Since God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us, we need to see how we can be saturated with Christ and possessed by Him in a full way. We also need to see the way to experience Christ as our life in a practical way in our daily life. The way for us to experience Christ in such a way is very simple. Christ today is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), we human beings have a human spirit (Job 32:8; 1 Cor. 2:11), and as the Spirit, Christ is dwelling within us in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). We do not need to ask Christ to come into us, because He is within us already. I recently heard a story about a man who was looking everywhere for his glasses because he had forgotten that he had put them on his head. Many Christians today are like this. Although they already have Christ within them, they are still looking for Christ. We all need to see that Christ is within us. He is the Spirit within our spirit. The fact that Christ is within our spirit cannot be a mere doctrine, teaching, or Christian slogan to us; it must be our fact and our reality.
Approximately thirty years ago the Lord opened my eyes, and I realized that the almighty, all-inclusive God is within me. When I had this realization, I was beside myself. I had to jump up and praise the Lord for being within me. At that time I felt that I was too big for the room in which I was. In fact, I felt that I was too big for the whole universe. It is a wonderful fact that Christ is in us, but many Christians do not know this. Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” Christ is the peerless treasure within us, who are the earthen vessels. We all must praise the Lord that He is within us and that because He is within us, we have the way to enjoy and experience Him. There is no need for us to go up to the heavens to bring Christ down (Rom. 10:6-8). Philippians 4:5b says, “The Lord is near.” How near is the Lord? He is so near that He is mingled with us as one. Wherever we are, there He is. Because the Lord is so close to us, it is easy for us to experience Him.
To experience Christ in a full way, we also must learn to reject our old man. As those who have believed into the Lord and have received Him into us, we all have been born twice. Our first birth was of Adam through our parents; our second birth was of Christ through the Spirit (John 3:6). As a result of these two births, we have both an old man and a new man (Eph. 4:22-24). This is a rather complicated situation. Since we have been born again, we are of Christ, yet we still have the old man, and Adam is still with us. Often when I spend time with the Lord, I tell Him, “Lord, You know better than I do. Although You have regenerated me, You have still left the old man with me. Lord, I am not complaining, but dealing with the old man is a hard business for me. The old man is quite troublesome. What am I to do? I have been born again, and I have You as my new man and my new life, but as You know, I still have the old man.” The Lord’s intention in leaving the old man with us is that the old man, which is our outer man, would be consumed, and that the new man, which is our inner man, would be renewed (2 Cor. 4:16). When our inner man is renewed and we live in the new man, Christ becomes everything within us, because Christ is all and in all in the new man (Col. 3:9-11).
The way the Lord accomplishes the consuming of our outer man and the renewing of our inner man is twofold: He uses the environment, and He strengthens us into our inner man, our spirit. The Lord puts us into particular circumstances, and these circumstances work to consume our outer man. When the outer man has been consumed, the way is open for the inner man to be renewed. In addition to using particular circumstances to consume our outer man, the Lord also strengthens us into our inner man, the new man, where Christ is all and in all. We should not do anything to help our outer man, which is the old man. Instead, we should cooperate with the Lord’s work and pray to the Father that He would strengthen us with power into our inner man (Eph. 3:14-16). When we are strengthened into our inner man, Christ makes His home in our hearts, and we are able to apprehend the immeasurable dimensions of Christ with all the saints (vv. 17-18). This is to experience Christ in an immeasurable way. We also will know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ and will be filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19). This experience is wonderful but also very basic. We all need to have such an inward experience of Christ. This is to experience Christ not outwardly as power but inwardly as life. This is God’s intention.
Our old man is a troublesome person who constantly follows us. We must never go along with the old man. Rather, we must look down on him and consider him as our enemy. The key to experiencing Christ is to put off the old man and to put on the new man. Moment by moment we should learn to put off and put on. While we are dealing with our spouse or with our in-laws, we need to put off and put on. The old man is the self. Never agree with him, never respect him, and never go along with him. Instead, always go along with your inner man, which is Christ Himself, who is the Spirit.
Christians often speak of the cross, but the way to experience the cross in a practical way is to exercise our spirit to put off the self, to deny the self, and to turn our inner being to agree with the Spirit and to go along with the Spirit. If we do this, we will sense the presence and even the smile of Christ. By putting off the old man and putting on the new man, we will experience Christ as our life and everything, and Christ will possess, occupy, and saturate us. We will become people who are full of Christ and who are mingled with Christ as one. May the Lord help us to experience Christ in this way, and may we all pray to be strengthened into the inner man that we may deny the self and go along with the inner man so that we will be filled unto all the fullness of God. May we be fully saturated with the Triune God so that all that God is and has will be our portion. This will make us not merely good men but God-men.
God’s eternal intention is to work Christ into our being. For the accomplishment of this intention, God created man as a vessel and gave man a spiritual organ to receive God Himself into him. Furthermore, Christ became the Spirit and entered into man’s spirit. Since God’s intention is to work Christ into our being, we must see the way for us to cooperate with this intention. The way for us to cooperate with God’s intention is to see that Christ is living within us and to deny our old man, the self, and live in our new man. By our living in our new man, Christ will be able to work Himself into our entire being until He is all and in all in us. May the Lord bring us all into this experience.