First Corinthians 3:11 says, “Another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Christ is the foundation of the church, and He should also be the foundation of our life. If we do not have Christ, our life has no foundation. When we receive Christ, take Him as our person, and begin to live Him, we have a foundation. Our life is founded on Christ. This should be our daily experience. Whatever we do and the way we live should be altogether founded on Christ. When Christ is our foundation, He is the reality of our life.
First Corinthians 5:7 says, “Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened; for our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed.” We were formerly under God’s condemnation, but Christ became our Passover so that God would forgive us and so that His condemnation would pass over us. Christ being our Passover indicates that through Him we have received salvation and forgiveness.
Verse 8 says, “Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” In the Old Testament the first of the seven feasts of the children of Israel was the Passover feast. Immediately following the Passover there was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted seven days. In this feast there was nothing leavened, signifying that there was nothing sinful, dirty, or condemned by God. We enjoy Christ as our unleavened bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasting seven days indicates that every day of our Christian life is a feast and that we are in this feast our whole life. If we do not sense that we are enjoying a feast, it is because we have not purged out the leaven, the sin of our old nature. If we hate this leaven and purge it out, our Christian life will spontaneously become a feast, a sweet enjoyment.
The Lord’s table signifies both the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Lord’s table declares that sin is over and Christ has come. It indicates that we do not have any condemnation and that instead we have enjoyment. Now we are in a feast enjoying Christ, but we must hate sin and deal with it to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
In 10:3 and 4 we see Christ as our spiritual food, our spiritual drink, and our spiritual rock. Christ is the manna, and He is the living water that flows out of the cleft rock. Today our daily food and drink are Christ. The living water flowing out of the rock indicates that the rock is the source of supply. This source always follows us and supplies us with our daily need. Our supply is Christ, and our source of supply is also Christ. This source being a rock signifies that Christ is altogether dependable; we can rely on Him. Christ is our spiritual food, our spiritual drink, and our reliable source of supply, which always follows us.
First Corinthians 11:3 reveals that Christ is the Head, and 12:12 reveals that He is also the Body. Christ is both the Head and the Body, the church. Therefore, in the church there is no natural person, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:10-11).
First Corinthians 15 reveals four more aspects of Christ—the firstfruits (v. 20), the second man (v. 47), the last Adam (v. 45), and the life-giving Spirit (v. 45). Thus, Christ is first, second, and last. This indicates that Christ is every positive thing in the universe. Furthermore, He is the life-giving Spirit. This is the key to all the foregoing seventeen items. God’s power, God’s wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, the depths of God, our foundation, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, our spiritual food, our spiritual drink, our rock, the Head, the Body, the firstfruits, the second man, and the last Adam are all in the life-giving Spirit. If Christ were not the life-giving Spirit, He would have nothing to do with us. If He were not the life-giving Spirit, He could not be the power of God or any of the other items to us. Our experience of Christ depends entirely upon His being the life-giving Spirit.
First Corinthians 6:17 gives us the way to experience and enjoy Christ as the life-giving Spirit. This verse says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and we are joined to Him as one spirit. Christ is the reality of every positive thing, including the many items revealed in 1 Corinthians. Furthermore, because He is now the life-giving Spirit and we are one spirit with Him, everything He is can be real to us and is ours. We should not remain in our mind, emotion, or will. Rather, we need to turn to our spirit. Instead of caring for our thoughts, our love, our hatred, or our decisions, we need to constantly turn to our spirit, where Christ is. When we turn to our spirit, we meet Christ and give Him the way to spread from our spirit to our mind, emotion, and will. Then Christ will be able to settle Himself in our inner being to make His home in our heart, thereby becoming our all in all. We will have the reality and will no longer be empty. Christ is not only our life but also our reality. When Christ is our reality, He becomes our way, the way for us to live in the presence of God.