Although it is a wonderful and glorious fact that we are now in Christ, this is nevertheless just a matter of position. This position does give us the right and privilege to participate in all that Christ is. But with this right and privilege, we need to experience Christ living in us. Now that we are in Christ, Christ wants to live in us. This is not a matter of position, but a matter of experience and enjoyment. For us to be in Christ is a matter of position; for Christ to be in us is a matter of experience and enjoyment. How much we enjoy Christ depends upon how much He lives in us.
If we were not in Christ, Christ could not be in us. According to the New Testament, Christ’s being in us is based upon the fact that we are in Him. In John 15:4, the Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” If we abide in Christ, He will abide in us. Once again we see that to be in Christ is a matter of position, whereas to have Christ in us is a matter of experience and enjoyment. My burden in this message is not to tell you that we are in Christ. It is to point out that Christ is in us. Simply knowing that we are in Christ does not give us the experience of Christ or the enjoyment of Christ. However, this position does give us the right and privilege to claim the enjoyment and experience of Christ.
We should have the confidence to say that we are in Christ wholly, absolutely, and thoroughly. Concerning our position in Christ, we may be assured that we are in Him entirely. For example, anyone who is an American citizen is a citizen wholly, thoroughly, and absolutely. His citizenship is not partial or conditional. However, how much this person enjoys America is relative to how much of America has gotten into him. He is in America, but how much of America is in him? A person from another country may become a naturalized American citizen. Thus, he is altogether an American by citizenship. However, he may still have within him a great deal of his native country. This indicates that although he is in America, not that much of America has yet entered into him. Inwardly, he still loves many things of his native country. In the same principle, we are in Christ absolutely, but He is in us just relatively and conditionally. Actually, according to our experience, we do not have very much of Christ in us. To a very large degree, we are still occupied and possessed by our culture. Although we may have been in the church life in the Lord’s recovery for many years, there is still room for much more of the church to be in us. The same is true with Christ. Although we may have been in Christ for a long time, in experience we still do not have very much of Him in us.
We need a clear understanding of what it means to say that Christ is versus culture. Although Christ is in us, we are occupied more by culture than by Christ. We are filled with many things other than Christ. These things include our likes and dislikes, our preferences and choices, and our sin and worldliness. The more Christ as grace is ministered into us, the more those things which occupy us are discharged. However, although many sinful and worldly things may be discharged rather easily, our culture still remains, no matter how much grace is ministered into our being.
Anything that is in us apart from Christ Himself frustrates us from the genuine experience of Christ and enjoyment of Him. This is especially true of the culture within us. Through the years we have been in the church life, many things have been discharged from our being, as grace has been added into us. Nevertheless, one thing remains in us in a very subtle way, and that thing is culture.
It is difficult to discern the culture in us and to condemn it. Because we do not recognize our culture for what it is, we do not easily discern it. Although we may condemn the sinful and worldly elements in us, we probably do not condemn our culture. Our culture may be very strong, but we may not be conscious of it. We may even think that we are not under the influence of culture. But every living person has a culture. As long as you are alive and no longer a baby, you have a culture.