Reading: Hebrews 1:1-14.
We now go on to the second of the aspects
of "Christ in you" and come to the familiar
words of Gal. 2:20. "I have been crucified with
Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ
liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself up for me."
2. CHRIST THE LIFE WITHIN
The first is the revelation of Christ
within the heart; the second is the life of Christ
within. It is important for us to recognize that this is
not just the fact that Christ lives within, not merely
that Christ is within us, living in us, but this carries
with it something more than that; that Christ is the
believer's life. Christ within is the very life of the
believer; He must be central and supreme as our life, and
He is our life just in the measure in which He is central
and supreme, no more, no less. But we want to understand
in what way Christ within is the life of the believer,
and this whole letter to the Galatians helps us to that
understanding. I do not want to be too doctrinal or
theological in a technical sense, but I do feel that the
Lord's people should be clear on the great doctrines of
grace. Hence, I would ask for a brief consideration of
the background of the statement before us.
We often speak about Christ being our
life, we often say things to that effect, that He is our
very life. We use another fragment of Scripture which is
not in the same realm as this passage exactly, although
linked with it: "When Christ, who is our life, shall
be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested
in glory." The principle of Christ being our life is
the same, but here there is a background to that. It is
not just that Christ is to us the vital energy which we
call life. Of course He is that, He is the life; the Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of life in us, but here that is
explained by the context and given a deeper meaning. If
you look at the immediately surrounding words you will
see that this statement of the Apostle represents a
change. This letter, as you know, is dealing with the
legalism into which the Galatian believers had fallen, by
which they had been overcome, overtaken or ensnared. You
notice how chapter 3 begins: "O foolish Galatians,
who did bewitch you...?" literally, "Who did
cast the witch's spell over you?" They had come
under a witch's spell, and it was the spell of a false
legalism. Now what Paul is saying here in verse 20
represents a change. Paul had lived, in the old days, by
holding on to the law. His position as a Jew was that
under the law man must live by the law. The law was:
"Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not."
When the 44 "shalts" were complied with, and
the "shalt nots" were observed and avoided,
then a man's life was preserved by God. If a man wanted
to live and prolong his days upon the earth, then he must
keep the law, and so he lived by holding fast to the law,
the law of commandments. And we know, even from one like
Saul of Tarsus who rigidly kept the law, that it was a
tremendously burdensome thing, and it represented always
condemnation and death. It was like the sword of Damocles
always hanging over the head. Deviate one hair's breadth
and you die, you come under condemnation, judgment and
death. And the observances associated with purification
and right relationship to God never for one moment
touched the conscience, never touched the heart, they
were merely, shall we say, expediences for the moment;
they were purely outward, and there was always the inward
sense of something wanting, something lacking. But Saul
had lived by holding on to the law, he maintained his
life by holding on to the law with all its
burdensomeness, all its wearisomeness, all its threat,
judgment, condemnation, and its shadow of death which it
always kept in view. That was his past life.
Now, no man had ever been found, as Paul
makes perfectly clear in the first chapters of his Roman
letter, who in his own nature could perfectly satisfy God
on every point and requirement of His Divine law. All had
broken down, all had failed, and in no man was the root
of righteousness found. God could never be satisfied with
mere external righteousness which was not in man himself;
a sort of theoretical righteousness and not a practical
one; and there had never been found a man in whom there
was righteousness as in himself, and the whole race is
gathered up in Paul's own declaration about himself with
all his ceremonial righteousness: "For I know that
in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing."
LIFE BY RIGHTEOUSNESS, IN CHRIST
Now Christ, the only one who could do so,
had fulfilled the law up to the hilt in virtue of
inherent righteousness, and having satisfied God, not
externally, ceremonially, theoretically, but inherently
as being the Righteous One, without sin, had in His own
person fulfilled the law and put it out of the way. That
is done with. God only wanted it fulfilled and then He
can put it away. Christ had fulfilled it and put it out
of the way and had introduced a new dispensation, not of
law but of grace. He has brought in a new regime where
the government is not the government of "thou shalt
not" and "thou shalt," not a government of
systematized legalism, but of grace, and the new
dispensation is the dispensation of faith in Christ;
faith in Christ as the One who has satisfied every demand
that ever God made of man, and has satisfied God on the
behalf of all men; faith that in Him all who believe are
gathered up and represented, and God is satisfied with
all such in Him: He has produced the righteousness that
God required in man and God is satisfied. He has produced
it as man for man, and God is fully satisfied and
content.
