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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17a; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:9-10; Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20a; 4:19; Eph. 3:17a; Phil. 1:20b-21a; Col. 1:27
We have seen that Christ is the wonderful One with six major steps. The six steps are incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, baptism, and the advent or the second coming. Incarnation is the mingling of divinity with humanity, crucifixion is the termination of all negative things, resurrection is the germination of all positive things, ascension is the inauguration of Christ, baptism is the putting of us all into Christ for the formation of the Body, and the advent is the Lord’s return to this earth.
The past chapters have cleared the confused ground. Now we must go on. We have seen the six major steps of Christ, but we must realize that six in the Bible is not a good number. The number of the Antichrist is six hundred sixty-six. So for Christ to have only six steps is not so good. There must be one more, and it is between the baptism and the advent. This step covers a long period of time. The baptism is already accomplished, and we are waiting for His coming back. In between, there is a long period. During this period, Christ is the Indweller. This is the seventh step—His indwelling.
In the baptism Christ was the Baptizer. Immediately after the baptism, He is the Indweller. After He baptizes us into Himself, He comes to dwell within us. Hallelujah! Our Christ is not only our Redeemer and our Baptizer but also our Indweller. By baptizing, He puts us into Himself, and by indwelling, He comes to stay within us. So now we are in Him, and He is in us.
In eternity past God had a purpose. Then in time He became incarnated to be a wonderful man. This man lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. He passed through and tasted every part of human living. After this He went to the cross to redeem us back to God and to terminate all the negative things. By that work He became our Redeemer. Then He went into the tomb to rest. He kept the real Sabbath. Just as God rested on the seventh day following the six days of creation, so in the same principle Christ finished His redeeming work and rested in the tomb. After the rest He awoke in resurrection.
It was in His resurrection that Christ became another form. Now He was not only in a physical form but also in a spiritual form. Our human mentality cannot comprehend it. On the day of resurrection His disciples were frightened and locked themselves in a room. They feared the persecuting of the Jews. Even though they heard from Mary that she had seen the Lord, they did not know what to do. Then Jesus suddenly was there in the room. In a sense they were happy, but in another sense they did not know how He got there. Was Jesus there with a physical body or not? They could see Him, yet the door was not opened. This is too wonderful to understand. Then the Lord did a very unusual thing. He did not give the disciples any teaching. All He did was breathe into them and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Then He disappeared. He was suddenly there, and He was suddenly gone. After the resurrection Christ became not only the wonderful One but also the mysterious One. He is so wonderful yet so mysterious.
Then in John 21 Peter was tested. They had nothing to live on, so Peter said that he was going fishing. Then all the others followed. They were fishing experts from their youth, yet they caught nothing after fishing all night. Then in the morning, Jesus was there. They could not stay away from Jesus. It does not say that Jesus came but that Jesus was there. Wherever we go, Jesus is there. Jesus then told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat, and they caught a number of fish. This story tells us of a present Jesus. This is a Jesus who is always present with us, regardless of where we go or what we do. Today’s Jesus is a present Jesus, a constant Jesus, an instant Jesus, a ready Jesus, and an available Jesus. He is not only real and living but also constant, instant, present, ready, and available. Praise the Lord that we have such a Jesus.
This is the Lord’s indwelling between His baptism and His coming back. By His baptism He puts us all into Him. By His coming, He will take us as His bride. This is why we need His indwelling, transforming work. The bride needs to be prepared. We are still so ugly and unsuitable. A man would never marry such a woman. This is exactly today’s situation. How could the Lord Jesus come today? Hence, we need a long period for His indwelling work. This is the finest work He is doing. It was easy for Him to accomplish incarnation once and for all. His crucifixion only took six hours. The resurrection and ascension did not take long. Even the baptism was accomplished on both parts of the Body in a short time. His coming back will also not take long. But to prepare us takes a lot of time. If we did not have the indwelling Christ, I am afraid that we all would give up. Praise the Lord that it is not a hopeless case! Christ in us is the hope of glory. Eventually, we all will be in the New Jerusalem. All the time He is working within. We may say that we do not like the church life, but still He is working. The Lord has a way to work in us and to work us into His glory. The way is by His indwelling. We all have the same life indwelling us. He is so rich, so present, so available, so ready, so constant, so instant, and so continually working in us.
The indwelling of Christ is really hidden and mysterious, yet it is so real, strengthening, empowering, satisfying, enlightening, comforting, refreshing, and watering. This is why we have such a wonderful church life. If we only had the baptism accomplished once and for all and were waiting for Him to come back, we would be miserable. But today we have His indwelling. This is because He has become the life-giving Spirit. The last Adam was Jesus in the flesh. Then this last Adam became the life-giving Spirit.
We should never forget that Jesus took two wonderful steps in order to become something. The first step was the Word becoming flesh. He was God, yet He became flesh. That was Jesus. He was no longer merely God but God plus humanity. He was God becoming flesh so that He could be our Redeemer as the Lamb of God. Then in resurrection the Lord Jesus as the last Adam became something else. Here He took another step. This time He became the life-giving Spirit. His first step was for Him to become our Redeemer. His second step was for Him to be our Life-giver. To be the Redeemer He needed to become flesh. To be the Life-giver He needed to become the Spirit. The flesh is for redemption, and the Spirit is for life-giving. It is indeed sad that most Christians have never heard that Christ became the life-giving Spirit. Rather, some Christians even condemn this as heresy. But what can they do with 1 Corinthians 15:45b? It tells us clearly that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit.
