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Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:15a, 16a; 2:20a; 4:19; Col. 1:27; 3:4a, 11; Phil. 1:20b-21a; Eph. 3:17a, 19b; 1 Cor. 6:17; 4, 6, Rom. 8:8-11
Without God there is no explanation for the universe. Where did the heavens come from? Where did the earth come from? How did man get here? The answer to all such questions is God.
The mystery of the universe is God. The mystery of God, the Scripture tells us, is Christ (Col. 2:2). The mystery of Christ, we are further told, is the church (Eph. 3:4, 6). Actually, these are simply three stages of one mystery. God is to be found in Christ. Christ is to be found in the church. The church, then, is the mystery of Christ, who in turn is the mystery of God, who Himself is the mystery of the universe.
Of all the New Testament writers, the apostle Paul speaks most clearly about this mystery. His words are bold yet honest. He speaks from experience. Notice how the Scriptures we have listed above deal with experience rather than doctrine: “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (Gal. 1:15a, 16a). “Christ...lives in me” (2:20a). “Christ is formed in you” (4:19). “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). “Christ our life” (3:4a). “Christ will be magnified in my body...To me, to live is Christ” (Phil 1:20b, 21a). “Christ may make His home in your hearts...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17a, 19b). “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17).
All these words are clear, yet when you consider them carefully, you will realize that they convey a mystery. For example, are you really one spirit with the Lord Jesus? Can you declare, as Paul did, “To me, to live is Christ”? How could even Paul say this? He was Saul of Tarsus. For him to make such a statement, there must have been some fact, some experience, backing his word. Furthermore, how could Christ be magnified, that is, expressed and enlarged, in your body? How could your inner being become a home for Christ? We are speaking of a mystery.
When Christ came, He told people that He was God (John 5:17-18; 10:30, 33). God had always been a mystery. Now a little Nazarene stood before His fellow men and said that He was God. No wonder the Jews could not believe. Was He truly God? He surely was. He was the reality of God, God expressed and embodied.
After entering into death, resurrection, and ascension, He descended to reach His believers and make them one with Himself. That is why one of His believers could declare, “To me, to live is Christ.” One day a man from Nazareth had declared that He was God. Now here was a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus, declaring that to him, to live was Christ.
It is no wonder that the Jews told the Lord that He was blaspheming to say that He was God. We too have been accused of blaspheming for saying that to us, to live is Christ. In ancient times it was the religious Jews who condemned the Lord Jesus for blasphemy. In our day it is also the religious ones who condemn us. In both cases it is because they do not see the mystery.
You may be told that you are a saint like Theresa or that you are an angel. People will not protest if they hear that. But if you say, “To me, to live is Christ,” they will object that you are going too far, that you are saying something blasphemous, or that you are asking to be worshipped.
It is not blasphemy to say that we are one spirit with the Lord Jesus. It is a fact. It is a shame if for us, to live is a “saint,” or for us, to live is an angel. God wants us to live Christ. He has enough “holy” people and enough angels.
He has enough Texans and enough Chinese. He wants His chosen people, wherever they are from, to live Christ, not their culture or their virtues.
What God wants is a person, not some thing. This person is beyond our understanding. He is the infinite, eternal God. He is the Creator. Yet He became flesh. He lived on this earth. He passed through death, subdued it, and entered into resurrection. Then He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As such, He has entered into us and now lives in our spirit. Once He has entered us, He will never leave. He not only stays but wants to settle down. He wants to make His home in all the inner chambers of our heart — our mind, our emotion, and our will.
This is the heart of the Bible. You may forget the story of Enoch, for example, but do not forget this focal point. If I lose an ear, I can still live, but if my heart is removed, I am through. Too many Christians today are dealing with the little finger or even a fingernail of the little finger. They argue about whether the nail is square or triangular, they write books to prove that it is half round and half square, but the heart they disregard. The Lord’s recovery is to bring us back to the heart. Do not argue about the ten toes. Come back to the heart: God, the mystery of the universe; Christ, the mystery of God; the church, the mystery of Christ; and we His people, living Him.
Do you want this vision to be clear to you? Pray. But do not focus your prayer on things, persons, or situations. Give yourself to pray over these verses. You may pray, “Lord, it pleased You to reveal Christ in me. This was a pleasure to God. God was pleased. God was pleased not to teach me but to reveal. Reveal! Reveal His Son, not Theresa, not an angel, but His Son. In me, not in my mind, but in me.” If you will pray-read in this way, you will become excited. You will realize that you are no ordinary person. You will want to declare to the universe that you have Christ in you. You will become Christ-conscious and Christ-centered. Your pride in being an American, a Texan, or a Scot will fade away. It pleased God to reveal His Son in you!
By pray-reading all the verses we have listed at the beginning of the chapter, your mind and even your whole being will be set on the spirit. You will be saturated with a view of Christ as the mystery of God. You will realize that Christ is in you as your life. Do not wonder how you can be rid of the seven layers that keep you in the tomb. As you read and pray, they will all drop off with no further effort on your part.
