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We have seen that by including us in Christ, God accomplished redemption. This identification with Christ is purely the work of God. The present question is: How can Christ be worked into us? In other words, how can He be related to us personally and subjectively?
Having Christ worked into us and having a vital life relationship between Him and us is the essence of the Christian life. In the Gospel of John, Christ repeated over and over again the phrase, "You in Me, and I in you." Being mutually within one another is the reality and essence of union. Only in this union can God accomplish what He has purposed for us.
God has already included us in Christ. Now we have to see how Christ can be wrought into us. Only when Christ is in us can our union be real and complete, and only then will everything He has be worked into us. This relationship with Christ is union in its ultimate and fullest sense.
One day I was watching a blacksmith at work. As he threw a big piece of iron into the fire, he kindled the flame and began to hammer on the red hot metal. An apprentice standing next to him was trying to get some fire. He rolled up a piece of paper, and instead of thrusting it into the fire, he touched the red hot iron with the end of the paper. In an instant, it caught on fire. I was exceedingly surprised at seeing the fire coming out from the iron. This piece of iron was now different from all other iron. You could say that it was iron, yet you could also consider it as a ball of fire. The fire was within the iron and the iron within the fire. It had the nature of iron and the appearance of fire. When you put a piece of paper on it, the paper burned up. God intends that our union with Christ be as intimate as that of the iron and fire. God has forgiven our sins and terminated our old man in Christ. But He did not stop there. He wants us to be completely one with Christ in the way that the iron was one with the fire. Every molecule of iron was mingled with the fire, and every trait of the fire was manifested in the iron. This is the degree that God wants to work Christ into us.
We still have to look at God's side of the work. For the moment, we will not say what we have to do on our part. We want to see how God has wrought us and Christ into one piece. What we saw hitherto was God's work of putting us in Christ and His work of redemption. In order for Christ to be wrought into us in a union that resembles that between the iron and fire, God had to take one very important step in Christ. This step is what we are about to explain in this chapter.
We all know that Jesus of Nazareth is God incarnated. In other words He is God clothed with humanity. If God had not clothed Himself with flesh, He could never have accomplished redemption. This is the reason He was incarnated. But the minute He put on the flesh, He was limited in two ways. He was limited in time and space. If He remained merely God, He would not be within the bounds of time and space. But the minute He put on humanity, He was trapped by these two factors. He became the same as we are.
How is the flesh bound by time and space? If you are in Tientsin, you cannot be in Peking at the same time. If you appear in China, you cannot appear simultaneously in England. As long as you have a body, you are confined by distance. You can only be in one place at one time. Human beings are bound by the body.
Moreover, you are also limited by time. You cannot exist at two different times simultaneously. I can only know you as you are. I cannot see what you will become tomorrow or next year. Often I would be talking to someone one minute. The next instant he was no longer available to me. That person to whom I talked was limited; he could only appear to me at one time but not at another. This is the bondage that time puts on our flesh. We can be together, but not forever. Time puts an ultimate end to all human relationships.
Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ who clothed Himself with human flesh, was also confined by the two conditions of time and space. All that God could do then was to reckon us as attached to Christ and accomplish redemption this way. There was as yet no way for us to be actually in Him, because we could not get into another body of flesh. In order for us to be in Christ or Christ in us, there was the need for Him to be something other than merely in the flesh. He had to come in another form before He could be one with us. Fire can become one with iron because it is something that has "proceeded forth." It is impossible to blend a piece of wood into iron. He had to appear in another fashion before He could come into us.
Second Corinthians 5:16 says, "So then we, from now on, know no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer." Here the apostle revealed one of the most elementary doctrines in Christianity. The Christ that we preach is no longer the Christ in the flesh. He is very different from the One whom the twelve disciples knew in Galilee. Then Christ walked with them, ate with them, lived with them, and traveled together with them. They saw His face and touched His hands; they heard His voice and watched His miracles. Everything they knew about Him was after the flesh. But this amazing passage tells us that we know Him no longer after the flesh. The fleshly relationship is no longer valid.
Why is there the need for such a verse? There is a very strong reason for it. If Christ were still in His flesh, He would still be encumbered by time and space. We could only contact Him some of the time. He would be available at one place only. Everyone who was not at the same place and the same time as He could not touch Him.
