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Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 4:10-11
In the previous chapters we covered the place and function of the cross, both of which are objective to us. With this chapter we will begin to consider the experience of the cross, which is a subjective matter. Concerning the cross of Christ, we must have objective knowledge and subjective experience. In spiritual matters, genuine knowledge produces necessary experiences.
A Christian must have adequate knowledge and experiences of Christ, and he must also have adequate knowledge and experiences of the cross. Christ and His cross are the center of God’s eternal plan; therefore, they should be the center of our spiritual life and experience. Whether we are a proper Christian does not depend on how much we know the Bible or on the measure of our devoutness. Being a proper Christian depends on how much we know and experience Christ and His cross. Our knowledge of the Bible, our devoutness, and other spiritual things do not represent our spiritual weight and worth before God; only our knowledge and experience of Christ and His cross can determine our spiritual weight and worth. Only experiences that are in Christ and that have passed through His cross can be considered as being spiritual and having eternal worth. These experiences come from and are produced by our knowledge of Christ. Only the knowledge of Christ and His cross can lead us into genuine spiritual experiences, and only our experience of Christ and His cross can be considered as genuine spiritual experiences. Christ and His cross are the yardsticks that God uses to measure us and all that we have. Anything that falls short of Christ and cannot stand the test of the cross does not measure up to God’s standard and will be rejected by Him.
Apart from Christ, our virtues and merits are not acceptable to God. Likewise, unless our godliness and spiritual exercise pass through the cross of Christ, they have no value before God. God is not pleased with any virtue or merit that is outside of Christ, and He has no desire for any form of godliness or spiritual exercise that is apart from the cross. God wants us to be terminated by the cross and to live in Christ. God does not care for our cultivation of godliness or for our spiritual exercise; He cares for our experience of the cross. He does not care for our self-cultivation or spirituality; He wants us to experience the termination of the cross. He does not want us to live out our human virtues and merits through self-cultivation and spiritual exercise; He wants us to live out Christ and His attributes through our experience of being terminated by the cross. How much have we experienced the cross in Christ, and how much have we experienced Christ through the cross? We must ask ourselves these questions. We must have sufficient knowledge and experience of Christ and His cross.
God’s Word reveals that a Christian should let Christ be all in him. Christ enters into us through the cross, and He gains ground in us and becomes our all through the cross. The cross released His life from within Him so that it could be imparted into His redeemed ones. He went to the cross and entered into death in order to impart Himself and His life into those whom God had chosen and predestinated. As believers, we met and contacted Christ at the place of His death — the cross at Golgotha (John 19:17). Furthermore, we received Christ and His life through His death on the cross. At the cross we meet Christ, know Him, experience Him, and gain more of Him. At the cross we know Christ more, have deeper fellowship with Him, and experience and gain Him further. Through the cross He becomes our all so that we may grow into a full-grown man in His life and have the measure of the stature of His fullness (Eph. 4:13). Every aspect of our relationship with Christ and every experience of Christ are through the cross and depend on the cross.
The cross brings Christ to us so that we may experience and gain Him. No one can receive the life of Christ apart from the cross, no one can experience growth in life without experiencing more of the cross, and no one can mature in life without fully receiving the cross. Christ and the cross cannot be separated, just as His life cannot be separated from His death on the cross. The measure of Christ in us depends on how much we experience the death of the cross. If we do not have the cross, we do not have Christ. If we do not experience the death of the cross, we cannot experience the life of Christ. If we bear about in our body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus on the cross, the life of Christ will be manifested in our body (2 Cor. 4:10). If we stand in the death of the cross, the life of Christ will be manifested in our body. The more we stand in and receive the death of the cross, the more the life of Christ will be manifested in our mortal flesh (v. 11).
The life of Christ always follows the death of the cross. There is no need for us to ask God to give us more of His life, because His life will be added to us as long as we accept the death of the cross. Whether or not His life is added to us depends on our willingness to accept the cross, and the degree of our willingness to accept the cross determines the measure of the divine life that is added to us. The more we are willing to accept the cross, the more we will receive the divine life. The cross paves the way for the life of Christ to be added to us and increases our measure of the life of Christ.
The apostle Paul spoke to the Corinthian believers concerning the cross because they lived and walked according to the flesh, not according to Christ (1 Cor. 2:2). Only the cross can pave the way for Christ and increase our measure of Christ. When we accept the death of the cross, the life of Christ will have a way through us. Every time we experience the death of the cross, the life of Christ will gain more ground in us. It is not sufficient to pray and ask the Lord to occupy and fill us. Such prayers are often of no effect, because the Lord can occupy and fill us only through the cross. Only the cross can find the place, the ground, in us for Christ. How much the cross works in us determines how much Christ occupies us. How much we receive and experience the cross determines how much of Christ enters into us and fills us. If we fully accept the cross and allow it to work in us, Christ will occupy us and fill us wholly. When we are crucified with Christ, He will live in us (Gal. 2:20).
The cross fulfills God’s eternal purpose in us by bringing Christ to us so that we may gain Him and so that He may become our all. God’s eternal purpose is for Christ to enter into us to be our all, and this purpose is carried out through the cross. The cross is the procedure through which God carries out His purpose. Christ is God’s eternal purpose, and the cross is the procedure through which God’s eternal purpose is carried out. God’s purpose concerning Christ is fulfilled through the cross. Because God’s purpose is for Christ to enter into us, Christ must be released. Moreover, because God’s purpose is for Christ to be our all, we must be terminated. It is only through the cross that Christ can enter into us and become our all.
Without the cross, Christ and His life would not have been released and could not have entered into us. Without the cross, we could not have been terminated, and therefore, Christ could not become our all. The cross is needed in order for Christ to be released and to enter into us, and the cross is needed in order for us to be terminated so that Christ can be everything to us. The accomplishment of Christ’s release occurred on the mount of Golgotha, and the accomplishment of our termination is occurring in us today.
God accomplished His purpose concerning Christ on the cross at Golgotha, and He is applying what He accomplished in Christ on the cross to us. God is still doing the work of the cross in us. He wants us to accept the cross so that Christ may enter into us and so that we may be terminated in order for Christ to become everything to us. God’s purpose will be accomplished in anyone who receives the cross.
Whenever we accept the cross, Christ becomes everything to us. The cross is still the means by which God fulfills His purpose. Through the cross God opens a way for Christ to enter into us to be our life, and through the cross we are terminated so that Christ can gain the ground and authority in us and become our all. From the day that we received salvation, God has been working in us through the cross to terminate us so that we may decrease, and He has been working to add Christ into us so that Christ may increase and grow until He becomes our all. This is how God’s eternal purpose is fulfilled in us.
The riches of God’s salvation are in Christ, and the reality of these riches is also in Christ. The cross is the way for us to enjoy and experience the riches of God’s salvation, because we gain Christ through the cross. Although everything in God’s salvation has become our portion in Christ, this portion becomes our practical enjoyment only through the cross. In other words, although everything in God’s salvation is ours in Christ, we must experience the cross in order to enjoy these riches.
The main blessings in God’s salvation are His sanctifying life, the power of resurrection, the operation of the Spirit, and the presence of God. We can enjoy these items only through our experience of the cross. In order for us to practically experience and enjoy the blessings of salvation, the Spirit continually enables us to know and accept the working of the cross in order to kill, eliminate, and terminate us. This is the only way for us to taste the riches of His sanctifying life, the power of His resurrection, the operation of the Spirit, and the presence of God. When we accept the work of the cross to kill, eliminate, and terminate us, Christ will fill us, and we will enjoy the riches of the blessings in God’s salvation.
