Almost everyone knows that the subject of Ephesians is the Body of Christ. How does the Body of Christ come into being? We may say that it comes out of Christ. But Paul did not say it in such a brief way. He says that the church comes into being out of the unsearchable riches of Christ. “That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8b). The source from which the Body of Christ comes into existence is the unsearchable riches of Christ.
How then can we realize, experience, and enjoy all of the riches of Christ? Paul tells us clearly that our inner man must be strengthened. “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may make His home in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:16-17a). Our inner man must be strengthened not by any knowledge, but by the Spirit. And this is according to the riches of God’s glory. The issue is that Christ may make His home in our heart. Many Christian teachers have written volumes on the book of Ephesians, but most have not seen that the central point is Christ making His home in our heart. Have you ever read a book that says the key point in Ephesians is the indwelling Christ making His home in our heart? So many Christians today talk about the Body of Christ, but we know that any body without the life of a person is a corpse. A corpse is short not only of life, but of a living person. The difference between a tree and a man is that a tree has only life, but a man has life plus a person. A body is a vessel that contains a living person. People talk about the Body of Christ, but where is the living person of Christ? He must be making His home in our hearts; otherwise, the “church” which is supposed to be the Body of Christ is only a corpse.
How we praise the Lord that today Christ is the life-giving Spirit, living in us! And He is going to make His home in us. We all must come back to the pure Word. Christ not only lives in us, but He also must make His home in our heart. This is not something general, but so specific. In the past we have pointed out, according to the New Testament, that our heart is bigger than our spirit. Our heart is the circumference, and our spirit is the center. Christ as the life-giving Spirit comes into our spirit as the center, and from the center He is spreading Himself into all the parts of our heart.
It is wonderful that we can say that Christ is in us, but we may only have Christ at the center, in our spirit. There may not be any spreading of Christ into our heart. This is why Paul prayed for the believers that their inner man might be strengthened. Our spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit is our inner man. Our inner man needs to be strengthened and made strong; then Christ will be able to make His home in our heart.
Most Christians, even those who love the Lord, are not strong in their spirit. They are strong in talking, but if you ask them to pray, they are silent. The best way to silence others is to ask for a time of prayer. When the time of prayer is over, however, everyone begins to talk. This means that they are strong in their mind, but weak in their spirit, which is their inner man. When we are living in the presence of the Lord, we don’t like to talk so much. Rather, we would prefer to pray and to praise. We are strong in our spirit.
Hence, the Apostle Paul prayed for us that our inner man might be made strong. The result, then, is that Christ will spread within our heart. For Christ to make His home in our heart means that He will saturate and permeate every part of our heart with Himself. Then our whole being will be a home to Him, and He will be the dweller. He will not only be our life, but the living person who is the dweller of our being.