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Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:5-6, 24, 27-28; 3:6a, 24; 4:4, 12b-13, 15-16; 5:20; John 14:17, 20; 15:4a; 17:21
If we were totally unfamiliar with the Bible and its teachings, and someone came and said to us, “I am in God, and God is in me,” we would probably think he was a mental case. How can a man be in God and God in him? Nowadays, however, we are quite familiar with expressions like, “Abide in Me and I in you” (John 15:4). We do not stop to consider what a mystery it is that God, the person Himself, can actually abide in us and we in Him.
Who is God? Where is He? How can He possibly abide in us? It is not merely His power or His love that abides in us but God Himself. It is easy to see that we are now abiding in this building or that we are abiding in our physical body. But a God who cannot be seen or touched or sensed—is it not sheer superstition to claim that we are now in Him and that at the same time He is in us? To the unbelievers this surely does seem superstitious; to us, however, it is a wonderful fact, which the Bible declares and which we also experience.
Prior to John 14, the Bible never tells us that man abides in God and that God abides in man. In Genesis we read of Abraham and Jacob, who eventually became intimate with God, yet there is no mention of their abiding in Him. In Exodus there is Moses, who stayed in God’s presence for forty days and was so infused that his face shone with God’s glory; nonetheless, there is no record that Moses was abiding in God and that God was abiding in him.
If we continue through the Old Testament, we still cannot find a verse indicating that God and man can abide in each other. Even in the Psalms, the most intimate book of the Old Testament, the psalmists were in the temple, beholding God’s beauty and enjoying the fatness of His house (27:4; 36:8), but they were not abiding in God. (Although Psalm 90:1 says, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations,” this is different from the abiding in the Lord that is revealed in the New Testament.) Even the prophet Daniel, who was so close to God, makes no mention of actually abiding in Him.
Thus it is throughout the rest of the Old Testament, and right on into the New. Matthew is a wonderful book, but there is no record of man’s abiding in God or of God’s abiding in man. Nor do we find this in Mark, Luke, or the first thirteen chapters of John either.
Hallelujah for John 14! “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be” (vv. 2-3). When the Lord Jesus said, “Where I am,” what did He mean? The traditional Christian answer is, “In heaven.” If we read on in this very chapter, however, verses 10 and 11 tell us clearly, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” Then the Lord went on to explain to the disciples that they themselves could not yet be in the Father, that first the way had to be cut to give them the standing to be in God. Christ Himself would accomplish the removal of such obstacles as sins, sin, the old nature, the self, Satan, and the world. By His death on the cross, He paved the way for them to be in the divine person. He removed all the obstacles and terminated all the frustrations. In verse 20 He said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” He was telling the disciples that on the day of resurrection, after He had accomplished the death of the cross, they would be with Him in the Father. Where He was, there they would be also.
Who is in whom? “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in You.” What we have here is a wonderful mingling of divinity with humanity. We are in God, and God is in us.
John 15 is a continuation of the thought in chapter 14. Once we are brought into God, we must abide in Him and He in us (v. 4). We are in the Son, and He is in us. Our need now is to stay there. The King James Version translates the word for abide five different ways: “abide” (14:16; 15:4-7, 10); “dwell” (14:10, 17); “being present” (v. 25); “continue” (15:9); “remain” (vv. 11, 16). The use of so many different words to translate one Greek word indicates how rich the meaning is. Now that we are in Christ, we must stay there, remain in Him, dwell in Him, settle down in Him, continue there.
In 1 John only twice does it say that we are in the Lord (2:5; 5:20). Most of the Epistle is concerned with abiding. With the Gospel of John we have already been put into Christ; thus, what 1 John is emphasizing is our need to remain where we have been put. We are to abide, not in the Word, nor His love, nor His power, nor His goodness, but in Himself. Do not think that this is unimportant. The Lord Jesus prayed, “As You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (John 17:21). To be in the Triune God is too marvelous for words.
Over and over again, beginning with the Acts, the little word in is used to describe our relationship with the Lord. “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus...Of Him you are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1; 1 Cor. 1:30). In Romans we repeatedly find the phrase in Christ. In the short book of Ephesians, consider how many times it says “in Him.” To be in Him is to be in a wonderful place!
