How can we abide in Him? Romans 8:6 points the way: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” Because the divine Spirit is mingled with our spirit, it is difficult to say whether the spirit in this verse refers to our spirit or to the divine Spirit. The spirit here is the mingled spirit. As verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.”
Opposed to this wonderful mingled spirit is the flesh, our corrupted body. In the body originally created by God there was no sinful element; on the contrary, the human body was pure and sinless. Through the fall, however, Satan, the evil one, injected himself as sin into man’s body. This happened when man took into him the fruit of the tree of knowledge. After Satan entered into man’s body, the body was contaminated and polluted and thereby became the flesh. Therefore, our spirit is mingled with the Triune God, and our body, which has become the flesh, is mixed with the sinful element of Satan.
This makes the Christian a miniature garden of Eden. In the garden man faced the tree of life on the one hand and the tree of knowledge on the other. Now, as those who were represented by Adam in Genesis 2, we have the tree of life in our spirit and the tree of knowledge in our flesh. We need to decide whether we shall set our mind on the flesh and suffer death or whether we shall set our mind on the spirit and enjoy life and peace. By setting our mind on the spirit we abide in Christ who as the life-giving Spirit dwells in our spirit.
No doctrine, method, nor system can subdue the satanic element in our flesh. In the whole universe only God is more powerful than Satan; no doctrine can prevail against him. Do you think you can defeat Satan by sound teachings, by correct methods, or by the knowledge of the Scripture in letters? How absurd! Praise the Lord that the very Triune God who is now within us has already conquered Satan. Instead of following certain methods, we should simply depend upon the Lord constantly. The Lord’s word in John 15:5 applies here: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” We simply need to abide in Him by setting our mind on the spirit.
Now we have the answers to the three questions we have raised concerning abiding in Christ. Where is Christ? He is in our spirit. What is Christ? He is the life-giving Spirit who dwells in us. How can we abide in Christ? We abide in Him by setting our mind on the spirit. The setting of the mind on the spirit actually is the abiding. Day by day and even moment by moment, we need to set our mind, which represents our whole being, on the mingled spirit. The result is always life and peace.
Romans 8 surely is a progression from John 15 regarding the abiding in Christ. If we did not have Romans 8, we would still be groping to find the practical way to abide in Christ. Praise the Lord that we are no longer groping in the darkness searching for the way! Instead, we have learned from Romans 8 that all we need to do is turn our being to the living One who indwells our spirit and stay one with Him. When we turn to Him and set our mind on Him, we have life, peace, light, comfort, strength, and all we need. Our thirst is quenched and our hunger is satisfied.
In order to set our being on the mingled spirit, we need to pray. How easily we are distracted from the divine Spirit in our spirit! Our mind is so quickly drawn to other things. Therefore, we need to pray, not mainly to ask the Lord to do things for us, but to keep our mind set on the spirit. Be assured, the Lord will take care of you and do everything for you. Hence, in prayer you need not be occupied with your needs. Instead, pray to keep in touch with the living One in your spirit. The more you keep in contact with Him, the more you will enjoy Him. Do not pray about your need for love or patience. Our experience proves that the more we pray about such things, the more we are distracted from the mingled spirit and the less we abide in Christ. We should simply praise the Lord that He is our love, our patience, and our everything. If we praise Him in this way, declaring how good the Lord is, spontaneously love and patience will flow out of us, whether we are conscious of it or not. Others will be surprised at the change in us. They will not see the temporary results of our own efforts, but they will see Christ as the life-giving Spirit being lived out of us. The more we set our mind on the living One in our spirit, the more He lives Himself out of us. This is the Christian life. This is the way to a life of holiness and victory. Let us forget systems and methods and instead turn to the living Person within us and set our mind on Him. He is waiting for us to do this. This is the way to abide in Him.