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Scripture Reading: Col. 1:27; 2:16-17; 3:4, 10-11; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a
Of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, four may be considered as its heart. The heart is crucial. You may lose a finger or even your nose and still survive, but without your heart you are finished. What books in the New Testament would you say are the most vital? Over these many years I have worn out several Bibles through using them so much. Even so, the pages of many of the books were not worn out. But the pages of four books in those Bibles soon showed signs of wear. Even the Bible I am using now has these same pages well worn. If you check the Bibles of seeking Christians, I believe you will find these very pages also worn.
These books are Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. They are really the heart of the whole Bible, not just of the New Testament. Their theme is Christ and the church.
Galatians reveals that Christ stands in opposition to religion, even the Jewish religion, which was set up according to the commandments and ordinances given by God. Christ is on one side, and the Jewish religion and its law are on the other. Surely the Jewish religion was the highest; no heathen religion could compare with it. Yet Christ stands against it.
Christ versus Greek philosophy is the message of Colossians. When Colossians was written, the Mediterranean world was ruled by Rome. Roman politics and law prevailed. What attracted people of that day were the Jewish religion and Greek philosophy. Even in today’s modern Western culture, these three components prevail: Roman politics and government, the Hebrew religion, and Greek philosophy. The philosophy dealt with in Colossians was Gnosticism, which included, besides Greek philosophy, elements of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian philosophies.
Religion and philosophy are culture’s highest inventions. Without them mankind would be wild, barbaric. Men would be like the Scythians (3:11), who were considered the most barbaric of people, lacking any semblance of religion or philosophy. Human culture rests largely on these two things. Because of them the fallen race is kept under constraint and has a good appearance. But these two books make clear that Christ stands against both religion and philosophy. However good these are, they are no match for Christ. He is far above them.
The message of Philippians is, “To me, to live is Christ” (1:21). This Christ, who stands in opposition to the highest human attainments, is our life. We are not religious people or philosophical people; we are Christians, “Christ people.” A Christian has Christ within and lives Him out.
The result of this Christ living in us, as opposed to religion and philosophy, is the church, the theme of Ephesians. The church is Christ, opposing religion and philosophy and being lived out of His people. This Christ within and among His people is God revealed, the heart of the divine revelation.
In these recent months the churches have been brought back to the Word and to prayer. I believe also that the churches are seeking to live Christ, a life that builds up the church. We thank the Lord for this. The messages that have been given on the book of Philippians have greatly helped the churches. The same is true of the messages given in the trainings on Ephesians. Yet not too long ago the Lord rebuked me. He pointed out what a lack there is of Christ in the churches. Christ is not practically lived out in the church life. As I knelt there before Him, I took the lead to confess my shortage of Christ. May the Lord reveal to us how we lack the practical living by Christ. I was not rebuked for raw sins or worldliness; by His mercy and grace I can testify that these things do not touch me. But the Lord said, “You may not be worldly or immoral, but how much Christ do you live?” I had to confess that it is very little.
I believe that most of you also can say that you do not easily fall into rough sins or worldliness. Such things have little appeal for you. But in your daily walk, how much of Christ has been wrought into you? Your policy is to behave properly. You feel condemned if you tell a lie, for example. But do you ever feel condemned that you have not lived Christ? If you act properly, you have no sense of condemnation. This indicates that unknowingly you are paying attention to ethics and morality, caring for human virtues.
Occasionally, I take a look at my diary. A number of times I have recorded that I did not do well in something or that I was wrong or that I was mistaken. But rarely does an entry say, “Today I was short of Christ.” Does not this indicate how much I cared for good behavior?
Our attention is on virtuous behavior. When we are proud, we regret that we lack humility. But when we treat others kindly, we may be short of Christ. We may be prompted by our natural love. We are in naturalness. It is possible for us to live a life that expresses the human virtues, like kindness and consideration of others, but to live by Christ is foreign to us.
Why is it so hard for us to live out Christ? Even back in 1970 we heard many messages on Christ being our life and on taking Him as our person. Those messages were well received by the saints, and a number of hymns were written on taking Christ as our person. But the messages have become a faded memory, and we are left with only the doctrine and some hymns.
Many times you have had the experience, while praying, of praying yourself into the spirit. At these times you were taking Christ as your person. At such times of prayer, when you were one with the Lord, taking Him as your life, you wanted to linger with Him, even to be raptured. But once that time was over, it seemed that you immediately slipped back into yourself.
It is because of this that the Word tells us to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17). Unceasing prayer is the only way for us to be preserved in Christ. I have tried other ways, like exercising faith, but from experience I can tell you that without praying we are outside of Christ; with prayer we are in Him.
