The Christ who lives in us and who is being formed in us is now making His home in our hearts. In Ephesians 3:17 Paul says, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts.” The heart is the center of our being. In our hearts Christ is now making His home, that is, settling Himself. Therefore, Christ is not only in us, but He is making His home in us.
Our heart is composed of the three parts of our soul-the mind, the emotion, and the will-plus our conscience, the main part of our spirit. Through regeneration, Christ came into our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). Now we should allow Him to spread Himself into every part of our hearts. The heart is the totality of all our inward parts and the center of our inward being. Therefore, when Christ makes His home in our hearts, He controls our entire inward being and supplies and strengthens every inward part with Himself.
Christ desires to spread from our spirit to all the parts of our heart. We, however, may not always be willing for Him to spread into our mind, emotion, or will. Therefore, Paul prayed to the Father that He would strengthen us according to His power by His Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts. This indicates that by being strengthened in this way, we shall be willing to let the indwelling Christ spread into all the parts of our being and to take over each part. This is Christ making His home in our hearts.
The Greek word rendered “make home” in Ephesians 3:17 is the word for house plus a prefix that means “down.” This indicates that Christ wants to make His home deep down in our being. When we were saved, Christ came into our spirit. Now we must give Him the opportunity to spread Himself throughout all the parts of our inner being. As we are strengthened into the inner man, the door is opened for Christ to spread in us, to spread from our spirit to every part of our mind, emotion, and will. The more Christ spreads within us, the more He settles down in us and makes His home in us. This means that He occupies every part of our inner being, possessing all these parts and saturating them with Himself. As a result, we are filled with Christ.
Christ is also the One magnified in the believers. Paul said, “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death” (Phil. 1:20). In Paul’s bodily sufferings Christ was magnified, that is, shown or declared great (shown to be without limitation), exalted, and extolled. Therefore, to magnify Christ is to express Christ without limitation. It is to show to the whole universe that the Christ who lives in us and whom we live is unlimited. Paul’s sufferings afforded him opportunity to express Christ in His unlimited greatness. No matter what the circumstances were, Paul expected Christ to be magnified in him.
The word “magnify” means to make something large to our sight. We may wonder how Christ can be magnified since He is already universally great. According to Ephesians 3:18, the dimensions of Christ-the breadth, length, height, and depth-are immeasurable, for they are the dimensions of the universe. Although Christ is vast, extensive, and immeasurable, in the eyes of the imperial guards of Caesar Christ was virtually nonexistent. In their eyes there was not such a person as Jesus Christ. However, Paul magnified Christ; he made Him great before the eyes of others, especially before the eyes of those who guarded him in prison. As a result, through Paul’s magnification of Christ even some in Caesar’s household turned to Christ and were saved (Phil. 4:22). Although Christ is great, in the eyes of the Romans He was nothing. But as Paul was held captive in a Roman prison, he magnified Christ, making Him appear great in the eyes of his captors. In our daily living we also should magnify Christ, making Him great in the eyes of others. We need to let others see Christ in the way of enlargement, in the way of magnification. According to the human concept, Christ is limited. But when others see us living Christ, they will realize that He is not limited. If Paul had not been put in prison, no one would have understood how unlimited Christ is. It was through Paul’s imprisonment that the Christ whom Paul lived was expressed as the unlimited One.
In Philippians 1:20 Paul says that Christ would be magnified in him whether through life or through death. No matter what faced him-the opportunity to go on living or martyrdom-Paul expected to magnify Christ. In his living Paul magnified Christ. This is to magnify Him through life. As he was expecting to be martyred, he also magnified Him. This is to magnify Christ through death. Thus, whether through life or through death, Christ was magnified through Paul’s body. Far from being exhausted by his imprisonment, Paul was full of joy and rejoicing in the Lord. No doubt, he was shining forth Christ and expressing Him. Such an expression was a declaration of the unlimited greatness of Christ, a declaration that Christ is inexhaustible.
There is a crucial difference between natural human virtues and those virtues that are the magnification of Christ. For example, our love is eventually exhausted, but Christ as love is inexhaustible. The love that is the magnification of Christ lived by us is unlimited and cannot be exhausted. Likewise, our natural patience is limited, but Christ as our patience is without limit. We all have the capacity to be patient, but only to a certain extent. Although our natural patience is limited, Christ as patience is unlimited, inexhaustible, immeasurable.
Even though Paul must have been mistreated in prison, he could display to the guards the unlimited greatness of Christ. In particular, Paul displayed Christ’s inexhaustible patience. Christ certainly was magnified in Paul’s body. Paul was happy in the Lord, and his happiness did not diminish as time went by. In his happiness he could show forth the immeasurable Christ he experienced and enjoyed. In this way Paul expressed, exhibited, exalted, and extolled Christ. He was a living witness of Christ, testifying of His ability, power, patience, love, and wisdom, all without measure. While Paul was in prison, he expressed the greatness of Christ in an enlarged way. He magnified Christ both through life and through death.
Now, as believers in Christ, we also should magnify Him. As Christ lives in us, is being formed in us, and makes His home in us, spontaneously we shall live Him. Then Christ will be magnified in us.
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