THE CHRIST DWELLING IN THE HEART
[p. 401] THE CHRIST DWELLING IN THE HEART
I suppose that many here tonight have been present on former occasions and have heard what has been taken up from time to time. But it may not have struck all that there was a kind of connection between the different subjects which have been before us. The fact is, I have endeavoured, by the grace of God, to start from the very simplest elements of truth and to lead up to what, in a kind of way, is the greatest thing that can be brought to pass down here. I think we get that presented to us in the prayer here. Nothing can exceed the object of the prayer, because the object is that we may be filled unto all the fulness of God; and that is in the way of testimony down here. The fulness of God indicates the precious features of God presented in the saints, that is, that there may be in the saints the expression of God according to the way in which God is spoken of in the prayer. It cannot go beyond that. The church could never be as great as God. Therefore all must be within certain limits. It is limited by the measure in which the blessed God has been pleased to reveal Himself. We know God as He has been pleased to reveal Himself. We cannot know Him beyond that revelation; otherwise it would be to make the creature as great as God. God is God, and the creature is the creature, and God’s creature. And whatever the place of blessing into which the creature is brought by God, he can only know God within the limits of revelation. There are heights and depths in God which are only known to Himself. He dwelleth “in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen”.
I will just touch for a moment what I have tried to bring under our attention previously. In the first lectures [p. 402] my point was to show the relation into which we are brought in regard to the Sun of righteousness. I do believe it to be most important for us to recognise Christ officially. Not simply that we believe in His Person — we believe that Jesus is Christ — that He is the Son of God, but we want the apprehension of what Christ is officially. That is, the apprehension of Christ in the place which Christ has according to divine counsels. He is the beginning and the centre of the moral universe of bliss. That is the place which Christ has. It has been very often said that the world that is, was really built up on one man, all sprung out of one man. So in a sense the world to come has one Man as the foundation of it; it is built up on one Man, but then the world to come has a moral foundation, which is righteousness. That is not the case with the existing world. The present world was the handiwork of God; but the world to come is really based on redemption. It is all built up in connection with one Man — the Christ. If I speak simply of Christ I generally mean Christ personally; if I say the Christ I speak of Christ officially in that which Christ is as the centre, the Object, the Beginning, the Head, of divine counsels — the pivot on which all the world to come turns. We get an illustration of it in what I have referred to more than once in regard to the solar system. There are two things that mark that system. Every planet is held in relation to the sun, and at the same time it derives from the sun. Every planet moves in its appointed orbit in relation to the sun; by a certain law of nature it is held to the sun; but that is not all the truth, there is something more, every planet derives from the sun, and is dependent on the sun for light, and warmth, and all that tends to maintain and propagate life. The same principle is true, I do not doubt, in regard to the universe of bliss, that universe of which Christ is the centre. Every christian in that universe is held to Christ by a spiritual law, and at the same time he derives from Christ. So that nothing can be of more importance [p. 403] to begin with than to understand how we are placed in relation to the Sun of righteousness; how we are established in righteousness as before God. We never had to accomplish righteousness, nor has the righteousness of God been declared in us, but in Christ. The righteousness of God is established in Christ, and at the same time Christ has accomplished righteousness in regard to us. Now by the Spirit of God we are established in righteousness. Christ is to us the beginning and the centre of the system of the universe of bliss, and we stand in relation to Him by the Spirit of Christ. We are established in righteousness in relation to Christ; the orbit in which the christian moves is in relation to the Sun of righteousness, and the christian is found walking down here even as Christ walked in the path of the divine will. If you do not walk in relation to Christ the will of God is not fulfilled in you. The perfection of God’s will is fulfilled in Christ Himself. And the will of God is fulfilled in us in measure as we walk in relation to Christ down here. Just in the measure that Christ is pre-eminent in the heart of a christian, so he walks in the path of God’s will down here. It is the principle of attraction really. One is held by the power of attraction to Christ Himself; just as a planet is held in relation to the sun, so the christian moves in the divinely appointed orbit. There is no other way of practical righteousness. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”. Righteousness is a very simple thing; righteousness is doing right. Righteousness is really maintaining in fidelity every divinely appointed relationship. We have to understand the relation in which we stand to God and to Christ and to one another, and even the inferior relations down here, social relations. We have to understand where God has set us; then we move in the appointed orbit of the will of God. That is the practical result of a christian being in Christ.
