Chapter 10: Inner Union with Christ

Scripture Reading:

1 Corinthians 1:30,

Galatians 2:20, 4:19,

Ephesians 3:17, 4:13,

Philippians 1:20

Our series of messages have been in the context of fellowship with the "Pathway of Inner Being". The pathway of the inner life is the hidden experience of spiritual life. The ultimate goal is to achieve complete union with Christ. For a normal Christian, from the day of salvation by grace, begins to enter into a relationship with Christ. Naturally and invisibly, he or she enters into the threshold of union with Christ, and thus enters into the path of inner life throughout his or her life. Then their spiritual life not only grows continuously, but also becomes more and more united with God, and the more united they become, the deeper they become, until they are completely united with Christ, that is, they reach the fullness of Christ, the fullness of the whole man. At that time, Christ and I will never be separated from each other. Just as a drop of water is lost in the sea, so also does the apostle say in Philippians 1:20-21: "...so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ," This indicates a state of complete union with Christ.

However, there are two things that we must pay special attention to and not overlook in this journey of inner life. The first is to know Christ. The second is union with Christ. For the more we know Christ, not only do we enter into union with Him, but we also have access to all His riches. This is what it mean in Colossians 2:9-10 we are told, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

The process of union with Christ, from initial to full union, can be summarized in three stages:

Stage One

1. In Christ

2. Christ in me

Stage Two

3. Abiding in Christ

4. Christ abiding in me

Stage Three

5. Christ grows and is formed in me

6. Christ is manifested in me

1. In Christ

We have just read 1 Corinthians 1:30, which says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus". This means that all human beings in the world, throughout the ages, handed down from generation to generation, are all in Adam. Let's say my last name is Jeng, and my son's last name is also Jeng. As soon as he came out of his mother's womb, he was in a family with the surname of "Jeng", and he was in the lineage of the "Jeng" family. Since the beginning of mankind's history until today, we have been in Adam's lineage. Until the day we believed in Jesus and accepted Christ as our Savior, God put us in Christ or moved us to Christ. It is not to run into Christ, for no man can run into Christ by himself, but when we call on the name of Jesus Christ, God moves us from Adam into Christ.

In Romans 11:19-20, when the Apostle Paul talked about this experience, he quoted the analogy of a tree receiving a branch, that is, God receives us as a branch into Christ. He said that we (the Gentiles) were originally branches of the wild olive tree, and the Jews (God's elect) were branches of the olive tree, but because they rejected the Son of God and did not accept Christ as their Savior, they were rejected by God. They were rejected by God because they rejected the Son of God and did not accept Christ as their Savior, just as the branches of the olive tree were cut off. Now you and I, Gentile Christians, the wild olive tree branches, are taken up and we are united with Christ. Like the vine and its branches, we are united to Christ.

2. Christ in me

Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,". This signifies that when we believe in the Lord Jesus, God not only puts us in Christ, but He also looks at us as if we have never sinned, meaning that He justifies us and pleases us. In other words, God not only forgives our sins, but also brings Christ into us, which is called Christ in me. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?" This means that we have asked for the name of Jesus Christ, and God has recognized us as belonging to Christ forever, and will not forsake us, but will justify and accept us (Romans 5:18). From this we can see that when we believe in Jesus, Christ comes into us through the Holy Spirit. Obviously, Christ is in you and in me, one side of me is in Christ and the other side is Christ in me, and this experience happens at the same time.

The riches of our Lord Jesus Christ are limitless, like an endless ocean. You and I are like a small bottle. When we believe in Jesus Christ, on the one hand, God puts this small bottle in the big ocean; on the other hand, the sea water pours into the bottle until it is full of water, and both of these things happen at the same time.

 3. Abiding in Christ

We have said that "In Christ" is a spiritual fact, referring to the divine status that we have attained by believing in the Lord Jesus, the fact that God has done it for us so that we can be united with Christ. Now we move on to the experience of "Abiding in Christ". John 15:5 is a key to the treasury of the Bible, which, once opened, reveals the riches of God's glory. The Lord Jesus Himself said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him..."