During these sixteen or so years that I have been in the United States, I have sought to impress you with three basic matters. I long for them to be wrought into your being.
Our God today is the life-giving Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45 is an important verse in the Bible. Who is the last Adam? It is Christ, the very God who created all things; who became incarnate, confined in a carpenter’s home in Nazareth for thirty years and then ministering for three and a half years; who entered into death and then into resurrection. In resurrection this One became a life-giving Spirit.
Now our God is no more just God, Elohim. He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Not only so, but the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have become a life-giving Spirit. It is in this form that God reaches us. Colossians 1:27 speaks of “this mystery...which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” How could Christ be in us if God had not become a life-giving Spirit? If “Christ in you” is a fact, not just a motto, He must be the life-giving Spirit.
The life-giving Spirit is the reaching stage of the Triune God. As the Father He cannot reach us. Even as the Son He can only reach us outwardly. But as the Spirit He can enter into us. Most Christians have no understanding or appreciation of this. Even we in the recovery, who have heard so many messages on this very subject, have very little realization in our daily walk that our God today is a processed God. The processed God is now within us as the life-giving Spirit. This is not only a fact but also a key factor in our Christian life.
God created us with a spirit, but this spirit was deadened. Then God came in and regenerated it with His divine life. We are not animals without a spirit, nor are we only humans with a deadened spirit. We are those whose spirit has been regenerated with the element of the divine life. This is the second factor in our Christian life.
Your enlivened spirit is not merely a fact for you to believe. It may be a fact, for example, that you have a large bank account. But nonetheless you may be walking the streets as a beggar. When your bank account becomes a factor in your daily living, you will begin to write checks and draw upon the money you have. Is it only a fact to you that your God is a processed God and is now the life-giving Spirit in your spirit? Is it only a fact to you that your spirit is no longer deadened but rather regenerated with the divine life? These facts are hardly known among general Christians. But for you in the Lord’s recovery, who know the facts, they still affect you very little. Otherwise, you would be writing checks and enjoying your riches!
If you read through your Bible, going on from the Old Testament through to the end of the New Testament, you will see that the Lord’s ultimate charge to you is not that you follow laws or teachings but that you walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4). The word translated “spirit” in Romans 8:4, and in several other verses in Romans 8, presents a problem to translators. It is hard to decide whether to regard spirit as referring to the Holy Spirit and capitalize it or to consider that it is the human spirit and not capitalize it. The spirit here refers to the mingled spirit, our spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit. We need another size letter to denote this, neither a capital letter nor a small one. These two spirits, the divine and the human, have become one (1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; 2 Cor. 3:17).
Walking according to this mingled spirit is the third factor in our Christian life. To walk means to live, to act, or to have one’s being. We must live and act and have our being not according to the Ten Commandments or the so-called Sermon on the Mount or some doctrines but according to the mingled spirit.
Practice walking this way. Every day, from morning till evening, cease from your doing and seek to constantly remain in this mingled spirit.
In 1933 I began to make a clearance of my past. I made restitution to people whom I had wronged. Once that was over, I made up my mind never to do wrong again. This I tried to keep up for about two and a half years. It was hard not to be wrong! I remember sharing a room with a brother during a retreat. As hard as I tried, I found myself doing one thing after another that offended him. I spilled some water on his bed and apologized. Then I said something not accurate, and I had to confess that to him. Then I felt my apology was insincere. I seemed to be continually under condemnation.
Now, however, it is no longer my aim to not make mistakes. Every day, early in the morning, my first prayer is, “Lord, grant me the mercy that I may live Your life. I want to be one with You in spirit. May I have my whole being in the mingled spirit.” The result has been that a number of times I have had to confess to the Lord, “I have not done this according to the spirit...What I said to the elders was not according to the spirit.” There may have been nothing outwardly wrong, but nonetheless it was not according to the spirit.
We are used to living according to our natural life. We are under the influence of morality. If we lie, we feel condemned. But if we do or say something without Christ, we have no sense of condemnation. We may not do wrong, but in God’s eyes we lack Christ in our doing or in our speaking.
Actually, to lack Christ is sin. The consummate commandment in the whole Bible is that we walk according to spirit. Is it not a sin to break this commandment? We may have done many moral, virtuous things but without Christ. It is this failure that weakens the church life. A normal, rich church life is evident only when Christ is lived out by us.
Let us practice living by Christ and taking Him as our life and person. Whether we are at home with our family or at work or at school, in all our contacts and in all our living, let us have every part of our being according to the spirit. To allow Christ to thus live Himself out from within us is the Christian life. Then it will be our experience that we have been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer I but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). We will be able to say truthfully, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
Walking according to the spirit is the building factor of the church life. It will make the churches rich and glorious. Live by Him.
