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Scripture Reading: Col. 2:2b, 9; Heb. 1:3a; John 1:1, 14, 18; Col. 1:25-27; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6
The Bible says that Christ is the mystery of God (Col. 2:2). If we want to know God, we must know Christ. God is true and living, but He is mysterious. Christ explains Him. This He does not only by His words but mostly by His very person. “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). Man cannot see God, but there is One who declares Him. He is God’s expression.
In Hebrews 1:3 He is called the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance. Electricity cannot be seen, but when the lights shine, we can see its glory. God is like the invisible electricity; Christ is His shining forth, the effulgence of His glory. God has an eternal essence, which is not material but spiritual. It is because the Lord Jesus expresses this essence, God’s very substance, that He is the mystery of God. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him (Col. 2:9). Where He is, there God is, for He Himself is God.
The first chapter of the Gospel of John goes into this matter also. The Word was in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God (v. 1). How could the Word be God? How could the Word become flesh (v. 14)? In our mentality the Word is one thing, God is something else, and the flesh is another thing. John tells us that these three are one. “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16, KJV). When the Word became flesh, God was manifested in the flesh. This is the Lord Jesus, the mystery of God.
We all need to be brought “unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ” (Col. 2:2). Have you seen God? Your answer should be, “I have seen Christ!” God is in Christ, and Christ is God. Apart from Christ, you cannot find God. To have Christ is to have God. To belong to God is to belong to Christ. With God there is a mystery, but with Christ the mystery is revealed.
God has been revealed. We can contact Him. We can fellowship with Him. We can walk with Him. We are even one spirit with Him, because we are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). We have God because we have Christ, who is the mystery of God.
The word economy means an arrangement for getting things done. Young people make studying their economy. Cooking is the economy of a cook. Businessmen operate under an economy; that is, they have a way of doing things in order to accomplish their ends. Only those who are idle have no economy. Since our God neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psa. 121:4), surely He has an economy.
What is God’s economy? Christ! Laboring in the kitchen may be the cook’s economy. She may be hard at work, preparing meat, vegetables, fish, and bean curd. What is God doing in His kitchen? He is preparing Christ. Every dish that He turns out for our enjoyment is simply Christ. I am not speaking nonsense. The Lord Jesus told us that He is the bread of life (John 6:48). When we break the bread, we are touching His body. Colossians 2:16-17 says that eating, drinking, feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths are all “a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.” Bean curd is a shadow; the body of the bean curd is Christ. He is the most nutritious food, much better than bean curd. When you are thirsty, you like to have a refreshing drink. Have you not had the experience of calling on the Lord when you feel dry within, and finding yourself refreshed? The material drink is only a shadow of Christ as the real drink.
For more than thirty years I have been speaking on the tree of life, on the enjoyment of God through eating and drinking Him, and on Christ as God’s economy. It seems that we still do not have a thorough understanding, and therefore our experience is limited. My own experience also seems inadequate. God’s economy is mysterious, rich, and profound. It is the focus of the whole Bible. Even at the end of the Bible there is the promise of the tree of life to those who wash their robes (Rev. 22:14) and a call to the thirsty to come and drink of the water of life (v. 17). In this final chapter of the Word, eating of the tree of life and drinking of the water of life are again brought into view.
Paul tells us that his ministry was to complete the word of God (Col. 1:25). Without his Epistles God’s word is not complete. There were the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, the four Gospels, and the Acts. The Old Testament foretold the coming of Christ, the Gospels presented Him to us, and the Acts spoke further of Him. But Christ is so great that there was much more to be said of Him. The stewardship given to Paul concerned “the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints; to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:26-27). The hidden mystery is Christ in you; without Christ in us, God’s revelation would not be complete. It would be like making a shirt and having it all finished except for the collar; when Paul came, he added the collar!
We cannot exhaust who Christ is. In the Old Testament, in the Gospels, and in the Acts we find that He is God, the Word of God, man, flesh, the Lamb of God, the Redeemer, the rock, the Shepherd, the Savior, the Physician, the Prophet, the King, the High Priest, the door, the way, the green pasture, righteousness, light, power, life, and peace. He is far more than these, as these parts of the Bible indicate. Not until we come to the writings of Paul, however, are we made clear that this all-inclusive Christ is in us.
The Old Testament does not cover this. Genesis 3 says that the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head (v. 15). Christ is that seed. Christ is also the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed (22:18). In Isaiah 9:6 He is the child born to us, and the Son given. The government is upon His shoulder. He is called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace. In Haggai 2:7 He is referred to as the Desire of all the nations. Malachi 4:2 calls Him the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings; that is, there is healing in His rays.
This is a sampling of many references to Christ in the Old Testament, but none says that Christ is within us.
The light in the Gospels is more specific, telling us of this dear Christ who has come. He is the son of David and the son of Abraham, born of the virgin Mary. He was the Word from the beginning. This Word was God and became flesh. We cannot see clearly, however, that this Christ who has come will come into us and be our person. John hints at this, but the Lord’s words seemed to bewilder the disciples: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter,...the Spirit of reality,...He abides with you and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17). When the Lord Jesus was with them, He could not be in them. But on the day of resurrection they would experience the Spirit of reality and know that they were in Him and He in them.
