Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 24, 30; 3:16; 6:17; 12:12-13; 15:45b
We must now look at the matter of the indwelling Christ in 1 Corinthians. We may think that the books of the Bible cover different things, and apparently this is so. The Gospels give the story of Jesus’ life. The Acts are a record of the apostles and the early disciples. Romans is a book of doctrines, and 1 Corinthians covers the gifts, as well as many different teachings. It seems that all these books speak of different matters. Yet, with insight and inner vision, we can see that all these books consistently deal with the matter of the indwelling Christ. This is the basic concept of every book of the New Testament.
We should not consider Christ as separate from the Father and from the Spirit. We all must realize that Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God, and Christ is realized as the Spirit. It is by the indwelling of Christ that the Triune God is mingling Himself with us.
We saw clearly in Romans that all the justified ones are now enjoying the indwelling Christ as their life and as their everything, and how this kind of enjoyment eventually issues in the Body. The Body of Christ comes out of such an enjoyment of the indwelling Christ. Now in 1 Corinthians we will see that the basic concept is exactly the same as in Romans. Of course, Romans does not cover the gifts, marriage, or many of the other things that are covered in 1 Corinthians. But underneath, the basic concept is the same. That is, we all have been put into Christ so that by His indwelling in our spirit His Body will be produced. In this way, 1 Corinthians covers the same thing as Romans. The only difference is that Romans is a book of doctrines, whereas 1 Corinthians is a book of dealings. In 1 Corinthians Paul deals with divisions, different opinions about the gifts, lawsuits, marriage, eating sacrifices offered to idols, and the matter of resurrection. However, the basic concept of these two books is the same. We all have been baptized into the Triune God, and now this Triune God is fully realized in the life-giving Spirit, who indwells us as our life in order that the Body of Christ may come into being.
Hence, we see that both Romans and 1 Corinthians cover the same basic concept. This is what we call a vision. We all need to see this vision. Without it we will not have the insight we need when we come to the book of 1 Corinthians. Instead, we will merely take note of all the problems. Some teachers say that 1 Corinthians deals with ten great problems: the problem of division, dealing with sinful believers, lawsuits, marriage, eating sacrifices offered to idols, the Lord’s table, head covering, the gifts, love, and resurrection. Twenty years ago in Hong Kong I had a conference on the solving of these ten big problems. I said then that Christ and the cross were the answer to all the problems. Now, twenty years later, I have seen something more. The book of 1 Corinthians was not written simply to solve problems. Even if you solve the problem of a husband and wife, you only help them to have a good marriage life. That does not necessarily help them to gain Christ. Whether you have a good married life or a bad married life is not of much consequence. But 1 Corinthians does tell us something that really counts. We have all been baptized into the Triune God who is realized in the Spirit (12:13), and now this Triune God lives in us to be our everything! He does not dwell in us simply to solve the problems of our marriage life. He lives in us to be everything to us. This is much higher than mere problem solving. But due to the shallow understanding, shallow interpretation, and shallow exposition among the Christians, all the deep things have been veiled from God’s children (2:10).
For instance, in 1 Corinthians 1:2 we are told that the church people are sanctified in Christ: “To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus...” What does it mean to be sanctified in Christ? Some may stress the word sanctify, but I would rather stress the phrase in Christ. The church people are people in Christ. As long as we are in Christ, we are sanctified. To be sanctified means to be separated, made no more common, made something special. We all are specialities. We are no longer common, because we are in Christ. In Christ really means to be special, uncommon, and altogether different from other people. We are neither Americans nor Europeans nor Orientals. We are people in Christ! Hallelujah!
It is “in Christ” that we are enjoying the fellowship of Christ. And God has called us into this fellowship. “God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 9). This simply means to participate in Christ and to partake of Christ. Christ is our inheritance and our spiritual portion, and we have been called into the participation in this person. This is to be in Christ. To be in Christ is to enjoy all that Christ is, and this enjoyment is the fellowship. The fellowship of Christ is just the participation in all that Christ is.
This Christ in whom we are participating is the power of God and the wisdom of God: “To those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (v. 24). Our Christ is everything. He is not only the wisdom but also the power. He is not only the way but also the ability. This is the Christ as our portion into whom we have been called. We have not been called into anything else. As our portion He is the power to do things, and He is the wisdom to accomplish things. He is everything to us.
Then 1 Corinthians tells us that it is of God that we are in Christ. “Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (v. 30). We were all born in Adam. We were not born in Christ. But one day God accomplished a kind of translation. He translated us from one sphere into another. We were born into Adam, but God has transferred us from Adam into Christ. Hallelujah! It is of God that we are in Christ. To be in Christ is a great thing. We all must realize that we have been transferred. We did not do it. Even if we tried, we could never make it. But, praise the Lord, God can do it, and He did it! It is of God that we all have been transferred out of Adam and into Christ.
I can testify that before I was transferred, I fully realized that I was in a certain kind of sphere. But then God put me into another sphere, the wonderful person of Christ. It is of God that we are in Christ. We did nothing but open ourselves to the Lord. I remember the day that I was transferred. I said, “God, I want You today. I do not want this world. I am through with this world, and this world is through with me. I just want You.” At that moment God took me out of that sphere and put me into another sphere. I was transferred by God out of Adam and into Christ.