This speaks of entering into the experience of union with Christ. But in fact, we often run away from Christ again, so we have to keep practicing and enter into a continuous abiding in Christ and union with Him. For example, in today's society there are some young people who have been caught by the government and put in a reformatory because they have often committed crimes. As a matter of fact, this young man is incarcerated in a reformatory and no longer lives at home. However, if his name is Huang, even though he has run away from his family and is incarcerated in a reformatory and no longer lives at home, his family name does not change because of this!  

Similarly, after you and I believe in Jesus and are saved, God moves us to Christ and we become Christians. So wherever we go, we are Christians. We are Christians no matter where we go. We are Christians if our behavior is good, but we are still Christians even if our behavior is bad, and we are Christians even if we win or lose. For example, the young man surnamed Huang, who is supposed to live in the Huang family, is still a son of the Huang family, even though he has run away from home to do evil. But even though he is a son of the Huang family, he cannot live in the Huang family and enjoy all the riches of the Huang family.

The day we believe in Jesus, we come to Christ, live in Christ, experience the sweetness of fellowship when we pray and draw near to the Lord, sometimes enjoy the richness of the Lord's words in reading the Bible, or enjoy the Lord's grace with all the saints in the church, bask in the depth of the Lord's love, and live the highest Christian life. However, some Christians, unable to withstand the temptations of the world, go out to socialize with their friends, and gradually stop praying, then stop reading the Bible, and stop meeting; although they are called Christians, they have in fact gone out of Christ. Therefore, the third experience of the Christian must be built up to maintain "abiding in Christ". This is because abiding in Christ is like a branch connected to the vine, allowing the life, sap, and nourishment of the vine to be passed on to the branches, which then thrive and bear much fruit. Therefore, a person who abides in Christ must receive the abundant life of the Lord and be able to provide for the life of the Lord, exuding His riches and manifesting His glory.

The Old Testament records that Moses went up the mountain for forty days and forty nights to draw near to the Lord, just as the Christians of the New Testament era have the experience of abiding in Christ. On that occasion when Moses went up to the mountain to draw near to the Lord, the Bible specifically says, "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai....did not know his ski n shone while he talked with Him" (Exodus 34:29). Likewise, the Christian who enters into intimate fellowship with the Lord, without realizing it, will shine with the glory of the Lord. Oh! There is no one so close to us as the Lord, for Christ is in us. As the psalm says,

Within the Veil: be this, belov’d, thy portion,

Within the secret of thy Lord to dwell;

Beholding Him, until thy face His glory,

Thy life His love, thy lips His praise shall tell

Back in my youth, I used to draw near to the Lord with a group of companions who pursued the Lord with a pure heart. At first, when I was learning to draw near to the Lord, twenty minutes seemed to be enough, but the closer I got to the Lord and the more I was brought into fellowship with Him, the time was increased to half an hour or even an hour. Oh! The closer I get to the Lord, the sweeter I feel; the closer I get to the Lord, the more I am attracted by His glory. The closer I get to the Lord, the more my heart longs for Him, and I wish to be immersed in Him, to be one with Him forever.

4. Christ abides in me

If we abide in Christ, Christ abides in us. The experience of "abiding in Christ is not the same as Christ abiding in us. We have already mentioned the experience of abiding in Christ, but now we will look at the process of Christ's abiding in us.

1. Christ living in me

   "Christ lives in me" refers to the fact that Christ governs me in me, that is, as Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." It means that I, the sinner, have been crucified with Christ, and I am no longer the master; it is no longer I, the sinner, who live, but Christ who lives in me. It is Christ who is the master, who leads me, who dominates me, who governs me. When a Christian is in this experience, he can be considered to have grown considerably, for it is Christ who is the life in him.

2. Christ is our life

   Colossians 3:4 says, "Christ is our life". But are we really letting Christ be our life in our experience? A person who lets Christ be his life is one who lets Christ take the lead. For the nature of Christ's life is of a divine nature, and the characteristics of God's nature are experienced naturally, not artificially created or cultivated through hard work, but by accepting the characteristics of His own life.

   It is the acceptance of the characteristics of His own life. It is like a pig on a farm, an animal whose odor is smelled before you can see it. The characteristic of a pig's life is that it likes to roll around in the sludge and manure. On the other hand, if you put a sheep in a pigpen, it will immediately struggle and will not be able to rest; for sheep are clean animals, and the characteristic of their life is that they like to be clean. In the same way, Christians, because Christ is our life, are called to live a life of holiness.

