CHRIST IN THE SAINTS
CHRIST IN THE SAINTS
Rem You said last time that being in Christ is dependent on redemption, and the gift of the Spirit.
Yes; the work of grace is to put us in Christ, but the great thing is to see what is involved in being “in Christ”. We have to apprehend that Christ is the Centre and Head of the new divine system. Every family in heaven and earth is named of the Father, and all will be blessed in Christ; Israel will be blessed in Christ, and so will the nations. All that is connected with Christ’s universal headship, but what marks the present time is that the church is in Christ. Then correlative to our being in Christ is the fact that Christ is in us. In this chapter it is Christ in us morally; it comes out in the way of character in the saints.
Ques Is Christ formed in us individually or collectively?
I have thought collectively. The saints are the epistle of Christ, and they could not be so unless Christ was formed in them. John always takes the subjective side, so that in his writings we get more Christ in us.
The point in this chapter is comfort. In chapter 13 there is every element of disturbance, but in this chapter every element of comfort. It is a great thing to be here with the heart not troubled, for there are a great many things which tend to trouble. Every heart knows its own bitterness, and I suppose every Christian knows what trouble and disturbance are in some way. “Comforter” is not the best rendering of the word; it is rather the idea of ‘patron’ or ‘solicitor’; it is one who takes your cause in hand.
[p. 215] The Spirit corresponds to Christ in heaven: Christ intercedes at the right hand of God, and the Spirit intercedes in the saints: “We have an advocate with the Father”; Advocate there is Paraclete, the same word as Comforter here.
In this chapter we get first the thought of a place, and then the thought of access; the Lord speaks of these before He goes on to speak of the Comforter. If we had not a place we could not have access; the one hangs on the other; no one has liberty of access to the King save those who have the place. It is because He is there that we have the place and the moral effect of His going to prepare a place is that we have access. Our suitability as to having access is met in that He is “the way, and the truth, and the life”, We get in Hebrews the introduction of a better hope, which we have “as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered”. It is by that hope we draw nigh to God. If we have liberty of access to the Father it involves our going to the Father. So in Ephesians 2: 18 we get “through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father”. That is preceded in verse 6 by “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. We get the place, and then we have access as the result.
Rem We cannot have two places.
That is just it. “This world is a wilderness wide”. Man had no title to a place in heaven, he was created for the earth, but there was a place for man in heaven in divine counsels, and according to God’s sovereignty, in connection with the Second Man. He was out of heaven, and will go to heaven, and He will take a company with Him.
The Spirit would abide with them in contrast to Christ’s going away, and Christ would be in the saints by the Spirit. What could Christ have imparted [p. 216] so great as Himself? This He has done by imparting His Spirit. You cannot distinguish morally between Christ and His Spirit. In Romans 8: 9 we read, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”, and then it adds, “If Christ be in you”, etc.
“I will come to you” (John 14: 18) is by His Spirit; it is in that way Christ really brings Himself to us. Then verse 20 amplifies it, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. I think the early disciples had great enjoyment in their relations one to another; the Spirit of Christ in them was a great reality and a great comfort. In our day things are very much clouded, and it is difficult to realise spiritual affections in the way they were realised in early days. In John’s gospel the Father is looked at as the Source of everything; even when Christ sends the Spirit it is from the Father, Christ in us brings in unity, because it is one Christ and one Spirit, and it makes one body. If we know that Christ is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us, we really know all that is worth knowing.
Ques Why is the question of love raised in connection with the coming of the Comforter?
It was to such a company that the Comforter would come; the real link with Christ is love. The disciples were tested by the presence of Christ; we are tested by one another. If we do not love one another, it would be futile to say that we love Christ. The test to them was that they kept His commandments; He did not question their love, but His commandments were the test of their obedience. Christ is entitled to the obedience of His saints, though many take little pains to keep the commandments of Christ. People often like to do their own will, and do not consult Christ in regard to what they do.
Rem All this was in view of His going, so that there might be the proof of their love when He was gone.
