"Oh that my words were now written!/Oh that they were inscribed in a book!/That with an iron pen and with lead/They were engraved in rock forever!" (vv. 23-24). Because Job was so hurt by what had happened to him and because he felt that God was treating him too severely, Job wished that his words would be engraved in rock as a permanent record of his suffering.
"But I know that my Redeemer lives,/And at the last He will stand upon the earth;/And after this body of mine is destroyed,/Outside my flesh I will look on God,/Whom I, even I, will look on for myself,/And my eyes will see; I, and no other./My inward parts that long for God are consumed within me" (vv. 25-27). The Hebrew word for "earth" here literally means "dust." This verse says that the Redeemer will stand upon the dust.
If we do not have a complete vision of God's economy, we might think that Job's word, "My Redeemer lives," is very good. However, the New Testament tells us not merely that our Redeemer lives but that He lives in us. To Job's word we need to add the little phrase "in me." This is according to Paul's word in Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." If Christ lived only in the heavens, that would not have anything to do with us. Today our Redeemer is not only living—He is living in us.
We were made by God in three parts—spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). Our outer part, our body, is dust. Christ has not yet touched this part. Today Christ is living in our spirit to impart Himself from our spirit into our soul so that His element may be transfused into our soul for its transformation. One day He will come to "stand upon our dust," that is, our body, to touch our body. Then our body of humiliation will be transfigured to be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21). At that time He will not only stand upon the dust of the earth, but He will touch our dust.
Today we experience Christ's living in our spirit to transfuse Himself into our soul, and we are waiting for Him to come out of us to touch our body made of dust. This is Paul's view, and it is also our view.
Job's view, being altogether objective, was not complete. It was not like Paul's view, which was altogether subjective. Paul's view is expressed in the following stanzas from Hymns, #949:
Christ is the hope of glory, He is God's mystery;
He shares with me God's fullness and brings God into me.
He comes to make me blended with God in every way,
That I may share His glory with Him for aye.
Christ is the hope of glory, He is my history:
His life is my experience, for He is one with me;
He comes to bring me into His glorious liberty,
That one with Him completely I'll ever be.
The New Testament tells us that today Christ lives in us. Not only so, He is also making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). He is gradually getting Himself settled in our entire inner being. This is the subjective living of Christ in us. Job, according to his objective view, declared, "My Redeemer lives." We, according to the subjective view in the New Testament, should shout, "Our Redeemer lives in us. He is making His home in us, and He is transforming our soul. One day He will touch our body of dust."