The Scriptures show us that Christ is our head (Eph 1:22, 4:15, Col 1:18). Just as the head of a man feels and cares for and controls the body, so Christ is towards us who are Christians. We do not need to ask Him to be our head that we may be His body. Today He is the head, and we are members of His body... God's Word states that Christ is the head; do you believe that He is at present caring for you? The Word of God also reveals to us that Christ is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5). It is not that He will become our vine and we will become His branches. It is not that in the near future when our spiritual life is more advanced than it is now we will then become His branches and He will become our vine. We should bear fruit as He does. We should be filled with virtues as He is filled with virtues. For He has given His "sap"—that is to say, His life and fruit-producing power—to us. He is now already the trunk, and we are already His branches. He is presently supplying to us His life with His perfection and holiness and all virtues. Do we believe this? Do we believe that He now is our trunk and we are His branches? When you believed Him as your Savior, you were already perfectly joined to Him. Do you believe this? You do not need to figure out how you can be joined to Him since God has already made you and Him into one tree. Can you now believe that He shall be towards you even as the physical trunk of a tree is towards its branches? It is not that you bear fruit for Him, but rather that He bears fruit through you. The grace of God has already given the Lord Jesus to us; today by faith we accept all that God has given us so that the life, power, liberty, and holiness of Christ may be manifested in our body. By believing what God says about Christ dying on the cross for us, we receive eternal life. Likewise, by believing that the Lord Jesus lives in us, we receive the life that wins.
The life we live is the life of Christ alone. We think of the Christian life as a changed life, but it is not that. God offers us an exchanged life, a substituted life, and Christ is our substitute within. 'I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me'.
Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, to give Himself to us, to live His life through us.
The savour of the good ointments of Christ may flow out through the holy lives of His people. Every trait, every perfection exhibited by Himself in His walk through this world may be reproduced in those that are His. Look, for example, at the precepts and exhortations of the epistles. Every one of them has been perfectly exemplified in Christ; and unless this is remembered, so that they may be associated with Himself as the living Word, they will become hard and legal obligations. Christ in us, Christ our life, as set forth in Colossians, is to be followed by the display of Christ through us, in the power of the Holy Ghost. For this we need to be much in His company; for the more we are with Him and occupied with Him, the more we shall be transformed into His likeness, and the more certainly will the savour of His good ointments be spread abroad. And this will be a mighty testimony to what He is; for in this case His name will, through us, be as ointment poured forth; the sweet savour of the name of Christ will flow forth from our walk as well as from our words. The apostle Paul uses the very words in speaking of his preaching, when he says, "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ"; and in a subsequent chapter (2 Cor. 4), he points out that testimony is connected with the life as well as with the lip. As we meditate upon it, may we not say, "What a privilege! What a mission, to be sent out into the world to make known the savour of the good ointments of Christ, that His name may, through us, be as ointment poured forth!"
God in His grace has centred for us every blessing in Christ. Without Christ we have nothing, nothing but our sins; with Christ we have all things, and therefore want nothing besides Christ. As the apostle says, "All things are yours; for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) Permit the question, "Do you desire to know more, to have more, of Christ?" There are few who would hesitate to reply, "Indeed we do." And yet it is quite true, as often said, that every one possesses as much of Christ as he desires. Of the Israelites in the wilderness we read, that they gathered of the manna every man according to his eating. The appetite determined the amount collected. So it really is with ourselves. Christ never withholds Himself from those who truly seek Him; nay, He responds to us far beyond our desires. The fact is, we want to have more of Christ, and something else besides. This cannot be. It must be Christ alone; Christ our only object, and then He will satisfy even beyond our utmost expectations. Phil. 3 will teach us the true method of pursuing after the knowledge of Christ while waiting to possess, and to be fully conformed to, Him in the glory. Everything is counted but dross, because of the excellency of Christ. For Him the apostle willingly suffers the loss of all things, in order to have Christ alone as His gain. Then two things mark him — concentration and purpose of heart. One thing only is before his soul, and that he resolutely pursues. The glorified Christ, who had been revealed to Him, acts upon his soul like a powerful magnet, draws him away from every thing else to Himself, and begets in him the intense desire to know Him ever more fully, to have fellowship in His sufferings and even to be made conformable to His death, in view of the glorious prospect of being raised from among the dead, when he would be with, possess, and be like Him for ever. May the Lord grant to each one of us to be like-minded in this respect to His servant Paul.
