Scripture Reading: Col. 1:27; John 14:17, 20, 23; 15:4-5; Rom. 6:3; 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 1:30; 6:17; 2 Cor. 13:5; 2 Tim. 4:22a
God’s economy is to work a wonderful Person into our being. This Person is the all-inclusive Christ, the One who is the reality of every positive thing in the universe. Christ is the firstborn of all creation. He is both God and man, for the One who was the eternal God became incarnated at a point in time. Hence, Christ is the real God and the real man. He possesses all the divine attributes and human virtues. He is the reality of love, life, light, grace, humility, patience, power, mercy, wisdom, righteousness, and holiness.
Christ has much to do with creation. Colossians 1:16 says, “In Him were all things created in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.” Furthermore, 1:17 says, “All things subsist together in Him.” Just as the spokes of a wheel subsist together in the hub, so all of creation subsists in Christ.
First the work of creation was accomplished, then Christ became a man, the first step of the long process through which He passed. As a man, He lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. How marvelous that the infinite God lived in a carpenter’s home in a small town! God was confined and limited in this way. After passing through human living with its sufferings, trials, and temptations, Christ was crucified on the cross. His death was a wonderful, all-inclusive death. After His burial in a tomb, He took a tour of the region of death, and then came forth in resurrection. After His resurrection, Christ ascended to the heavens, where He was enthroned, crowned, and made the Lord and the Head of all.
In His resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). All that Christ has passed through, all that He is, and all that He has accomplished, obtained, and attained are the ingredients which have been compounded into Him as the all-inclusive Spirit. As this all-inclusive Spirit, He descended upon His Body on the day of Pentecost. In this Spirit, we have God, man, incarnation, human living, redemption, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, the power of His resurrection, resurrection life, ascension, enthronement, headship, and lordship. This is the all-inclusive One whom God desires to work into us for the fulfillment of His economy. This dispensation of the all-inclusive Christ into us is for God’s purpose and eternal plan. This is our Christ, the One we love and enjoy.
The Bible reveals that God is triune: He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. If we read the Bible carefully, we shall see that the Father is in the Son (John 14:10) and that the Son is even called the Father (Isa. 9:6). Those who have seen the Son have also seen the Father. Furthermore, the Son has become the Spirit of reality. This indicates that the Son is realized as the Spirit. When the Triune God reaches us, He is the all-inclusive Spirit. Our Christ is such a Spirit for our experience and enjoyment today.
First Corinthians 1:30 tells us that of God we are in Christ Jesus. Formerly, by birth, we were in Adam. But God, the Father, has transferred us out of Adam into Christ. When we believed in the Lord Jesus and called on His name, we were transferred from Adam into Christ. This is the reason that after we believed into Christ, we were baptized. In the words of Romans 6:3, we have been baptized into Christ Jesus.
Although it is a wonderful and glorious fact that we are now in Christ, this is nevertheless just a matter of position. This position does give us the right and privilege to participate in all that Christ is. But with this right and privilege, we need to experience Christ living in us. Now that we are in Christ, Christ wants to live in us. This is not a matter of position, but a matter of experience and enjoyment. For us to be in Christ is a matter of position; for Christ to be in us is a matter of experience and enjoyment. How much we enjoy Christ depends upon how much He lives in us.
If we were not in Christ, Christ could not be in us. According to the New Testament, Christ’s being in us is based upon the fact that we are in Him. In John 15:4, the Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” If we abide in Christ, He will abide in us. Once again we see that to be in Christ is a matter of position, whereas to have Christ in us is a matter of experience and enjoyment. My burden in this message is not to tell you that we are in Christ. It is to point out that Christ is in us. Simply knowing that we are in Christ does not give us the experience of Christ or the enjoyment of Christ. However, this position does give us the right and privilege to claim the enjoyment and experience of Christ.
We should have the confidence to say that we are in Christ wholly, absolutely, and thoroughly. Concerning our position in Christ, we may be assured that we are in Him entirely. For example, anyone who is an American citizen is a citizen wholly, thoroughly, and absolutely. His citizenship is not partial or conditional. However, how much this person enjoys America is relative to how much of America has gotten into him. He is in America, but how much of America is in him? A person from another country may become a naturalized American citizen. Thus, he is altogether an American by citizenship. However, he may still have within him a great deal of his native country. This indicates that although he is in America, not that much of America has yet entered into him. Inwardly, he still loves many things of his native country. In the same principle, we are in Christ absolutely, but He is in us just relatively and conditionally. Actually, according to our experience, we do not have very much of Christ in us. To a very large degree, we are still occupied and possessed by our culture. Although we may have been in the church life in the Lord’s recovery for many years, there is still room for much more of the church to be in us. The same is true with Christ. Although we may have been in Christ for a long time, in experience we still do not have very much of Him in us.
We need a clear understanding of what it means to say that Christ is versus culture. Although Christ is in us, we are occupied more by culture than by Christ. We are filled with many things other than Christ. These things include our likes and dislikes, our preferences and choices, and our sin and worldliness. The more Christ as grace is ministered into us, the more those things which occupy us are discharged. However, although many sinful and worldly things may be discharged rather easily, our culture still remains, no matter how much grace is ministered into our being.