Please give your full attention to this peak of our faith. If the Christ that we preach today were still in the flesh, imagine what would happen! If at this moment He was in Jerusalem, He would not be available here in Tientsin. If He came to Tientsin, the ones in Jerusalem would miss Him. Then He would become a prisoner of space like us.
What if He wanted to stay permanently in Jerusalem? How could we see Him? Perhaps once in a while we would have to pay the expense to travel to Jerusalem to visit Him. At least we would have to make this pilgrimage once a year to behold the incarnated God. In Jerusalem we might be able to stay very close to Him. But the minute we left Jerusalem, we would be separated again from Him. Hence, if Christ were still in the flesh, our faith would be a materialistic religion. Christianity would have a universal center on earth from which it would control and direct all the Christians.
When the twelve disciples were with Christ, He still had His flesh with Him. When He talked to three disciples, the other nine missed it. When He walked with eleven, one was left out. Even when they all dined together, some were closer to Him than others. Not everyone could recline on His bosom as John did. He was limited by time and space.
If you asked me whether I would like to see Christ walking today in the flesh in the manner that the twelve disciples knew, I would tell you a strong no. This would be absolutely useless to me! If Jesus of Nazareth were here today, He would be isolated. He could not come into me. Neither could I get into Him. He would still be with His flesh. His flesh could not be part of mine, nor my flesh part of His. Hence, there was a crucial need! Christ had to put off His flesh.
Christ put off His flesh by death! Please remember that the death of Christ was not merely for our sins and old man. It was also a putting off of His own flesh. Henceforth, He is no longer in the flesh. By death He has put off His flesh and is now in the Spirit. I am not saying that the resurrected Christ does not have a body. I am saying that Christ has become the Spirit in resurrection. He still possesses a spirit, soul, and body, but everything is spiritual.
What is the difference between being in the flesh and being in the spirit? To be in the flesh is like putting on a garment. When Christ was on earth, He had the garment of flesh on Him. At His death He put off this garment, and in resurrection He took on a new body with a different garment — the Spirit. The present Christ has been clothed with the Spirit in exactly the same sense as when He was clothed with the human flesh.
Hence, we can know Christ in one of two ways. We can know Christ in the flesh, or we can know Him in the Spirit. Some treasure the Christ in the flesh. But more precious than that is the Christ in the Spirit. Christ in the Spirit can now come into us and allow us to be in Him. Now He and we can have an insoluble union.
The Bible shows us time and again that God is triune. At one time God put on the flesh to become Christ. Now He has put on the Spirit. God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all one entity. The Christ who was clothed with the flesh was limited in many respects. The Christ who is clothed with the Spirit is omnipresent. He can reside even in you. Everyone who desires Him may obtain Him, and everyone who believes in Him may receive Him. He is no longer confined by time and space. We can be one with Him wherever we are and whenever we will.
If Christ is not living in the Holy Spirit, our faith is dead and Christianity is a dead religion. If Christ is not in the Spirit, our beliefs are mere teachings and theories, and we possess nothing in reality because nothing can come into us from the Christ in the flesh.
I write a great deal, yet my handwriting is not very good. The reason is probably due to my failure in early years to learn the art properly. When I was young, my father hired an old tutor to teach me to write. During the time that he was with me, I always went against him; I never sat down properly to learn. As a result he was quite upset with me. One time he said, "Look at your brothers and sisters. They are all writing beautifully. You are the only one who does not write well. Here, let me hold your hand and write with you." His broad hand grabbed hold of mine and started to move across the pages. I was trying to be stubborn and uncooperative. When he stopped I purposely tried to slide a bit further, and when he tried to write a straight line, my hand twisted around left and right. He never managed to get good handwriting out of me.
One day he made a poignant statement which I will never forget. He said, "I wish I could crawl into you to write for you. I do not see how else you can write well."
God's way of salvation is to get into us. This is the effective and ultimate solution. It is not an outward teaching. It is not His holding of our hands to move them back and forth. It is not a set of do's and don'ts. When He put off His flesh, He entered into the Spirit and can now get inside of us to be our life and live out of us. What that old tutor could never do is now being realized by God in Spirit.
