This Christ in whom we are participating is the power of God and the wisdom of God. “But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). Our Christ is everything. He is not only the wisdom, but also the power. He is not only the way, but also the ability. This is the Christ as our portion into whom we have been called. We have not been called into anything else. As our portion He is the power to do things and He is the wisdom to accomplish things. He is everything to us.
Then 1 Corinthians tells us that it is of God that we are in Christ. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). We were all born in Adam. We were not born in Christ. But one day God accomplished a kind of translation. He translated us from one sphere into another. We were born into Adam, but God has transferred us from Adam into Christ. Hallelujah! It is of God that we are in Christ. To be in Christ is a great thing. We all must realize that we have been transferred. We did not do it. Even if we tried, we could never make it. But, praise the Lord, God can do it, and He did it! It is of God that we all have been transferred out of Adam and into Christ.
I can testify that before I was transferred, I fully realized that I was in a certain kind of sphere. But then God put me into another sphere, the wonderful Person of Christ. It is of God that we are in Christ. We did nothing but open ourselves to the Lord. I remember the day that I was transferred. I said, “God, I want You today. I don’t want this world. I am through with this world, and this world is through with me. I just want You.” At that moment God took me out of that sphere and put me into another sphere. I was transferred by God out of Adam and into Christ.
In the first years I tried a number of times to go back. I even told God that I was not so happy to be in this sphere. It seemed that God said, “All right, you try your best to go back. You didn’t get into this sphere by yourself. I put you here. And unless I put you back, you can never go back.” I tried several times, but I couldn’t make it. I couldn’t go back. Can you? I assure you that you cannot. Hallelujah! We all have been put into Christ.
God has put us into Christ, and now this Christ has been made our power, our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. God put us into Him, and God made Him everything to us. Hallelujah! In the first place God transferred us into Him. He took us out of Adam, and put us into Christ. Then from that day God made Christ everything to us. He’s our power, our wisdom, our justification, our sanctification, our redemption, our everything!
But how can Christ be everything to us? It is by His indwelling. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 we are told that we are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God is the dweller. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” We are the dwelling, and He is the dweller. We have already seen that the Spirit of God is the full realization of Christ. We should never consider that the Spirit of God here is separate from Christ or other than Christ. He is the Spirit of Reality (John 14:17). This means that He is the reality of Christ. The real Christ is the Spirit, and this Spirit is the dweller. He dwells in us, and we are His dwelling place.
It is by His dwelling in us that He is everything to us. If we need righteousness, He is our righteousness. If we need holiness, He is our holiness. If we need justification, He is our justification. If we need sanctification, He is our sanctification. And eventually, Christ will be the redemption to our body. He is all these things to us by His indwelling. Suppose God put us into Christ, and He did nothing more. We may be in Christ, but there is no way to apply Christ as everything to us. To be in Christ is a positional matter. But to have Christ as our everything is something of experience. On one hand, we have been put into Christ. And on the other hand, He is made everything to us. But His being everything to us is by His indwelling.