Now that Christ, with whom the Father is
completely satisfied on the matter of all righteousness,
is within the believer; so that the believer in Christ
has all righteousness in Him; God is satisfied. The
believer is not any more righteous in himself than he
ever was, but the Righteous One is within. God does not
look upon us, He looks upon His Son in us; and so now
Christ lives within, and Paul says in effect, "Now I
live, not by holding on to the law but by holding on to
Christ, and the thing with which I hold on to Christ is
faith." "And that life which I now live in the
flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of
God." "I am holding on to Him by faith, and I
live." There is no condemnation, therefore there is
no death; for righteousness is here, and where
righteousness is there is no condemnation. There is no
sin in Him, and there being no sin in Him, death and
judgment have no power, no relationship. He is here, and
therefore, He is the living One in the power of a life
indestructible, unassailable. "I live by holding on
to Him in faith." How? By saying, when the Accuser
comes to lay a charge at my door, to bring me under
condemnation and death: "Christ is my
righteousness." When the Accuser assails with a
fiery dart and says: "You are displeasing to the
Father" (providing I am not willfully indulging in
sin, knowingly doing that which is displeasing to the
Lord, and the enemy tries to bring upon me the sense of
being displeased to the Lord and get me down into death),
I say: "Christ, who satisfies the Father for me, is
in me, the Father is well pleased with Him and He is in
me"; and if by faith I hold on to Him, link myself
with Him, instead of dying I live, instead of coming
under condemnation I triumph; and in that sense Christ
within is the life, that life which we live. We live
triumphantly not by struggling against sin, and not by
trying to answer back the Accuser as on our own ground,
but by presenting Christ and holding on to Christ as
within us, by faith.
Christ is God's satisfaction within our
own hearts. What more do you want? And faith constantly
holds on to Him as God's satisfaction. "I have been
crucified with Christ" - Why rake me up then?
"... and it is no longer I that live" - Why try
and charge me with something then? "He that hath
died is justified from sin" "... but Christ
liveth in me." If you can charge Him with sin, and
if you can lay sin to His charge, then there is no hope
for me; but inasmuch as He is to the Father all that the
Father requires in me, and I constantly keep the link of
faith strong in what He is to the Father for me, I live.
I do not die, I live, He is my life; He becomes my life
in that sense. You see it is something more than our
regarding Christ as the vital energy within us which
keeps us alive. There is a great background to this whole
thing. It gathers up all that Christ is in His person
towards the Father, and all that Christ has done in His
work on the Cross to satisfy the Father, and that is
brought into us to be our indwelling portion, and then
faith links on with that, keeps hold of that, and we
live, "... and that life which I now live in the
flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me."
That has put into a small compass a very
great deal of the Word of God, but I feel that it is
something for us to dwell upon. You see what is involved
is the bringing of the Lord Jesus back to His place of
centrality and supremacy as our life, and it is only as
He is that that we live. We live by Christ. Christ is our
very life in that sense. Oh! answer back the Accuser with
Christ!
The phrase "breastplate of
righteousness" is only a metaphorical way, an
illustrative way, of putting this truth. The breastplate
of righteousness is Christ. He is the Righteous One, He
is made unto us righteousness, and it is no use our
trying to meet the enemy in ourselves, good or bad; we
must meet him with Christ, answer him with Christ every
time. And if the Father is making high demands, He has
provided Himself with all that He needs in His Son, and
He says to us: "All I ask of you is to bring both
hands full of My Son; bring both hands full of Him in His
perfections, that satisfies Me." Christ is central
and supreme in the believer as the believer's life. I
would have you make more of the Lord Jesus. The whole
stress of these words is upon what He is in the thought
of God; and as we grasp this livingly, not merely as
doctrine, grasp it in the heart, we shall know what
triumph is; we shall know the victory life; we shall know
what fullness is. Beloved, I am convinced that it will be
in the measure in which we are taken up with the Lord
Jesus Himself that we are triumphant, victorious,
overcoming children of God, and nothing else can be
substitute for that, for what Christ is.