How is Christ in the Holy Spirit? We have to look into a passage in the Gospel of John in detail. John 14:16 says, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever."
The Comforter here is understood to be the Holy Spirit. The original word is parakletos. It is formed by two roots. The first part para means beside. The second part kletos carries the idea of help and succoring. Hence, this word means helping you at your side. Comforter gives the sense of one being near to you, helping you, watching over you, and sustaining you. Here the Lord is praying the Father to send a Comforter to help and sustain you.
Verse 17 says, "Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you." This Comforter is the Spirit of reality. All spiritual realities are in the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit, we have reality. Hence, the Comforter is also the Spirit of reality.
The Spirit of reality is only related to the believers. It has nothing to do with the world. Why does the world not receive Him? First, it is because they do not see Him. When people in the world do not see something, they naturally will not receive it. Second, they do not know Him. Something unknown is usually hard to be accepted also. The Lord, however, says, "But you know Him." Christians know the Holy Spirit because "He abides with you."
Even today, the Holy Spirit is constantly with the believers. This is a fact. But notice the phrase after this: "And shall be in you." "Shall be" points to a future time. The Lord was saying, "This Holy Spirit is presently with you. But a day will come when He will get inside of you." Let us read on to see more concerning this point.
Verse 18 says, "I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you." What is an orphan? It is a child left without the care of a father. A son has all of his living, food, books, etc., provided for by the father. The father prepares everything and does everything for him. A fatherless child, on the other hand, must prepare everything by himself. The Lord is saying that He will not leave us as orphans to manage all of our spiritual affairs alone. Instead, He will come to be our Father, to care for and look after us.
Please note the pronouns in verses 17 and 18. Verse 17 says that "He" shall be in you, while verse 18 says that "I" am coming to you. What is the relationship between the He in verse 17 and the I in verse 18? Do they qualify as two persons or one? It is best for us to read the two verses again to find out who the "He" and the "I" are in verses 17 and 18.
If I were to tell you something like this, "A man just stopped a taxi by the city hall. He paid five dollars and had the driver bring him here. When I arrived, I ran in and saw all of you sitting here, and I began to preach." Please tell me what would be the relationship between that man and me? Of course, that man is I and I am that man. It is just a different way of mentioning the same person. Likewise the "I" in verse 18 is the same one as the "He" in verse 17. The meaning of this passage is clear; the Lord will ask the Father, and the Father will send a Comforter to your midst. This Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, is just the Christ that will dwell inside of you. In this way the disciples will no longer remain orphans.
This is a most precious portion of the Bible. When Christ was on the earth, the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter, lived inside of Him. After His death, resurrection, and ascension, He lives inside the Spirit. When Christ was with the disciples on earth, the Holy Spirit was with the disciples already, for the Spirit was inside Christ. But what happened after those days? By His death and resurrection, Christ is now in the Spirit. Hence, He is coming to His disciples by the Spirit, through the Spirit, and in the Spirit. You may say that the Holy Spirit is now in the disciples. But actually it is Christ in the disciples. This is why in the first part of this portion it says, "He...shall be in you," but then the latter part changes to "I am coming to you." The "I" is in the "He."
One time I was talking to a friend of mine in Kaifeng concerning Christ's being in the Holy Spirit. A foreign lady happened to come by. She greeted me and was about to take off her gloves to shake my hand. I rushed up to her and said, "There is no need to take off your gloves." I held up the hand with the glove and turned to my friend, asking, "Am I holding the glove or the hand? You may say that I am holding her glove, but I am actually holding her hand. The relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit is exactly the same. When you outwardly take hold of the Spirit, you are actually possessing Christ inwardly. Receiving the Holy Spirit is the same as receiving Christ." My friend nodded his head and said, "Now I see!"
This is similar to what we said earlier about the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. You may say that He is God and also say that He is a man. When you touch His divinity, you cannot avoid touching His humanity also. When His humanity is manifested, His divinity simultaneously comes forth. In the same way, Christ and the Spirit are one inseparable entity. You may interchange the two terms as synonyms. The Spirit is in Him, and He is in the Spirit.
Let us read verses 19 and 20: "Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you."
