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YE IN ME, AND I IN YOU

Eric Burr

I refer briefly to these verses because a connection between them came to my mind on the Lord's Day. I do not speak now as to "ye shall know that I am in my Father", a very remarkable expression. When Jesus was here, He referred to the Father being in Him – “the Father who abides in me, he does the works", John 14: 10, but He says "I am in my Father". Since Jesus in His manhood was speaking here, I do not suppose we can altogether divorce His manhood from that expression, but I do not claim to grasp it. I do not think we arrive at it by faith, but I think we believe it: I make that distinction. One might say that the security of the present dispensation rests in that for He is there and He is there operating to maintain the grace of the Father in every characteristic. Our brother has referred to the truth: an essential character of the truth in the present day is that the Father is manifested in grace, and this is to have power with us - but Jesus is there.

But it was the other part of the verse which I had in mind: "ye in me". I link that with “the assembly in Christ Jesus". "I in you" may be collective. On the whole John 14 is individual, but Jesus is speaking to the company of the disciples and He refers to "you" and no doubt has them all in mind. In any event, He had previously been speaking of the Spirit, and there is one Spirit. I wonder for myself how much I have grasped "ye in me" or “the assembly in Christ Jesus". The phrase comes to us readily on a Lord's Day morning, but what does it mean? "The assembly in Christ Jesus" does not speak just of a handful of those who have light and to whom these things have come. "The assembly in Christ Jesus" is that great entity, formed by the presence of the Holy Spirit and that is now to be taken account of as in Christ Jesus. If we have any impression at all of the vastness of the assembly, the vessel in which the Spirit dwells, how glorious it makes Christ Jesus that such an entity as that can be in Him! The reference must be to His manhood. What glorious manhood there is in Christ Jesus - “the assembly in Christ Jesus", and that is "ye in me".

But then "I in you"; I relate that to “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts". If you think over the scriptures, especially in Paul and in John, you will be impressed with how much is said that bears on Christ being in us, "Christ in you the hope of glory", Col 1: 27 John speaks of abiding in Him. But this is deeper than that: "I in you", that is, Christ dwelling in the heart, through faith. What an excellent thing that is! One might even think of hymns that say, 'Have you any room for Jesus?' What He Himself leaves and promises in relation to this day in which we are is "I in you ".

Why I refer to this is that I link it with the verses in Ephesians “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts" and then it builds that up to "being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God". These things are cumulative: one builds on the other. But the governing verb in John 14 is "ye shall know". Now, I ask us all - I could ask us all personally because the question is personal - how far do you know that Christ is in you? How far do you know that Christ dwells in your heart through faith? How far is it real? It is in the Bible. Of course, it is in the Bible, but how far do you know it? Does faith hold things purely objectively and, therefore, in some sense distantly or is the reality of Christ dwelling in your heart by faith something that you actually know? If you know it, you will be able to tell me about it, or tell somebody about it, what it is to have Christ Himself.

"In that day ye shall know..." I know it has commonly been said that "that day" is the Spirit's day. That is a good general answer. But what this verse follows upon is "because I live". In the day in which He lives and lives in that new condition as Man, the day that is characterised by Christ living - ''whom Paul affirmed to be living", Acts 25: 19 - when Jesus is known to be living, in that day, you will know that you are in Me and I am in you, you will actually know. I know the verb is objective: the notes tell us that. But if you look at the note to which you are referred in 1 Corinthians 8, you get the impression that it is more than objective, that it is knowledge that you have actually acquired. Mr Darby says, it could be rendered, 'I am acquainted with'. Now, are we all acquainted with this day? It is our present day, in which Jesus is living, and we are in Him and He is in us.

I allude to the verse in Ephesians 3, "the assembly in Christ Jesus" because it makes it explicit. "The assembly in Christ Jesus" is not association with Him: it is further than that, we absorbed into Him. The nearest other expression to it in scripture is, "and the two shall be one flesh", Eph 5: 31. But what I was impressed with is the challenge of this. We run over Ephesians 3 time and time again, but the word in John 14 tests us as to the reality of actual knowledge of "ye in me, and I in you", and the day in which that is known is the day that is characterised by the fact that "because I live ye also shall live".

Well, these things have their profound aspect, but they are really the simple possession of every Christian. May we be drawn into them!

LONDON

23 January 1996

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