grace is the Triune God in Christ dispensed into us and experienced as our enjoyment. In his experience Paul realized that grace is Christ Himself; when Christ is enjoyed by us as our portion, that is grace. Grace is Christ, not in doctrine but in experience, because grace is Christ with all He is for our enjoyment; this includes life, power, and His other divine attributes. Therefore, we need to learn not to expect to receive something outwardly or to have something done by the Lord for us. Rather, we should expect to simply enjoy the Lord Himself as grace.
His Grace Being the Power Perfected in Weakness That,
as a Tent Spread over Us,
Overshadows Us in Our Weakness
For the sufficiency of the Lord’s grace to be magnified, our sufferings are required; for the perfectness of the Lord’s power to be shown forth, our weakness is needed. Hence, the apostle would most gladly boast in his weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over him. Grace is the supply, and power is the strength, the ability, of grace. Both are the resurrected Christ, who is now the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us (1 Cor. 15:45; Gal. 2:20) for our enjoyment.
Paul was weak in his old being, but he was powerful in the overshadowing Christ (2 Cor. 12:10). Second Corinthians reveals a person who has been reduced to nothing, with no strength of his own, so that the power of Christ might be perfected in his weakness. Paul was reduced to nothing but took Christ as everything. Like Paul, we need to experience Christ as the all-sufficient grace meeting our need in every kind of environment, and we need to taste Him, experiencing His power being perfected in our weakness. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 321)
THE ONE REVEALED IN THE APOSTLE
In Galatians 1:16 Christ is presented as the One revealed in the apostle; when Saul of Tarsus, on his way to Damascus to bind those who call upon the Lord’s name, was opposing Christ and persecuting the churches, Christ appeared to him; when Christ met him there, he saw Christ, was captured by the appearing of Christ, and became Paul the apostle. Years after his conversion, the apostle declared in Galatians 1:15-16 that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. Here Paul did not say that Christ revealed Himself to him but that the Father in His pleasure revealed Christ into Paul. This revelation was not merely an outward vision but an inward seeing. Paul had an inner vision of Christ; inwardly he began to see Christ. This inner vision made him and qualified him to be an apostle in order that he might present the very Christ who had been revealed in him, rather than merely teaching doctrines and theology according to a certain religion.
The Apostle Receiving the Gospel
through the Revelation of Him
Christ, a living person, is the focus of Paul’s gospel. Hence, the book of Galatians is emphatically Christ-centered. Christ was crucified to redeem us out of the curse of the law and rescue us out of the present evil religious course of the world (3:1, 13; 1:4, 15-16). Christ was resurrected from the dead that He might live in us (v. 1; 2:20); we were baptized into Christ, being identified with Him, and we have put on Christ, clothing ourselves with Him; thus, we are in Christ and have become of Him (3:27-29; 5:24). Christ has been revealed in us, He is now living in us, and He will be formed in us (1:16; 2:20; 4:19). To Christ the law has conducted us, and in Christ we are all sons of God (3:24, 26). In Christ we inherit God’s promised blessing and enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit (v. 14). In Christ we all are one (v. 28); we should not be deprived of all profit from Christ and thus be separated, severed, from Him (5:4); we need Christ to supply us with grace in our spirit that we may live Him (6:18). God’s desire is that His chosen people receive His Son into them; this is the gospel (1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19). (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 324)
The One Who Has Given Himself Up for the Believers
and Who Lives in Them
In Galatians 2:20 Christ is presented as the One who has given Himself up for the believers and who lives in them; we must experience and enjoy Christ in this aspect. It is only when we come to know Christ as the One who lives in us and we live by Him, not by ourselves, that we can enjoy Christ as the One who rescues us out of religion; when we live by Him as our life, we realize that any kind of religion is bondage or slavery and does not help us to live Christ; rather, it hinders us from living Him. In other words, when we live a life that is Christ Himself, we discover that even the highest religion is only bondage and does not help us to progress in the way of life. By knowing Christ as the One who lives in us and by living by Christ through our faith in Him, we should experience and enjoy Him as the One who rescues us from religion.
