Thus far, we have seen the Christ revealed in Colossians mainly in a doctrinal way. Now we need to see the experience of this Christ. Colossians 2:6-7 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” We need to consider what it means to receive Christ. We received Christ when we opened our being, repented, confessed our sins to Him, and said, “Lord Jesus, I believe into You. Please come into me.” When we are newly saved, we may not know that Christ is the life-giving Spirit or that we have a human spirit. We may pray, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart.” There is even a popular gospel hymn that says, “Into my heart, into my heart, / Come into my heart, Lord Jesus” (Hymns, #1061). This song is good, but it is not entirely accurate. Second Timothy 4:22a says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” It does not say, “The Lord be with your heart.” The Lord first comes into our spirit. Ephesians 3:17a speaks of Christ making His home in our heart. After coming into our spirit, Christ gradually makes His home in our heart.
Our spirit may be likened to the living room in a home, and our heart may be likened to the bedroom, the inner chamber. When an unfamiliar guest comes to visit us for a short time, we may welcome him into our living room. However, when an intimate acquaintance comes to stay for several days, we will show him to a bedroom and tell him to feel at home. Regrettably, many of us have received the Lord only into our living room, our spirit. We have not ushered Him into our inner chamber, our heart.
We have received Christ into our spirit, and He now desires to spread into the parts of our heart. The four parts of our heart are our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. Christ is spreading from our spirit in the center of our being to the surrounding parts of our mind, emotion, and will. The Christ whom we have received is not far away, like money in a bank account. Rather, Christ is in our spirit, spreading into our heart. When Christ has spread into all our inward parts, He will be settled in our heart, having made His home in our heart.
Colossians 2:6 goes on to say that we should walk in Christ. We need to see how to walk in Christ. It is easy to understand the phrase walk in Christ, but we need to see what it is experientially to walk in Christ. It is not easy to define what it is to walk in Christ experientially because Christ is mysterious and abstract. However, the Word says that we must walk in Him.
In order to understand how to experientially walk in Christ, we need to be clear concerning two points. First, Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Second, this life-giving Spirit is in our human spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). Nothing is as crucial in our spiritual experience as these two points. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This means that the life-giving Spirit and our spirit are one mingled spirit. Therefore, to walk in Christ is simply to walk in the mingled spirit. In order to walk in Christ, we do not need to know many doctrines. We need only to see that Christ is the life-giving Spirit, that the life-giving Spirit is now in our spirit, and that these two spirits are one. The practical way to walk in Christ is to walk in the spirit.
A disagreement has arisen among the saints in certain localities. Some say that it is better to stay home to sleep on the Lord’s Day morning; they call this “having a solid time.” Others argue, “No, we must go to the Lord’s Day morning meeting.” In order to resolve this question, we should not listen to either side; rather, we should simply walk in Christ by walking in the mingled spirit. If we walk in the mingled spirit, we will spontaneously know whether to stay home to sleep or to go to the meeting.
Another disagreement has arisen as a result of some who say that we should not be legal. They say that we need to be liberated to go to movies, bars, and dance clubs. Others say, “No, as Christians, we should not do these things.” Once again, we should not listen to either side. Rather, we should simply check with the Lord in our spirit. In other words, we should walk in Christ, that is, walk in the spirit. When we walk in the spirit, we will spontaneously refrain from going to movies, bars, or dance clubs.
Because Christianity today is void of Christ, Christians often speak of what we should and should not do. Our physical bodies are full of life and therefore do not need to be told how to move. On the other hand, a machine is void of life and therefore must be commanded to move in certain ways. To go to the meetings legally or to not go to the meetings legally are different ways, but neither way is according to life. With life there is no need to talk of which way to take. Christianity is full of ways—ways to pray, to preach the gospel, to honor our parents, to love our wife, to submit to our husband—but it is void of Christ. We need only Christ. When we have Christ, we are living and do not need to be given a way; life is our way.
More than fifty years ago in the heathen land of China the Lord granted us His gracious visitation and caused us to see the real salvation of God. The real salvation of God is not a way but a living person, Christ. When this living person comes into us to be our life, we have everything. Christ is holiness, righteousness, humility, love, kindness, patience, endurance, long-suffering, and faithfulness. From the time we received such a vision of Christ, we stopped all our ways. By so doing, we entered into God’s economy, God’s salvation, and God’s way. Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6a). We do not need any other way; Christ is the unique way. Christ is the way to pray, the way to preach the gospel, and the way to do everything in our daily Christian life (Phil. 4:13).