Now we are clear that the Lord has taken two steps. He was God, yet He took the step to become flesh. Then He became Jesus, the last Adam. After He finished His redemptive work, He took another step as the last Adam to become the life-giving Spirit. First of all, He was for redeeming; now in the second step He is for life-giving. After we are redeemed, we need the life supply, the life-giving, and Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the Indweller to supply the life to us. In the past, we never heard that Christ today is the life-giving Spirit. If we need to have a Bible study, we should study the verses concerning Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is indwelling us, imparting life to us all the time.
Following 1 Corinthians 15:45b, we have 2 Corinthians 3:17: “The Lord is the Spirit.” John the Baptist declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Now the apostle Paul declares, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Lord is no more just the Lamb of God for redemption. Now He is the Spirit for life-giving. Darby’s New Translation puts parentheses around verses 7 through 16 of 2 Corinthians 3. This indicates that verse 17 continues verse 6. Verse 6 says that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Then verse 17 continues to say that the Lord is the Spirit. It is the Spirit who gives life, and the Lord is the Spirit who gives life. This is marvelous! Today the Lord Jesus is the Spirit who gives life.
Another important verse is 1 Corinthians 6:17: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” We are not only one with the Lord; we are one spirit with the Lord. The Lord today is the life-giving Spirit, and we have a human spirit purposely created by God so that we may take Christ as the life-giving Spirit into us. Now these two spirits have become one. This is wonderful! Our spirit is one with the Lord because as the life-giving Spirit He indwells our spirit. But the Lord in our spirit is not like a drop of oil in water, never mingling with the water. He mingles with us in our spirit as tea mingles with water. This is why many times it is difficult to distinguish whether it is we or the Lord doing things. We have some burden, yet it seems that the Lord wants to do it. It is because we are one with the Lord in our spirit. After tea is put into water, it is difficult to separate the tea from the water. That is why I call it tea-water. It is both tea and water. The two mingle as one. In the same way, the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit mingles with our spirit as one. He is in us, and we are in Him. It seems that a brother is speaking, but while he is speaking, the Lord is also speaking. He speaks within that brother. His speaking is the brother’s speaking, and the brother’s speaking is His speaking. Eventually, a mingled one is speaking. Praise the Lord! We are really one spirit with the Lord.
Now we must come to 2 Timothy 4:22: “The Lord be with your spirit.” Most Christians have never realized that there is such a verse in the Bible, telling us that the Lord Jesus is with our spirit. The most they have heard is that He is in their heart. But Christ first of all does not come into our heart but into our spirit. When I come to visit you, I do not come into your bedroom first but into your living room. The Lord first of all comes into our spirit. That is our living room. Our heart is the bedroom, the closet, and all the other rooms. He will get into all those parts only with our consent. If we do not agree, He will never go there. Praise the Lord that He has come into our spirit!
Then Romans 8:9-10 tells us that this Christ in our spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God: “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.” The indwelling Christ is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is just the Spirit of God. Praise the Lord, They all are one. By these verses we can see that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is just Christ Himself. The Spirit of God dwells in us, so we have the Spirit of Christ. Then if we have the Spirit of Christ in us, Christ Himself is in us. This proves that the very Christ who indwells our spirit is the Spirit of God.
Paul tells us in Galatians 1:15-16 that it pleased God to reveal Christ in us: “When it pleased God...to reveal His Son in me.” Then in chapter 2 he tells us that Christ lives in us. “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Furthermore, the Christ who lives in us must be formed in us: “...until Christ is formed in you” (4:19). This can be illustrated by putting a hand into a glove. Sometimes the hand may be in the glove but not fully formed. The fingers of the hand may not be all the way into the fingers of the glove. The hand is in the glove but not in a good shape. It is not formed in the glove. Gradually, the fingers of the hand get into the fingers of the glove, and finally, the hand is fully formed in the glove. Praise the Lord that Christ is within us, but He must be formed within us. Paul travailed that Christ would be formed in the Galatian Christians. Christ should not only be revealed in us and living in us but also formed in us.
Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ must “make His home in your hearts through faith.” First of all He is in our spirit; then gradually He will spread into every part of our heart until He has fully made His home there. Now He is not only formed but completely settled in our whole being. This is why Paul could say in Philippians 1:21, “To me, to live is Christ.” Paul says that regardless of what kind of circumstance or situation he was in, for him, to live was Christ. Do you realize how much work is needed in us in order to say this? Yet Paul could say that his living was Christ. Then one day the Christ within us will become the glory. “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. 1:27). Today Christ is within us as the hope of glory, but while we are living out Christ, we are waiting for the day when this indwelling Christ will become our outward glory. Praise the Lord! This is the indwelling Christ.
We were made with a spirit, a soul, and a body. The parts of the soul are the mind, emotion, and will. These three parts combined with the conscience part of the spirit constitute the heart. We have seen that Christ as the life-giving Spirit has come into our spirit; but He needs to spread from our spirit into all the parts of our heart so that He may make His home in our heart. This is why Paul prays in Ephesians 3:16 that we would be strengthened into our inner man, that Christ may make His home in our heart. The inner man is just our regenerated spirit. We need to be strengthened into this part of our being, that Christ may spread into our heart. From our spirit He will spread into our mind, our emotion, and our will. This is a gradual work. It could never be done overnight or even over one year. Gradually, Christ spreads Himself from our spirit into every part of our being. This takes much time and much dealing by the Lord. So many of us must confess that although Christ is within us, He does not have much ground within us. We have opened our spirit to Him, but we have closed our mind, our emotion, and our will to Him. In the meetings we shout Amen, but when we get home, we will not let the Lord touch us. However, He does not give up. Gradually, little by little, we open our inward parts to Him. It is in this way that Christ will make His home in us. Then our very living will become the manifestation of Christ, and we will be waiting for His coming to become our outward glory.
