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Christ is the focus of God’s eternal purpose. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
To experience Christ as the way and as the reality, we must first experience Him as our life. If I were to ask you how Christ can be our life, you would perhaps be at a loss for words. I doubt that many Christians know the answer, but this is one of the truths that God has recovered and that He wants us to experience. For Christ to be our life we need to know some aspects of who He is.
In John 1 Christ is portrayed as the Word who was in the beginning. This Word, who was God Himself, became flesh. Christ, then, is God incarnate. Why did He become a man? Verse 29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” For Christ to be our life, He first had to solve the problem of sin. Sin was separating us from God. This man as the Lamb of God was our Redeemer whose blood was shed on the cross for our sins. This truth of redemption is the common belief of Christians.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12:24). Unlike redemption, the significance of this picture of Christ as a grain of wheat is not understood by most Christians. The grain of wheat does not pertain to redemption, since a seed does not have blood. A seed contains life. The grain of wheat is for the imparting of life. While the shedding of blood was for redemption, the imparting of life is for reproduction. What is the result of the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying? The seed sprouts and grows to produce many grains. Christ was the single grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. Then He sprouted in resurrection and became many grains. We are those many grains. What has become of the original grain? Not only is it within us, but it has also become all of us.
Dear ones, do you realize how precious is this truth of Christ as the grain of wheat? When I was saved, I repented of my sins, confessed to the Lord, and was cleansed by His blood. After I had been saved for a time, I began to wonder what more there was to the Christian life. Was Christ only the Lamb to take away my sins? The only answer I was given was that now that I was saved, I should try to lead a good Christian life. How far short of God’s intention such instruction falls! The Lamb for redemption is the grain for reproducing. By death and resurrection this grain has borne much fruit.
We need to see further who Christ is in order for us to experience Him as our life. In chapter 14 John records these words of Christ: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality” (vv. 16-17). Christ Himself is the Comforter. The other Comforter to be sent is the Spirit of reality. This other Comforter is not distinct from Christ Himself. He is simply the reality of Christ, translating Christ from an empty term to a living person for us. Without “another Comforter” Christ would not be real to us.
For Christ to become our life, He had to take two steps. The first step was the incarnation, when “the Word became flesh.” The second step is described in 1 Corinthians 15:45: “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The first “became” was God becoming a man to accomplish redemption; the second “became” was Christ becoming the Spirit so that He might reproduce Himself in us.
When did this last Adam become a life-giving Spirit? It was when He arose from the dead after spending three days and three nights in the tomb.
There is a troublesome verse in John (7:39) about the Spirit: “This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Why does it say “the Spirit was not yet”? Even Genesis 1 says, “The Spirit of God was brooding upon the surface of the waters” (v. 2). If the Spirit was there thousands of years ago, why does the Scripture say “the Spirit was not yet”? For years this verse puzzled me. I did not find the answer until I read Andrew Murray’s The Spirit of Christ. Chapter 5 explains that at Pentecost the Spirit of the glorified Jesus came to communicate to us, not the life of God as such, but that life as it had been interwoven into human nature in the person of Christ Jesus. It was this Spirit with humanity as well as divinity that “was not” until the resurrection of Christ.
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” What Spirit is being referred to? If you check J. N. Darby’s translation, you will see that he puts verses 7 through 16 in parentheses, indicating that the thought in verse 17 directly follows that in verse 6, which says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” By putting these two verses together, we can see that the Lord is the Spirit who gives life. Here, then, is a confirmation that the Lord Jesus today is the life-giving Spirit.
“He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). Sinners like us can be one spirit with the Lord! Do you have the liberty to participate in worldly entertainments when you are one spirit with Him? When I am speaking for the Lord, this assurance that I am one spirit with Him is the source of my authority. Our being one spirit with the Lord affects everything we do.
“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” (12:13). By having been immersed into Christ we are positioned to drink of Him as the one Spirit. Nothing less than this inward and outward mingling of ourselves and Christ as the wonderful, all-inclusive Spirit constitutes the church life.
Christ can be our life because He has passed through death and resurrection and has become the Spirit.
Now that we have considered how Christ is life to us, we will refer to 1 Corinthians to show how Christ can be the reality to us. In this one Epistle Christ is presented to the church as eighteen items.
“Indeed Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1:22-24). The Jews, as a religious people, sought signs or miracles. The Greeks, as lovers of philosophy, sought wisdom. For signs power is needed, and for philosophy wisdom is necessary. Paul says here that to us who are called, Christ is both power and wisdom.
