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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:27; 2 Cor. 4:4b; Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:6-7; John 14:20, 23; Eph. 3:16-17, 19
In the preceding chapter we saw the indwelling Christ—Christ as the indwelling One who lives in us. In this chapter we want to see Christ’s indwelling. We want to know how this indwelling Christ lives in us and what this indwelling is all about.
We know that Christ is truly a mystery, and His indwelling is even more a mystery. Even so, Christ’s indwelling is very real and intimate because it is not something that takes place outside of us but rather something that transpires within us and is intimately related to us. Therefore, this is a very real and subjective matter.
Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created man in His own image. There is no other book in the universe that tells us in such a definite way that man was not only created by God but that he was also created in God’s own image. Only the Bible tells us explicitly that man was created by God in His own image.
Man definitely did not evolve from something else. Rather, man was created by God in His own image. Who is God’s image? The Bible tells us that Christ is the image of God. Second Corinthians 4:4b says, “Christ, who is the image of God.” Colossians 1:15 says that Christ as the Son of God’s love “is the image of the invisible God.” Therefore, when God created us in the beginning, He created us according to Christ. Romans 9:21 tells us that God created us and chose us that we might be vessels to contain Him. Hence, we were not only created according to the image of Christ, but we were also created as vessels instead of instruments. Vessels are different from instruments. Knives, axes, and saws are instruments for working, whereas glasses and tea cups are vessels for containing something. God did not create us as instruments to work for Him; instead, He created us as vessels to contain Him.
Based upon Genesis 1:27, Paul wrote Romans 9:21. He realized that in the beginning God created man with clay and that this man of clay is a vessel. However, this vessel is not for containing milk or water but the God of glory. Hence, in Romans 9:23 Paul says, “In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.” This glory denotes God Himself, because in Psalms and Jeremiah we are told that the children of Israel forsook their glory (Psa. 106:20; Jer. 2:11) instead of being told that they forsook their God. To forsake the glory is to forsake God, because God is glory. Without God, the universe and all that is in it has no glory. God is the source of all glory and splendor.
We are earthen vessels to contain God. When God comes into us, we become vessels of glory. Man was created by God to contain God. This concept cannot be found in any other book. Besides the Bible, there is no other book in the world that has such a record. Second Corinthians 4:6 says, “The God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts.” This light is the expression of glory. Without glory, there is no brightness shining out, because light is the manifestation of glory. This glory is God, and the shining forth of light is the expression of God. God shines in our hearts by Himself as the light of glory. This is just like a camera. When the shutter is open, the image of the beautiful scene with beautiful flowers is exposed on the film through the entrance of light. We are a living camera created by God, and within us we have the film, which is our spirit. We are a camera with an open shutter when we hear the gospel of the Lord, believe Him in our heart, and call upon His name with our mouth. Then the film within us is readily exposed to the light. This exposure is everlasting and continuous. I was exposed to this light on an afternoon fifty-eight years ago. This exposure has been going on in me for all these years without ceasing, and it cannot be erased. Every Christian has this kind of experience.
Our spirit is the film concealed in our heart. When the glory of the Lord shines into our heart, our spirit is exposed to the light. At this time Christ as the treasure comes into us. Following verse 6, therefore, 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” This treasure is the indwelling Christ who enters into us through the light. Our spirit is exposed to the light when we are touched as we hear the gospel of the Lord, testify for the Lord, read the Word, or study spiritual books. Although we may not be aware of it, this exposure is still working within us. Sometimes we are busy with outward affairs, and we think that the light is fading. Actually, the light to which we have been exposed still remains in us.
For that one time of exposure to the light, we not only thank God for His mercy and praise Him for His love today, but in the millennial kingdom and in eternity we will still offer thanksgiving to Him. This exposure to the light is exceedingly precious. On that day fifty-eight years ago the Lord Jesus caused me to be exposed to the light, and thus I have Him in me as the treasure. Now this treasure is in me, an earthen vessel. This is not a small thing, because this is Christ’s indwelling. This treasure in us is the Lord Jesus, who is living and constantly speaking. He is a living treasure. As such, when He comes into us, He always bothers us. It is easy for us to put a table in our house. All we need to do is find a suitable place in the house and put the table there. But if we bring a vivacious child into our house, he will bring us many problems. This treasure—the Lord Jesus—in us is living and troublesome. In spite of this, we still love Him. He is greater and stronger than we are, and He is never careless. He is full of patience and is not prone to anger. Regardless of how we treat Him, He is not angered. Even when we reject Him, He does not leave us. This is the story of Christ’s indwelling.
Some Christians know that Christ’s indwelling is a mystery, but they do not truly understand it. After His resurrection the Lord Jesus became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to dwell in the spirit of those who believe in Him. This is a clear revelation in the Bible. Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit,” and Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” These verses show us that the Spirit is in our spirit and is mingled with our spirit so that the two spirits have become one. Today we, the saved ones, are one spirit with the Lord. The New Testament clearly speaks about this, although it is a mystery.
