The Indwelling Christ
Ephesians 3 The Indwelling Christ Revealing His Love.
People who climb mountains tell us that the higher you get the more difficult it is to climb; and yet it becomes more and more exhilarating and wonderful. The same applies to the Scriptures. And here we are certainly on the very mountain top of Christian experience. this is something which is meant for all Christians. The Apostle writes to all the members of the church at Ephesus and he obviously meant them to understand it; indeed he assumes that they will be able to understand it. He is not praying that these people may become Christians, He is praying that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, although He is already present. Paul is not praying for their conversion, or their salvation, or their justification. 2Cor 13:5, 'Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?---unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
He says that to be believers, to be Christians at all, means that Jesus Christ is in us. You cannot be a Christian at all without Jesus Christ being in you. Romans 8 :9, You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. That was true of these Ephesians; they are already Christians. Indeed it is because they are Christians he goes on to offer this prayer for them, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith.
At Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation of Christ into the world. And there is another coming of Christ that we should celebrate every single day. The Incarnation of Christ into the Believer.
It Was Promised in the Old Testament
Lev 26:11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
It Was Foretold by Christ
John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?"23 Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
He says that in one sense He is going to leave them, but that in another sense He is going to come to them. Then He introduces the truth concerning the Holy Spirit and His coming, and tells them that as the result of the coming of the Spirit He Himself will come back to them, in order to 'dwell' and 'take up His abode' in them. He further told them, 'At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you' (14:20). They did not know it at that time; so He says "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." They are Christians; but they do not yet realize that they are in Him and that He is in them. The Lord is talking about the Christian man to whom the Spirit shall have come and who is keeping His commandments. He says, vs 21 'I will love him and will manifest myself to him'. He emphasizes that He will not manifest Himself in that way to the world but only to the man who is already a Christian. Vs 23 to say, speaking of Himself and the Father, 'We will come unto him and make our abode with him'. The word 'abiding' is a characteristic of John's Gospel. It conveys this same idea of 'settling down', 'taking up permanent residence', not just occasionally being present, but being there permanently.
15: 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
17:26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
Col 1:27 Christ in you the hope of glory
1John 4:4 for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Galatians: 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me' (2:20).
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith'. In Scripture the word 'heart' generally means the very centre of the personality., not just the emotions or affections only; it also includes the mind, the understanding and the will. It is therefore the very citadel of the soul. So what the Apostle desires for the Ephesians is that Christ may dwell in their minds; not only in their intellects but also in the very centre of their personalities. He was already in their minds, for they had already believed; but Paul wants them to experience in answer to his prayer a growing deepening experience of Christ residing in their very heart and souls.
It is like the appeal of the Lord Jesus to the church at Laodicea.
Rev. 3: 15 "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
It is vitally important that we should apply this to ourselves. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is not the end of Christianity, it is but the beginning. To believe the truth about His person and about His work is absolutely essential, and if we do not subscribe to these truths we are just not Christians at all. No man can be a Christian unless he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ in that sense. But that is not what the Apostle has in his mind here. You can have Christ in your mind and in your intellect and still not be able to say 'I live, yet not I …' Paul's desire is that Christ may also dwell in their affections, that Christ may dwell in their will, that Christ may be the dominating factor in the whole of their life, controlling it and directing it. Christ is to be the very heart of their hearts, He is to be at the very centre of their lives.
CHS "Brothers and sisters, it will be to small profit that we shall talk to you about the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of the love of Christ unless there be in your soul a devout longing ambition to set the Lord Jesus always before you, as the frequent, if not, the constant subject of your meditations. No progress to any extent is to be made in the school of the cross unless you separate yourself, and give yourself wholly to this. It must be the one great business of your life, to know him and the power of his resurrection. Resolve to attain a degree in the learning of the cross, a learning which angels desire to understand; but to do this the heart must be full of Jesus, welling up with his love, flaming with it, overrunning with it; and hence the apostle prays, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts." Observe the words, "that he may dwell;" not that he may call upon you sometimes, as a casual visitor, but that he may dwell, that Christ may take up his abode in your hearts, that the Lord Jesus may become the Lord and tenant of your inmost being, never more to go out, but to dwell there forever.
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith---that you, being rooted and grounded in love,18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
That he may dwell in your hearts, that best room of the house; not in your thoughts alone, but in your affections; not merely have him in your minds, but have him in your loves. Paul wants you to have a love to Christ of a most abiding character, not a love that flames up under an earnest sermon, and then dies out into the darkness of a few embers, but a constant flame, the abiding of Jesus' love in your hearts, both day and night, like the flame upon the altar which never went out. This cannot be accomplished except by faith. Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent. Now Jesus cannot be in your heart's love except you have a firm hold of him by your heart's faith; and, therefore, he prays that you may always trust Christ, that you may always love him. Thus, the Lord Jesus being constantly brought under your heart's attention, you are likely to be able to comprehend the measurement of his love, which it would otherwise be impossible for you to do. CHS
As a child I had a fascination with astronomy. When I was in 6th class a teacher noticed my fascination with it. She asked what I b wanted to do when I grew up. When I answered be an astronomer, she said, well very few who want to do that attain to it. But if you perservere hard you might just get there. I took that as an admission of defeat and gave up straight away.
For someone to become an astronomer astronomy has to become the lord of mind, and holds a sway over mind and even dreams. The doctor must be fascinated with nerves, and bones, and blood vessels, and be bound to it like the galley slave is bound to the oar, or he will never master his subject. Now, the apostle desires that we who are believers, our faculties being strengthened, may have the person of Jesus constantly before us to inflame our love, and so increase our knowledge. See how near he would have Jesus to be! "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." You cannot get a subject closer to you than to have it on the inner side of the eyes; that is to say, in the heart itself. The astronomer cannot always see the stars because they are far away, and clouds can get in the way, and the anything can get between him and the stars because they are outside of him; but our star shines in the heaven of our hearts!