If you want to run a corporation, you need money and sound judgment. The capital, or money, is the power, and the sound judgment is the wisdom. Have you ever realized that your life is like a corporation and that Christ is both your capital and your wisdom? If you take your mentality as your capital, your firm will end up in bankruptcy. If you take your cleverness as your wisdom, you will come out short of what you need. Cleverness comes mainly from our human mentality, but wisdom is from the divine Spirit.
More is said about wisdom in verse 30: “Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” We were put into Christ by being baptized (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27). The water of baptism signifies not only the death of Christ but also Christ Himself as the realm in which we have been placed. The very Christ into whom we were baptized became wisdom to us from God.
Christ is wisdom to us in righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Righteousness refers to God’s doings. To be righteous is to be right with God and with man. No human being can meet this standard. Consider how loose, rough, and lawless we were before we were saved. It is because we have Christ as wisdom that we have the way to be right with both God and man. The change that has taken place in our conduct before God and man is evidence that Christ is the reality of righteousness in our life.
Sanctification is holiness; it is God’s nature. When this objective holiness becomes our subjective experience, it is sanctification. We are sanctified when we are separated unto God from everything that is not of Him.
We can use our attitude toward shopping as an illustration of the distinction between righteousness and sanctification. Before we were saved, if we could take something from the store without paying for it, we were pleased with ourselves for not getting caught. Such behavior is unrighteous. After we were saved, not only would we not steal, but even if we were given too much change, we would return it. This is an example of righteousness and means that we are experiencing Christ as the power and wisdom of God.
In the experience of sanctification, you may find when you go shopping that you have a sense of bothering within about the purchase you would like to make. There is no question about your paying for it, but you have a sense that it is worldly. You may drop it and consider another article. Still there is a restraining within. By the time you turn to consider the third possible purchase, you have had enough restraint and decide that this is what you are going to buy, that this is less worldly than either of the other two you considered. The Lord within stops talking, not because He approves but in order not to press you too far when you are so young. When you come to wear your new purchase, sometimes you are happy to put it on, but other times you wonder why you thought it was so attractive in the store. Then you wear it to a meeting and feel condemned the whole time. Eventually, you discard it. The next time you go shopping, you find that the appeal of those things has faded. In time you have no inclination to purchase worldly things. By experiences such as these Christ becomes the power and wisdom to us in sanctification.
How does Christ become redemption to us? When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were redeemed. We were God’s possession, God’s inheritance, but in the fall we were lost. In redemption Christ bought us back for God. Although this redemption has been accomplished, it still needs to be applied. Our mind needs to be redeemed; so do our will and our emotion. We need to be redeemed from our natural, fallen ability, our eloquence, and our way of treating our neighbors.
It would be good to pray, “Lord, I need You as my power and wisdom to be righteous, holy, and redeemed. I do not want to remain in my natural, fallen state. I want to be fully in You, not in Adam. God has transferred me into You, and I would like to abide there, redeemed from my way of thinking, my way of loving others, and my way of making a decision. Lord, I want to express You; redeem me from my expression and from my natural attitude.”
First Corinthians 1:30 also refers to the three stages of the Christian life. In the past, when we were sinful, Christ became our righteousness. Our present living is now sanctified through Christ. In the future, when Christ returns, our body will be redeemed. Christ, then, has taken care of these three stages of our Christian life, as well as these three aspects of our daily experience. Day by day He is the power and wisdom for us to be righteous, sanctified, and redeemed.
“As it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But to us God has revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (2:9-10). All the matters pertaining to human society are superficial. Worldlings may be familiar with material wealth, education, or science, but there is something deeper that we experience, something beyond the concept of man. Others can even sense that the joy and the strength we experience are deeper than what they know. We are a mystery to the world. In suffering we have a joy; in loss we have a gain. “The depths of God” that He has prepared for those who love Him are Christ Himself.
“Another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (3:11). If you do not have Christ, your life has no foundation. He is not only the foundation of the church; without Him, you have no foundation for your personal life. Our daily living must be founded on a person. Christ is the reality of our life because He is our foundation.
“Our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed” (5:7). The passover reminds us that formerly we were under God’s condemnation but that God has forgiven us, passed over us, through Christ (see Exo. 12:1-14). Christ as our Passover becomes our salvation and our forgiveness.
“So then let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:8). In the Old Testament seven feasts were kept by the children of Israel (Lev. 23). The first was the Feast of the Passover, and the next was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In that feast nothing leavened could be eaten. In Christ we enjoy a lifelong feast of unleavened bread. If we do not sense that we are feasting, it is because we have not gotten rid of the leaven. Leaven represents what is sinful and condemned by God. Once this is gone, our Christian life becomes a happy enjoyment.