Anything that is in us apart from Christ Himself frustrates us from the genuine experience of Christ and enjoyment of Him. This is especially true of the culture within us. Through the years we have been in the church life, many things have been discharged from our being, as grace has been added into us. Nevertheless, one thing remains in us in a very subtle way, and that thing is culture.
It is difficult to discern the culture in us and to condemn it. Because we do not recognize our culture for what it is, we do not easily discern it. Although we may condemn the sinful and worldly elements in us, we probably do not condemn our culture. Our culture may be very strong, but we may not be conscious of it. We may even think that we are not under the influence of culture. But every living person has a culture. As long as you are alive and no longer a baby, you have a culture.
We have not only the culture of our particular country, but also our self-made culture. Unconsciously and subconsciously, we all have some kind of self-made culture. This culture is constituted not only of certain practices by which we carry on our daily living; it also becomes the standard for our living. Whenever we have such a standard, we are under the influence of our culture. Culture does not merely refer to things such as our way of eating. In particular, culture implies certain standards. Within us we have a mental picture of the kind of person we think we should be. This is our self-made culture, the standard we have for our daily living.
When God called Abraham, He did not give Abraham a map. Rather, the Lord’s presence was Abraham’s living map. Most of today’s Christians, however, prefer to have some kind of “map” to direct them day by day. This “map” is drawn unconsciously according to the standards they have for their living. Day by day, they “drive” according to this “map.” Whenever we have such a “map,” we automatically set the Lord aside, for He is replaced by our standards. Because we have our self-made standards for the Christian life, there is no need to seek the Lord, to contact Him, or to trust in Him. Instead, we live according to our standards. Some may claim that they daily pray to the Lord and ask Him for help. Yes, they may pray for the Lord’s help, but the kind of help they want is that which enables them to fulfill their standard. This is far different from asking the Lord to lead us according to Himself. Instead, we have our standards and then ask for the Lord’s help to reach them. This is what it means to live according to our self-made culture.
Along with our self-made culture, we have the culture which we have accumulated unconsciously through the influence of our environment and background. From childhood, many have been trained to be honest, humble, gentle, and kind. Such a culture is part of their very being, and they live by it spontaneously. Those with such a culture may love the Lord and may be in the church life. However, instead of living Christ, they live by their culture. We may live either by the culture we have inherited or by the culture we make for ourselves. In either case, our being is occupied and possessed by culture, not by Christ.
Because we regard our culture as good, we do not condemn it. Who would condemn the standard he has for a good married life? Instead of condemning our culture, we treasure it and appreciate it. We place a high value on the good things we have inherited. Spontaneously we live by our culture. Even though the grace which has been ministered to us in the church life causes many things to be discharged from us, our culture still remains. Satan, the subtle one, uses our culture to frustrate us from enjoying Christ and experiencing Him. Now that Christ has come into us and lives in us, we must rise up to condemn the inherited or self-made culture which hinders us from experiencing Him. We should condemn our culture as much as we condemn the sinful and worldly things. Because our culture is part of our very constitution, we need the heavenly light to shine upon us to expose it. Under such a shining, we shall say, “Satan, I condemn your subtlety. Before Christ came into me, I needed to live by culture. Now I need to live by Christ. Therefore, I hate the culture within me and condemn it, for it keeps me from enjoying Christ.”
It is crucial for us to see that God wants nothing but Christ. If we see this vision, we shall set aside our standard and aspire to be one with the Lord in our spirit moment by moment. The all-inclusive Christ is now in our spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 tells us that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. In 2 Timothy 4:22 Paul says, “The Lord be with thy spirit” (Gk.). Our standard should not be the culture we have inherited or the culture we ourselves have made. Our standard should be the oneness with the Lord in our spirit. Do not try to be a good wife or husband. Instead, simply be one spirit with the Lord. Then you will live Christ because Christ will actually be living in you.
God has placed us into Christ. If we see that our culture frustrates us from experiencing the indwelling Christ, we shall realize that as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the Lord indwells our spirit and that we are one spirit with Him. We need to live by this mingled spirit as the standard. If we allow Christ to live in us day by day, we shall spontaneously live by Him. In this way, Christ will replace our culture.
The problem with the saints at Colosse was that most of them had been deluded and carried off from Christ to philosophy and religious observances. They set up this philosophy and these observances as their standard and lived by it. This standard kept them from the enjoyment of Christ and the experience of Christ. This was the reason Paul charged them to let no one purposely defraud them of their prize (2:18).
The principle is the same today. The enemy within us is subtle. We have certain standards, either the standards we have inherited or those we have made for ourselves. Because these standards are good, we do not condemn them. Nevertheless, these good standards are not Christ Himself. God does not want something good produced by us; He wants Christ and Christ alone. In the eyes of God, only Christ counts for anything. God’s intention is to work Christ into us so that we may have the full enjoyment of Him. When Christ has the free course within us to become our enjoyment and experience, our culture will be dealt with.
The time has come for all of us in the churches to hear this message, to see this vision, and to condemn our cultural standards. Then we shall realize that what God wants is Christ and that Christ today is the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit. Instead of living according to a certain standard, we should simply live by the Christ who dwells in our spirit. As we live in the spirit, we should let Christ have a free course throughout our whole being. Then we shall enjoy Him, experience Him, and be delivered from our culture.
