Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:8, 16-17a, Eph. 3:19b; Eph. 6:17-18a; Col. 3:16; Phil. 2:16a; John 14:23; 15:4, 7
The verses printed above may be compared to the pieces of a puzzle. When we put the pieces together, we see a complete picture.
In Ephesians 3:8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ are the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). How all-inclusive and extensive these riches must be! The very fullness of the Godhead has become the unsearchable riches of Christ.
As we consider Ephesians 3:8 and 16-17a, we see that for Christ to make His home in our heart means that His unsearchable riches must possess our entire being. They must fill our heart, including the mind, emotion, will, and conscience. No doubt, if our heart has been occupied and possessed by Christ, we shall also be one with Him in spirit. Then our whole inner being will be possessed by Christ and be one with Him.
The word about the fullness of God being the riches of Christ and the riches of Christ possessing our inner being may be little more than a doctrine to us. We must go on to ask how in a practical way the riches of Christ can fill us. The fullness of the Godhead and the unsearchable riches of Christ are realized by the Spirit and in the Spirit. Furthermore, the Spirit is embodied in the Word. On the one hand, in Ephesians 3:8 and 17 Paul speaks of the riches of Christ and of Christ making His home in our heart; on the other hand, in Colossians 3:16 he charges us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. The word richly corresponds to “riches,” and the word dwell corresponds to “make His home.” The Christ with the unsearchable riches desires to make His home in our heart. Colossians 3:16 refers both to these riches and to the matter of the word of Christ inhabiting us, indwelling us.
Moreover, according to Ephesians 3:19, if Christ makes His home in our heart, we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God. We began with the fullness of the Godhead, and now we return to this fullness. The fullness of God, which is from eternity, has become the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now this Christ with His unsearchable riches is making His home in our hearts so that we may be filled unto all the fullness of the Godhead. Therefore, here we have a full circle beginning with the fullness of the Godhead and also coming back to this fullness. We praise the Lord that through the Spirit and the Word we may experience the unsearchable riches of Christ and be filled unto all the fullness of God!
Concerning the Spirit, there are two extremes, one found among fundamentalists and the other among Pentecostalists. Because they are afraid of the experience of the Spirit, certain fundamental Christians care primarily for Bible doctrine. But to have only the doctrine of the Bible without the Spirit is to have a lifeless body. The Spirit is embodied in the Word. Hence, the Word may be called the body of the Spirit. To separate the Spirit from the Word is to have a lifeless body. The Spirit is the life content of the Bible. Apart from the Spirit, the Bible is dead letters. Nevertheless, fundamental Christians are often afraid to hear about the experience of Christ, the Spirit, and the inner life. They represent one extreme.
The Pentecostalists represent another extreme. They may neglect the Word and emphasize the Spirit in an abnormal, unbalanced way.
God’s economy avoids both extremes. In the economy of God, the Spirit is the ultimate and consummate reaching of the Triune God to man. As we have seen, when the Spirit comes to us, the Triune God comes. Along with the Spirit, God gives us the Word. On the one hand, we have the Spirit as the ultimate and consummate reaching of the Triune God; on the other hand, we have the Word as the embodiment of the Spirit. We should never divorce the Word from the Spirit. Just as our life and our physical body are one entity, one complete living organism, so the Spirit and the Word are one. As human beings, we must have both a visible and tangible body and also an invisible and intangible life. In like manner, as believers, we need both the Word and the Spirit. Furthermore, just as it is the invisible life within our body which makes our body vigorous and active, it is the Spirit who causes the Word to be living.
The Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit is with us. There is no need to fast and pray in order to receive the Spirit. We can receive this Spirit simply by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. From our experience we know that whenever we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we receive the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Then the Spirit turns us to the Word. Many of us can testify that when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus with faith and love, we receive the Spirit. Automatically, we are drawn to the Bible. This indicates that the Spirit and the Word are one. God’s economy depends on both the Word and the Spirit. We must have both and never separate them. We need the Word as the body and the Spirit as the life.