   1. Christ is our wisdom

      Further, 1 Corinthians 1:30 reads, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." It is stated that we can be in Christ today because we believe that God put us in Christ when we were born again and saved; at the same time, Christ came into us and became our life. When we experience Christ as our life, one of the main elements is to experience Christ as our wisdom. This means experiencing Christ as our method and guide in life, work, and ministry.

      One Thursday night in the witnessing meeting, a young sister shared that over the past few years, she had not dared to accept being assigned to speak on topics about the truth, she only dared to share her testimonies. Because whenever she was assigned to share, she would be in a state of fear and panic, and even though she tried to prepare for fellowship in a different ways, she still had no clue and was unable to get the hang of the situation. This year, however, she decided to go to Taipei for the summer conference, and a co-worker arranged for her to do some sharing. At first, she repeatedly refused, but the sister encouraged her to practice so that she could make progress, and she finally reluctantly agreed.

      So she prepared very seriously on Monday, and during her visitation, she repeatedly asked several sisters for advice, hoping to get help from them. However, she was still in a state of panic and her mind was so worried that she didn't know how to interweave her testimonies. Until Friday she decided to give up, but her co-worker said, "If you give up now and arrange for someone else, that person won't have enough time to prepare. So she had to accept it, and she went to the Lord to pray and look up. Thank God, that night, the Holy Spirit suddenly gave her words and many points to share, and she was suddenly anointed and assured in her spirit. The following Saturday, the sisters were concerned and asked her if she was ready. She said she was not ready, but that the Lord's word had come. Sure enough, on Sunday, she stood up boldly, and when she opened her mouth, she experienced a river of living water flowing out of her belly. On the other hand, she was spiritually released and anointed in a way that she had never been before. She truly experienced Christ as our wisdom.

   2. Christ is or righteousness

      We have just read 1 Corinthians 1:30 which says that it is God's work that we are in Christ. On the other hand, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became.... righteousness...." This means that God has made Christ to live in us, to be our righteousness, and He will guide us to act in righteousness and enable us to live out our righteousness.

      For example, in the United States, a country with a high level of culture and education, almost all citizens obey the laws of the land, especially traffic discipline. Whenever a vehicle arrives at an intersection, although there is no police or traffic light to direct the driver, the driver will automatically stop at the intersection, and then give way to each other and wait for the first person to go through before driving through the intersection.

      Thank God! Christ dwells in us, He is the Righteous One who naturally calls us to act or live out righteousness. There is a testimony that talks about a military dormitory. There was a devout Christian who, every day before going to bed, would kneel down before the Lord and pray. The soldiers in his room used to deliberately make fun of him, making him cry. One night when a storm was raging, his fellow soldiers came back from duty, soaked to the skin and their boots were covered with mud. When they saw this Christian kneeling in front of his bed and praying, they deliberately put their boots, which were covered with mud, next to his head. They saw the Christian kneeling in front of his bed, so they deliberately put their boots, covered with mud, next to his head. The Christian ignored them and continued to pray, so they were bored and went to bed. Miraculously, the next morning, when the soldiers in the same room got up, they found that their boots were not only free of mud, but also polished and neatly placed in front of their beds, and their hearts were moved with guilt, and they repented and returned to the Lord. This is an example of Christ's indwelling righteousness.

   3. Christ is our Sanctification

      The life of Christ in us is characterized by the holiness of God. That is why 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us .... sanctification..." The qualities of Christ's life in us make us naturally holy. In other words, the secret of holiness is not that we try to be holy, but that He is holy. When we allow Christ to live in us, we live a holy life, free from sin and unholiness.

      Another Thursday night fellowship. A young adult testified that he had recently taken up a higher position in a new company. Many of his organization's subordinates are unbelievers. Although they have received higher education, they often speak in obscene and delusional language, especially after work, when they open their gossip boxes, they talk about men and women, and always bring in obscene and dirty language. At first, it was very hard for him to hear this, but since he had just been appointed to a new company, he smiled and catered to the colleagues in order to please them, so every time he went back home, he was in great pain inside, and his conscience often scolded him, "You are a Christian, why do you mix with people who do not believe in Jesus? Thanks to God's mercy, the brother quickly avoided his coworkers when they chatted and gossiped, and maintained a life of holiness, which is the experience of Christ's holiness in us.

