Search
In this lesson we continue Volume Three of Level Two to cover the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation. In this stage we experience and enjoy God as the Father in the love of the Triune God, we experience and enjoy Christ as the Son in the grace of the Triune God, and we experience and enjoy the Spirit as the consummation of the Divine Trinity in the fellowship of the Triune God. When we experience and enjoy Christ as the Son, we enjoy Him as our portion, as covered in Lessons Thirty through Thirty-six of Volume Three, and we also experience His living in us.
That Christ lives in us does not mean that He lives instead of us but that He lives with us. In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” “No longer I” does not indicate an exchanged life, a life in which Christ comes in and we go out, for later in this verse Paul said, “I live.” As regenerated people, we have both the old “I,” which has been crucified (Rom. 6:6), and a new “I,” which has been regenerated. Concerning the old “I,” Paul said, “No longer I”; concerning the new “I,” he said, “I live.” The old, crucified “I” was without divinity; the new, regenerated “I” has God as life added to it. The new “I” came into being when the old “I” was resurrected and God was added to it. On the one hand, Paul had been terminated, but on the other hand, a resurrected Paul, one who was regenerated with God as his life, still lived. Furthermore, although Paul said, “No longer I,” he also said, “It is Christ who lives in me,” for it was Christ who lived, but it was in Paul that He lived. It is the same with all the believers in Christ today. Christ and we, and we and Christ, have one life and one living.
John 14 may help us to know how Christ lives in us. Before His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Because I live, you also shall live” (v. 19). This shows us that the resurrected Christ does not live alone; He lives in us and with us. He lives in us by enabling us to live with Him. In a very real sense, if we do not live with Him, He cannot live in us. We have not been altogether ruled out, and our life has not been exchanged for the divine life. We continue to live, and we live with Christ.
The illustration of grafting may also help us to know this matter. After a branch is grafted into a tree, the branch still lives, yet not by itself, but by the tree into which it has been grafted. Furthermore, the tree also lives in the grafted branch. Hence, the life that is lived out by the branch is a grafted life. This is not to exchange a life that is not good with a life that is better; rather, it is to join two lives as one so that they may enjoy a mingled life and living. The branch and the tree have one life and one living. Likewise, Christ living in us enables us to have one life and one living with Him.
In John 6:57 the Lord said, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” That the Son lived because of the Father does not mean that the Son was set aside and ceased to exist. The Son, of course, continued to exist, but He did not live His own life. He lived the life of the Father. The Son and the Father had one life and one living. It is the same in our relationship with Christ today. We have one life and one living with Christ. We live by Him, and He lives in us. If we do not live, He does not live; and if He does not live, we cannot live. On the one hand, we are terminated; on the other hand, we continue to live, but we do not live by ourselves. We live by having Him living in us.
Christ lives in us that we may live with Him, enabling us to walk in Him. Colossians 2:6 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” To walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being. We should walk, live, and act in Christ that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce. The children of Israel had the good land as their portion, and they lived and walked in the good land. Today, in our experience Christ should be our good land as our unique portion, in which we may live and walk.
Galatians 3:14 says, “In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Here Paul mentions the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit. The physical aspect of the blessing God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see Col. 1:12 and note 2, Recovery Version). Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the promised land. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy. Hence, to live and walk in Christ as the good land is to live and walk in the all-inclusive Spirit. Therefore, Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit,” and Romans 8:4 says, “Walk…according to the spirit.” The Spirit is dwelling now in our regenerated spirit and is mingled with our regenerated spirit. We must live and move continually in the mingled spirit that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the good land. In the New Testament nothing is more basic, more important, and more powerful than walking according to the mingled spirit. Christ became the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit to be our life, our person, and our everything. What we need is to turn to Him, to set our mind on the spirit, and to live and move according to the spirit. This is to live and walk in Christ.
Christ’s living in us also enables us to be saved in His life. Romans 5:10 says, “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” This verse speaks of Christ’s reconciling death and Christ’s saving life. Although we have been saved through the death of Christ, we still need to be saved in His life. On the one hand, we have been saved through Christ’s death from God’s eternal judgment and eternal punishment; on the other hand, we still need to be saved continuously in His life from many negative things until we reach the extent of glory.
To be saved in Christ’s life is to be saved in Christ Himself as life. He dwells in us, and we are organically one with Him. By the growth of His life in us, we will enjoy His full salvation to the uttermost. We have been redeemed, justified, and reconciled to God that we may be brought into union with Christ, so that He can save us in His life to the extent that we are sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of God’s Son, that we may be completely delivered from our old man, our self, and our natural life. This is the issue of Christ’s saving us continuously in His life by His living in us and dispensing Himself into our entire being.
