Now we all own that that day is come, but have we got hold of the power of it for ourselves? I do not mean the understanding of it in the head, but the depths of it in the soul. The Lord says it is something His disciples should know in that day-the day when the Holy Ghost should be here. And I ask, have you and I really got hold of what He is speaking of? God has provided all that is necessary to our knowing it. The Holy Ghost is here, sent from the Father by the Son; and I suppose every one of us professes to be a recipient of the Holy Ghost. Have we then got hold of the practical teaching of these words? have we any sense of it, however feeble?
" At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you."
Now, what are the thoughts that arise in our minds when we look at a scripture like this? It has to do, of course, with the coming of the Holy Ghost. And by His coming the Lord gives His people to understand that He is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us.
First then, He is in the Father. This is a wonderful thing. Have we got hold of the deep teaching there is in it?
But next, we are in Christ and Christ in us, if we are Christians at all. We cannot turn aside the edge of a scripture like this. What do we understand by it? It is a most heart-searching truth. Do we respond in any faint degree to these desires of Christ for His people? Are we practically seeking to own what He here speaks of? In such days as these we need to have these words deeply rooted in our hearts.
Now what should they be to us? How should you and I be expressing them in our lives? " In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." How shall we shew that we have this? As I have said, it is true of every Christian, and do we desire to enter into it as that which is to characterize us as we walk through this world?
We are told in the epistle to the Romans, that we have "Received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." And " Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Thus it is distinctive Christian truth, that we are in Christ, and Christ is in us otherwise we are "None of his." Now are we setting forth before others that we have learned this truth in any degree?
We will just take up another thought in Romans about it; for we find in this epistle what leads us on to John 14 It is Christ risen -Christ in resurrection, who must be before the soul. The apostle begins with the soul at a distance from God; but it does not profit to occupy the soul with itself, and he passes on to what Christ has done for us, and brings out His work as the perfect answer to every charge that is against us. And we may still with profit dwell upon these first truths of Christianity, for the more advanced we are in Christian life the more are we willing to own how little we know of it, how little we show forth the power of it in our walk.
Here the apostle, after speaking in chapter v. of the two races, brings in the blessed truth, that if I am in Christ, it is in Christ who has died, in Christ who is risen, and that I have to learn that the condition of Christ, as regards sin, is my condition because I am in Him. We are to " Reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ." "In Christ" comes in thus rather suddenly in chapter 6., where it is brought forward for the first time in this epistle.
What then is my condition as to sin? What do I learn as to it here? It is not dying to sin. Christ is not going to die; Christ has died. And if I am " in Christ" I have, as regards myself, died indeed unto sin, and I am alive to God. For I am not only in a Christ who has died, but in a Christ who has risen, and His condition as regards sin is mine. So that it is plain I have died to sin-not I am dying to it.
Again in Colossians we read: " Wherefore, if ye have died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" And, " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." How have I thus died to sin, and from the elements of the world? Because I am in Christ-in Him risen.
Then the other side of the truth is that Christ is in us. And I ask what manner of people, not ought we to be, but should we be if we are carrying out this truth? What should we be before the world? We should certainly not be carried away by the current of what is around us. The only standard that I can find for my walk in this world is Christ. As I really own that I am in Him, shall I walk worthy of Him.
Now how are we in Christ? It is important to get clear, simple thoughts of Scripture. If we turn to Rom. 8 we read: " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Thus a man is none of Christ's, that is, he is not in Christ, without the Holy Ghost. As we read in John: " In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." It is by the Holy Ghost. " If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin: but the spirit is life because of righteousness." The Holy Ghost has come to us, consequent on the Lord's going on high; by Him we are united to Christ; by Him we are set in Christ, and Christ in us; by Him you and I are brought into this wonderful condition. If the Holy Ghost dwells in us, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, and we must not say that we have not the power to carry it out in our lives. God does not tell us to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin in our own strength, but as, in Christ."
In this chapter of John, the Lord tells us that the Holy Ghost "in that day" should dwell in the believer. In Rom. 8 the apostle tells us that, if we have not the Holy Ghost, we do not belong to Christ at all; but that, if we have, the body is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Thus we are given the power to carry it out. And I ask again, how far are we carrying out this truth that Christ is in us, and we in Christ?
(C. E. S.)