   4. Christ is our Redeemer

      I Corinthians 1:30 not only speaks of Christ as our wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, but finally it speaks of Christ as our redemption, which means that Christ is the life in us, and that He will fill our souls, and through our souls, we will attain to the experience of the body. Of course, this will not happen until Christ returns and our bodies are transformed to resemble His glorious body. This means that our bodies will be resurrected and transformed to reveal Christ and be raptured in the Glory. 

3. Christ makes His home in us

   Regarding the experience of Christ's dwelling in us, Ephesians 3:17 reads, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." This means that Christ lives and reigns in us and governs us freely.

   The phrase "Christ has made His home in us" means that Christ has made our hearts and minds His dwelling place, or His home. It means that He wants to be the Lord, not as a guest, but as a host. A host is one who has the right of ownership, the right to control, and use of all things in the home. A guest is a visitor who has no right to use and move the furniture around as he pleases. This shows that Christ treats us as His own home, which means that He manages and uses us as He pleases. Therefore, when we give Christ full sovereignty over us, we allow Him to live in our hearts and minds and to freely rule over us and use us. In this way we experience Christ living in us.

5. Christ grows and is formed in me

The spiritual experience is getting deeper and deeper because Christ is not just going to live in us; He is going to grow and be formed in us. How Christ grows and is formed in us, there are two important experiences to be mentioned:

1. Through the cross, Christ is formed (structured) within

   Galatians 4:19 reads, "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you." It is stated that the step for Christ to be formed and grow up in us is through "labor in birth". "Labor in birth" describe the experience of a woman in labor. When a woman goes into labor, she suffers severe pains that increase until the baby is born. No wonder some young women who have just conceived their first child and are nervous when approaching the time of labor, they are anxious, and worried about whether or not the labor will be difficult, and so they go around asking questions about the labor process. The apostle's use of "labor in birth" to describe the painful experience of the cross is really appropriate.

   When we are born again and saved, the life of Christ comes into us, and this life will gradually grow and take shape in you and me, and will expand to our whole being, including every part of our mind, emotion, and will. When a hen lays an egg, it is an egg on the outside, but there is the life of a chick inside. If the egg has to be incubated, and the life of the chicken will grow until the chick is fully formed, and then the chick will break out of the shell.

   In terms of experience, when Christians are born again and saved, God puts Christ (life) in us. God then arranges all kinds of people, events and things to interact with each other, causing our souls to be tormented, even beaten and broken, so that the life of Christ can gradually grow and be formed in us. If we are merciful to the Lord and go through the experience of accepting the cross again and again, then the life of Christ will continue to grow and take shape in us.

   In ancient times, most of the cloth was woven on a loom. First, the thread was put on the loom, and then it was woven vertically, horizontally, and vertically to form a large piece of cloth. If it was not woven vertically and horizontally, it would not be able to become a large piece of cloth, and these are two different directions.  

   Once I asked a ticket vendor at the Taipei bus station if a certain bus number was passing by, and he seemed like he didn't hear, so I asked him again, and he answered me in a displeased tone, saying, "You have eyes to see for yourself! I thank the Lord that I walked away in peace and silence in Christ. If I had not had Christ in me, I would have blamed this man for being so uneducated, and for being so unreasonable when he was asked with courtesy. Oh! If we are attentive in our lives, we must find that there are many encounters, crosses of different sizes, to be experienced every day. If we receive it once, the life of Christ will be organized once, and if we receive it again and again, it will be like the weaving of a loom, which will soon become a large piece of cloth, and Christ will be formed in us.

   Psalm 45:13 says, "The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; her clothing is woven with gold." Here, the embroidered garments are used to depict the fact that the more we accept the cross, the more Christ is formed in us. Naturally, this kind of Christian has allowed Christ to grow and be formed in him.

