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Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:13-16; 2:20; 4:19; Col. 1:12, 15, 18-19; 2, 2:9b, 16-17; 3:10-11, 4; 1:27; 2:6-7
Galatians shows that Christ is versus religion. The religion referred to in Galatians is Judaism. Before the apostle Paul was saved, when he was Saul of Tarsus, he was at the top level in the Jewish religion (1:13-14). He thought that what he was doing was right. He was zealous for God, yet he was altogether in darkness and did not see Christ. One day while Saul was on the way to Damascus to arrest the believers in Christ, the Lord appeared from the heavens, and Saul was caught by the Lord (Acts 9:1-9). He was caught not by an outward power but by an inward revelation, for Paul said that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him (Gal. 1:15-16). From that day Paul realized that he was crucified with Christ. He said, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (2:20). Paul went on to say that he travailed so that Christ would be formed in the believers (4:19). Thus, Galatians reveals three major points concerning our experience of Christ. First, Christ is revealed in us; second, Christ lives in us; and third, Christ is formed in us. Although these words may be familiar to us, the reality may still be unfamiliar. The reality is not the words or the doctrine but the genuine experience. It is difficult to say what it means for Christ to live in us and be formed in us experientially. A doctrine is easy to learn, but the experience does not come as easily.
Colossians reveals that the Christ who has been revealed in us, who is now living in us, and who is being formed in us is the all-inclusive Christ. According to Colossians 1:12, this Christ is our portion. The King James Version renders the word portion in this verse as “inheritance.” However, Christ is not merely something that we will inherit in the future. He is our present portion; we are participating in Him day by day. This portion is the image of the invisible God (v. 15). He is the portion to us, yet He is the image of the invisible God, and He is the embodiment of God (v. 19). Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Christ is also the mystery of God (v. 2b). God is a mystery, and this mystery is Christ Himself.
Colossians also reveals that Christ is the body of all the shadows, the reality of every positive thing in the universe (vv. 16-17). All the positive things in the universe are merely shadows of Christ. The light we see with our eyes is not the real light; it is a shadow of Christ as our real light (John 8:12). The food we eat every day is not the real food; it is merely a shadow. The real food is Christ (6:35). The air we breathe every minute is not the real air; it is a shadow of Christ (20:22). When we see someone’s shadow, we know that the shadow is not the real person. The real person is the reality of the shadow. Every positive thing is a shadow of Christ. The real feast, or holiday, is Christ. If we do not have Christ, we have a weeping, miserable day, not a happy day. The Sabbath also is a shadow. The real Sabbath, the real rest, is Christ. The real day also is Christ. Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe.
The Christ who is every positive thing is all and in all in the church. Colossians 3:10-11 says, “Put on the new man...where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” The all-inclusive Christ, who is God, man, the Creator (1:16), a creature (v. 15b), the Firstborn in resurrection (v. 18b), the Head of the Body, the beginning (v. 18a), and every positive thing, is now our life (3:4). If we weep, it does not mean that we have less life, and if we laugh, it does not mean that we have more life. Life is not a certain situation or condition; life is a person. This person, who is the all-inclusive Christ, is great, infinite, and all-inclusive, yet He is real, living, and present within us as our life. Christ is our life today, and He will be our glory in the future. Thus, He is our hope of glory (1:27).
Thus far, we have seen the Christ revealed in Colossians mainly in a doctrinal way. Now we need to see the experience of this Christ. Colossians 2:6-7 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” We need to consider what it means to receive Christ. We received Christ when we opened our being, repented, confessed our sins to Him, and said, “Lord Jesus, I believe into You. Please come into me.” When we are newly saved, we may not know that Christ is the life-giving Spirit or that we have a human spirit. We may pray, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart.” There is even a popular gospel hymn that says, “Into my heart, into my heart, / Come into my heart, Lord Jesus” (Hymns, #1061). This song is good, but it is not entirely accurate. Second Timothy 4:22a says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” It does not say, “The Lord be with your heart.” The Lord first comes into our spirit. Ephesians 3:17a speaks of Christ making His home in our heart. After coming into our spirit, Christ gradually makes His home in our heart.
Our spirit may be likened to the living room in a home, and our heart may be likened to the bedroom, the inner chamber. When an unfamiliar guest comes to visit us for a short time, we may welcome him into our living room. However, when an intimate acquaintance comes to stay for several days, we will show him to a bedroom and tell him to feel at home. Regrettably, many of us have received the Lord only into our living room, our spirit. We have not ushered Him into our inner chamber, our heart.