In the first years I tried a number of times to go back. I even told God that I was not so happy to be in this sphere. It seemed that God said, “All right, you try your best to go back. You did not get into this sphere by yourself. I put you here. And unless I put you back, you can never go back.” I tried several times, but I could not make it. I could not go back. Can you? I assure you that you cannot. Hallelujah! We all have been put into Christ.
God has put us into Christ, and now this Christ has been made our power, our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. God put us into Him, and God made Him everything to us. Hallelujah! In the first place God transferred us into Him. He took us out of Adam and put us into Christ. Then from that day God made Christ everything to us. He is our power, our wisdom, our justification, our sanctification, our redemption, our everything!
But how can Christ be everything to us? It is by His indwelling. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 we are told that we are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God is the Dweller: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” We are the dwelling, and He is the Dweller. We have already seen that the Spirit of God is the full realization of Christ. We should never consider that the Spirit of God here is separate from Christ or other than Christ. He is the Spirit of reality (John 14:17). This means that He is the reality of Christ. The real Christ is the Spirit, and this Spirit is the Dweller. He dwells in us, and we are His dwelling place.
It is by His dwelling in us that He is everything to us. If we need righteousness, He is our righteousness. If we need holiness, He is our holiness. If we need justification, He is our justification. If we need sanctification, He is our sanctification. And eventually, Christ will be the redemption to our body. He is all these things to us by His indwelling. Suppose God put us into Christ, and He did nothing more. We may be in Christ, but there is no way to apply Christ as everything to us. To be in Christ is a positional matter. But to have Christ as our everything is something of experience. On one hand, we have been put into Christ, and on the other hand, He is made everything to us. But His being everything to us is by His indwelling.
Today Christ as the indwelling Spirit indwells our spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” The very Christ who is made everything to us is now in our spirit, and we are one spirit with Him, continually enjoying His indwelling. This is made clear by the above-mentioned verses and the last part of 1 Corinthians 15:45: “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” We can never forget this verse.
We have seen that the Spirit of God dwells in us. Now we see that this Spirit is Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Then 1 Corinthians 12:13 shows us something more: “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” Now we have the Spirit who dwells in us, the life-giving Spirit, and the Spirit who is good for drinking. Do you believe that these are three Spirits? Of course not. We all know that these three are just one Spirit. The Spirit of God is the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit is the Spirit for drinking. Eventually, we see that Jesus is just a kind of drink to us. Day by day we are drinking of Him.
We all know that baptism is to put people into the water, and drinking is to put the water into people. This is exactly what 1 Corinthians 12:13 says. We have been baptized in one Spirit, and now we are all drinking of that one Spirit. We also have seen that these two aspects are also recorded in Matthew and John. In Matthew we were baptized into the Triune God (28:19). Then in John this Triune God gets into us (14:17, 20). Now 1 Corinthians tells us the same thing. We have been baptized in the Spirit, and we are drinking of Him.
To drink of Christ as the Spirit is the way that we apply Him as our everything. When we say, “O Lord Jesus,” we take a drink of Him. By doing this, we partake of Jesus as our strength. When we are sorrowful, we drink of Him as our joy. The more we drink of Him in this way, the more we practically take Him as our person. We do not live by ourselves anymore but by Him.
There are not many Christians who practice this kind of drinking. We praise the Lord that in the last few years many saints among us have begun to practice in this way. Yet I still feel that our practice is not adequate. It must be intensified. We should never consider that we are professional in this matter. All day long we must practice the drinking of Jesus. We have all been put into Him (Gal. 3:27), and He is made everything to us. But He can only be everything to us by His indwelling, and we can only realize His indwelling by our drinking of Him. All day long we must drink of this life-giving Spirit. “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” This is the real drinking of the Spirit.
If our husband or wife begins to argue with us, we should not use our mouth to argue with them. Instead, we must use our mouth to say, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” While they are arguing, we must drink of the Lord Jesus in this way. It is by this drinking that we enjoy the indwelling of Jesus, and it is by His indwelling that He becomes everything to us in a practical way. This is the way to take Him as our person. Whatever we are going to do, we must say, “O Lord Jesus!” Whenever we are going to the store to make some purchases, we must say, “O Lord Jesus.” When we are beginning to argue with someone, first of all we must say, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” It seems so simple, like the practice of a little child. But there is no other way that is so living, practical, real, and prevailing. Jesus as the life-giving Spirit indwells our spirit, and we must all learn to drink of Him again, and again, and again.
I recently heard of a couple in New Zealand that drinks eleven cups of tea a day. That really seems to be a lot of drinking, but to drink eleven times of Jesus in a day is too little. We must drink of Him hundreds of times. Do you think that to drink of Jesus one hundred times in one day is too much? No! It could never be too much. We must learn to drink of Him countless times a day.
Now we can see that 1 Corinthians has one verse that puts the two aspects together. We all have been baptized in one Spirit, and we all have been given to drink one Spirit. To be baptized in one Spirit is revealed in Matthew, and to drink one Spirit is basically revealed in John (7:37-39; 4:14). Now in 1 Corinthians we have one verse that puts these books together. Paul is quite wise. In one short verse he covers Matthew and John. We all have been baptized into the Triune God, and now this wonderful One is our drink. We all have been put into this wonderful water, and we all have been positioned to daily take this water into us. It is by this daily drinking that He is made everything to us and we learn to take Him as our person and live by Him. Then eventually we become His expression on the earth as the corporate Christ. It is all by the indwelling of Christ.
