CHRIST IN THE SAINTS

^[p. 535] CHRIST IN THE SAINTS

Romans 8: 9, 10; Galatians 2: 20; Galatians 4: 19; Colossians 1: 24 - 29

CAC It is important to keep before us the thought of Christ being in the saints. It brings out one of the greatest thoughts of God. Paul could speak of it as a mystery which had riches of glory; as though to stimulate the interest of our hearts in it. There are riches of glory resident in the fact that Christ is in the saints and particularly in Gentiles. “The riches of the glory” seems to suggest to one’s mind a certain radiancy; and I believe that God would invest His saints with radiance. We are in a dark world and in a dark christian profession, but God would invest us with radiance. I suggested the verses in Romans 8 because they give us the foundational thought of Christ being in the saints. I do not think it could have been said of the Old Testament saints that Christ was in them. The Spirit of Christ was in them as a prophetic Spirit, but that is rather a different thought. Scripture does not say that Christ was in them, and I do not know that Christ will ever be in any other company than the assembly. Certainly not in the same way. So that we should consider this as a unique glory that attaches to the saints now.

The Spirit of God dwells in us, who is also the Spirit of Christ, and that is how it comes about that Christ is in us. We do well to remember that the great witness to Christ risen and exalted on the day of Pentecost was that there were a hundred and twenty persons who had received the Holy Spirit. And before the close of the day three thousand were added to that company. And, as we all remember, within a few days the number of the men was about five thousand. What a testimony to Christ! God’s testimony to Christ is a company of persons here on earth indwelt by God’s Spirit, of ^[p. 536] whom it can be said that they are not in the flesh. That could not have been said of Abraham or David, it could not even have been said of Peter or John, while the Lord was on earth. But it is wonderful to think that there are a number of persons now on earth of whom it can be definitely said “Ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit dwell in you”.

It is a question of a state in which we can please God. Those who are in flesh cannot please God. Now Christ has come in as God’s Anointed, and has died and been raised and exalted, and the benefit of receiving Christ and believing on Christ is that we get the Holy Spirit. And the very presence of the Spirit in us puts us into an entirely new state, in which we can please God. Now it is good for the youngest believer to recognise that divine fact. We are spiritually strengthened and helped as we recognise the great spiritual facts which are subsisting realities. Christ is so great, that He is able to do what no other Man could do; He can give His Spirit to thousands of persons. There are thousands of people in this world who have the Spirit of Christ. They are of Christ; that is, they do not take account of themselves as having anything that is of value save what they have received from Christ. Christ has become the fountain from which they have drawn every supply as the great treasury and reservoir of divine blessing. Everyone of that company has the Spirit of Christ, and that is how Christ comes to be in us. He is in us in virtue of His Spirit being in us. It would help all young believers to recognise that spiritual fact.

Ques Would you say that if that is enjoyed it brings about a universal outlook?

CAC Well, it lays the foundation for the truth of the mystery, and that brings in what is universal. If the Spirit of Christ dwells in all the saints, there is a wonderful basis for spiritual unity. There is, indeed, a new spring of life morally. There is actually in the believer a new spring of life, in virtue of the Spirit’s presence. This is illustrated in Elisha and ^[p. 537] Elijah. Elijah asked Elisha what he should do for him, and Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit; and he was told that if he saw Elijah when he was taken, it would come to pass. And it did come to pass. Now Christ has gone up to the right hand of God — and those who see Him go up receive a double portion of His Spirit, such as no other saints will ever get. It belongs to the saints of this period to have the double portion — that is the portion of the firstborn. The assembly is the first-fruits of Christ’s vigour, and the saints of the assembly have the double portion of His Spirit. Therefore Christ is in the saints, you might say, potentially. That is, there is power connected with it, and therefore great possibilities.

Ques Why do so many believers seem to remain units?

CAC Well, I doubt whether very many have really taken in the divine thought of the Spirit being here. If I understood that I have received the Spirit through faith in Christ and in the value of redemption, I should have an instinctive sense that thousands of other people had received the same Spirit. So that one would come, in that way, to the truth of the assembly; that is, we should recognise the saints as a company indwelt by the Spirit. Many Christians do not recognise that in any practical way.