3. CHRIST FORMED WITHIN
We pass now to the third aspect of this
inwardness of Christ, the hope of glory. Gal. 4:19:
"My little children, of whom I am again in travail
until Christ be formed in you." "Until Christ
be formed in you."
Firstly we have: Christ in revelation
within; secondly, Christ in life within; thirdly, Christ
in formation within. Now here again discriminations are
necessary. There is a similar passage in Romans 8, or one
which appears to be similar. It has words which are very
like these, but the two again are not of the same nature
although they point to the same thing. Here it is:
"For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be
conformed to the image of his Son." There the
believer is being conformed to the image of God's Son.
Here it is Christ being formed within. There are
similitudes, there are differences, and we are occupied
with this one in Galatians for its own specific meaning
and value.
Take again the whole letter to the
Galatians. Bring to mind its object, see what it is that
the Apostle has as his motive for writing; that it is the
correction of an error. That falling into that error, the
becoming bewitched, under the witch's spell, is due to
spiritual immaturity. These believers had not gone on as
they should have gone on in the Lord, and because of
their belated maturity they had fallen a prey to this
thing that was going about. Now the Apostle, writing to
correct the error, puts his finger upon the root of the
matter, right upon the spot, and he says in effect:
"All this is because of the indefiniteness of Christ
in you." Follow the metaphor closely and you will
see what he is saying. In verse 19 the emphasis is upon
the word "formed" "... until Christ be FORMED
in you." It is a very strong word. What he is
saying is: "Yes, Christ is in you inasmuch as you
are believers and children of God, but it is an
ill-defined Christ, an unformed Christ, a Christ without
features developed; He is there, but He has not yet come
to clear definition in you, the features are not
developed, and because of that there is all this - this
weakness and this aptness to be misled; the Christ that
you have is one that has not yet come to formation."
You see that this is a different thing from Romans 8:29.
That points on to our progressive growth, unto the
ultimate image of Christ the Son of God. That is what is
going on. We are being conformed by chastening, by
suffering, by tribulation, by pain, by discipline, by
things which the Lord allows to come to us, we are being
conformed to the image of Christ. That is what is going
on daily, but that is not what is here, this is something
else. This is the implication of Christ being clearly
defined in our hearts. There was confusion,
indefiniteness, because they had not seen clearly that
"Christ is the end of the law to them that
believe"; that Christ really represented a clean cut
between the old dispensation and the new, the old order
and the new; that Christ had fulfilled the law and put it
out of the way. They had not grasped the clear definition
of Christ in their hearts, and because they had not
grasped clearly those features of the meaning of the
person and work of Christ, they were a prey to anything
that came along. Now there are a lot of the Lord's people
like that. They are a prey to all sorts of things because
they have not recognized the clear implications of Christ
within.
THE NECESSITY FOR A CLEAR
APPREHENSION OF CHRIST
Why are so many of the Lord's people just
beaten and harassed and tormented by the Accuser causing
them always to have their eyes turned inward in
self-analysis, self-conscious introspection, occupied
with themselves all the time; so tied up with themselves
that they are useless to God and to other people? Why?
Because they have not clearly recognized the implications
of Christ; that Christ has answered to God on their
behalf in all that God ever requires of them; they have
not grasped that by faith. That is the way of deliverance
from ourselves. That is deliverance from self into
Christ. But still they are in an ill-defined way trying
to provide God with satisfaction, and it is an awful
struggle. They have not seen the clear features of
Christ. Christ is not formed in them. He is (if you will
suffer it) an unformed, ill-defined indweller. It is
rather a difficult thing to explain, but probably you see
what I mean. Immediately we grasp the clear implications
of Christ dwelling in the heart, we have come to a
settled place, we have come to a strong place, we have
come to the place where no legalisers can come along and
sweep us off our feet. It is what John meant when writing
about the anti-christs, and about the Lord's people
saying: "I wonder if this is right, if this is true?
