What a history we have! We were created by God, we got fallen, we have been saved, and now we have Christ living in us! Christ is in us! And we also have an ugly, negative part, our corrupted body, which is called the flesh. Then we have another part which is called the spirit. We can see clearly that in Romans 8:10 there is a kind of scene with three roles or three figures. Christ is there playing a big role. The dead body is also playing a role. Our spirit is playing the third role. The matter of Christ being in you is somewhat simple, but your dead body is not that simple. This word implies a lot. And even the more that your spirit is life implies a lot. Do you realize how many stories are implied in this clause: “the spirit is life”? Of course, all three of these clauses include a lot of stories. Christ in you is a story, and your body is dead is a story, and your spirit is life is a story.
We do have these two parts of our being—our body and our spirit—and each part has a history. This is because in each part there is a person. In our fallen, corrupted, and dead body there is a person, Satan. Satan is in our corrupted body, and Satan is one with our flesh. This one who is one with our flesh has another name, sin. Romans 8:3 says that the flesh is the flesh of sin. In the Greek language such an expression as the flesh of sin is in apposition, just like the light of God. Light is in apposition with God, meaning that the light is God, and God is the light. The life of Christ is also a phrase in apposition because life is Christ and Christ is life. In the same principle, the flesh of sin is in apposition. This is because flesh is sin, and sin is flesh. When Christ became flesh, He became sin. John 1:14 says that He became flesh, and 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that He was made sin. Then Romans 8:3 says that He became the likeness of the flesh of sin. He became the flesh of sin. Here the flesh and sin are just one thing. Who is this one thing? It is Satan, the very person whose name is sin in our flesh. There is such a person in our flesh.
In the same principle, another person is in our spirit. We know this person is Christ, the processed Triune God. Christ is in our spirit. This is why 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” So we have two persons within us. We have pointed out in the past that this Christ who is within us in our spirit is not only life to us, but He has to be our person. We should take Him not only as life, but also as our person.
Many unbelievers realize that in their flesh there is a person, but none of them would admit that that person is Satan. And I am sorry to say that so many real and genuine Christians also would not admit that Satan is in our flesh. Some teach very strongly that Satan is not in our flesh. In like manner, many Christians are absolutely ignorant of the fact that Christ is in their spirit.
Even some of them do not believe that their spirit is different from their soul. Even such a person as George Müller who was called the king of faith, did not realize that he had a spirit. His realization was that his spirit was just his soul. In a booklet which is a part of his autobiography he spoke of nourishing his soul before praying. He spoke of reading a few verses from the Bible to nourish his soul so that he could pray. How could such a spiritual person consider that his soul and his spirit were the same? It is because the light to the church up to the end of the last century was not yet that high. It was not as high as what we experience today. We have to thank the Lord that we are born one century later. The later we are born the better. John the Baptist was considered greater than the Old Testament saints because he came later (Matt. 11:11). Then the New Testament saints, such as John and Peter and Paul, were even higher than John the Baptist because they came later than he. In the same principle, we would have to say that we are better and higher than John and Peter and Paul because we have come later. Even an apprentice electrician today knows more than Thomas Edison did about electricity. This is because they have come later, and they are upon the shoulders of all the electricians. Today we are upon the shoulders of all the Christians through the centuries. The tragedy is this: many Christians do not stand on any shoulders. They just stand on the flat ground upon their own two feet. But they are so low. Hallelujah! We are standing on a high ladder built up with so many shoulders. The light is much, much brighter today. We would not say that we are nourishing our soul. We would say that we are denying our soul and nourishing our spirit before praying.