Through my many years of studying the Word, I can tell you that the most crucial items in the New Testament are the indwelling Christ and Christ’s indwelling. The New Testament not only speaks about a mysterious person, Christ, but it also speaks about one thing concerning this mysterious person, that is, that Christ indwells His believers. Ephesians 3:16, 17, and 19 say that Paul prayed for us that God would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man. We have an outer man and an inner man. Our inner man is our regenerated spirit. God will grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, which is our regenerated spirit. The Greek word for power is a very strong word and is equivalent to the English word dynamo, denoting the energizing or motivating power of a generator. God strengthens us into the inner man with power through His Spirit according to the riches of His glory that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith.
Although Christ is in us and has shined into us, He has not yet made His home in our hearts. What does it mean for Christ to make home? It means that after arranging everything properly, He settles down. It is through faith and not by sight that Christ is making His home in our hearts. The result is that we are filled unto all the fullness of God. The fullness of God is the expression of the overflow of God. When Christ makes His home in us, we are filled with God and are full of the glory of God. As a result, we who are earthen vessels, vessels of clay, become vessels of glory. We are filled and saturated with all the riches of God so that we are full of God within and without. Then we will be as stanza 8 of Hymns, #489 says, “And everywhere be Thee [Christ] and God.” Because the Spirit of Christ has saturated and permeated our entire being, everywhere in our being, there is Christ, and everywhere there is God. In this way we become vessels of glory.
To explain how Christ indwells us and how He makes His home in our hearts, I like to use a glove as an illustration. The glove is made altogether according to the form of the hand so that the hand may get into the glove. Man may be likened to the glove, and Christ to the hand. One day when we were saved by believing in Him, Christ entered into you. We have said that when God created us, He created us according to the image of Christ that we may contain Christ. The glove was made according to the form of the hand with one thumb and four fingers; however, the glove is empty because the hand has not yet entered into it. This was our condition before we believed in Jesus. Even after I had believed in Jesus several years, I still did not know that Jesus had come into me like the hand entering into the glove. At that time I read Romans 9:21 again and again, but I simply could not understand. I did not know what the clay, the vessels of honor, and the vessels of dishonor refer to. It was not until one day when I was enlightened to receive the revelation that I fully understood this verse. I saw clearly how the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—was incarnated to become a man, died for me on the cross, and was buried. I also saw how He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit and how He has entered into my spirit to be the treasure in me. Furthermore, not only did I understand this matter, but I also found out that this is the central point of the entire New Testament.
Christ has entered into us and is dwelling in us, but now He still wants to make His home in our hearts. In order to understand this matter, I spent much time studying the New Testament, hoping to find out from the Bible what it means for Christ to make His home in our hearts and how He does it. It has been thirty-three years since 1950, when I began to speak about the mingling of God with man and the indwelling of Christ. I was studying, and during that time I was speaking. Today although I dare not say that I have studied this matter thoroughly, I can say that for the most part I have studied it clearly. Now I will use simple words to tell you how Christ is making His home in our hearts.
First, we need to know that man was created according to the image of Christ. To put it in a simple way, Christ is the expression of God, and He is the very God Himself. The biblical record shows that Christ is full of wisdom; it also shows us His mind. Paul said to the believers in the church in Philippi, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Furthermore, the Bible shows us the meekness of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 10:1 Paul says, “I myself...entreat you through the meekness...of Christ.” The term meekness has many denotations. It refers to an expression and a virtue. To be meek is to be mild toward men, without resisting or disputing. This virtue comes out of our nature and our character. Nature is something inherent, whereas character is something expressed. Our nature and character are related to our mind, emotion, and will. Therefore, in order to be meek, we must have meekness inwardly as our nature, and then we must manifest it outwardly as our character. This nature must be something produced out of our mind, emotion, and will. It is not something dead. You cannot say that a piece of wood or a table is meek. You can say, for example, that they are smooth. Smoothness is not something of our nature or our character, because it does not require the functions of our mind, emotion, and will. Meekness not only comes out of our mind, emotion, and will, but it also comes out of our conscience and spirit. It comes out of what we are, that is, our inner person; it also comes out of what we do, that is, our personality manifested outwardly.
Meekness is the image of the Lord Jesus, which is what He is and what He does. The four Gospels in the New Testament show us that the Lord was a meek person. Hence, meekness is a photo of Jesus Christ. His entire human life, His thirty-three and a half years of living on earth, was full of meekness. His mind was a mind of meekness, His emotion was an emotion of meekness, and His will was a will of meekness. His character was meek, His heart was meek, and His Spirit was meek. His soul, His heart, and His Spirit were meek. His entire being was full of meekness. This was the image of the Lord Jesus.