This is apparently all that He could say to them. Had He spoken further, they would only have been confused. They had to wait for that day; then they would know. “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (v. 20). It was unto this end that He prayed in John 17, “As You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (v. 21). Do you think Peter and the other disciples understood these words that the Lord prayed? What does it mean to be one in the Father and in the Son?
The explanation came with Paul. Again and again in his writings, the term in Christ appears; again and again he told the believers that Christ was in them. It was his commission to complete the word of God by making the saints clear that Christ was in them.
In my early Christian years I loved the Lord, but I was not taught about Christ being in me. Instead, I was given considerable instruction in prophecy. I learned the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 and of the four beasts in Daniel 7. With all my studying and instruction, however, I was never taught “this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Words cannot express what a revelation it was to me when I realized this mystery. Christ in me!
Even today some Christians oppose this. During my recent visit to Taipei, I was speaking from Romans that we are vessels having God Himself as our content (9:23). I later heard that a traveling evangelist who was listening protested, asking how such a big God could possibly fit into such a small container as man. How pitiful that a preacher could be so ignorant! Does the Bible from which he preaches not say that Christ is in us? Is the Lord Jesus not bigger than we? The Bible clearly states that this big Christ is contained in us small human beings.
Of course, we cannot explain how this could be. It is a mystery. Even in the natural realm there are many things for which we have no explanation. We know the facts but not the whys. We can utilize electricity, for example, but why it works as it does we do not know. How the great God can fit into His small creature is a puzzle, but we know that this is the case because the Bible tells us so. I have spent many years mining the Bible to dig out its riches, seeking to find the answers.
A young married sister once interrupted my speaking in a meeting to ask how we could abide in the Lord and the Lord abide in us. I told her to hold her question, that I would come to it later. I then continued my speaking on this matter of Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit. The word spirit in Greek, I said, is the same as the word for air. To say that the Lord is the Spirit of life is to say that He is the breath of life. I then addressed myself to her: “Sister, you are now abiding in the air, and the air is abiding in you. Otherwise, you would not be alive. Because the Lord Jesus is the breath of life, we are in Him just as we are in the fresh air. The air that is in us is like the Lord Himself in us.”
The Lord Jesus can be in us because in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Were He not the Spirit, He could not abide in us. “The Lord is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17).
There are some mysterious verses in Revelation about the Spirit. In 1:4 John greets the seven churches which are in Asia: “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.” Who or what are these seven Spirits? They are the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne (4:5). They are the seven eyes of the Lamb (5:6).
These seven Spirits are surely the one Spirit, the Holy Spirit. How then can there be seven? When the book of Revelation was written, the churches were degraded and in darkness. With the churches in such a low condition, the Spirit needed to be intensified sevenfold. The lampstand in the tabernacle had seven lamps (Exo. 25:37). The amount of light we need from a lamp depends on how dark it is. We may have a lamp at home with a three-way bulb. If we are reading, we may turn it on all the way so as to get the most light. On the other hand, if it is early evening, we may get enough light turning it only once. In Revelation the churches were too weak and too dark; the light was not enough. It needed to be intensified. This intensified light is the seven Spirits.
The traditional view of the Trinity breaks down when confronted with the seven Spirits and the seven eyes of the Lamb. If the Godhead is categorized into three separate and distinct persons, what can we do with this description of the Spirit of God in Revelation? Christ, the second person, is the Lamb, but His seven eyes are the seven Spirits, the third person. The Holy Spirit here is the eyes of Christ. Can we think of a person’s eyes as other than himself? If we are hit in the eye, have we ourselves not been hit? Are we one person and our eyes another? Theology’s explanation of the Trinity comes from mental exercise; it cannot stand the test of practical experience. In our experience the Holy Spirit is indeed the eyes of Christ.
Is the age today not dark? Is it not degraded? What we need is the seven Spirits. Christ today is not only the Spirit but the seven Spirits. These seven Spirits are the seven eyes of Christ, walking among the churches.
The Christ in you has seven eyes. He is watching and shining in you. However troublesome the doctrine sounds, in your experience you are surely aware of His eyes upon you. The more you love the Lord, the more you sense His searching of you, and the clearer the vision is. From whatever angle you try to avoid His searching gaze, those seven eyes do not miss anything. A light word, some impulsive greediness, or some covetousness — all bring the seven eyes to focus on you. Wherever you go, you cannot escape.
The Christ whom God has dispensed into us is salvation and life. He is not a doctrine or a religion. He is the living, life-giving One with seven eyes, watching and penetrating our being. The result is that we become transparent. This indicates that Christ has been worked into us.
To God Christ is His mystery; to us Christ is God’s economy. God’s dispensing is still going on. Whether we are praying at home, attending morning watch, pray-reading, or fellowshipping with each other, God is dispensing Himself into us. Even when we deal with our sins by repenting and confessing, God is dispensing. The Christ He dispenses is not just the Spirit but the seven Spirits.
Praise the Lord that we are in His economy! Christ, the mystery of God and the economy of God, is being dispensed into us.