We read here (Romans 8: 10) that “if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin”. The presence of Christ in the believer brings to an end the life that naturally attaches to the body. A certain life was connected naturally with the body; the body is the vessel or vehicle by which we do everything; a man could not sin without his body. If the body were actually dead the life of sin would be at an end. Now if the body acts in the life that naturally belongs to it, it is the vehicle of sin. But the coming in of Christ makes a wonderful change — “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin”. As regards that particular thing the body is dead now. A new source and spring of life has come in altogether different from the life that naturally attaches to the body, and ^[p. 538] the Spirit is now life in the sense of power to move on the line of righteousness. The body is looked at here as having a certain life in which it acts. We read (verse 13) of “the deeds of the body” as if the body were the actor. Now if the body is the actor it produces nothing but sin. But now a new life and power have been brought in. I remember hearing of Mr. Darby having a debate with a Jesuit who contended that the Christian’s body should be like a corpse moved by a stick.

The Jesuit’s idea was that the Christian ought to do nothing but what the priest told him, he was to be like a corpse entirely controlled by the priest; Mr. Darby said, I accept your figure, but the ‘stick’ must be the Spirit of God.

Ques What connection has this with the word in chapter 6, “Reckon yourselves dead to sin” etc?

CAC That is a question of reckoning, of how you take account of things, but when you come to chapter 8 there is a new power, a new spring of life in the believer, Christ is in him. Now that is what every believer, young or old, ought to recognise.

Ques Does not this suggest the immensity of the gift?

CAC Yes, I am sure if we recognised the presence of the Spirit and Christ as living in us, there would be power to terminate the life — of course I am speaking morally — that is naturally connected with the body. It is a wonderful thought that Christ should be in the saints, is it not? It is not a modification of what we were, or an improvement on it; it is not that we are reformed and leading a different life in that sense. It is an entirely new thing which is illustrated by what was said to Saul; “Thou ... shalt be turned into another man” (1 Samuel 10: 6). If Christ is in us, that is the life of another Man.

Ques “The Spirit life on account of righteousness”, would you say a word about that?

CAC If the Spirit is life we shall move on the line of righteousness; what is right will have place. This chapter speaks of the righteous requirement of the law being fulfilled in us; the Christian fulfils what is right because he walks in ^[p. 539] love, love is the whole law (chapter 13: 10). The law is brought down to one word.

If we pass on to Galatians we find that in the assemblies in Galatia the people of God had got away from any true thought of Christ being in them.

Ques I should like to ask, is there not a sense in which there is nothing beyond Romans 8? Would you agree that everything beyond is really a development of that?

CAC Well, yes, the great thoughts of God are there, just as you might say there is nothing beyond chapter 5. Chapter 5 leads up to the point of boasting in God and having life eternal. A kind of terminus is reached, and chapter 8 brings out what we have in the Spirit, and, in one sense, we cannot get beyond that.

Ques Is this new source of life in every believer?

CAC It is in every believer who has the Spirit.

Ques I wonder if we are all clear as to the Spirit being life on account of righteousness?

CAC It is quite certain that if the Spirit is life there will not be activities that have the character of sin. The activities which result from the Spirit being life will have the character of righteousness. If the body acts in virtue of the life that attaches to it naturally its activities will have the nature of sin, but if the Spirit is life instead of the life that naturally attaches to the body, all the resulting activities will have the character of righteousness. This comes about in virtue of the fact that the Spirit has become life. So that now the body can be presented to God as a living sacrifice. What new activities are brought out in chapter 12! It is a wonderful thing to speak what is right, and to do what is right, and no one but the Christian does; because for a thing to be right, it must be done in relation to God, and to the position and relationships in which God has set us.

Rem The apostle says, “I buffet my body, and lead it captive” (1 Corinthians 9: 27).

