Christ lives in us that we may live with Him, enabling us to walk in Him. Colossians 2:6 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” To walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being. We should walk, live, and act in Christ that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce. The children of Israel had the good land as their portion, and they lived and walked in the good land. Today, in our experience Christ should be our good land as our unique portion, in which we may live and walk.
Galatians 3:14 says, “In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Here Paul mentions the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit. The physical aspect of the blessing God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see Col. 1:12 and note 2, Recovery Version). Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the promised land. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy. Hence, to live and walk in Christ as the good land is to live and walk in the all-inclusive Spirit. Therefore, Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit,” and Romans 8:4 says, “Walk...according to the spirit.” The Spirit is dwelling now in our regenerated spirit and is mingled with our regenerated spirit. We must live and move continually in the mingled spirit that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the good land. In the New Testament nothing is more basic, more important, and more powerful than walking according to the mingled spirit. Christ became the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit to be our life, our person, and our everything. What we need is to turn to Him, to set our mind on the spirit, and to live and move according to the spirit. This is to live and walk in Christ.
Christ’s living in us also enables us to be saved in His life. Romans 5:10 says, “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” This verse speaks of Christ’s reconciling death and Christ’s saving life. Although we have been saved through the death of Christ, we still need to be saved in His life. On the one hand, we have been saved through Christ’s death from God’s eternal judgment and eternal punishment; on the other hand, we still need to be saved continuously in His life from many negative things until we reach the extent of glory.
To be saved in Christ’s life is to be saved in Christ Himself as life. He dwells in us, and we are organically one with Him. By the growth of His life in us, we will enjoy His full salvation to the uttermost. We have been redeemed, justified, and reconciled to God that we may be brought into union with Christ, so that He can save us in His life to the extent that we are sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of God’s Son, that we may be completely delivered from our old man, our self, and our natural life. This is the issue of Christ’s saving us continuously in His life by His living in us and dispensing Himself into our entire being.
Christ lives in us that we also may eat Him as the bread of life and thereby live by Him. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48) and “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). The bread of life is man’s life supply in the form of food. Christ is not only the food but also the bread of life to us; He is our life supply to sustain our spiritual life.
John 6 shows us five characteristics of the Lord Jesus as the bread of life. As the bread that came down out of heaven (vv. 41, 50-51, 58), He is the heavenly bread. As the bread of God (v. 33), He belongs to God. As the bread of life (vv. 35, 48), He is the bread with eternal life. As the living bread (v. 51), He is living. As the true bread (v. 32), He is the bread of truth or reality. If we eat Christ as the bread of life, continually receiving Him into us to be assimilated by our regenerated new man in the way of life, He will bring us the eternal life that we may live because of Him, so that we are not only heavenly and of God but also living and full of reality.
First Thessalonians 5:10 says that Christ “died for us in order that whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him.” The Lord died for us not only that we might be saved from eternal perdition but also that we may live together with Him through His resurrection. By His resurrection from the dead, He became the life-giving Spirit to dwell in us in order that whether we watch or sleep, that is, whether we live or die, we may live together with Him.
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