[p. 217] Yes, and, as we see in the beginning of the Acts, the disciples studiously kept the commandments of Christ, and the Comforter came. The Comforter has now come, but I question if we get the good of His presence if we fail to keep the commandments of Christ; the gain of the Comforter is dependent on that. Every injunction of Christ is binding on the saints. The commandments of Christ have reference to our relations one to another; our righteousness is to love one another as Christ has loved us; we “ought” to do so; it is an obligation. The “words” of Christ are more in the way of communications; but His commandments are of binding obligation.
If we have the Spirit He can make us conscious of the nearness of the Father and the Son (verse 23). There is no limit to what is possible in the Spirit; the limit is in our state. The Spirit is sensitive, and resents what is unsuited. Everything depends on the presence of the Spirit, but there must be fidelity to Christ to get the good of it. There are two things which saints need to get clear of, their own wills and the world. The disallowance of one’s own will, and being apart from the world, are involved in keeping His commandments and words.
“I will come to you”. There is no moment when He would not be with us; we are not left orphans. There is not a moment when the saints come together, but the presence of Christ may be realised. The saints being together according to Christ involves His being with them. What more intimate connection could there be between Christ and the saints than that they should live because Christ lives? A man of the world dies when the world fails him, but we live because Christ lives. The world is not at all indispensable to us. “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me”.
Verse 20 is the apprehension of the entire situation; if you take it in, you do not want anything else. There can be no corporate blessing unless there is individual [p. 218] faithfulness. We are greatly hampered when we come together if we go on individually with unsuited associations.
Ques What does the Lord mean by saying “I will manifest myself to him”?
It means that He puts Himself in evidence to you. But “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” is more continuous. If we have the Spirit we really live in these associations. I am sure people do not estimate what an extraordinary gift the Spirit of God is; He has come really to bring God in. God’s way of taking up a place in His own creation is secured by the Spirit as the result of redemption. There is very little stability in Christendom, and I suppose the real cause is that they do not give place to the Comforter. Christ formed the house; He was the true Son of David who built a house for God, and then the Spirit came and dwelt in it.
Ques What is the force of Christ being formed in us, as in Galatians 4: 19?
The Galatians were hindered, and disposed to go back to legal observances, and Christ had not taken shape in them. It is not so much in character, but Christ was not formed in their minds. If Christ is formed in the mind He will have no rival. There was no longer Jew nor Gentile; there remained nothing but Christ, and Christ will not have anything else religiously. The Jewish mind had a great deal of detail to apprehend in the law, but for us, if we are simple, it is Christ; we need nothing to commend us to God, but appreciation of Christ. Christ being in you is the consequence of new creation; it is first “Ye in me”, and then “I in you”. It is the purpose of God to head up all things in Christ; the church has its own peculiar place, and there is nothing in Christ yet save the church, but in result all will be in Christ. For illustration the king is the great head of the social system; he is also head of his wife, but then she is [p. 219] much nearer to him than anyone else. The church is in Christ as the bride of Christ, and God has made known to us the mystery of His will to head up all things in Christ, but the church has its own peculiar place in relation to Christ.
John 17 is the climax. “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one”. Then it is absolute. New creation in an absolute sense is the displacement of all of the first creation; therefore Israel will not be in new creation as we are. Morally they will be after God in righteousness and holiness. Christ in us involves displacement; will and the world have to go; if we could get rid of these there would then be room for Christ. It is impossible to keep the commandments of Christ with unsubdued will. If people are determined to go on with certain things, I should call that unsubdued will. Then the influence of the world tends to chill spiritual affection, it tends to maintain status and position here, but these things act as a great check upon spiritual fellowship and love. The Father’s house is where everything is according to His mind, where He can be complacent. In the world all is confusion, there is such mixture of good and evil, but in Him we have peace. We get comfort by being true in our relations one with another; our hearts “comforted, being knit together in love”. There is comfort in that way. Peace is in contrast to confusion, comfort more in contrast to disturbance.