We have received Christ into our spirit, and He now desires to spread into the parts of our heart. The four parts of our heart are our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. Christ is spreading from our spirit in the center of our being to the surrounding parts of our mind, emotion, and will. The Christ whom we have received is not far away, like money in a bank account. Rather, Christ is in our spirit, spreading into our heart. When Christ has spread into all our inward parts, He will be settled in our heart, having made His home in our heart.
Colossians 2:6 goes on to say that we should walk in Christ. We need to see how to walk in Christ. It is easy to understand the phrase walk in Christ, but we need to see what it is experientially to walk in Christ. It is not easy to define what it is to walk in Christ experientially, because Christ is mysterious and abstract. However, the Word says that we must walk in Him.
In order to understand how to experientially walk in Christ, we need to be clear concerning two points. First, Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Second, this life-giving Spirit is in our human spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). Nothing is as crucial in our spiritual experience as these two points. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This means that the life-giving Spirit and our spirit are one mingled spirit. Therefore, to walk in Christ is simply to walk in the mingled spirit. In order to walk in Christ, we do not need to know many doctrines. We need only to see that Christ is the life-giving Spirit, that the life-giving Spirit is now in our spirit, and that these two spirits are one. The practical way to walk in Christ is to walk in the spirit.
A disagreement has arisen among the saints in certain localities. Some say that it is better to stay home to sleep on the Lord’s Day morning; they call this “having a solid time.” Others argue, “No, we must go to the Lord’s Day morning meeting.” In order to resolve this question, we should not listen to either side; rather, we should simply walk in Christ by walking in the mingled spirit. If we walk in the mingled spirit, we will spontaneously know whether to stay home to sleep or to go to the meeting.
Another disagreement has arisen as a result of some who say that we should not be legal. They say that we need to be liberated to go to movies, bars, and dance clubs. Others say, “No, as Christians, we should not do these things.” Once again, we should not listen to either side. Rather, we should simply check with the Lord in our spirit. In other words, we should walk in Christ, that is, walk in the spirit. When we walk in the spirit, we will spontaneously refrain from going to movies, bars, or dance clubs.
Because Christianity today is void of Christ, Christians often speak of what we should and should not do. Our physical bodies are full of life and therefore do not need to be told how to move. On the other hand, a machine is void of life and therefore must be commanded to move in certain ways. To go to the meetings legally and to not go to the meetings legally are different ways, but neither way is according to life. With life there is no need to talk of which way to take. Christianity is full of ways — ways to pray, to preach the gospel, to honor our parents, to love our wife, to submit to our husband — but it is void of Christ. We need only Christ. When we have Christ, we are living and do not need to be given a way; life is our way.
More than fifty years ago in the heathen land of China, the Lord granted us His gracious visitation and caused us to see the real salvation of God. The real salvation of God is not a way but a living person, Christ. When this living person comes into us to be our life, we have everything. Christ is holiness, righteousness, humility, love, kindness, patience, endurance, long-suffering, and faithfulness. From the time we received such a vision of Christ, we stopped all our ways. By so doing, we entered into God’s economy, God’s salvation, and God’s way. Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6a). We do not need any other way; Christ is the unique way. Christ is the way to pray, the way to preach the gospel, and the way to do everything in our daily Christian life (Phil. 4:13).
Colossians 2:6 is a great word. Christ is the all-inclusive One who includes both God and man, yet we can walk in Him, for He is now the Spirit in our spirit. We need to forget about our ways, our doing, our striving, and our endeavoring. Instead, we simply need to walk in Christ. Some may ask, “What about the preaching of the gospel?” My answer is, “Walk in Him.” Most Christians think that in order to preach the gospel, they need to find a way. They think that during the week they can walk in the self and live by the self, even doing things such as gambling and going to night clubs, dancing parties, and movies. Then because they want to preach the gospel on Saturday, they seek for a way, such as playing rock music. Rather than life, Christianity seeks for a way. The Bible does not say that a certain kind of music is the way to preach the gospel; the Bible says to walk in Christ.
We need to walk in Christ every day of the week and every hour of the day. Walking in Christ should be our daily living. Seemingly, we may not preach the gospel, but our daily walking in Christ will spontaneously be a living testimony to our family, neighbors, classmates, colleagues, and friends. Everyone we know will see that we walk in Christ, that we have a different way of living from that of others. Outwardly, they may criticize us, despise us, and say that we are crazy, strange, or peculiar, but deep within they will admire and respect us because day after day they see that our living is different from that of the worldly people. Such a testimony will be our preaching of the gospel.