Then our next point is another truth, which is Christ [p. 404] in us, and there the character of Christ and the sensibilities of Christ all come out; all that is of Christ comes out in the christian circle down here, so that the christian circle is really the expression of Christ. It is His body. It is that in which Christ lives down here upon earth. It may seem a strange thing to say, but He lives down here in the saints. Personally He is at the right hand of God, but by the Spirit He lives in the saints down here. If anybody were to say to me, ‘Give a definition of christianity?’ I should reply, ‘Christianity is Christ’ — Christ in the saints by the work of the Spirit; anything outside that is not christianity in the sight of God. Much that we see around which is called christianity is not christianity at all, it is spurious christianity. It is a christianity that had its birth in judaism and heathenism. Christianity in the true sense is Christ by the work of the Spirit in the saints down here, and if you read Colossians 3 you will find in what a wonderful way the sensibilities and character and marks of Christ shine out in them. They were to put on love. The bond of saints is spiritual affections by the Spirit of Christ. Then the word of Christ was to dwell in them richly. The christian company or circle was to be characterised by what is of Christ because Christ is in them. The body of Christ is that in which Christ lives down here by the Spirit of God, and on the other hand it is that in which Christ is expressed down here. If we refer to the second epistle of Peter we see the striking fact of the decay of christianity, what was coming in, and what had come in: the complete failure of christianity as witness for God; but in contrast we get there too all that is vitally important to the christian — the way we are practically brought to God. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. But, are we brought to God? If we are brought to God we must be brought to Him according to His nature. The path to it is shewn by the apostle here. You begin with faith and you end with love. When [p. 405] a man believes in Christ he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and thus he is brought to God in a kind of way. But being brought to God practically is the work of the Spirit in us. In the divine mind we are brought to God “holy and without blame before him in love”. It is the result of the effectual work of the Spirit of God in the believer. It is very much what is seen in the prodigal brought into the father’s house in Luke 15: be gets the best robe, the ring and the shoes, he is set at the father’s table, and he is prepared to take part in the festivities. That is the true idea of man brought to God.
Then there is another point, and that is that in regard to the christian the day has dawned and the day star has arisen in his heart — Christ is in his heart. The practical result of that is, that there is an air of brightness about the christian that you could not possibly find elsewhere. The day has dawned, the day star has arisen in the heart, the harbinger of the day giving brightness to the heart. It is impossible that the day star should have arisen in the heart without imparting to the heart a sense of brightness and hope in anticipation of the day. Thus it is that prophecy no longer has a special place to us, because prophecy had the peculiar character of “a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”. Prophecy cannot have the same place to us now as it had to the saints of old. It was to them as a light shining in a dark place. But now something else has come to pass, the day star — Christ, has arisen in the heart of believers. You get something very nearly akin to it in the Revelation, “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star”. Then you get the response of the bride, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”.
Now that may form a kind of introduction to what I want to say tonight. I want to go further to another feature which comes out in this prayer in Ephesians 3. I am not going to attempt any kind of exposition of this prayer. What I want to do, if the Lord accord me the [p. 406] help, is simply to suggest one or two thoughts that come out in a striking way in the prayer. I think we may all be helped in that way in the terms of the prayer. The first thing that strikes one in the prayer is the wonderful way you get divine Persons working in unity in order to bring about a certain result. The first thing to mark is that the persons who are in view as the subjects of divine interest and petition, are the saints. The apostle intercedes on behalf of the saints, but you get all the divine Persons, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Spirit — the Spirit of the Father, and then the Christ; all are, so to speak, working together in connection with a certain result to be produced in saints. It is a very remarkable prayer in that way and it shews us the relative position of Each divine Person. I believe that is a great thing to get hold of. It greatly helps us. The passage connects the thought of divine counsels with the Father. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole (or every) family in heaven and earth is named”, &c. Therefore I think it is plain enough that our minds may connect the thought of divine counsels with the Father. There are undoubtedly many families on earth and in heaven. I could not attempt to enumerate them, but in heaven there are at any rate the following: the church and the Old Testament saints, all of whom are portrayed in the twenty-four elders in the beginning of Revelation. Then there is a variety of families on earth; take the gathering out from nations, and the nations; and there may be other families which my mind has not taken in, but all families in heaven and on earth are named of the Father. The Father has determined that which is to be set forth in each family; there is one thing to be set forth in the church and another thing in Israel, and another in the fathers. Each family has its place in connection with the counsels of the Father.