How many of us know that, because Christ is risen, we are therefore alive “unto God” and not unto ourselves? How many of us dare not use our time or money or talents as we would, because we realize they are the Lord’s not ours? How many of us have such a strong sense that we belong to Another that we dare not squander a shilling of our money, or an hour of our time, or any of our mental or physical powers?
God's end is Christ, so also God's means is Christ. It is through Christ to Christ. He says He is the bread of life—He does not say He will give us the bread of life. He says He is the way—He does not say He will guide us to walk in the way. He says He is the truth—He does not say He will teach us a truth. He says He is true life—He dos not say He will give us a life. Whatever Christ gives us is His very own self... Christianity is Christ... Christianity is not any one thing which Christ gives to me; Christianity is Christ giving Himself to me. (see John 6:48, 11:25, 14:6)
God, as Creator, formed man, to be a vessel in which He could show forth His power and goodness. Man was not to have in himself a fountain of life, or strength, or happiness: the ever-living and only living One was each moment to be the Communicator to him of all that he needed. Man's glory and blessedness was not to be independent, or dependent upon himself, but dependent on a God of such infinite riches and love. Man was to have the joy of receiving every moment out of the fulness of God.
God will not give me humility or patience or holiness or love as separate gifts of His grace. He's not a retailer dispensing grace to us in doses, measuring our some patience to the impatient, some love to the unloving, some meekness to the proud, in quantities that we take and work on as a kind of capital. He has given only one Gift to meet all our need — His Son, Christ Jesus. When I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need in my stead. Remember the word in the first epistle of John, 'God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life, and that hath not the Son of God hath not the life'.
"When Christ our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Colossians 3:4 Suddenly one day we see that Christ is our life. That day everything is changed. There is a day when we see ourselves in Christ. After that, nothing can make us see ourselves outside of Him. It alters everything. Then also there is a day when we see that Christ within us is our life. That too alters our whole outlook. They may be different days with an interval between, or both may come together. But we must have both; and when we do, then we begin to know Christ’s fullness, and to marvel that we have been so stupid hitherto as to remain poor in God’s storehouse.
We have our life from and in Christ, as truly, yea more truly, than from and in Adam. We are to walk "rooted in Him," "holding fast the Head from whom the whole body increases with the increase of God."
Though in fact I am in Christ, yet if I live in the flesh—that is, in my own strength and under my own direction—then in experience I find to my dismay that it is what is in Adam that manifests itself in me. If I would know in experience all that is in Christ, then I must learn to live in the Spirit.
Before we were saved, worldly objects and affairs usurped the place of Christ; but after being saved, spiritual objects and affairs now tend to occupy Christ’s place. Hence God must show us one day that “Christ is my world.” Earlier He took from us the things of this world; presently He is taking away our spiritual thing or things. He removes our personal patience, love, power, gentleness, humility. Indeed, He removes all, that we may not live by these good things but live by a Person instead. We are patient not because we have received a power to be so, but because we have got a Person. So is it with humility and the rest: not a power but a Person. It is for this very reason that God engages in a destroying work daily in the lives of His children that He may also do the work of a daily building up. Daily destroy things and daily build up Christ. Brethren, God will take away all things in order to give you one Person who is to be simultaneously your humility, your patience, your gentleness, and your love. For Christ is all. And this is what Christianity actually is.
We are to live the life of the cross experientially. In going through to the place where we are made "conformable to His death," His Cross must become our cross. Then, what others see and hear of us bears the mark of the Cross which crucifies all manifestations of the fleshly life. All those who are progressing in the pursuit of the Lord and who live in the world should have no other compelling purpose but to receive constantly the power of resurrection life and to live out before men the life of the Cross. This is what gives the Lord full satisfaction and is so well-pleasing to Him.
This mystery of union is God's work by which the unsearchable riches of Christ become ours. Do we believe this? All that is Christ's is ours. Do we believe that God has given us His holiness, perfection, life, power and riches? God has joined us to Christ causing Him to be our head, our trunk and our food. Do we believe that Christ is now our righteousness and sanctification and redemption? Do we believe He is presently living out His life in us? God has indeed invited us, nay, He has commanded us to believe. Our union with Christ is patterned after the union of Christ with God; therefore, His patience, gentleness, purity and goodness are all ours. Just as in initial salvation we previously believed Him to be our righteousness, so today let us likewise believe Him to be our holiness. Yet how many fail in this respect. They know God's way of victory, but they do not have the faith. They know their inability, but they do not know Christ's ability. They see the total corruption of their flesh, but they do not see the riches of Christ as God's gift to them.