It looks very much like it." "But the anointing
which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need
not that any man teach you." Inwardly you know by
the anointing whether the thing is right or wrong. You
are not able to put it into words, not always able to
analyse the thing and say, this or that about it is
wrong; you are not able to put it all straight; but in
your heart you have a witness that there is something
about it of which you have to be careful. There is all
the difference between our suspicions and our prejudices
and the witness within. Do not try and project your mind
into anything; don't think you have to take up a
suspicious attitude and question everything to keep
yourself safe; don't think you must be prejudiced for
safety's sake. If you are walking in the Spirit you can
have your countenance open, your mind open; you can be
without fear, the anointing in you will teach you, you
will know every time. You may not be able to define it,
but you will say: "There is an intangible something
in my heart; I know." That word was spoken in regard
to antichrists, about which the Lord's people were not
sure - "the anointing teacheth you." That is
Christ formed within. You come to a clear, defined place.
The features of Christ have been defined, delineated;
senses have been exercised; Christly faculties have been
developed. It is not an unformed thing but something
clear; the formed Christ within. Paul says: "I am in
anguish, I am in travail over you my brethren, your state
of things puts me into a travail that you may come to a
place where Christ is defined in your hearts; where He
takes form, and is not a formless Christ." That is
the meaning of Galatians 4:19.
4. CHRIST SETTLING DOWN
(HOME-MAKING) WITHIN
And then the next thing, the fourth thing.
Ephesians 3:17: "That Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all
saints..." "That Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith." Now here you have an advance
upon all the rest. You may not recognize it, but it is an
advance. This is not saying, that Christ may take up
residence in your heart. This is not saying, that Christ
may come into your heart. And this is not saying, that
Christ may find a lodgment in your heart. This is saying:
"That Christ may dwell in your heart" and the
Greek word there is, "make His home" or
"settle down" in your heart. "That Christ
may make His home in your heart." That is something
more than a lodging, that is something more than just
coming in and being there. Every house is not a home.
Some of you will be going back to our
thoughts about "Bethany," and you will remember
how at the outset of our meditation upon Bethany, we
showed that Bethany represented the contrast that when He
came - He who created all things - came to His own and
they that were His own received Him not, so that He said
as to His presence here on earth: "Foxes have holes,
and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath
not where to lay his head": that was His place in
the world: but He came to Bethany, and He came again, and
He came again - and in the face of greatest stress, when
things were pressing more and more heavily upon Him
towards the end, His constant retreat was to Bethany. The
only home He seems to have had here on this earth was
Bethany. It was because He found heart satisfaction in
Bethany. There was one there who "kept on
listening." As we pointed out, the literal
translation of Mary's listening is: "she kept on
listening to His word." He wanted someone, He wanted
some heart into which to pour that what was in Himself
and find appreciation and response, and He found it at
Bethany - the better part. It was His own heart
satisfaction there because He was listened to, responded
to, and made to feel that it was the greatest of all
privileges to have Him there. "That Christ may make
his home in your hearts."