We have been transferred. Yes, I have been transferred from China to America. But that transfer has little significance. What matters far more is that I have been transferred out of Adam and into Christ! We are not waiting to go to heaven. We have already been transferred (Col. 1:13). We were born in Adam, but now we are in Christ. Hallelujah!
The Bible itself does not really tell us how to abide in Christ. Why is this? It is because, as soon as we see that we are in Christ, we are abiding. To see that we are in is to abide. To see the vision is to abide in the fact. We may doctrinally declare that we are in Christ, but to truly see is another matter. Even in preparing for this message, I went over all the verses listed at the beginning to see if there is any indication of the way to abide given in them. There is none. There is the fact of abiding but not the way to abide. “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13). We are told how it is that we know we are in Him, but not how to abide in Him. No way is given us, because the real abiding is the seeing of the fact.
That we can abide in the Triune God and have Him abide in us is a tremendous fact. There was much to be accomplished before it could be realized. God was holy, righteous, and full of glory. He could not enter into man. There was the need for incarnation to bring God into the human essence. There was the need for the crucifixion to terminate the old, fallen creation. There had to be redemption to bring back God’s chosen people. There had to be propitiation to appease the problem between God and man. There was the need of resurrection to bring the redeemed creation into the divine situation.
All this has now been accomplished. The Word became flesh (John 1:14). This is the incarnation. As flesh He was the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption for us and to remove our sins. Then in resurrection, as the last Adam, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the Spirit He imparts Himself into us as life.
Today our God is not merely God. He has also a human nature. In humanity He has passed through death and resurrection, bringing His redeemed and uplifted humanity with Him into resurrection. This God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit, is the very One who is in us. He, as the Father, Son, and Spirit, indwells us. Many Christians stumble over this, because they have been taught to consider the Trinity as composed of three separate and distinct persons.
For seven and a half years I myself met with the Brethren and absorbed their teachings. I was taught that prayer should be addressed only to the Father. If I heard people pray to the Holy Spirit or to the Lord Jesus, I thought it was wrong. In my prayers I was careful to address the Father in the name of the Son and through the power of the Holy Spirit. For a time I was happy praying this way, because it fit my doctrinal concept. But gradually, I began to feel that the One I was addressing in prayer was not far off in heaven but right inside me. He was not only the Father but also the Son. I would find myself talking to the Lord within. Eventually, I acknowledged that this doctrine was too confining for God to fit into!
The three of the Trinity are one. Yes, there is the matter of Father, Son, and Spirit in the Bible. God is triune in order to dispense Himself into man. Once He is in man, however, the three are one. The Father is in the Son. The Son has become the Spirit. God reaches man as the Spirit. Yet when the Spirit reaches us, the Son is there. When the Son is there, we have also the Father.
When we call, “O Lord Jesus!” the Spirit comes. This is because the Spirit is the person of the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the name or the title; the Spirit is His person. If we follow the traditional teachings of the Trinity, we shall be confused. I am not trying to make a doctrinal point. What I want to do is impress you that our God today is not merely the Creator. He is not only the Father as the source, nor only the Son as the course. He is also the Spirit as the flow to reach us. The God who reaches us does so not as the Father or as the Son but as the Spirit. In this all-inclusive Spirit we have the Son and the Father.
Because He is Spirit, it is easy for Him to enter into us and for us to be in Him. It is as easy as abiding in the air and having the air abide in us. He is the heavenly pneuma (Gk., spirit, breath). John’s Gospel presents Christ first as the Word who became flesh, then as the Lamb of God who took away our sin. Finally, in 20:22 He is the holy breath. He breathed into the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Pneuma.”
Call on Him! This wonderful Spirit will reach you and enter into you. You will be in Him, and He will be in you. You will be in Him, not in His power or attributes or influence but in His very person. The almighty God, the Creator, the Father as the source, the Son as the Redeemer, the Spirit as the transmission—this divine person enters into you, and you are in Him!
If you see this, you will stay here forever! You are now, right now, in the Triune God Himself! You need to have a proper regard for who you are. As one who is in the Triune God and who has the Triune God in you, how can you talk disparagingly of others? How can you be so low as to steal? You are above the angels. How could you stoop to sin? What has this world to offer you? This one fact will uplift you far above all.
To see that you are in the Triune God and that He is in you is to abide. This seeing is the abiding. “Abide in Me and I in you” (15:4). What a mystery! What love is this! It is greater than grace. Abide in Him!