The Believers Having Been Crucified with Him
and Living No Longer
In Galatians 2:20 Paul declares, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live.” When Christ was crucified, according to God’s economy we were included in Him. This is an accomplished fact. Moreover, this is not a matter of doctrine; it is a matter of revelation. In our Christian life there should come a day when the Holy Spirit shows us that we have already been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us; when we truly see this fact, we will not do anything by ourselves, for a dead person can neither do good nor have any hope. From that day onward, we simply will not be able to make any resolution or have any hope in ourselves. If we see that we ourselves were crucified with Christ when He died on the cross to save us, and if we praise the Lord for this fact, then He will have more ground in us, and He will be expressed through us.
The Believers Living by Him Who Lives in Them
through Their Faith in Him
The Believers Living by Him Who Lives in Them
We live Christ because He lives in us (Col. 3:4a; John 14:19-20). Christ lives in us to be our life; we live Christ to be His living. Now it is not we who live but Christ who lives in us through His resurrection. Christ lives in resurrection, and He lives within us. Christ sits on the throne as the Lord, but He lives in us as the Spirit. In John 14:19 the Lord Jesus said that because He lives, that is, in resurrection, we also shall live in Him; we all need to be deeply impressed that Christ lives in us and that we live in Him. Our need is simply to pray “Lord Jesus, I love You. Thank You, Lord, that You are one with me. You live in me, and I live in You. Lord Jesus, I desire to live You all the time.”
What God desires is to gain a group of people who live by Christ that they may be the corporate expression of Christ. Day by day we need to take Him as our life within so that we may be His living without for His corporate expression. This kind of life should not be occasional or accidental; it must be our habitual daily living from morning to evening. In the matters of our daily life it is very easy for us to live completely by ourselves and not by the Lord; we need to continually exercise to live not by ourselves but by Christ. In every action, word, and thought we should practice living by Him and living because of Him.
Christ Having Loved the Believers
and Given Himself Up for Them
Paul concludes Galatians 2:20 by referring to the Son of God as the One “who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” In writing these words, Paul was filled with appreciation of the Lord Jesus. Otherwise, at the end of such a long verse there would have been no need for him to speak of Christ loving him and giving Himself up for him. He could have concluded with the expression the faith of the Son of God. But as he was speaking of the way he now lived, his heart was filled with gratitude and appreciation. Faith comes from such an appreciation of the Lord Jesus.
In 2 Corinthians 5:14 and 15 Paul says, “The love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised.” As we consider these verses, we can see that Paul’s faith came from an appreciation of the constraining love of Christ. The more we appreciate Christ’s constraining love, the more faith we will have. This faith is not produced by our own ability or activity. Rather, it is produced by the working in us of the Christ whom we appreciate. In our appreciation for the Lord Jesus, we will say, “Lord Jesus, I love You and I treasure You.” As we speak such words to the Lord, He operates within us and becomes our faith. This faith brings about an organic union in which we and Christ are truly one. This organic union is a basic and crucial aspect of God’s New Testament economy. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 326)
The Creator of the New Man
Ephesians 2:11-22 unveils that Christ is the Creator of the new man.
Ephesians 2:14-15 indicates that Christ’s death has abolished the law of commandments in ordinances, broken down the middle wall of partition, and slain the enmity to create the two in Himself into one new man. The problems between Israel, God’s chosen people, and us, the alienated Gentiles, are attributed to three main ordinances of Judaism: the practice of circumcision, the observance of dietary regulations, and the keeping of the Sabbath. These ordinances were obstacles that kept the Gentiles from God’s chosen people. Yet Christ annulled all these obstacles on the cross; when He was crucified, He brought all the ordinances to the cross; on the cross all these ordinances were crucified (Col. 2:14). In this way Christ broke down the middle wall of partition that consisted of the ordinances and thereby slew the enmity, which was created between the Jews and the Gentiles by the ordinances, in order to create the Jews and the Gentiles in Himself into one new man.
