Our experience of Christ being worked into our being is progressive and involves several steps. At the very moment we received Christ as our Savior, Christ entered into us. We may not have known that Christ had entered into us, but this is what happened, and this was our experience. This is the first step that God takes in His plan to work Christ into us; that is, He enters into us and reveals Christ within us.
This matches the experience of the apostle Paul. Before he was saved, Paul was a very religious person (Gal. 1:13-14; Phil. 3:4-6). He spent all his time trying to do good. Then one day the Lord opened his eyes. In Galatians Paul declared that one day it pleased God to reveal Christ in him (1:15-16). At that moment Paul realized that he had been wrong. He realized that to be a religious person and to try to do good was wrong. Thus, he was adjusted, and his thinking changed. From that time on, the apostle Paul simply forgot about everything other than Christ and counted everything that had been gain to him as loss on account of Christ (Phil. 3:7). Formerly, he had thought that religion was the best thing, but when Christ was revealed in him, he realized that religion was a loss. As a result, he gave up all his good works and religious activities for Christ.
Although I was saved when I was very young, I was not taught properly in Christianity. No one ever told me in a clear way that Christ had entered into me. The denomination that I was raised in did not have such a teaching. Nevertheless, through my own times of prayer with the Lord, I eventually received the thought and the feeling that Christ was in me. The more I prayed, the more I had the sense within that Christ was in me. I had been taught that the Lord was far above us in the third heavens. Thus, my original thought when I began to pray to the Lord was that He was far away from me. However, as I began to spend time with the Lord in prayer, I began to sense that the Lord was very close to me, even within me. I had the strong sense that the Lord was within me, especially when I encountered difficulties and trials. As believers, we all must realize that Christ is in us (2 Cor. 13:5).
In addition to having Christ revealed in us, the apostle Paul tells us that we have put on Christ. In Galatians 3:27 he writes, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” On the one hand, Christ has been revealed in us; on the other hand, we have put on Christ. Just as we put on our clothing and are in our clothing, we also have put on Christ and are in Christ. Thus, Christ is in us, and we are in Christ.
In addition, Paul tells us that we must allow Christ to live in us. In Galatians 2:20 he writes, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Many of us may have the knowledge that Christ lives in us, but we still may not practice this. We must put what we know into practice every day. We must ask ourselves, “Am I living, or is Christ living in me?” This is not a doctrine. We need to exercise ourselves to live not by ourselves but by Christ.
In Galatians 4:19 Paul goes on to say that we also need Christ to be formed in us. He writes, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” What does it mean for Christ to be formed in us? It simply means that Christ occupies our whole being, including our heart, mind, emotion, and will. When we have the element of Christ in our thoughts, desires, and choices, we will have the form of Christ within us. Our thoughts, desires, and choices will be according to the form of Christ. As a result, we will be the image of Christ, His expression. By our being mingled with Christ in this way, Christ becomes our life, and we become His expression.
When Christ has been revealed in us, when we have put on Christ, when Christ is living in us, and when Christ has been formed in us, we will be filled with Christ (Eph. 3:19b). To be filled with Christ is to have our entire being saturated with Christ and occupied by Christ so that when we think, Christ thinks in us; when we love, Christ loves through us; and when we make a decision, Christ makes that decision in us. Eventually, we will be mingled with Christ to such an extent that it will be difficult to discern what is of us and what is of Christ (Phil. 1:21a).
Our being mingled with Christ can be likened to water being mingled with tea. A cup of tea contains water and tea that have been mingled together. Thus, wherever there is a drop of water, there is tea. The tea is inside the water and is mingled with the water. This is similar to our relationship with Christ. We are like a cup of water, and Christ is like tea. Just as the tea is mingled with the water, so also Christ is mingled with us to be one with us. This is God’s thought and desire. God’s desire is not that we would do good. Rather, His desire is that we would be mingled with Christ so that Christ would be the One doing good through us. Christ is revealed in us, we put on Christ, and Christ lives in us, is formed in us, and fills us. This is the progressive way in which God works Christ into our being.