Galatians exposes religion more than any other book in the New Testament. However, Paul’s intention in writing Galatians was not merely to expose Judaism as the present section of the evil religious world but rather to use the background of religion to reveal Christ. Religion comes in when there is a shortage of Christ. Religion becomes prevailing when there is no Christ. If we are fighting against religion, yet we do not have Christ, even our fighting will eventually become a kind of religion. Anything we do for God apart from Christ becomes religion.
In Galatians Paul impresses us with Christ. Paul writes, “I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me” (1:14-16). In Acts 9:3 Luke tells us that Paul outwardly saw the light on the road to Damascus, but in Galatians 1:16 Paul refers not to an outward light but to an inward revelation.
Because Christ was revealed into Paul, he could say, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (2:20). First, Christ is revealed into us; then, Christ lives in us. This is not religion but the living Christ, who is versus religion.
The religious mentality cannot comprehend spiritual matters. A certain Christian leader teaches that Christ cannot be in us because He resurrected with a physical body and ascended to the third heaven. This leader teaches that Christ is merely represented in us by the Holy Spirit. This is a new religion produced by the religious mentality and tradition. Traditional teachings concerning the Trinity, the historical Christ, and the unapproachable and infinite greatness of God convinced this leader that man cannot contain Christ.
We should not exercise our mind to try to understand how Christ can be in us. We need to drop the religious mentality and take the pure Word of God. Colossians 1:27 says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” In John 15:4 the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” The New Testament reveals that Christ lives in us. We simply need to say, “Amen. Christ is in me.”
In Galatians 3:27 Paul says, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Christ not only lives within us, but He is also a realm, a sphere, into which we have entered through baptism. In other words, Christ lives in us, and we live in Him. We should sense that we are living in Christ every day. Christ is the sphere, the realm, and the environment in which we live and walk. If our outward environment begins to bother us, we need to be reminded by the Spirit that in reality we are living in Christ. He lives in us, and we live in Him. Furthermore, we need to put on Christ, as we would put on a garment. Christ is in us and upon us. Inwardly, He is our life; outwardly, He is our clothing, our covering.
Christ living in us and our living in Christ and putting on Christ should not be doctrine to us but our daily experience. We do not care for religion, forms, teachings, or doctrines but only for the living Christ. As a result of Christ living in us, our living in Christ, and our putting on Christ, we live Christ and magnify Christ (Phil. 1:20-21). We are the expression of Christ. Every member of the new man is Christ (Col. 3:10-11). This corporate Christ is the church (1 Cor. 12:12).
We should not be quick in answering others’ questions about the church. We need to learn to speak to others in a proper way so that we do not give them ground for misunderstanding. Someone may ask if our meetings are quiet or noisy. If I were asked this, I would say, “Friend, your question is a question of religion. We do not have religion—we have the living Christ. We are not a noisy church, nor are we a quiet church. We are a church that seeks to be filled with Christ.” Because the human mind today is filled with religious concepts, there are endless questions about our practice of the church life. Such religious questions are related to matters such as head covering, pray-reading, physical appearance, and the eldership. In my years of ministering for the Lord, no one ever asked me if the churches in the Lord’s recovery seek to be filled with Christ. We must be careful in how we answer religious questions. Anything that we do for God apart from Christ is religion. We are religion-conscious, but God wants us to be Christ-conscious.