If we would allow Christ to occupy us and make His home in us, we must be filled with the word of Christ. In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Here we see the connection between the Lord’s word and the Father and the Son coming to us and making an abode with us. It is difficult to say whether this abode is for the Father and the Son or for us. Actually, it is a mutual abode. On the one hand, the Lord makes us His abode; on the other hand, He is an abode to us. This is proved by the Lord’s word in John 15:4 concerning abiding: “Abide in Me and I in you.” This refers to the mutual abiding and to the mutual abode. No doubt, John 15 is the continuation of chapter fourteen. In chapter fourteen we have the mutual abode and in chapter fifteen, the mutual abiding. Because there is an abode both for the Lord and for us, we now can abide in Him and He can abide in us.
According to John 15:4 and 7, for the Lord’s word to abide in us means that the Lord Himself abides in us. Verse 4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” In verse 7 the Lord goes on to say, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you....” These verses indicate that the Lord’s words are equal to the Lord Himself. If Christ is to abide in us in a practical way, His words must abide in us. We cannot have Christ in us experientially unless we have His words in us also.
We praise the Lord that we have Christ, the Spirit, and the Word! Because Christ is God, He is real; because He is the Spirit, He is living; and because He is the Word, He is very practical. None of us can deny that, as those who believe in Christ, we have the Spirit and the Word. How wonderful that the Spirit and the Word are one!
Now we come to a very crucial matter: the need to receive the Word day by day. We should not have the attitude that because we have acquired a certain amount of knowledge during our years as Christians, there is no need for us to come to the Word daily. Even though we have been eating for years, we continue to eat day by day in order to stay alive. It would be foolish to say that because we have eaten so often in the past, we no longer need to eat. In like manner, we must come to the Word every day, even several times during the day. We should begin each day with a good breakfast both physically and spiritually. Every day we need to take the living Word into us and be filled.
After hearing the messages on living Christ, we may have the genuine desire to live Him. However, if we do not feed on the Word daily, it will not be possible for us to live Christ. I am healthy spiritually because daily I eat, digest, and assimilate the Word and am nourished by it.
God has made Christ to be our life and our everything, and He has destined us to live Christ. If we live Christ, we shall be the most blessed people on earth. We shall have joy, satisfaction, and every blessing. As we have pointed out, the way to live Christ is to receive His word into us and be filled with it.
In order to receive the Word into our being, we should not merely read the Word, but should mingle our reading with prayer, singing, psalming, and calling on the name of the Lord. Whenever I open the Word of God, either for the work or for my own nourishment, I am immersed in the atmosphere and aspiration of prayer. Often I converse with the Lord by means of the verse I am reading. In this way I am infused and nourished, filled in my spirit with the living Word, which is actually Christ Himself as the Spirit.
Do not think that you will be able to live Christ simply by making up your mind to do so. Someone may hear a message on living Christ and then pray, “Lord, I want to live You. I make up my mind to live Christ from now on. Please help me do this.” This kind of prayer, however, is not effective. It can be compared to asking the Lord to make you healthy when you do not eat properly. It is useless to make up your mind to be healthy if you do not eat nourishing food. Likewise, if we are not nourished by the Word, it will be to no avail to make up our minds to live Christ. Only by eating the Word can we live Christ.
When we are filled with the word of Christ, we are automatically filled with the riches of Christ and the fullness of the Godhead. Every day we need to take the living Word into us as food. When we come to the Word, we should open our entire being and exercise our spirit. First we should pray and then pray-read, sing-read, and psalm-read. In singing and psalming the Word, we may use any kind of melody, even a spontaneous one of our own composition.
Certain Christians, especially those in Pentecostalism, sing verses from the Bible. However, for the most part, they sing portions from the Old Testament. This is good, but it is not nearly as rich as singing from the New Testament. In particular, we should sing the four books which make up the heart of the divine revelation — Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians — to enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ.