The next point is that the agent in all that is the Spirit. “That he would grant you, according to the riches of [p. 407] his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man”. The Spirit of the Father is the agent by which everything is effectuated down here. We do not effectuate anything in regard to one another. I may try to enlighten you, but I do not think it is in my power to effectuate anything in you, or you in me; nothing is effectuated down here except by the Spirit of the Father. We may affect one another in a very evanescent manner. You may work on people’s imagination and affect them in regard to intelligence, but not morally; all that is the work of the Spirit of the Father. The prayer is that they might be strengthened inwardly. The Spirit does not concern Himself with the outward man; He concerns Himself with what is inward, that is what the Spirit of the Father builds up. The Spirit of God is building up in the saints the inward man, which is renewed day by day, and it is in the inward man not in the outward man that we are strengthened. As we go along we get an increased sense of weakness in the outward man. Young people do not think much about it, they have health, strength and vigour, and do not concern themselves about the perishing of the outward man. But on the other hand there is the inward man, looked upon as the work of God, strengthened; the inner man is strengthened with might by His Spirit. It is a wonderful work and I thank God for the patience which He bestows upon His people, and for the work of His Spirit in His people. Now the object is that the Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. I will tell you what I understand by that. I think it indicates the place of the church here as the faithful bride; that is what is in view, and it is brought much before us throughout Ephesians. The prominent thought in Colossians is the body, while in Ephesians the prominent thought is the bride, and if you do not understand the bride you will not understand what it is for Christ to dwell in your heart by faith. It contemplates that the bride is left here where the Bridegroom is not. The Bridegroom is elsewhere, but [p. 408] the bride is here, and as in Revelation she cries, “Come”; what marks the bride is that the Bridegroom is dwelling by faith in her heart. You can understand this illustration — If a faithful wife were in England and if her husband were abroad, by necessity compelled to be at the other end of the earth, he would dwell by faith in her heart. She has not got him in person, but he is by faith dwelling in her heart, and I think that is our true position here upon earth. The church mourns the absence of the Bridegroom and she cries “Come” to the Bridegroom. But in the meantime He dwells in her heart by faith. “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom”. The bridegroom is a very great thought in scripture. It is a figure constantly applied to Christ; the idea it conveys to me is that the Bridegroom is the One that comes to ally Himself with every interest of God down here upon earth. The Bridegroom has the bride, and that is that Christ came here in order that He might take up every interest of God down here on earth. All has been cut off in a way by the death of Christ. “Shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing”. The Bridegroom has gone to heaven; but the true bride is down here on earth; and the Bridegroom dwells in the heart of the bride by faith. There is one here upon earth who subordinates every interest of her own to the Bridegroom. I believe that is the idea of the church. I think saints properly have not an interest of their own to serve. Saints make too much of their families and business, and live as though they had a great many interests here to pursue. That is not the idea of the church; a faithful bride if her bridegroom were absent would have no interest to pursue or maintain except the interests of the absent bridegroom, and that is true of the bride here on earth if the Christ dwells in her heart by faith. The practical result is this, her heart is deeply interested in anything and everything which concerns the Bridegroom. That is the true place of the church down here. If I get any additional thought as to [p. 409] the glory of the Son, of the Bridegroom, it is a supreme delight. If I heard of some great advancement in the world for me I do not think I would care much about it. But if I get any additional thought of the glory which pertains to Christ in that way I think I can say it is very great advancement to me, it is a very great rejoicing to me. And I think it would be so in regard to other saints. The more light we have as to the Bridegroom the more disposed we are to say “Come”. The Father is working in us by His Spirit in order “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”. There are two thoughts there I want to touch upon, one is that of expanse, and the other is what fills the expanse; breadth, length, depth and height — that is the idea of expanse. What took place in regard to Abraham? God shewed him the expanse of the land of promise. Here we get an allusion to the land of purpose, that is the whole extent and expanse of divine purpose and blessings, that is the idea of breadth, and length, and depth, and height. It is the way in which God will display Himself; the immeasurable character of the universe of bliss. It cannot be measured — God fills all. You are led into it by the Spirit of God at the present time. Very much as Abraham was permitted to view the expanse of the land of promise, so we get an idea of the expanse which is in the purpose of God. It is a great thought. It takes in heaven and earth. It takes in every family in which God will be known and expressed. Beyond all doubt it is in a very limited way, but I think one can in measure grasp the idea of that expanse in which the blessed God will be known and in which He will display Himself. The world to come is a most wonderful thought. It is not simply that everything is put under Christ, but everything then is in relation to Christ, everything [p. 410] derives from Christ. It is that Christ gives character to all in the universe of bliss. A good father gives character to his family. Even a brother among brothers and sisters may give character to a family, and in the universe