We are so often like Martha before she got
right (thank God she did get right, and the last picture
of Bethany is Martha still serving, but things are right
now, the activities outwardly have not outweighed the
spiritual activities inwardly; things have been put
right) like Martha before the correction, we are doing a
multitude of things for the Lord when the Lord is just
craving an opportunity to be listened to. The Lord would
often say to us: "Yes, I know you mean to be very
busy for me, I know you mean it all for Me, I know your
motive is right, I quite appreciate all that, but oh,
that you would give Me a chance to say a few things to
you; oh, that you would give Me an opportunity just to
speak into your heart, to show you things which you do
not know, which would make such a lot of
difference." And this is the explanation of our
being called aside at times. He would draw us from the
feverish activities of the "many dishes" to a
place where He is listened to. But how much better if we
gave Him the chance, than He having to make it. We have
got to run the risk of being misunderstood for seemingly
doing nothing, as Mary was misunderstood. Sometimes we
are afraid that people will think that we are slacking
because we get away with the Lord a little more. All
right, the Lord knows. But mark you, He will come and
make His home where He finds that. It is something more
than having Christ as a lodger. (Forgive that way of
putting it.) It is Christ being at home in the heart,
making His home there. You ask the Lord to apply that to
you just as it needs applying. You busyworkers, remember
that all your work, in the Lord's mind, can never take
the place of an opportunity which He craves of being able
to speak fuller things into your heart. Your activities
will be without vitality unless you are giving Him time
to speak and He is having response to new unveilings.
5. CHRIST GLORIFIED IN THE
BELIEVER
Now finally, in II Thessalonians 1:10.
"When he shall come to be glorified in his saints,
and to be admired in all them that believe."
"And to be marvelled at in all them that
believe" (A.R.V.). It is the consummation of Christ
within. Don't you think that that is a wonderful
statement, a wonderful thing that is said there? Yes, we
expect to see Him coming in glory, we expect to see the
glorified Christ, but He is working something in the
meantime which means that when He appears His glory will
be in the saints. It is not only the objective Christ in
glory coming, it is the subjective Christ manifested in
glory. "If so be that we suffer with him, that we
may be also glorified together." He has prayed that
we might behold His glory, and He is going to be
glorified IN the saints and marvelled at IN them
that believe.
It was - from the world's point of view -
an ordinary Palestinian peasant who one day went up the
slope of a mountain. There may have been things striking
about Him, impressive, but for the most part He was like
other men. He reached the summit of that mountain and
suddenly that One became ablaze and aflame with heavenly
glory, His raiment changed, white and glistening;
glorified, changed suddenly from an ordinary man - as the
world would say - to the glory of God; suddenly,
bewildering those who were there so that they began to
talk and did not know what they said. Utterly taken off
their feet, as we say. Now beloved, that Christ is in us.
We are very ordinary folk amongst men, there is nothing
very striking, outstanding, distinguishing about us, but
there is a moment coming when that which happened in the
mount of transfiguration is going to happen to us; Christ
in us is going to blaze out in glory through us, and as
those on that mount of transfiguration marvelled at Him,
so He is going to be marvelled at in all them that
believe. That is the end of "Christ in you, the hope
of glory." The hope of that glory is Christ in you;
in other words, Christ central and supreme. From the
initiation to the consummation of the believer's life it
all hangs upon that.
We ought to go back over the whole five
stages and what each one of them represents as a demand.
Do it for yourself. You will see that Christ as revealed
in the believer means a captured vessel. Saul of Tarsus
was taken prisoner on that day when God's Son was
revealed in him. He was a captured man from that day. He
called himself "the prisoner of Jesus Christ."
You and I have got to be captured.
WHAT "CHRIST IN YOU"
DEMANDS
Christ living within as our life, means a
crucified vessel. "I have been crucified" -
captured; crucified. Christ formed within means a vessel
that is going on with the Lord, not standing where the
Galatians were, but going on. Christ making His home in
the heart is connected with being "rooted and
grounded in love" and then there follows the phrase
"with all saints." Thus fellowship in the Body
of Christ, and the mutual love one for the other is a
"Bethany" principle, leading to Christ's
settling down. And so each one represents its own
peculiar responsibility and demand, until you come to the
consummation; and you find the context of each shows you
what the demand is. In the consummation that letter to
the Thessalonians speaks about their suffering, their
joyful suffering for the Saviour's sake. They were
suffering indeed because they had turned from idols to
serve the living God and to wait for His Son from the
glory, and they suffered, but suffered joyfully. And the
consummation of glory is related to faithfulness through
suffering. You see there is a demand for each thing. You
can look at it more closely.
The Lord find in us that which responds to
His purpose and makes possible the realization of His
heart secret: "Christ in you," central,
supreme, "the hope of glory."