God’s economy is not a religion, but a wonderful, unlimited, immeasurable, unsearchable, and all-inclusive Person, Christ Jesus Himself. Christ is the embodiment of God and the content of the church. This Christ is to be our life and our person.
However, in today’s Christianity God’s economy has become a mere religion. Under the influence of this religion, Christians believe that God loved the world and gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross for our sins. After Christ’s resurrection, He ascended to the heavens. Until He comes back, we are to study the Bible and follow its teachings. But teachings are not the living Person of Christ Himself. God’s economy is not a matter of religion with doctrines and teachings; it is a matter of a wonderful, living Person. Now this Person must become our person. Our need today is not to be concerned with doctrine, but to be concerned with contacting the living Christ within us.
Many Christians pay more attention to the Bible than to Christ. This indicates that even the Bible can be utilized to distract people from Christ. Surely, we believe, respect, and honor the Bible to the uttermost. But we recognize that the Bible is the revelation of the living Person of Christ. If we do not pay attention to the Christ revealed in the Bible, then we ignore the main function of the Bible, which is to reveal this very Christ to us. How we need to be recovered fully to Christ Himself!
We need to be recovered not merely to the objective Christ in the heavens, but to the subjective Christ in our spirit. This subjective One is seeking to spread Himself into our heart. Not only is Christ our Savior objectively, but He is our life and our person subjectively. We need to devote our full attention to such a subjective Christ. In Galatians 2:20 Paul could say, “Not I, but Christ who lives in me.” Here Paul did not speak of the life of Christ, the work of Christ, or the power of Christ; he spoke of Christ Himself living in him. Hallelujah, the very Person of Christ is living in us!
In the foregoing message we pointed out that when Christ was in the flesh, He gave Himself up for us. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the One we are to take daily as our person. As the life-giving Spirit, Christ is washing us, sanctifying us, cleansing us, nourishing us, and cherishing us. We shall consider these matters in this message.
Perhaps you have heard messages or read books about sanctification. In order to know the true meaning of sanctification, we need to contact the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit. One aspect of sanctification involves separation. To be sanctified is to be separated positionally, to undergo a change of position. However, this is not the only aspect of sanctification. In sanctification something that once was natural gradually becomes holy in nature. Hence, as we are sanctified subjectively, we become holy dispositionally.
This aspect of sanctification can be illustrated by the process of making tea. When tea is placed in a cup of water, the water is “tea-ified.” As the water is “tea-ified,” it becomes tea-water. We can compare ourselves to the cup of water and Christ to the tea. Just as water is “tea-ified” by the element of tea, so we are sanctified by the element of Christ. Therefore, to be sanctified is to have Christ Himself added into our being. The more Christ is added into us, the more we have the appearance, taste, and aroma of Christ. Day by day, our need is to take more of Christ as the heavenly tea into us so that more of His element may be added into our being. In this way we shall be “Christ-ified.”
Suppose Christ were simply an objective Christ at the right hand of God in the heavens. Could we be sanctified dispositionally simply by trying to follow in an outward way the teachings of the Bible? Certainly not. Nothing of the element of Christ could be added into our being. We thank the Lord for showing us that subjective sanctification is a matter of having Christ added into us. The only way this can happen is by our taking Him as our life and as our person.