If we knew more fully by experience the meaning of "Christ in you the hope of glory," our hearts might be more set upon the person, the work, and the love of our dear Redeemer. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts."
Comprehend the intellectual knowledge of the love of Christ.
Study it : When I survey the wondrous Cross' Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes; Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Know the love of Christ. Experience the love of Christ
Only the indwelling Christ can make that known experientially to you.
"Christ is all." Well, if Christ is all, then that leaves nothing out. It means He is everything. Now that's a big question: Is Jesus Christ all to you? I mean, is He all, and is He in all? Well, Paul just said it another way in verse 4 when he says, "Christ…is our life." (Colossians 3:4) Now Jesus doesn't just give life; He is our life. "For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21) is what Paul said in another place. He is our life; He doesn't just point to life. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6) in John 14, verse 6. So Christ is our life.
John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3)
Now you can have knowledge about someone without knowing that person. You could have knowledge about a senator, or a president, or a king, without knowing that person. But, you see, we don't just receive knowledge of Jesus; our life is knowing Jesus: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." It is Jesus only. He is all and in all. It is not knowledge about Jesus. It is not Jesus plus anything. It is not something after Jesus. Now you can get to know Jesus better, but you can never know anything better than Jesus. You can go deeper into Jesus, but you can never go beyond Jesus. Paul says in verse 11 that "Christ is all, and in all."
If Christ is in your heart, then Christ has manifested Himself to you. And when Christ manifests Himself to us it is not merely a figure of speech, it is real, it is actual. It is so definite that there is no doubt at all about it. As you read the experiences of some of the saints of the past you find that they are very careful to draw this distinction. They say that there was a time when they came to believe in Him and when they had an assurance that their sins were forgiven. They knew that they were related to Him, that they were in Him, and that they had found peace and rest for their souls. They also say that for a while, sometimes for years, they thought that that was the whole of Christianity. But then they began to discover that there was something altogether vaster and greater, which they had never known at all. They came across the Lord's promise expressed in the words, 'I will manifest myself to him' (John 14:21),
Do you really know the Lord Jesus Christ personally? Do you know Him as a person? As a person is He real to you? Has He manifested Himself to you in that sense? It is clear that that had happened to the Apostle Paul. Not only had he seen Him actually on the road to Damascus, not only had he had a vision later in the temple; in addition to that, and above that, he says in writing to the Galatians, 'It pleased God to reveal his Son in me'. He says 'in' me and not 'to' me. It is an inward manifestation of the Son of God in which He is made as real to us as any other person, even more so. I cannot do anything better at this point than to quote a little verse which Hudson Taylor used to pray for himself every day of his life:
Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me
A living, bright Reality;
More present to faith's vision keen
Than any outward object seen;
More dear, more intimately nigh
Than e'en the sweetest earthly tie.
You can be a Christian without enjoying conscious fellowship with Him. You can be in the position in which you are relying upon Him, relying upon His perfect work on your behalf, and you can even be praying to Him, and yet not have a conscious fellowship, a conscious realization of His nearness and a conscious enjoyment of Him. That is what the Apostle desires for these Ephesians, 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith'. And when this is true, of course, He obviously controls everything in our lives.
We can sum it up by repeating words used by the Apostle Paul elsewhere. It is when Christ is thus known to us, and in our hearts, that we can say honestly and truthfully, 'I live, yet not I' (Gal 2:20), and 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me' (Phil 4:13).
Jesus Must Captivate Our Ambitions
Over the reasonings, rituals, religions and regulations of the world.
Jesus Must Dominate Our Attention
Jesus Must Regulate Our Actions
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
Unsearchable riches of Christ's love.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
Now as we come to the Lord's Table, we're coming to celebrate Jesus, to love Jesus; not to learn about Jesus—yes, we need to do that—but to love Jesus; not to know about Him, but to know Him. And the sweetest fellowship you'll ever have with anyone is at a meal. We're not coming tonight to mourn a corpse; we're coming tonight to have fellowship with a friend, a meal with a friend. It is not that He is dead, because He's risen; it is not that He has risen and ascended, because He is here. And He says, "If any man hear my voice…I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20) So Jesus invites us to His table. We're going to have a fellowship meal with Jesus.
Study the Breadth of it. Seeking love.
Luke 15 he told them this parable:4 "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.
Study the length of it. Securing Love.
Now what I want to tell you, dear friend, is that the grace of God is this: that He saves us, weak as we are. He doesn't just give us lessons; He doesn't just give us examples; He doesn't just put us on probation. He saves us. He saves us by His grace. And the grace, dear friend, that sought us, and the grace that bought us, is the grace that keeps us.
Study the height of it. Sufficient love
His love is so high that it will be celebrated in the heavenly places in all ages throughout eternity in heaven.
Ephesians 2:7: "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).
Oh, dear friend, do you know what we're going to sing in Heaven? We're going to be singing about grace.
When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we'd first begun.
And what is He going to show in the ages to come? His grace. His love unmerited, put upon you.
Study the depth of it. Saving love.
The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell
It goes beyond the highest star And reaches to the lowest hell
The guilty pair bowed down with care God gave His Son to win
His erring child He reconciled And pardoned from his sin
George Wade Robinson, a Congregational minister of the nineteenth century, we read:
Loved with everlasting love, Led by grace that love to know,
Spirit, breathing from above, Thou hast taught me it is so.
O this full and perfect peace! O this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease I am His, and He is mine.
His for ever, only His: Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss Christ can fill the loving heart!
Heaven and earth may fade and flee, First-born light in gloom decline;
But while God and I shall be, I am His, and He is mine.
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