In the meetings of the church we sometimes sing, “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion” (Isa. 51:11). Singing this verse can be inspiring and releasing. But it cannot compare in richness with singing verses from the book of Ephesians. We especially need to sing those verses which convey to us the riches of Christ. Again, I would encourage you to sing-read Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, four books filled with the divine riches. What riches are to be found in verses like Colossians 2:9 and Ephesians 3:17 — all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Christ, and Christ making His home in our hearts!
We should not think that Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians are merely words written by Paul and are not the word of Christ. When Paul wrote these Epistles, Christ was in him as the Spirit. Thus, Christ could write in Paul’s writing. This means that Paul’s words are the word of Christ.
According to Hebrews 1, God today speaks through His Son. As believers, the apostles have the Son of God, Christ, living in them. Thus, whatever the apostles speak with Christ is the word of Christ. For this reason, we should regard all the words written by Paul, in fact the whole New Testament, as the word of Christ. I hope that one day we shall be able to set the entire New Testament to music as a help in singing the word of Christ. Then we shall have a tune for every verse in the New Testament.
My concern is not with formal singing; it is with the spontaneous singing of the Word, a singing which causes our whole being to be exercised. As we sing the Word, we need to exercise our eyes to read, our mind to understand, our emotion to love the Word, our will to receive the Word, and also our spirit to pray, sing, praise, psalm, thank the Lord for His Word.
In the past, many of us did not exercise our whole being when we came to the Word. Often we used only our mind to study the Bible. We did not even exercise our emotion adequately to love the Word, or exercise our will strongly to receive the Word. But if we exercise our whole being to take in the Word, eventually we shall be filled, occupied, and saturated with the living Word. Because the Word is the embodiment of the Spirit and because the Spirit is the reality of Christ, we shall automatically be filled with Christ. Then whatever we do or say will be in the name of Christ. This is to live Christ. We live Christ automatically when we are saturated with the word of Christ through the Spirit.
The more we eat the living Word, the more we shall be constituted of the Word. We shall be saturated and fully constituted of Christ. Then our thinking will be Christ’s thinking, our speaking will be Christ’s speaking, and our actions will be Christ’s actions. This is the way to live Christ.
Living Christ by being saturated with the Word is very different from making up our minds to live Christ and then asking the Lord to help us in this matter. I know from experience that this kind of determining does not work. In the past I often said, “Lord, I ask You to help me to live You from now on.” I would be successful for a short period of time, only to fail the Lord again later in the day. Then I would confess my failure and ask the Lord to have mercy on me and help me to live Him. Eventually, I learned that the way to live Christ is not to ask Him for help; it is to be daily nourished with the living Word. For example, instead of praying to be healthy physically, we should learn to eat nourishing meals day by day. Likewise, if we want to be spiritually healthy and live Christ, we need to take the Word of God into us again and again. Simply praying for the Lord’s help does not work. But what does work is coming to the living Word of God every day and being infused with the riches of Christ. We all need to open from the depths of our being and exercise our spirit to receive the Word of God into us not merely by reading, but also by praying, singing, psalming, thanking, and calling on the Lord. Then the riches of the Word will saturate our being.
In His recovery the Lord is not seeking to recover any formalities or practices. The Lord’s goal is to recover Himself as our experience and to recover the proper church life which comes from experiencing Him in a practical way. Today the Lord is the Spirit and also the Word. We have the Word to muse upon and through which to converse with the Lord. We can also pray, sing, and psalm the Word, and we can thank God the Father through the Word. The goal of such an exercise is not merely to gain knowledge of the Bible; it is mainly to receive the element, the substance, the essence, of the divine Person, Christ Himself, embodied in the Word and conveyed through the Word. Let us pray the Word and sing the Word to receive the riches of the Word through the Spirit.