CAC Yes, he kept it under; and so in this chapter, “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. The Christian now has power to put to death the deeds of the body; that is, all those deeds which are naturally the outcome of the life of the body, and in which it was the vehicle of sin. There is power by the Spirit to put that to death. You are never told to be dead to the flesh. Some of us have tried it, and it is a hard job. We are to be superior to it in the power of life. Another kind of life morally has come in in virtue of the presence of the Spirit, and Christ is in the saints. That is the life we have to make provision for; Christ is in us. What a difference it would make! And it would lead us to walk in harmony with those who have the Spirit of Christ, because what is of Christ in one will never conflict with what is of Christ in another. And thus the elements are brought in that really constitute the body.

Rem The apostle could exhort Timothy to follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, etc.

CAC That has in view practical righteousness as in contrast to everything that is unrighteous in the christian profession. What is not according to God is unrighteous and it is no evidence of Christ being in the saints if we are going on with something that is not right; it is really a practical denial of Christ being in us.

Ques Would you say that when the Lord breathed into the disciples this was the kind of life they received?

CAC Yes, I think it would include this.

Ques A moral link with that Man?

CAC It is even more than that. If Christ is in us it is more than having a link, is it not? It is a positive fact, and God would send every one of us away with a deeper sense of it, that Christ is in us. He is in us in a very powerful way, for He is in us in virtue of the indwelling of a divine Person. Could you think of anything morally greater than that? That the Holy Spirit is in you, and in virtue of that divine Person being there Christ is in you.

Rem A sense of that in the soul would do away ^[p. 541] with individualism.

CAC Yes, the gospel always has in view the mystery. Now you can understand how busily the devil would work to get people away from this, and we find that the assemblies in Galatia had got right away from the thought of Christ being in them. And that leads Paul to travail in birth again until Christ was formed in them. He was set to repair the damage by bringing Christ into their souls in a more definite and substantial way than they had at the beginning.

Ques What do you mean by something more substantial?

CAC I was thinking that Christ being formed suggests spiritual substance. In Romans, Christ is in the saints, there is life and power, just as you might have in a babe — a potentiality which may develop to any extent afterwards, but there is hardly the thought of formation. I think perhaps that is what many believers lack, Christ being formed in them.

Ques The features of Christ?

CAC Well, I was not thinking of that exactly, though if Christ were found in us that would work out all right. But the Galatians had got away from the thought of Christ being in them. They were occupied with circumcision and observance of days and months and years, and going back to the law. They had been diverted from Christ by occupation with these things; they had turned from what was of true value to what was worthless. How small all these things look in comparison with Christ — law-keeping and circumcision and observance of days! Paul says they are weak and beggarly elements. He has in mind a majestic thought, for it is a majestic thought that Christ should be formed in us. Paul is in an agony, he travails in birth, showing us the important place prayer would have in connection with the formation of Christ. One may contribute greatly to the formation of Christ in another by prayer, by travail of soul. And I think the Spirit of God would suggest the thought of that to us all. The thought of being deeply concerned that there should be a formation of Christ in the brethren.

Ques You spoke of potentialities — do we understand ^[p. 542] that the Galatians had these potentialities but went no further?

CAC That is so. We know that they had received Christ, and they had received the Spirit, but they had turned away from that line altogether, and on to the line of the flesh; religious flesh, flesh that would keep the law and be circumcised. Now the apostle was intensely concerned that Christ should be formed in them.

Rem It is easier to improve the flesh than to be exercised about Christ being formed.

CAC Well, it is easier for the flesh, but it is opposite to all that is of God. If we want any help as to what Christ being formed in us means, I think this epistle would show us. Paul would show us that every thought of God in regard to man’s blessing has reached its ultimate point in Christ. He even goes so far as to say that the promises were made to Christ; that is, God has committed Himself to Christ, not to any other man. To have that formed in the soul seems to suggest something wrought by God that will not be easily overturned. We can understand Paul, looking at the potentiality that is in the saints, desiring that Christ should be formed in them. It is a great thing to see that as regards the blessing of God there is nothing to be added; things have reached fruition and finality in Christ. And our blessing in a practical sense, our spiritual liberty, is bound up with Christ being formed in us by the Spirit. In having Christ formed in us we have spiritually in our souls the full thought of blessing that is in the heart of God towards man. The fulness of it has been reached in Christ, and God would form Christ as the very substance of the gospel in us to give us stability in the knowledge of Himself. So that, not only are all the promises brought to fruition in Christ, but God’s great thought of sonship has been secured in Him. To have Him formed in us would free us from all legality. We should have a deep sense that no addition to Christ is needed or is possible. He is formed in us in the greatness of what He is as the treasury of every divine thought of blessing. Paul shows that as far as he ^[p. 543] was concerned he was on this line; “I am crucified with Christ” etc. Peter had been maintaining his reputation as a Jew by not eating with the Gentiles, but Paul saw that that was a falsification of the whole position. It was not having the sense of being crucified with Christ and Christ living in him. Paul had the sense of being crucified with Christ. “And no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”. It was really like a new individuality.