Christ is not only the Creator of the one new man, the church, but also the sphere in which and the means by which the one new man was created. He is the very element of the new man, making God’s divine nature one entity with humanity. The Greek word rendered “in” can also have an elemental significance, meaning also “with,” implying that the new man was created with Christ as its divine essence.
In the creating of the new man, first our natural man was crucified by Christ, and then through the crossing out of the old man, Christ imparted the divine element into us, causing us to become a new entity, a new invention of God (Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:17). The Jews and the Gentiles were separated to the uttermost by the separating ordinances, but both were created in Christ with the divine essence into one new entity, which is a corporate man, the church.
The church is not only the church of God, the Body of Christ (the fullness, the expression, of the all-filling One—Eph. 1:23), and the household or family, the house, the temple, and the dwelling place of God (2:19, 21-22). It is also the one new man, which is corporate and universal, created of two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, and composed of all the believers, who, though they are many, are one new man in the universe. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 336)
The Settler in the Hearts of the Saints
In Ephesians 3:14-21 Christ is revealed as the Settler in the hearts of the saints. In this passage Paul prays that God the Father would strengthen us according to the riches of His glory with power through His Spirit into our inner man, that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith, that we may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the universal dimensions of Christ and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Following this prayer, Paul praises God: To God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever.
We all need to follow Paul in being strengthened into our inner man; when Paul bowed his knees to the Father, he was so strong in his inner man that nothing could shake him or disturb him. Because his whole being was in his spirit, nothing outward could trouble him; we also need to be strengthened to such an extent that nothing will be able to carry us away from our inner man; we need to practice praying to the Father that He would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner man; we should experience the Father’s strengthening us into our inner man every day by spending time with the Lord in prayer.
Making His Home
in the Saints’ Hearts through Faith
Christ desires to make His home in our heart, that is, to occupy every part of our heart, our inner being. Yet He is now imprisoned in our spirit because our mind is set on other things and our conscience is not exercised. Because Christ is imprisoned in our spirit, we need to repent by turning our mind from other things to Him; when we repent in this way, our conscience will be exercised to bear witness concerning where we are wrong and what we specifically need to confess. By repentance we turn our mind to the Lord, and by confession we exercise our conscience. It is by repentance and confession that the two main parts of our heart, our mind and our conscience, are opened for the Lord; when we repent and confess in this way, our emotion follows with love for the Lord, and our will also chooses to seek the Lord. Consequently, our entire heart, as the gateway to our spirit, is opened for Christ to fill and strengthen our spirit; when our spirit is strengthened, Christ will increasingly make His home in all the parts of our heart. As a result, He will spread Himself from our spirit into our heart to make His home in our heart so that our whole inner being will be His dwelling place and His home. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 338)
Sanctifying the Church and Cleansing Her
by the Washing of the Water in the Word
Paul says of Christ in verses 26 and 27, “He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word, that He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish.”
After the church has come into existence, the church needs to be sanctified. The process of sanctification includes saturation, transformation, growth, and building up. Although sanctification includes separation, the main aspect of sanctification is saturation. The church needs to be saturated with all that Christ is. Saturation is accompanied by transformation, growth, and building. Through such a process of sanctification with all these aspects, the church becomes complete and perfect.
Presenting the Church to Himself
It is such a glorious church that Christ will present to Himself at His coming back. Glory is God expressed. Hence, to be glorious is to be God’s expression. Eventually, the church presented to Christ will be a God-expressing one. Such a church will also be holy and without blemish. To be holy is to be saturated and transformed with Christ, and to be without blemish is to be spotless and without wrinkle, with nothing of the natural life of our old man.
The spots and wrinkles do not affect the function of the church. However, they very much detract from the beauty of the church. The church as Christ’s bride must be beautiful; when Christ presents the church to Himself, the church will be a beautiful bride. As the universal man, Christ needs the church to be the bride that matches Him. In order to be the bride of Christ, the church must become beautiful and have all the spots and wrinkles removed.