What is life? Life is more profound than thought; thought never surpasses life. It also is deeper than emotion; emotion is superficial in comparison with life. Whether thought or emotion, it is relatively external. What, then, is life? The Lord Jesus declared: "I am the life." Life depends not on how enthusiastic is our emotion or on how manifold is our thought; it rests exclusively on whether the Lord has manifested His own self. There is therefore nothing more important than to know the Lord. As we are knowing Him, we are touching life. We ought to see before God the meaning of Christ our life (Colossians 3:4). If we know the Lord as our life, we realize the utter futility of all natural efforts in spiritual matters. Hence we look to Him alone.
Let us get it crystal clear in our hearts and mind that the only Person who ever lived the Christian life was Jesus Christ, and the only Person that God ever intended to live the Christian life was Jesus Christ. The only part that you and I play on earth today is to provide Him with human vehicles to that end. Hands and feet and lips; hearts to love with and eyes to see with. That is our part, and it is in the infinite, unspeakable mercy of God that even this privilege may be ours. But what a wonderful thing to consent to this fact and to know that Jesus Christ lives His life through you. What are the limits? What are the possibilities? This is the place where you quit begging and start praising God. You need not come, cap in hand, asking God for this and asking God for that. You only have to know that at any given moment Jesus Christ has the right of way in your life and you’re in the place where God wants you. You don’t have to beg for blessing. You thank Him in anticipation. It is inevitable.
We must be so completely hidden away in Christ that the world will no longer see us, but the Christ who lives in us. How can we approach men with a divine message when the old man is all they can see in us? Like the shoe salesman who always wore the same goods that he sold and always exhibited them to all to whom he tried to sell, so we must always exhibit Christ to those to whom we testify of Christ; and this we can never do until we get to the place where we are willing to acknowledge that we are nothing and He is all. He must actually be our all in our daily conscious experience, or we can never show a dying world how sufficient he is for all their need. We must be able to show the goods we advertise. This we not only can do, but will do from the moment we so yield that Christ can really live his life in us and thus become our character in daily living, and our power in daily service. This is the life “hid with Christ in God.” This is the life in which we are literally nothing and He is all. This is the life through which the world can see Him who reveals the Father.
"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'" John 8:12 Many people mistake knowledge, doctrine, theology and teaching as the light of life. The real light is not mere knowledge. It is none other than the Lord Himself. May the Lord be merciful to us that by His light He may take away our self-reliance, so that we no longer dare to trust in our own knowledge and judgment. Oh that we may come to Him saying, "Lord, You are the light. In seeing You, I now realize that what I have seen in the past have been but things". If doctrine is what we preach, doctrine will be received by people; but this is a dead object, not the light of life. If the light of life is what we dispense, it will not only enlighten people's life, it will also be shone through them.
Christ’s call to the soul is four-fold: Come unto Me, Learn of Me, Follow Me, Abide in Me. Come unto Me as Redeemer; Learn of Me as Teacher; Follow Me as Master; Abide in Me as Life. And all that is required of us is the one sufficient and inclusive attitude of soul which the New Testament knows as faith. This attitude and response of trust, self-surrender, dependence, is the essential attitude and response of the soul of man to God. Every sincere man knows full well the impossibility of realizing his true life in isolation, apart from God. Faith as man’s response to God for ever puts an end to the spiritual helplessness and hopelessness of the solitary man. He brings into the heart the assurance of forgiveness and deliverance from the burden of the past, he bestows on the soul the gift of the Divine life, and then he commences a work that is never finished in this life of assimilating our lives to that of Christ, working in us that Christlikeness which is the essential and unique element of the Gospel ethic. As we continue to maintain and deepen the attitude of faith the Holy Spirit is enabled to do His work and we are enabled to receive more of His grace. "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:14). By every act of trust and self-surrender we receive ever larger measures of the life of Christ, and all the while we are being changed into the image of Christ "from glory to glory" by the Spirit of the Lord.