Christ lives in us that we also may eat Him as the bread of life and thereby live by Him. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48) and “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). The bread of life is man’s life supply in the form of food. Christ is not only the food but also the bread of life to us; He is our life supply to sustain our spiritual life.
John 6 shows us five characteristics of the Lord Jesus as the bread of life. As the bread that came down out of heaven (vv. 41, 50-51, 58), He is the heavenly bread. As the bread of God (v. 33), He belongs to God. As the bread of life (vv. 35, 48), He is the bread with eternal life. As the living bread (v. 51), He is living. As the true bread (v. 32), He is the bread of truth or reality. If we eat Christ as the bread of life, continually receiving Him into us to be assimilated by our regenerated new man in the way of life, He will bring us the eternal life that we may live because of Him, so that we are not only heavenly and of God but also living and full of reality.
First Thessalonians 5:10 says that Christ “died for us in order that whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him.” The Lord died for us not only that we might be saved from eternal perdition but also that we may live together with Him through His resurrection. By His resurrection from the dead, He became the life-giving Spirit to dwell in us in order that whether we watch or sleep, that is, whether we live or die, we may live together with Him.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “It is Christ who lives in me,” and in Philippians 1:21 he said, “To me, to live is Christ.” This indicates that Christ lives in us in order that we may live Him. Christ is not only our life but also our living that we may be one with Him in both life and living. Christ lives within us as our life, and we live Him without as His living. When we live, He lives; when He lives, we live. Not only do we live by Christ, live together with Christ, live in Christ, and live for Christ, but we also live Christ.
To live Christ is not only to live a sanctified, spiritual, and victorious life, but to live a person, that is, to live a life that is Christ Himself. Because Christ lives in us, we can live Him by enjoying His divine dispensing and thus be one with Him both in life and in living. We must practice living Christ daily, taking Him as our life and person. This is the destiny given by God to us in His economy, and it is the goal of our Christian living.
Christ’s living in us is also that we may have Him formed in us. In Galatians 4:19 Paul said, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” Galatians shows us that Christ has been revealed in us (1:16), He is now living in us (2:20), and He will be formed in us. To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ fully grown in us. First, Christ was born into us at the time of our regeneration, then He lives in us in our Christian life, and eventually, He will be formed in us at our maturity.
Christ’s being formed in us indicates that our whole being is being constituted of Christ. This is a living, organic matter. Christ is living now in us so that He may be the constituent of our entire being—our mind, emotion, and will, that is, that He may constitute every part of our soul so that every part of our being will bear His form, His image.
Christ’s living in us also enables us to magnify Him. Paul said, “As always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death” (Phil. 1:20). For Christ to be magnified is for Him to be shown or declared great (without limitation), exalted, and extolled. Hence, to magnify Christ is to express Christ without limitation. When we magnify Christ, we display to the whole universe that the Christ who lives in us and the Christ whom we live is unlimited. Even when Paul was suffering mistreatment in prison, he still could exhibit Christ in His unlimited greatness. By rejoicing in the Lord in his sufferings, he showed forth the unlimitedness of the Christ whom he experienced and enjoyed. Furthermore, in this way Christ was expressed, exalted, and extolled through him. If Christ is magnified in our body, we become Christ’s living witnesses, testifying of His ability, power, patience, love, wisdom, and everything, all of which are unlimited.
The word magnify means to make something large to our sight. Although Christ is universally great and His dimensions—the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth— are unlimited and immeasurable (Eph. 3:18), He is virtually non-existent in the eyes of the unbelievers. Hence, we should magnify Christ in our daily life that He may appear great in others’ eyes. Consequently, through our magnifying of Christ they will turn to Christ and know that Christ is unlimited.
When we experience and enjoy Christ as the Son in the grace of the Triune God, we not only enjoy Him as our portion but also experience His living in us. Christ lives in us that we may have one life and one living with Him. Thus we can walk in Him and enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived and walked in the good land and enjoyed all its rich produce. Christ eventually is realized as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit; hence, to walk in Him is to walk in the all-inclusive Spirit. Christ’s living in us also enables us to be saved in His life. He desires to save us in His life to the extent that we are sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of Him as God’s Son, and are completely delivered from our old man, our self, and our natural life. He also enables us to live by Him by our eating Him as the bread of life. Christ is not only life but also the bread of life to us. As we receive Him continuously into us so that He is assimilated by our regenerated new man in the way of life, He brings us the eternal life that we may live because of Him. He also causes us to live with Him and to live Him. This is not only to live a sanctified, spiritual, and victorious life, but to live a person, to live a life that is Christ Himself. He also causes us to have Him formed in us, that is, to have Him fully grown in us to be the constituents of our entire being so that every part of our being will bear His form, His image. He also enables us to magnify Him, that is, to display to the entire universe that the Christ who lives in us and whom we live is unlimited.
