We need to see the heavenly vision that in His economy, God wants nothing except Christ. Christ is wonderful. As the One who is God and man, He has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement. All that Christ is and all that He has obtained and attained have been compounded into the all-inclusive Spirit. Now as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, He lives in us. How foolish not to give all the ground in our living to Him! Although we may love Him, we may still limit and restrict Him by our efforts to be good Christian husbands or wives. In ourselves, we still try to be humble, patient, kind, and loving. As long as we do this, there is no way for Christ to live in us.
In John 14, the Lord Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection. Speaking of the disciples’ experience after His resurrection, He says in verse 19, “Because I live, you shall live also.” It was after His resurrection that the Lord could live in His disciples and they could live by Him, according to Galatians 2:20.
Christ wants to live in us. When He lives in us, we live by Him. But where are the Christians today who give Christ the free course to live in them? Very few Christians do this. Even we in the Lord’s recovery do not give Christ the sufficient ground to live in us. Instead, we try to be humble and loving. We try to be a good husband or wife, a good brother or sister. Thus, the ground within us is occupied by ourselves and by our self-effort. Although we may fail in our efforts, we repent, pray, ask for the Lord’s cleansing, and then try once again. We may even welcome the opportunity for a new beginning afforded by a new day, week, month, or year so that we may try once again to be a proper Christian. We may comfort ourselves at the end of the day with the thought that in the morning we shall have a fresh opportunity to try again. We may do the same thing at the end of a week, month, or year. Especially at the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year, we may promise ourselves to have a new beginning. We may thoroughly clear the past, regret our shortcomings, repent for our mistakes, ask the Lord’s forgiveness for our wrongdoings, and then try to have a new beginning. We may say, “Let the past be the past. With the new year I can have a new beginning.” Nevertheless, before long we find that our best efforts still result in failure.
Because we all have this tendency, I am burdened that we would see that God does not want us to try to be proper Christians—He only wants us to live Christ. We should forget about trying to be a good husband or wife and care only to live Christ. Let us love Him, contact Him, and be one with Him. How near and available He is! He is within us and is one spirit with us, waiting to be given the opportunity to live in us. If we would give Christ the ground to live in us, we should cease from all our efforts. Instead of asking the Lord to help us in our efforts, we should pray, “Lord Jesus, I can do nothing apart from You. How foolish I have been in trying so hard! Now, Lord, I see the vision that I cannot do anything without You. Lord, I thank You that You dwell in me. I ask You, Lord, to work within me. Lord, I praise You that You are my life and that You are waiting for the opportunity to live in me. Lord, I thank You that I am in You. Now I am willing to give You all the ground to do everything and to be everything in me.” This is what it means for Christ to live in us.
After praying to the Lord in this way, we should turn to Satan and tell him to no longer tempt us to try to do anything apart from Christ. Say to him, “Satan, don’t tempt me in this way anymore. I assure you that I cannot do anything apart from Christ. Don’t try to get me to do anything.”
In the church meetings, we may enjoy singing, “Christ liveth in me, Christ liveth in me.” However, when the meeting is over, we are the ones who live, not Christ. Instead of Christ living in us, our inward being is occupied with ourselves. But if we see the vision of Christ living in us, we shall stop all our doing. How blessed it is to do nothing and to let Christ live in us! The Lord does not want us to try to improve our behavior. He does not want us to try to be a good husband or wife. The Christian life is Christ living in us. In such a life, we and Christ have one life and one living. Christ lives in our living. Oh, we desperately need to see this vision! We need to pray, “Lord, show me the vision that God only wants one Person. He wants Christ to live in me.” This vision will spontaneously terminate all of our efforts and doings. It will turn us from our trying to the indwelling Christ.
When we cease from our own doing, we shall no longer have any standards or principles apart from Christ. Christ will be our standards and our principles. For example, instead of having a standard that determines what is a good husband or wife, we shall have Christ as our standard. Likewise, instead of having standards concerning kindness, humility, and love, our only standard will be Christ. When Christ becomes our unique standard and principle, He will have the free course to live in us. Then we shall enjoy Him and experience Him.
The book of Colossians reveals that God wants Christ and Christ alone. In this Epistle, Paul points out that God does not want anything of man’s culture. God does not care for philosophy, religion, ordinances, observances, or any kind of ism. God wants only the wonderful, preeminent, all-inclusive Christ, the One who is all in all. Although Christ is all-inclusive, He dwells in us as our life. As the indwelling One, He is waiting for the opportunity to live in us. He is living, real, practical, and available. On the one hand, on the throne He is the Lord of all; on the other hand, He is the life-giving Spirit in us. Both in the Christian life and in the church life, Christ is everything.
If we see this, we shall stop all our doing. In the church life, God does not want us to be doing so much; He simply wants Christ to live in us and grow in us. If I have a vision of Galatians 2:20—that it is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me—I shall never assume that I can do anything. I shall spontaneously cease from all my trying, for I shall realize that I am nothing and nobody and that Christ is everything. As the One who dwells in us to be our life, He is everything to us. He is our holiness, our power, and our wisdom. But He needs to be given the opportunity to be everything in us. If we give Him the ground, He will come in to be everything and to do everything. This is what it means to let Christ live in us.