While you are praying, the understanding will come. As you digest and assimilate these verses, you will enjoy their riches. Although their words are clear, they convey a mystery. How could Christ make His home in your heart? How could you be filled unto all the fullness of God? As you pray, you will realize that unto all the fullness of God means “resulting in the proper church life.” All the fullness of God is the Body of Christ, the church, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23). When Christ makes His home in your heart, then, the result will be the proper church life.
Take Colossians 3:11 for another example. Here it says that in the new man “there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” As you pray over this verse, your view of the church will become clear. The church is the new man, not an organization but the Body of Christ, an organism. In this new man Christ is all and in all. The church is Christ, being all — that is, being you, me, and every other believer — and being in all, that is, being in every one of us.
Pray yourself into these verses and pray them into you. Then you will see that what God wants is Christ, not the Christ of knowledge and doctrine but the Christ of experience. This Christ must be mingled with you. He must saturate you with all that He is. Once you have this view, it kills ethics, religion, human culture, natural virtues, and even your spiritual seeking. In this vision only Christ survives.
Even though nearly two thousand years have gone by, the Lord Jesus still does not have what He is after. There may be millions of Christians, but few pay attention to this focus of the biblical revelation. Will you stir up yourself to get into this focus? Will you lay other things aside and deal with the Lord about these verses? “Lord, reveal this matter in Galatians 1:15a and 16a to me. I know this is serious, but I do not fully grasp it. Infuse me with what it means.” Pray this way over all these verses until they are a part of your being. Then you will realize how pitiful the situation among Christians is. You will see that they are off, caring for minor matters and neglecting the heart. May we be those who see the focus of the Bible.
Notice these verses in Romans 8: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (vv. 8-11).
The names used for God in this passage deserve our attention. First, it says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. God is the term used in verse 8. Verse 9, however, says that the Spirit of God dwells in you and that one must have the Spirit of Christ to be of Him. God is God the Father, and the Spirit of God is God the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is interchangeable with the Spirit of God. Verse 10 says that Christ is in you. The Spirit of Christ is therefore Christ Himself. Whether He is called God, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, or Christ, all these terms used here clearly indicate that God’s dispensing of Himself into man is related to His being triune.
In verse 11 the Trinity is referred to again: “He who raised Christ from the dead” is God, whose Spirit dwells in you. Christ, who was raised from the dead, is the Son. He who raised Christ is another reference to God, who will also “give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”
The Trinity — God, Christ, and the Spirit — is for giving life to you. First, He gives life to your spirit (v. 10) and eventually life to your body (v. 11). In the middle is the mind, which, if set on the spirit, is life and peace (v. 6). The spirit is life, the mind is life, and even the body is life. The Triune God dispenses Himself as life into the tripartite man.
Can you see the need for the Trinity? God must be the Father, the Son, and the Spirit for the dispensing of Himself into man. He first comes into the center, our spirit; then spreads into our mind; and eventually saturates our body, the circumference.
Romans 8:4 tells us “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” The spirit here is our regenerated spirit, now indwelt by Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit. Here in our spirit we are one spirit with Him, mingled with Him.
Stop your preoccupation with loving your wife or submitting to your husband or being kind and patient. Simplify your Christian life by walking according to spirit. Pray and trust and wait on the Lord. Tell Him, “Lord, I am tired of making up my mind to do things. I want to stop all my doing. I trust in You. I wait on You. I want to live and move and have my being according to the spirit.” Do not try to walk according to some verse in the Bible, attempting to obey what it says without walking according to spirit.
The result of walking according to spirit will be that Christ is expressed. You will find it true that to you, to live is Christ. Whether your circumstances are peaceful or troublesome, do not be disturbed. Let it suffice that any circumstances are good for you to live Christ and for Him to be magnified in your body.
This is the Christian life according to the universal mystery.
The mystery of Christ is the church. We as members of the church must live according to the spirit. This living is not individualistic. The more we live Christ, the more we are aware that we are in the Body. As Colossians 3:11 tells us, in this new man there is no room for the natural man with his national characteristics. What is the church life? It is Christ being all of us and being in all of us. Living by Christ spontaneously issues in the church life.
Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:19 is “that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” The result of your being filled will be the fullness of God, that is, the proper and living church life.
The key point is to walk according to the spirit. Yet to do this you need a clear view concerning Christ and the church. This vision will come to you only through prayer. Pray-read these verses. Forget about praying for your personal concerns and your anxieties. God will take care of all these other matters. Pray regarding this one matter. Pray-read these verses until you see that Christ is the mystery of God and that the church is the mystery of Christ. Then you will realize that Christ is the all-inclusive One — the infinite, eternal God, the Creator, the incarnated One, the crucified One, the resurrected One who has become the life-giving Spirit, and the One in ascension who has entered into your being and is now indwelling your spirit and making you one spirit with Him. All things have been accomplished by Him.
If we have our being according to this one spirit, we will live out Christ. The church life will be the outcome. There will be the church as the new man with Christ as the content. Then the church will indeed be the fullness of God.
