SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1892

SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1892

In regard to your questions, I think that Scripture speaks guardedly of “Christ in you”, though it is what one may call proper christian state. In this way it is used in Romans 8, “If Christ be in you”, and he tells you what then characterises — “the body is dead”, etc. But it is to the Colossians he speaks of “Christ in you”. In the Galatians He was not formed, but they had the Spirit. Every christian has accepted the testimony of Christ as Saviour, but I think it is when they apprehend Him as the only Man before God, the pattern to whom they are to be conformed, that Christ is formed in them. This may be hindered, as with the Galatians; but till then I doubt if it can be said, ‘Christ in you’. I do not say it is attainment, for it is the proper starting-point for attainment.

I think in Galatians 2:20 the apostle personifies in himself the true christian state. Romans 8:2 indicates the way in which we have life now with God — ^[p. 70] not, so to say, in the actuality of heavenly life, but in the Spirit, who has that character to us, “The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, so that we can be, in a sense, with God outside and apart from our mere outward, natural life down here.