Romans 6:3-5 says, “Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” First Corinthians 11:23 says, “For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.” Verse 26 says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes.”
We all know that the reality of all spiritual things is Christ. The essence of a Christian is Christ, and the essence of the church is Christ. Without Christ there are no Christians; without Christ there is no church. We have to understand this word in a very deep and subjective way. Never think that the church is something produced outside of Christ. The essence of the church is Christ Himself. The church is not merely produced out of Christ; neither does it merely come into being through Christ. Rather, the church itself-the very essence of the church-is Christ. Whether we speak of a Christian himself or of the church, the essence is just Christ. If Christ is not in someone, that one is not a Christian; if Christ is not in a group of people, they are not the church.
Colossians tells us that Christ is all and in all (3:11). Speaking of Christians, we may say that Christians are Christ; speaking of the church, we may say that the church also is Christ. Christ lives in the Christians, and Christ also lives in the church. Moreover, all the Christians’ experiences, and all the church’s experiences as well, are experiences of Christ Himself. Christ Himself is the Christians’ experience, and Christ Himself is also the church’s experience. Neither the church nor any Christian can have a spiritual experience apart from Christ. Apart from Christ, a Christian is devoid of spiritual experiences; apart from Christ, the church is also devoid of spiritual experiences. All the experiences of Christians and of the church are not only in Christ but also are Christ Himself. All spiritual experiences are just Christ Himself. If we do not touch or experience Christ, we will not gain Him, and our experience cannot be counted as a spiritual experience.
I hope that we all would grasp this principle firmly. Whether speaking of believing in the Lord, baptism, breaking bread, reading the Bible, praying, preaching the gospel, edifying the believers, serving, worshipping, or any other spiritual experience, the experience itself must be Christ. If we do not touch Christ in our prayer, our prayer cannot be counted as a spiritual experience. If we do not touch or contact Christ in our Bible reading, then our reading of the Bible is at the most the reading of religious scriptures; it is without any spiritual experience. In the same principle, if we do not touch or contact Christ in every spiritual matter, we are merely touching empty things without touching the spiritual reality, because the spiritual reality is just Christ Himself. It is only when we touch Christ in everything that we can have the spiritual reality. Christ Himself is the spiritual reality.
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