The Lord’s table signifies the Passover feast and also reminds us of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Sin and condemnation are over. We are at the feast, enjoying Christ and hating sin.
“Our fathers...all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:1-4). Day by day our food is Christ; He is the manna. He is also the living water that flows out of the cleft rock. The rock symbolizes the source of our supply. Both the supply and the source of the supply are Christ. He is our dependable rock, always following us to be our supply. In Him we have food, drink, and an unfailing source of supply.
“I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ” (11:3). All too often the self is the head. But Christ is not only our life; He is also to be our Head. Unless we take Christ as our Head, we cannot properly take Him as our life. This affects our personal life, our family life, and the church life. His headship is a serious matter.
If we are asked for advice by a younger one, our fellowship must be under the headship of Christ. To tell the younger one what to do is to disregard the fact that Christ is his Head, not we. For him to know what to do is secondary; for him to realize that Christ is his Head is primary.
Our Head is the Lord Jesus. We are not our own head; neither is anyone else. Once we realize this, we are ready to know His will because we have given Him the right position. The sisters cannot take their husband as their head without first positioning themselves to take Christ as the Head. Only when He is the Head are we properly positioned in the presence of God. We lack the experience of Christ because we do not esteem Him as our Head. Before we decide to go somewhere or to buy a pair of shoes, we must check with Him. By coming under His headship we will experience Him as our reality.
“Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ” (12:12). From this verse we can see that Christ is not only the Head but also the Body. In the new man there is no room for you or me; Christ is all in all (Col. 3:10-11).
“Now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). Christ is the first. “The second man is out of heaven” (v. 47). Here He is second. “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” (v. 45). Here He is last. If He is A and B, He is also Z. Christ is everything.
How could this marvelous One, represented by all these items, be the reality of them to us? It is because He is the life-giving Spirit. By turning away from our mind, emotion, and will, we can encounter Him in our spirit. As He spreads into our inner being and makes His home there, He becomes our reality as well as our life, and we are no longer empty.
After we have experienced Christ as our life and enjoyed Him as our reality, this reality becomes our way. God’s way with us is always a person. For us to contact God, the way is a person. The same is true of fellowshipping with the saints, serving God, living in the church life, preaching the gospel, shepherding the saints, becoming holy, or being redeemed. In our Christian life the way to do everything is a person.
The One who is the power and wisdom of God to us is Christ crucified (1:23-24). Paul refers to Him again as the crucified One in the second chapter: “I, when I came to you, brothers, came not according to excellence of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the mystery of God. For I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling; and my speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (vv. 1-4).
In preaching this crucified One, Paul held the attitude of himself being crucified. Rather than demonstrating a clever mind or eloquent words, he was with the Corinthians in weakness, fear, and much trembling. The way to preach is in demonstration of the Spirit, not in the exaltation of the natural man. The crucified Jesus is the way of all ministry.
When the Lord Jesus began His ministry around the age of thirty, His first public act was to be baptized by John (Matt. 3:13-17). His ministry began with His being buried. He was holy, pure, and sinless, yet before He could touch God’s ministry, (in figure) He had to die. John the Baptist did not realize this. He could see how sinners like the Pharisees and Sadducees needed to be baptized, but how could this One born of the Holy Spirit need baptism? “Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it for now, for it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness” (v. 15). Dear ones, the highest righteousness is to be buried. After Christ had been buried and come up from the water, He entered into the enjoyment of the presence of God. Such is the meaning of the opened heavens, the descent of the Spirit like a dove, and the Father’s voice. For the true enjoyment of God’s presence, we must die and be buried.
A careful study of the Gospels will reveal that the whole earthly life of the Lord Jesus was under the death of the cross. His baptism was the first step in a life of dying. Eventually, He went to the cross and physically died.
In resurrection this One became the life-giving Spirit. The effectiveness of His death is in this very Spirit who now indwells us (see chapter 8). We do not die by committing suicide but by experiencing the dying One within. Hebrews 10:20 tells us that a new and living way has been initiated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. When Jesus was crucified, the veil that separated man from God was rent from top to bottom. His being crucified opened the way and made Him the way. Whatever we seek to do or be in our Christian life, the way is to die with Christ.
I trust that through this chapter we have become clear that the One who is “the way and the reality and the life” is experienced by us first as our life, then as our reality, and last as our way. Such experiences are possible because in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, and as such He indwells us. Because we are one spirit with Him, whatever He is becomes ours and our reality. This reality then becomes our way to live in the presence of God.