   Seriously, there are a few keys to spiritual experience that must be firmly grasped. The first is to abide in Christ— and continually remain in Him. Because when the cross comes, the natural man will not be able to accept it, and the human flesh will not be able to submit to it, so how can one accept it? By the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if one does not abide in Christ, when the cross comes, he will either refuse or run away. Therefore, we must practice and build up a life of abiding in Christ.

   The second step is the secret of fruitfulness mentioned in John 15:5. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit." But before this statement, there is a statement that you need to pay attention to: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." (John 15:2)

   A person who abides in Christ is a fruitful branch. The "pruning" refers to the ensuing cross. When the vinedresser sees a bunch of grapes growing, he prunes the fruit-bearing branches so that new branches will spring up and bear new fruit. Experientially speaking, there are parts of us that are carnal, hard, and old, and the gardener (Jesus Christ) came and pruned me of my talkativeness, you of your hardness and strength, and him of his loitering and idleness. In short, the Lord raises up the circumstances, the difficulties, and the blows that come. For the cross is the means by which Christ is formed in us. No wonder the Apostle Paul tells us, "We must go through many difficulties to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

   How much of the image of Christ we have in us is based on how much we accept the cross. But how much we accept the cross is based on whether or not we continue to "abide in Christ". May the Lord be gracious to us in the remaining years of our lives, and may we treasure the experience of abiding in Christ. As the psalm says,

   Enter the veil and go without the camp,

   Taste heaven’s sweetness, thus the earth forsake;

   If by the Holiest I am satisfied,

   How can I of earth’s vanities partake?

2. Recognize the Son of God and grow to manhood in it

   A Christian's experience of union with Christ begins with seeing the Son of God, i.e., knowing Christ, the Son of God, inwardly. This knowledge is not a reasoned concept, or a head knowledge. It is a spiritual seeing and knowing. That is why Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" This means that the inner spirit receives the revelation of the Holy Spirit and sees that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and immediately we enter into union with Christ, which is the initial experience.

   The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1:16, "It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me ......." This means that when we are born again, we receive the revelation of the Son of God in our spirit. At this time, Christ is born as a baby in you and me, and then the Holy Spirit leads us to gradually have a wider and deeper understanding of the Son of God. The more we know Christ, the more we gain His fullness, and naturally, the more our spiritual life grows.

   As our knowledge of the Son of God grows, our experience of Christ grows, and naturally the life of Christ is not only fully organized in us, but we also reach full maturity in the life of Christ.

   So Ephesians 4:13 tells us, "Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." The meaning is that when the knowledge of the Son of God is perfected, the spiritual life experience reaches its highest peak, that is, the life of Christ pervades all the parts of the person, including the mind, emotions and will in the soul and spirit, all of which are filled with the life of Christ.

6. Christ is manifested in me

The last point is that when spiritual life reaches its peak, not only does the stature of Christ grow and take shape in you, but the life (nature) of Christ is also manifested in us. This is what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:20, "Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death." Human life consists of two words, "life and death". "Life" started after we leave the womb of our mother, we live in the human society. "Death is the end of life. When we finish our journey in life, the impression (image) that we leave behind is whether or not it is Christ. If so, it shows that the spiritual life of the Christian has reached a spiritual peak, and that the person has been closely and deeply united with Christ.

It is indeed difficult to explain "union with Christ". Thank the Lord! Brother Nee once told the story of a blacksmith who was making iron. He put a piece of black iron into a hot furnace and burned it until it turned red, then he took it out, and his apprentice rolled a piece of paper on the iron to start the fire, and the fire started to burn, and Brother Nee was very amazed that the iron actually produced fire. Later, he realized that this piece of iron was different from ordinary iron; it had been burned in a furnace, and now it was both iron and fire. In other words, the fire was in the iron and the iron was in the fire, and it had the weight of iron and the shape of fire. God's ultimate work is for us to be united with Christ as iron is with fire, so that not only is everything in iron, but also everything that is fire is in iron.

May the Lord bless His own words, so that we may see that the ultimate spiritual peak of the Christian life experience is to be filled with Christ and to manifest Christ in complete union with Him. Therefore, we are encouraged to be kept by the Lord in the remaining years of our lives, and to continue to move forward on this path of life until we enter into a complete union with Christ, where God and man will never be separated again.

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