of bliss everything will take character from Christ. He is now far above all heavens that He may fill all things. “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things”. In the solar system the sun fills all in a way with light and warmth; in the universe of bliss Christ fills all with the character of God, so that everything is ruled in righteousness. “He will judge the world in righteousness”. What will mark the world is that on the part of all in every direction there will be fidelity and the maintenance of divinely appointed relationships. Righteousness will be the first principle in the world to come, but there will be another principle which lies behind it, and that is love. Righteousness is always the outcome of love. The righteousness of God is dependent on what God is in love. Righteousness will be the moral rule of the world to come, by which everything will be held together in relation to God and to Christ. But at the same time what will lie behind righteousness is love. Love was the fulfilling of the law. The principle of law was righteousness. If a man had kept the law it would have been his righteousness. But the law demanded love. “Thou shalt love”, &c. Love is really the fulfilling of the law. The apostle in his prayer refers to the expanse, the vastness of the expanse of that universe of bliss which is before God. What is to fill it all? The love of Christ which passeth knowledge. I believe it is a principle in regard to natural things; light consists in a series of waves, but there is another thing that you want — something to put all these waves in motion. You want impulse. You get that fulfilled in Christ. In the universe of bliss all impulse originates in Christ. Christ is so known that He sets everything in movement. What I understand is this, that in the holy city Christ will be [p. 411] the light, and everything is pervaded by Christ. Everything is perfectly according to God. The holy city touches the earthly company, that is Israel. And so, too, I have no doubt it will be all through the whole system; everything will be as it were impulsed, will be set in movement in the world to come by the love of Christ, so that the love of Christ will pervade all, “filled even to all the fulness of God”. It is a blessed order of things in which God will be perfectly set forth. Thus when Christ was here on earth He declared God. That was the beginning, the complement of it all; the crown of it all is when Christ comes again in glory. Then, what He declared in testimony here when on earth, He will establish in power, and the whole universe of bliss will be established in righteousness, and all set in movement by the love of Christ. We are to know these things now. This is a time of intelligence, not a time of setting forth in power or display, but of intelligence by the Spirit of God. It is the moment of the full assurance of understanding, that is, that the Spirit of God works in saints divinely given intelligence. No one can overrate the importance of our being formed in divinely given intelligence by the Spirit of God. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. The real spring of intelligence is love. Just as the spring of righteousness is love, so is the spring of intelligence. It is the one who loves who knows God. Love is really the spring of intelligence. Take Mary of Bethany. She got great intelligence, but I think it was because she had great love. The secret of her intelligence lay in love, and so it is in saints now. Being grounded and settled in love we shall advance exceedingly in intelligence. I am very sure in my own mind that love is the real seat of intelligence. John understood much more of Christ than did Peter. John loved the Lord and the Lord loved John, and John was very quick in point of intelligence. So it is with the saints now. You can only know love by love. You cannot know love by intelligence, though as I have said love [p. 412] gives intelligence. It is only love that appreciates or estimates love. “To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”. That is a wonderful thing to be brought about in saints. Like a faithful bride whose husband is away, the whole range of her interests centre in the bridegroom. “That ye may know the love of Christ”. The bride says, “Come”, because she knows the heart of Christ. “That ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. That is, that the church might really be a true witness of God down here in the world, that God might be glorified in the church. That is the great end which the apostle desired. One may exclaim, Oh what a complete failure everything is! I grant it. But I ask whether this may not come true now. Do you think it is entirely impossible that the Father should strengthen us with might by His Spirit in the inner man? Do you think the Father would neglect to work with you? Every bit of failure was foreknown. It never took God by surprise. And do you think the Father ceases to work? I do not think so at all — if you are prepared for it; but we have to be prepared for it; we have to understand how we are brought to God according to His nature, and how God is working in us according to His pleasure. I do not think God would engage to give us prosperity in the world. I think God would engage to supply our needs, but I do not think that in a world from which Christ is rejected God would engage to make a christian prosperous. Saints make a mistake in looking out for prosperity. I think God will work in us to any extent, there is no limit to the extent to which God would promote Christ in the hearts of the saints. He will work in them, strengthen them, that the Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, and the effect will be beyond all question that they will get the most extraordinary blessed anticipation and unfolding of the scene of glory which is so shortly to be displayed and of which Christ is the beginning and centre. He is at the right hand of [p. 413] God, and when He moves away it will be to establish the universe of bliss. We ought to be here now in anticipation of it, and to be able to take up the cry of the Spirit and bride — “Come”. We want the Bridegroom to come and to take up all that is for God and to establish the universe of bliss; we want the Lord to come in order that all may be of God and according to God.