Now let us look at ourselves. God created us as proper human beings according to Christ. We know that all things were created by God according to their kind. Birds are according to the bird-kind, fish are according to the fish-kind, dogs are according to the dog-kind, cats are according to the cat-kind, walnuts are according to the walnut-kind, and apples are according to the apple-kind. Then, man is according to which kind? Man is according to God’s kind because man was created according to the image of God, which is Christ. Hence, man was created according to the image of Christ for the purpose of containing Christ. After we have believed in Christ, He comes in to dwell in us and to make His home in our hearts. However, according to our experience, Christ’s making His home in our hearts requires a long period of time and process.
A person may have already believed in the Lord for quite a long period of time, and Christ has been in him in quite a deep way. However, Christ is like the hand that has entered into the glove but has not been able to extend the fingers into the proper places. Hence, such a one still needs a period of time to enjoy Christ continually and have the fellowship of life with the brothers and sisters. Only after Christ has gained and occupied more ground in him can He begin to make His home in this one. This is just like placing the thumb of the hand into the thumb of the glove. This is also similar to moving into a new house; when the owner puts a large piece of furniture in a suitable place in the new bedroom, he begins the process of his making home in the new house. Then the one that Christ is making His home in continues to attend meetings and have fellowship with the brothers and sisters, call on the name of the Lord, and enjoy the Lord by eating and drinking Him. Gradually another “finger” goes in, and Christ thus makes His home in another room. After another period of time, another “finger” goes in, and Christ thus makes His home in still another room.
In this way Christ is making His home in our hearts little by little. This process of making home in us is very slow, and it may not be fully accomplished even after we have passed through all the days of our entire life. The higher the life is, the slower is the process of growth. The life within us is indeed very high, so its growth is exceedingly slow. Only lower forms of life can grow speedily. Hence, you should not expect to grow quickly, because the life in you is the highest life. Although Christ as our life grows very slowly, He is growing in us steadily and solidly.
Ephesians 3:17 does not say that “Christ may make His home in you.” Instead, it explicitly says that “Christ may make His home in your hearts.” Our heart is composed of all the parts of our soul—mind, emotion, and will—plus our conscience, the main part of our spirit. Our heart is joined to our soul and is also connected with our spirit. The real center of our being is not in our outward body but in our inward heart. Our heart—which is joined to the soul, connected with the spirit, and composed of the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience—is the totality of all our inward parts. When Christ makes His home in our heart, He controls our entire inward being, and He also supplies and strengthens every inward part with Himself. This is not just an illustration; it is a fact.
Christ not only enters into us, but He also wants to make His home in our heart. When Christ comes into us, He comes into our spirit. Yet it is very likely that He merely stays there and has not entered into the different parts of our heart. Hence, He is waiting within us for us to love Him and cooperate with Him, and He is also waiting for us to know Him and take Him as life. If we love Him and cooperate with Him, we afford Him the opportunity to come into our mind to become its content. This is just like the thumb of our hand getting into the thumb of a glove to be its content. You have believed in the Lord, yet your mind may be void of Christ. Instead, your mind may be filled with your children and your spouse and your property. In your mind there is no Christ; rather, there are just yourself and things that are outside of Christ. You have shut Christ outside the door of your mind. Therefore, although He is in your spirit, He is suffering because He cannot get into your mind. This is the real situation of many among us.
If you love the Lord, you should say, “O Lord, I want to take Your mind as my mind. Now I am thinking about my spouse, my children, my studies, and my work. Lord, I do not want to consider them according to my mind. I want You to come into my mind to be its contents so that I may think according to Your mind.” This is to live Christ. To begin living Christ is to let the mind of Christ be your mind and to consider everything that is related to you, including any person, matter, and thing, according to the mind of Christ. In this way Christ can enter and occupy your mind, and you can take His mind as your mind.
Furthermore, Christ will gradually enter into your emotion and will. Before Christ enters into your emotion, whatever you love, you love according to your own preference and not according to Christ’s preference. In your love, in your emotion, there is no Christ. Likewise, in your will there is also no Christ. You decide whatever you want, and whatever you say counts; you are the directing one. You make proposals, but in your proposals there is no Christ. Yet when Christ enters into you, His intention is not merely to be in you but to make His home in your heart. His desire is to gradually take over and saturate every part of your heart. Our experience tells us that when we are filled with Him, He is real and living and can freely make His home in our mind, emotion, and will. At this stage He is everywhere in our being. He is in our spirit, and He is also in our soul. Thus, He occupies and saturates our entire being. Now His indwelling us is His making His home in our heart. As a result, we do not live by ourselves but by Him, and we do not live out ourselves but Christ.
This is to take Christ as our life. In this way we are completely and practically joined to Him as one, and it is at this stage that we are truly Christ-men. A real Christ-man is one who not only has Christ in him but one who is also filled and saturated with Christ and one through whom Christ is expressed. This is Christ’s indwelling.