Today we must prepare ourselves to be the bride by taking in the element of Christ’s riches as our nourishment. Christ is the food for the church. Therefore, as she prepares herself to be presented to Christ, the church must eat Christ. There is no other way to be prepared. Eating Jesus is the way. By eating Him we become a beautiful and even glorious bride.
The church is being beautified by partaking of Christ, by digesting Christ, and by assimilating Christ. The more we experience the indwelling Christ in this way, the more He will replace our spots and wrinkles with His element, and the more His riches with the divine attributes will become our beauty. Then we will be prepared to be presented to Christ as His lovely bride. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 343)
THE BOUNTIFUL SUPPLIER
As the Spirit of Jesus Christ
Christ as the bountiful Supplier is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The revelation in the Bible concerning God, Christ, and the Spirit is progressive. The Spirit is mentioned first as the Spirit of God, in relation to creation (Gen. 1:2). Then He is mentioned as the Spirit of Jehovah, in the context of God’s relationship with man (Judg. 3:10; 1 Sam. 10:6); as the Holy Spirit, in relation to the conception and birth of Christ (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20); as the Spirit of Jesus, in relation to the Lord’s human living (Acts 16:7); as the Spirit of Christ, in relation to the Lord’s resurrection (Rom. 8:9); and here as the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is “the Spirit” mentioned in John 7:39. This is not merely the Spirit of God before the Lord’s incarnation but the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit with divinity, after the Lord’s resurrection, compounded with the Lord’s incarnation (humanity), human living under the cross, crucifixion, and resurrection. The holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30:23-25, a compound of olive oil and four kinds of spices, is a full type of this compound Spirit of God, who is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Here it is not the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Christ but the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is related mainly to the Lord’s humanity and human living; the Spirit of Christ is related mainly to the Lord’s resurrection. To experience the Lord’s humanity, as illustrated in Philippians 2:5-8, we need the Spirit of Jesus. To experience the power of the Lord’s resurrection, as mentioned in 3:10, we need the Spirit of Christ. In his suffering, the apostle experienced both the Lord’s suffering in His humanity and the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, the Spirit to him was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God. Such a Spirit has, and even is, the bountiful supply for a person like the apostle, who was experiencing and enjoying Christ in His human living and resurrection. Eventually, this compound Spirit of Jesus Christ becomes the seven Spirits of God, who are the seven lamps of fire before God’s throne to carry out His administration on earth for the accomplishing of His economy concerning the church, and who are the seven eyes of the Lamb for the transfusing of all that He is into the church (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6).
With the Spirit of Jesus Christ there is a bountiful supply. This supply is an all-inclusive drink containing many ingredients. Everything we need is in this divine beverage; when we pray in a genuine way and when we call on the name of the Lord, the compound ointment is applied to us in our situation, and we enjoy the riches of the bountiful supply of the Spirit.
For the Believers to Live Christ
The climax, the highest point, of the divine revelation in the entire Bible is to live Christ. In order to live Christ, we must practice being one spirit with Him, and in order to practice being one spirit with Him, we must exercise our spirit to pray unceasingly. If we pray unceasingly from our spirit, “Lord, live in me; Lord, live through me,” we will build up a habit of not living our self but Christ; then we will live Christ habitually. The habit of living Christ is the habit of prayer. Apart from unceasingly praying, we cannot live Christ. It is only by such continual prayer, such breathing prayer, that we can live Christ spontaneously. In order to have such a prayer life, we must watch and pray, praying at every time in spirit, watching unto prayer in all petition, and persevering in prayer (Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2). Moreover, the foundation for us to pray is our love for the Lord. Because we love the Lord and seek Him, we like to contact Him, pray to Him, and call upon Him. Part of the secret of living Christ is telling the Lord again and again that we love Him.
