Our experience of Christ has five progressive stages. Galatians 1:16a says, “To reveal His Son in me,” and 2:20a states, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” The first verse speaks of Christ being revealed in us, and the second verse speaks of Christ living in us. Chapter four, verse 19 says, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” This verse reveals that Christ can be formed in us. Ephesians 3:17a speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts: “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” Verse 19 goes on to say that we are “filled unto all the fullness of God.” Finally, chapter four, verse 13 says that we will eventually arrive “at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Together these verses reveal five stages of our progressive experience of Christ—Christ is revealed in us, Christ lives in us, Christ is formed in us, Christ makes His home in us, and Christ’s measure becomes our measure.
God’s desire is that Christ would be revealed in us, live in us, and increase and expand within us to the extent that Christ would be formed within us. When God created man, He created us in His image (Gen. 1:26). Who is the image of God? Colossians 1:15 tells us that Christ “is the image of the invisible God.” Since Christ is the image of the invisible God, and man was created according to the image of God, we can say that man was created according to Christ. A glove is created according to a hand. As such, it has four fingers and a thumb just like a hand. The reason that a glove is created according to a hand with four fingers and a thumb is so that a hand can fit into the glove. Why was man created according to Christ? Man was created according to Christ so that Christ would be able to “fit” into man. Christ created man with a mind, an emotion, and a will. These parts of man are like the fingers of a glove, and Christ is like the hand that comes into the glove. Our mind, emotion, and will were all made for Christ. Today Christ may have already been revealed in us, but has Christ spread into our mind, emotion, and will? Has Christ been formed in us yet? Although we were created according to Christ, many of us may have a mind, emotion, and will that are absolutely without Christ. Christ as the hand has not filled any of the “fingers.” If there is no Christ in our mind, emotion, or will, then Christ has not yet been formed within us. Thus, we all need to allow Christ to fill our mind, emotion, and will.
From time to time a husband may get angry with his wife. Those who are husbands among us may also have this experience, but when this happens, are they able to say to the Lord, “Lord, right now I am angry with my wife, but even in my anger You are in me. You are in my anger.” We should not think that this is impossible. When the Lord was on the earth, sometimes He became angry, and as those created according to Christ, anger is one of our emotions (cf. Eph. 4:26). Thus, the question is not whether we become angry, but whether Christ has filled our emotions. In like manner, we need to consider whether Christ has filled our mind and our will. If a glove has not been filled with a hand, then the glove has not yet been formed; likewise, if we have not been filled with Christ in our mind, emotion, and will, then Christ has not yet been formed within us.
Only when Christ is formed within us by expanding and increasing into every part of our being, can He make His home in our hearts; and only when Christ has made His home in our hearts, will we have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. First Christ is revealed in us. Then He lives within us, is formed within us, and makes His home in our hearts. Finally the result of Christ being revealed in us, living in us, being formed in us, and making His home in our hearts is that we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is what God planned and intended in eternity past for a Christian to be—a person who is full of Christ. God desires that we would be filled with Christ not only in our spirit but also in our mind, emotion, will, and heart. At His coming, even our body will be full of Christ. At that time He will be glorified in us and through us, and we will be in His glory.
While the five items that we have mentioned above reveal five stages of our experience of Christ, we also need to consider where Christ is today and how we can contact Him. For this, let us consider a second group of verses. John 6:63a says, “It is the Spirit who gives life,” and Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” These two verses reveal that the Spirit is the Spirit of life who gives life. Verses 9 through 11 continue, “But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” These verses indicate that the Spirit—who is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead—dwells within us. Second Corinthians 3:17-18 reads, “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” These two verses contain three key phrases: the Lord is the Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, and the Lord Spirit. The final verse in this group of verses is 1 Corinthians 12:3, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed; and no one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” From this we see that whenever a person says, “Lord Jesus,” he is in the Holy Spirit. The important thing to see in all of the above verses is that Christ today is the Spirit, and as the Spirit, He lives within us.
In what way is the Lord as the Spirit in our spirit? The Lord is within us in His person; He is a living person within us. Often we may ask the Lord to give us strength, power, or energy. We must realize, however, that the Lord never deals with us in this way. When the Lord comes to us to do something for us, He always comes to be with us as a person. Brother Nee once likened the way we view the Lord to the way a patient views a doctor. He said that many times we pray to the Lord in the same way that a sick person asks his doctor for a dose of medicine. One day we come to the Lord to ask for one dose, and the next day we come to ask Him for another dose. But Brother Nee pointed out that the Lord never gives us merely a dose; He always gives us Himself. The Lord Himself as a whole and living person is the dose. Moreover, the Lord never just gives us a little bit of Himself. When the Lord gives, He gives His whole person. Today Christ is living within us as a living and complete person.