TAKING CHRIST AS OUR PERSON AND LIVING HIM IN AND FOR THE CHURCH LIFE
Message Three
Living Christ by Walking according to the Spirit for the Body Life
Scripture Reading: Gal.2:20; Eph.3:17a; Phil.1:21a; Rom.8:4; 12:4-5
I. We need to live Christ in and for the church life—Gal.1:2,15-16; 2:20; 4:19:
A. The central thought of the Bible is that God desires us to live Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ—Phil.1:21a; Eph.4:12,16:
1. The main point of our Christian life is to live Christ.
2. The climax,the highest point,of the divine revelation in the entire Bible is to live Christ.
B. In the New Testament there are four main verses that reveal the matter of living Christ—John 6:57; 14:19; Gal.2:20; Phil.1:21a.
C. The Christian life is the life in which the believers of Christ live Him—v.21a.
D. Our primary concern should not be anything outward but whether we are living the self or living Christ—Gal.2:20:
1. We are often distracted by outward things,such as our work or the problems in the local churches.
2. Actually,such problems are mainly due to a lack of living Christ.
3. When we are living Christ,we are best able to care for the church.
E. If we would live Christ,we must take Him as our person and be one person with Him—Eph.3:17a; Gal.2:20:
1. He and we must be one in a practical way—1 Cor.6:17.
2. To live Christ is to live a person; we should live a life that is Christ Himself.
F. We should focus our whole attention on living Christ and care only to live Christ,not allowing anything to distract us from the direct,personal experience of Christ—Gal.2:20; Phil.3:9-12.
G. Living Christ requires that we love Him to the uttermost—Mark 12:30:
1. Part of the secret of living Christ is telling the Lord again and again that we love Him—1 Cor.2:9.
2. If we do not love the Lord,we cannot live Him.
H. To live Christ means that when Christ lives,we who believe into Him and who are in Him also live—John 14:19:
1. We live in Christ's living,and He lives in our living.
2. If we live in His living,His living will also be in our living—Gal.2:20.
II. The practical way to live Christ is to walk according to the spirit—Phil.1:21a; Rom.8:4:
A. We need to pay our full attention to walking according to the spirit in order to live Christ.
B. The word walk in Romans 8:4 denotes the general walk in our living,including how we think,speak,act,and move.
C. The spirit in verse 4 is the regenerated human spirit indwelt by and mingled with the Spirit; this corresponds to 1 Corinthians 6:17:
1. Christ as the Spirit is in our spirit,and we are one spirit with Him—v.17.
2. Therefore,we have a mingled spirit—our human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit.
D. Ultimately,the Bible requires only one thing of us—that we walk according to the mingled spirit—Rom.8:4:
1. The key to everything is found in the wonderful Spirit who is in our regenerated spirit and who has become one spirit with our spirit—John 3:6.
2. To walk in the spirit is to do everything in our daily life according to the spirit—Rom.8:4.
3. To live in the spirit is to let Christ fill and saturate us until He permeates our whole being and is thereby expressed through us—Eph.3:17a.
4. The mutual abiding in John 15:4-5 is the practice of walking according to the spirit.
5. When we walk according to the spirit,we spontaneously bear the cross—Matt.16:24.
6. All the things that happen to us test whether we are walking according to the spirit or the flesh—Rom.8:4-5.
7. The best way to silence Satan is to walk according to the spirit—Rev.12:11.
E. We need a clear view from the heavens to see that what the Lord wants is a group of people who walk according to the spirit.
F. The primary concern of the leading ones should be to help the saints to live Christ by walking according to the spirit in their daily life—Rom.8:4.
G. When we are not walking according to the spirit in our daily life,we are walking according to the flesh—vv.5-6:
1. According to Romans 8,anything that is not according to the spirit is according to the flesh.
2. There are only two sources and two conditions of our daily living—the spirit and the flesh.
H. Other aspects of our Christian life,such as preaching the gospel,should be the result of walking according to the spirit—v.4:
1. If we practice to continually walk according to the spirit throughout the day,everything else will spontaneously issue forth.
2. Our gospel preaching and shepherding should be the issue of our walking according to the spirit—Matt.24:14; John 21:15-17.
I. Our primary concern should not be how to do things but to see that God wants a people who live Christ by walking according to the spirit—Rom.8:4.
J. In order to exhibit Christ in the meetings,we must gain Christ in our daily life by walking according to the spirit—1 Cor.14:26; Phil.3:8,12; Rom.8:4.
K. The leading ones primarily need to walk according to the spirit in their daily life and help other saints to enter into this kind of living—v.4; Phil.3:17; Heb.13:7:
1. The leading ones need to enter into the actual practice of walking according to the spirit.
2. They need to help others to balance their corporate enjoyment of the Lord with a personal daily life of walking according to the spirit—Phil.3:17.
L. Unceasing prayer is the way to walk according to the spirit—1 Thes.5:17:
1. The way to walk according to the spirit is to pray unceasingly,just as we breathe unceasingly; our walking according to the spirit is our spiritual breathing.
2. We can walk according to the spirit by consistent,unceasing,moment-by- moment prayer—Luke 18:1.
III. The more we walk according to the spirit,the more the Triune God will live in us so that we may live Him for the Body life—Rom.8:4; 12:4-5:
A. When we walk according to the spirit daily and moment by moment,the Triune God as the Spirit will have the opportunity to make His home in us,settle down in us,and take possession and occupy our entire being—Eph.3:17a:
1. We need to live the Triune God by allowing Him to indwell us,make His home in us,and take full possession of our being by our walking according to the mingled spirit—Gal.4:19; Rom.8:4.
2. All we need to do is to live the Triune God; everything else will be a spontaneous issue of our living the Triune God—John 14:19-20; 15:4-5.
B. Romans 8 reveals that the Triune God lives in us so that we may live Him; this should be the focus of our Christian life.
C. The Body of Christ in Romans 12 issues from the experience of walking according to the spirit in Romans 8:
1. All the members of the Body of Christ should be persons who walk according to the spirit—12:4-5; 8:4.
2. In principle,if we do not walk according to the spirit,we cannot practically have the Body of Christ; the Body life is annulled by a fleshly walk.
3. All the believers are members of the Body,but the practicality of the Body depends on the believers' walk.
4. If we truly walk according to the spirit,we will spontaneously be in the Body life—v.4; 12:4-5.
D. We need to see one thing—that the goal of the Lord's recovery is to recover Christ,who is the embodiment of the Triune God to be our life and who is the Spirit to live within us and make us His living members so that His Body will be built up—Col.2:9; 3:4; 1 Cor.15:45b; Gal.2:20; Eph.4:16.