Without Ephesians 3, Ephesians 2 would only be doctrine to us. It is a fact that Christ has abolished the ordinances in order to create the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man. But for this to be practical in our daily experience, we must allow Christ to make His home in our hearts (3:17). One way to tell whether or not you still have ordinances is to check whether or not Christ is making His home in your heart. Are you allowing Him to make His home in your heart? If we are honest, most of us would have to say that we do not give Him much opportunity to do this. The reason for this is that we do not care firstly for Christ, but for our own way.
Consider the experience of Peter in Acts 10. As he was praying on the housetop, he “saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth” (v. 11). In this sheet were “all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air” (v. 12). Then a voice said to Peter, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat” (v. 13). However, Peter’s response was, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean” (v. 14). On this occasion, Peter did not take Christ as His person. Instead, Peter was his own person.
We should not think that we are more spiritual than Peter. Most of the time we also fail to take Christ as our person. When the Lord speaks something to us, we often respond, “Not so, Lord.” We may say, “Lord, I don’t believe that You would ask me to do such a thing.” Our experience testifies that whenever we refuse to go along with the Lord, we lose His presence and His anointing. However, when we agree with the Lord, we enjoy His presence and experience the inner anointing in a fresh way. We may even be beside ourselves with joy in the Lord.
Let us forget religion, regulations, ordinances, all the different practices of worshipping God, and our own ways of living in order that we may simply allow Christ to make His home in our hearts. Christ has come into us to be our life and our person, and He will not be satisfied until we take Him as our person in a practical way. If we do not take Him as our person, we shall have the sense deep within that, no matter how much we love Christ and the church and no matter how much we are for the Lord’s recovery, we are lacking something. This sense of lack comes from the shortage of Christ as our person.
Our heart should not be the dwelling place of the self, but the dwelling place of Christ. Again I ask, who is the person living within you, you or Christ? In this matter I do not care for doctrine; I care only for reality. Christ has not abolished the ordinances so that we may have other kinds of ordinances. His intention is to make His home in our hearts.
Many married sisters are reluctant to read Ephesians 5 because it speaks about wives submitting to their own husbands. When they read this chapter, they are exposed and realize that they are not submissive. Some may blame their husband or environment for their lack of submission. They may even blame the Lord and tell Him that if He had given them a different husband, they would surely be submissive to him. Sisters, do not try to submit to your husband but let Christ make His home in your heart. If you take Him as your person and allow Him to make His home in your heart, you will surely submit to your husband.
We need to forget about everything religious and simply take Christ as our person. If we do this, we shall have the growth spoken of in chapter four, and we shall put on the new man. This is the proper church life.
God does not want us to try in a religious way to submit to our husbands or to love our wives. His concern is that we take Christ as our person and set aside all ordinances. God wants a people in whose heart Christ is making His home. This is our need in the church life today.
The Lord’s recovery is not a recovery of teaching. In the recovery the unique factor is Christ. To be sure, we honor, respect, and apply the Bible. We keep the Word as much as other Christians do, if not more. Nevertheless, we must be clear that the Lord’s recovery is not simply a matter of following the teaching of the Bible. It is altogether a matter of Christ living and making His home in our hearts, so that in all things we may grow up into Him as the Head. The more we grow up into Christ, the more we put on the new man, the proper and practical church life. Our unique need today is to take Christ as our person for the church life.