Eventually, the sovereign Lord will cause something to happen in the circumstances of one of our acquaintances. At that point the Holy Spirit will remind him of us. He will want to have a talk with us. We will visit him, and he will open up and eventually pray, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I believe in You. Lord, come into my heart.” Thus, this person will be saved not by our energy, endeavoring, and striving but spontaneously through our living testimony. Perhaps within a year one person will be saved in this way; one fruit will be brought forth. After another twelve months another acquaintance may be saved through the Lord’s sovereign arrangement of his or her circumstances and the testimony of our daily living. If we continue in this way year after year, from the age of twenty to the age of eighty, at least sixty people will be brought to the Lord through us. Gradually, all our relatives will be brought to the Lord. This will produce a great increase in the church, and those who are brought to the Lord through our testimony will be remaining fruit. This is the way of life.
Not only in preaching the gospel but also in everything in the church life, we do not have a way; we have only Christ. We do not need to know how to pray. If we walk in Christ, we will spontaneously pray throughout the day because we will be one with Christ. Christ is our way to pray. Similarly, we do not need to learn how to be humble. The humility that we learn will become our pride because we will think that we are more humble than those around us. The humility that we work out is not real humility. Real humility is Christ. If we daily walk in Christ, He will become our humility. Although we will be very humble, we will not have any consciousness of our humility. We will not have any sensation or feeling that we are being humble. Our sensation will only be that we are walking in Christ. This is the proper Christian life.
Recently, a brother asked me what the normal Christian life is. To go to movies and bars is certainly abnormal. The normal Christian life is simply to walk in Christ. Some may ask, “What should we do to avoid losing our temper?” The word temper is not in the “dictionary” of the Christian experience. In our dictionary there is only one word — Christ. Even the words love, humility, and kindness are not in our dictionary. The only word in our dictionary is Christ. Whenever we pick up a new word, it causes problems and gives us trouble. We should not try to be humble or loving. Husbands should not try to love their wives. The more a husband tries to love his wife, the more he will lose his patience with her. Likewise, wives should not try to be submissive to their husbands. The more they try, the more they will fail. Trying to exhibit Christian virtues does not work. We simply need to walk in Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Tim. 4:22). We do not need to listen to any concepts or pick up any new words. The only word we need is Christ, and the only thing we need to do is to walk in Him. Whoever walks in Christ is blessed.
We should not try to do anything; we should only walk in Christ. We can walk in Christ by contacting Him, spending time in the Word, praying, pray-reading, and worshipping Him. All these practices help us to walk in Christ. Early in the morning, the first thing we should do after rising up is to contact the Lord, pray-read His Word, fellowship with Him, and pray by talking to Him. This will usher us into walking in Him. We should not pay attention to disturbances from within or distractions from without. We simply need to walk in Christ. When others come to us with a question or a problem, this may be a temptation from Satan, just as he tempted Eve in the garden of Eden. Whenever someone comes to me with a question, on the one hand, I listen to the question, but on the other hand, I walk in Christ. My answer may not be related to the question because I avoid Satan’s temptation and walk in Christ.
Wives often ask their husbands tempting questions. The husbands should not be quick to answer. If they answer, they will be caught. The more questions the wives ask, the more the husbands need to walk in Christ by walking in the spirit. It is not easy to refrain from answering, but if we answer quickly, we are not walking in Christ. We should not be distracted by anything. Regardless of what happens, we should still walk in Christ. This is the truth according to the Word and according to our experience. We all need to learn to walk in Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. We do not need any ways or activities. We need only one thing — to walk in Christ.
If all the saints practice daily to walk in Christ, our meetings will be enriched and uplifted because we will all be full of the experiences of Christ. Every morning we need to rise up early and immediately contact the Lord, pray, pray-read a few verses for nourishment, worship the Lord, talk to Him, and fellowship with Him. This will enable us to walk in Christ for the whole day. If we practice this, we will experience the Lord every day, and when we come to the meetings, we will come in Christ and with Christ — with the rich experiences of Christ. Whenever there is the need in a meeting of a certain aspect of the experience of Christ, we will immediately be able to share a testimony to meet that need because we will be rich in the experiences of Christ.
The key to the Christian life for the church life is to walk in Christ. If we walk in Christ, we will eventually be rooted in Him for growth in life and built up in Him for God’s building (Col. 2:7). The growth in life and the building up both depend on one thing, that is, our walking in Christ. When we walk in Christ, we grow and are built up. This is the normal Christian life. To be normal is simply to walk in Christ.