Rem There is not much room for that order of man in this world.

CAC Well, we do not expect it, do we? But there is another world where the great thoughts of God are known, and those thoughts lead on to the mystery. God had things in His mind about which He kept silent. It is a wonderful thing. God kept silence for four thousand years about the mystery; this wonderful thought of God was hid from ages and from generations but it is now made known to His saints. I wonder if we are all intensely interested in it? Paul speaks of the Gentiles being made acquainted with this precious thought of God. “The riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory”. The glory has not come yet; it is yet a matter of hope; but the wonderful thing is that Christ is here without the glory; He is in His saints, and particularly in Gentiles. Christ in the saints is not merely a question of what God sees; it is a reality; it is the greatest reality on this earth at the present moment. There is nothing in this world at all comparable to that great reality — Christ in the saints.

“The riches of the glory of this mystery” shows that while glory is not yet manifested publicly, as it will be, there is at the present time a glory that has the character of mystery; it is only known to those initiated. The wonderful thing is that Christ is not only at the right hand of God, but He is here, though the glory has not come publicly; it is yet a matter of hope. But Christ is here in the saints and particularly in a gentile company.

Rem Christ in the saints is the hope ^[p. 544] of glory.

CAC The fact of Christ being in the saints brings the whole system of glory into view as a matter of hope. Paul speaks to the Ephesians about ministering as glad tidings “the unsearchable riches of the Christ”. Christ is the great treasury of divine thoughts. But in Colossians the assembly is the treasury, for the riches are in the mystery, and the mystery is that Christ is in the saints; so that the assembly becomes the treasury of all divine thoughts.

Rem That would keep the saints from the world.

CAC Yes, it frees us from the world and sets us together, spiritually and vitally, as those in whom Christ is, and who have Christ as their life. It puts us outside the range of things that belong to man after the flesh. What a wonderful thing to be in a circle where Christ is everything and in all. “Christ ... everything” is objective, so that when you come into the meetings you do not find anybody exalted but Christ; every brother that takes part, whether he prays or praises or gives a word, exalts Christ. And then “in all”; He is in the saints as the power of life.

Ques Do you look upon formation as bringing into the soul the feelings and motives of Christ?

CAC Well, I think that would be the result. The apostle in writing to the Galatians was concerned that they should realise the character of the blessing into which they were brought. They had got away from the true character of their blessing and all sorts of fleshly activity had come in. To have Christ formed in them, as the One in whom all divine thoughts were set forth, would bring in new motives and a new power. There is power in connection with the system of blessing in Christ, power to walk in the Spirit, and to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. But that is all rather the consequence of having Christ formed in us. As Christ is formed in us, we are freed from legal entanglements and self-consideration and are free to move in spiritual liberty, and the fruit of the Spirit comes out in the saints.

^[p. 545] Rem David could say in Psalm 139, “How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God!”

CAC Yes: “When I awake, I am still with thee”. You wake up in a region where you are with God in His great thoughts. God has been pleased to indicate to us that the mystery is greater to Him than anything else. Now what is it to us? Is it just a word that we hear the brothers use in their addresses and prayers, or is it a spiritual reality that is greater than anything else in the universe? Outside divine Persons themselves there is nothing so great as the mystery, and the Colossian aspect of it is “Christ in you”. Let us pray about it.