In his letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks of his experience of having the Son revealed to him. Then in 2:20 he tells how he has experienced Christ living in him: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Christ was revealed to him and then was living in him. A further development is indicated in 4:19, where he says, “My children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you.” Christ was already formed in him, but not in the Galatians. It is not adequate, then, to have Christ revealed in us and living in us. He must also be formed in us.
Romans 9 tells us that we are vessels God has made (vv. 20-23). We human beings were made to be containers of Christ. We are like a glove, designed to contain a hand. For a hand to be formed in the glove, the thumb and the fingers must be fitted into the glove exactly. Two fingers of the glove must not dangle empty! Has the Christ who has come into us been formed in us?
Perhaps some of you have not yet been snatched out of religion. I am sure that you are not trying to keep the law of Moses, but you may well have your own laws. You may have made up more than ten commandments that you are trying to keep. You try to be a gentleman. You try to suppress your bad temper. You try to love your wife. Are you still expecting to keep these laws? Do you think you have a way to do this? You pray for God’s help that He would so enable you, yet He does not seem to come in. Still you hold on to your laws.
What about the more recent commandments you have been trying to keep? You have been getting up early to spend time in the Word and in prayer. You have been reading three chapters in the Old Testament and one in the New. You have been setting time aside several times a day to pray. Do you think it is good to keep these laws? Well, you may say that I was the one who proposed these to you. Whether it is good to keep these laws I shall not venture to say, but if you are to experience Christ revealed in you, living in you, and formed in you, you must be snatched out of whatever laws you are trying to keep.
To say this may make the elders anxious lest the young people become loose and will no longer rise early for morning watch! After the law, however, comes Christ. Now we come to Christ!
The messages of Galatians, the first of these four books, is that we must be out of religion in order to have Christ revealed, living, and formed in us. He is apart from religion, law, and tradition.
Let us take the last of the four books next. Paul gives this warning to the Colossians: “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8). Not too long after the churches were established, various isms put in their appearance. When Paul refers to philosophy and the elements of the world, he means especially Gnosticism, mysticism, and asceticism. Gnosticism was a compilation of Jewish and heathen (Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek) philosophical thought. Mysticism was also a philosophical belief with some mysterious elements in it. Asceticism was the severe treatment of the body. All these isms invaded the church and subtly began to replace Christ.
Paul wrote to declare that Christ stood in opposition to the Jewish religion, to Gnosticism, to mysticism, and to asceticism. He told the Colossians that Christ had nothing in common with philosophy; that He could not be compared to mysticism; and that asceticism had nothing to do with Him.
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