Here the Lord tells us about the purpose behind His putting off the flesh and coming as the Spirit. The goal of this is that the believers may know that "I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you," that a full and perfect union may be realized. This fact would come about only "in that day," the day that Christ in the Spirit came into us. Only in that day would we know the oneness of having Christ in the Father, us in Christ, and Christ in us.
This union moreover transmits to us everything that God did in Christ and everything that God is through Christ. All of His becomes all of ours. God and man, man and God, become fully mingled into one.
Christ died and rose for us. But if He had not come to us in the Holy Spirit, salvation could not be accomplished. Christ could not be joined to us. He would be like the old tutor of mine, only wishing that somehow He could get inside of me.
But now Christ has taken on a spiritual form. He can come freely into us. We have the possibility of receiving Him because He is now in the Spirit. The Bible also says that "he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). Christ is in the Spirit. All of us also have a spirit. When our spirit receives this Christ who is in the Spirit into us, the two become one spirit. This is the gem of our faith. Without this, our belief is a common religion with no relevance to our life. Without this, there cannot be an inward salvation.
Read again John 16:7: "But I tell you the truth, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." Here the Lord is telling us the truth of His death. As long as He was in His flesh, the Comforter could not come. When there was the Christ in the flesh, there could never be the Christ in the Spirit. This is why His death was expedient for us.
When I was in Shanghai, a friend said, "It is too bad that Christ ascended up to the heavens. If He were still on earth today, I would definitely go and seek after Him no matter how far He was from me. How I wish I could be like the disciples of His day, who had the privilege of walking, living, and eating together with the Master." As I was listening, I looked intently into his eyes and said, "I would never wish to be like Peter and John and those others!" He asked, "What do you mean?" "Do you know," I said, "that the Christ whom I know is far closer to me than the One that Peter knew on earth? Everyone who has received Christ should be able to say that our Christ is not merely the Christ in the flesh whom Peter touched; our Christ is the Christ in the Spirit. Their Christ was One who could be separated from them. He could be with them one day and be gone the next. Our Christ, however, abides with us forever. Wherever we are, there He is also. I am not afraid even of going to hell, for if I go, God in me will go with me."
When did Peter begin to know Christ in such a clear way? Not during the three years that he followed the Lord back and forth. The One he knew then was only the Jesus of Nazareth. Only after resurrection and in the Spirit did he begin to know Christ in the way that we know Him. Unless Christ is in the Holy Spirit and unless He comes into us, we can never know Him in a real way.
A few years ago I passed through the country of Egypt. There were a number of missionaries in our group who tried to persuade me to take a tour to Palestine and stay there for two months. They said, "Go and visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the Mount of Golgotha. See all the places where Jesus trod His feet. It will strengthen your faith."
At that time I had both the time and the money to travel. But I told them, "I have no desire to go there. It will not strengthen my faith, nor will it help me to know Christ more. The Christ in whom I believe will never be affected by Jerusalem. Even if Jerusalem, Galilee, and Nazareth all vanish away, my knowledge of Him will still remain. I am one with Him, and my experience of Him can never be affected by any outward factors. I have absolutely no interest in the so-called manger, wood and nails of the cross, and other relics. These things can at most help me to know the Christ in the flesh. What I treasure more is the Christ in the Spirit. He is more real and my knowledge of Him is more solid than the physical presence of you and me."
A passage we read earlier says that we no longer know Christ according to the flesh. If what we believe in is merely an outward religion, then we will need a holy land, a mecca, or a Rome to be a center for us to go for worship and service. But what we believe in is a Christ inside of us. We know that He is both the God in heaven as well as the Lord in us.
Not only is He the very Creator, but He was also the Christ that put on the flesh. And now He is in us as the Holy Spirit. The Christ in the flesh is over! The Christ in the Spirit lives forever in us.
Dear friends, let me ask you a question. The Christ that you know, is He in the flesh or is He in the Spirit? Putting it another way, is your Christ the One in the Gospels or the One in the Epistles? I am not saying that you should not believe in the Christ of the four Gospels. It is right to believe in Him. However, that is only the first half. The second half is to know and experience the Christ in the Spirit.
We have seen three aspects of what God is. First, He is the God in the heavens; second, He is the God who came to earth to become a man; and third, He is the God in the Holy Spirit. These three aspects constitute the three steps of our experience of God.
