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(It is suggested that this deeper lesson be read at two different times, the second beginning from the section on “Living Christ” on page 30.)
We believe and are baptized into Christ to be joined to Him and to abide in Him for the purpose of experiencing Him. When we experience Christ, we gain and enjoy Him practically that He may be expressed through us.
1) “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (Gal. 1:15-16).
Our first experience of Christ is His being revealed in us. This is the key to our salvation and regeneration, and it is the central result of our being saved to be joined to God. It is also the beginning of our experience of Christ.
1) “And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:10).
Once Christ is revealed in us, we immediately experience His being in us, which shows us that our body is dead because of sin, the very sin we inherited from Adam, and that our spirit is life because of righteousness, the righteousness we obtained from Christ. This is an experience which Christ gives us.
1) “He who abides in Me [Christ] and I in him, he bears much fruit” (John 15:5).
When we abide in Christ according to the fact of our being in Christ, Christ will abide in us, placing Himself in us to be our life and life supply that He may become our experience in life for us to bear much fruit.
2) “If anyone loves Me [Christ], he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him” (John 14:23).
Christ abides in us with the Father. We experience this when we love Him and keep His word.
1) “...Christ our life” (Col. 3:4).
The foremost and main thing that Christ does when He abides in us is to be our life that we may take Him as life and live by Him, no longer walking by our natural life. We should experience this day by day and moment by moment.
1) “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
We must not only experience Christ abiding in us to be our life but also experience Christ living in us to be our living. To experience Christ in this way, we must deny ourselves by being in His death, and be able to say that it is no longer I who live. We must die in order to experience Christ living in us.
1) “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19).
We also need to experience Christ making His home in our hearts. He will not only live in us but also inwardly occupy every part of our being, make His home in our hearts, and settle down in us, saturating and filling our entire being that we may become the fullness of God.
1) “I [the Apostle Paul] am again in travail until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19).
We also must experience Christ being formed in us, that is, His growing in us unto maturity until we reach His very stature (Eph. 4:13).
1) “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
“To live is Christ” is to live Christ. We must experience Christ in every aspect inwardly, and we must also experience living Him outwardly.
1) “Even now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death” (Phil. 1:20).
Outwardly, we should have the experience not only of living Christ but also magnifying Christ. All things that happen to us are for us to magnify Christ. The more difficult the environment and the busier the work, the more we can magnify Christ. This is the peak of our experience of Christ outwardly.
1) “Having put off the old man...and having put on the new man [which is corporate]...where [in the new man, the church] there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian [the most barbarous], slave, freeman, but Christ is all [persons] and in all [persons]” (Col. 3:9-11).
These verses say that we who have believed in the Lord and are regenerated have put off our old man and have put on the new man. In this new man, the church, there is not the old man of a certain race, religion, culture, or class but Christ who is our life and the element which constitutes this new man. Christ is all the persons in this corporate new man, and He lives in all these persons. We should have many experiences of Christ related to this matter, and we should also have this full experience of Christ when our experiences of Him reach their peak.
1) “He who abides in Me and I in him...” (John 15:5).
The first condition for experiencing Christ abiding in us is our abiding in Him. We must abide in Him, giving Him the time and space so that He may be able to abide in us.
1) “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
Moreover, the experience of our co-crucifixion with Christ is also a basic condition for our experience of Christ. Since we are abiding in Him, we are surely remaining in our co-crucifixion with Him, that is, in His all-inclusive death, which nullifies our existence, so that it is no longer we who live. Thus, we allow Christ to live in us that we may experience and enjoy Him as our life.
1) “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him” (John 14:23).
Loving Christ and obeying His word are also conditions for us to experience Christ abiding in us. If we love Him and keep His word, He and the Father will come to abide with us that we may enjoy all the blessings of the Triune God abiding with us.
1) The Father “would grant you...to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts...” (Eph. 3:16-17).
Our being strengthened by God with power through His Spirit into our inner man (our spirit) is the condition for our experiencing Christ making His home in our hearts. This experience of Christ is deep, and therefore its condition, which is that our whole being be strengthened by God into our spirit, is weighty.
1) “With all boldness, as always, even now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death” (Phil. 1:20).
In order to magnify Christ, we must have boldness in all things, not caring for whether we live or die. This is the highest condition for our topmost experience of Christ.
1) “For me this shall turn out to salvation through... the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19).
We do not experience Christ by our ability or by our endeavoring, but through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of God, who participated in the incarnation, human living, and crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection, ascension, and glorification of Christ. This Spirit is the all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit who is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. This bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit is the power and means for us to experience Christ.
1) “...until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). The first issue of our experience of Christ is that Christ is formed in us. This refers to Christ growing and maturing in us unto a full stature (Eph. 4:13) that He may be fully expressed through us.
1) “...Christ may make His home in your heart... that you...may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth [the unlimited dimensions of Christ]...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19).
The second issue of our experience of Christ is that we become God’s full expression. This refers to Christ making His home in us that we may apprehend with all the saints His unlimited dimensions, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God to be the corporate expression of God.