Living Christ requires that we love Him to the uttermost. As we are engaged in our daily activities, our living should not be those activities but Christ. Our mind should be concentrated on Christ, but the concentration of our mind on Christ depends upon our love for Christ. This is the reason that the New Testament charges us to love Christ (Mark 12:30; Rev. 2:4-5; John 14:23; 21:15-17; 1 Pet. 1:8). If we do not love Christ, we cannot live Him; loving Him is the best way to concentrate our entire being on Him; when a young mother delivers a child, her whole living is that new baby; for her, to live is her new baby because of her love for her child. Likewise, when we love Christ to the uttermost, our entire being is occupied with Him, and we live Him; we need Christ to captivate us to an extent that even in our dreams we would live Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 346)
THE PATTERN
Philippians 2 reveals that we may experience and enjoy Christ as our pattern. In chapter 1 the central point is to magnify Christ, to live Christ (vv. 20-21). In chapter 2 it is to take Christ as our pattern, our model. This pattern is the standard of our salvation (v. 12). Verses 5 through 16 reveal that the word of life works out the pattern by the operating God in order to apply salvation to our daily living. In this way we enjoy Christ and live Him, taking Him as our pattern.
The Lord’s humiliation involved seven steps: (1) emptying Himself; (2) taking the form of a slave; (3) becoming in the likeness of men; (4) humbling Himself; (5) becoming obedient; (6) being obedient even unto death; and (7) being obedient unto the death of the cross.
The pattern presented in these verses is now the life within us. This life is what we call a crucified life. The seven steps of Christ’s humiliation are all aspects of the crucified life. Although Christ had the expression of deity, He laid aside this expression. However, He did not lay aside the reality of His deity. He laid aside the higher form, the form of God, and took on a much lower form, the form of a slave. In this, He emptied Himself. Surely this is a mark of a crucified life. Then, after becoming a man and being found in the appearance of a man, Christ humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross. This was the crucified life lived out in a full and absolute way.
The highest life on earth is the crucified life, that is, Christ Himself as the One who emptied Himself and humbled Himself; whenever we live a crucified life, God will bring us into the power of resurrection, and in this power we will be exalted. Furthermore, none of us in the church life should hold to any personal standing; we must stand firm for the Lord’s testimony, yet we should not claim any standing, title, or position for ourselves. Making such claims will never bring us into the power of resurrection; we need to take the crucified life as our pattern. Eventually, we will enter into the power of resurrection where we experience God’s exaltation. Instead of seeking glory for ourselves, we should seek Christ and Him alone; then we will experience the crucified life. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 347)
THE ONE WHO EMPOWERS US
Philippians 4:1-19 reveals Christ as the One who empowers us. This is a very precious aspect of Christ for our experience and enjoyment. The Greek word for empowers is a verb form of the noun dunamis, which means “motivating power, or strength.” This indicates that in Christ as the motivating strength that empowers us all the time, we can do all the things that pertain to our experience of Christ as revealed in Philippians 4, including standing firm in Christ, rejoicing in Him always, letting the peace of God guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ, being content through Him as the secret, and having God fill our every need in Christ.
Being Content through Him as the Secret
In Philippians, a book that speaks about Paul’s circumstances, we see the secret of the Christian life and the practical way for the church life, that is, the indwelling Christ. No matter what the circumstances are, we have a wonderful person living within us who bears all our burdens; we need to learn to turn to Christ, take Him as our person, and let Him replace us. All our circumstances teach us to learn the secret of living by Christ; all our circumstances force us to give up ourselves and take Christ as our person. This is the main lesson of this Epistle.
Doing All Things in Him
Paul was a person in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2), and he desired to be found in Christ by others. Now he declared that he could do all things in Him, in the Christ who empowered him. This is an all-inclusive and concluding word concerning his experience of Christ. It is the converse of the Lord’s word concerning our organic relationship with Him in John 15:5: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” As long as we have Christ and are in Him, we can do all things in Him.
we need to experience and enjoy Christ as the One who empowers us so that we will stand firm in Him, rejoice in Him always, let the peace of God guard our hearts, be content all the time, do all things that express the highest human virtues, and have God fill our every need in Christ; when we enjoy Christ to this extent, although there may be many problems in our circumstances, in Christ and with God they will be solved. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 351)