In this lesson we will continue to see other aspects of Christ being the portion for the believers' enjoyment.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." Although Paul said that "it is no longer I who live," he also said that "it is Christ who lives in me." It was Christ who lived, yet it was in Paul that He lived. Christ and Paul, they two, had one life and one living. This shows us that Christ is not only life to us, the believers, but also a person living in us. We have another person, Christ, living within us.
We must see this vision: the One who died on the cross for our redemption is living now in us. I have died in Christ through His death, but now He lives in me through His resurrection. According to the revelation of the New Testament, on the one hand, this resurrected Christ is in the third heavens; on the other hand, He lives in us. His living in us is entirely by His being the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As the life-giving Spirit, He lives in us to be our life and our person.
In John 6:57 the Lord Jesus said, "As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me." The Son did not live by Himself; He lived because of the Father. This does not mean that the Son was set aside and ceased to exist. The Son, of course, continued to exist, but He did not live His own life. Instead, He lived the life of the Father. He had one life and one living with the Father. It is the same in our relationship with Christ today. We live by Him, and He lives in us. On the one hand, we are terminated; on the other hand, we continue to exist. However, we do not exist without Christ; we live because of Him and live with Him. Hence, we have one life and one living with Him. Not only so, we live because of Him by eating Him. To eat is to take food into us to be assimilated into our body organically. Hence, to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life. Then we live by the Lord whom we have received.
In Philippians 1:21 Paul said, "To me, to live is Christ." Paul's life was to live Christ. To him to live was Christ, not the law or circumcision. He would not live the law but would live Christ, not be found in the law but be found in Christ (3:9). Christ was not only his life but also his living. He lived Christ because Christ lived in him. He was one with Christ both in life and in living. He and Christ had one life and one living. They lived together as one person. Christ lived within Paul as Paul's life, and Paul lived Christ without as Christ's living.
Christ lives in us so that we may live Him. The normal experience of Christ is to live Christ, and to live Christ is to have Christ magnified always under any circumstance. We need to practice living Christ in our daily life, whether in great things or in small things. Our experience and practice of living Christ must reach the extent that others can see that in all things, in every detail of our life, we are in Christ. Christ lives in us as life and we live Him as His expression. This must be something real and practical to us.