April 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
159
m INDWELLING (Mitrisi By CARL G. WESTERDAHL* Lcrîf Angeles, Calif.
C hrist is risen ,- but where does He live ? Paul speaks o f “ this mystery . . . which is Christ in you.” Where does He live? Paul says, “ In you.” T he indwelling Christ is the invisible Christ, although He is manifest to the heart and in the life of the believer. The new nature has a mind for the invisible. “ We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Cor. 4:18 ). We can see unseen realities. ■— *" C omprehending the M ystery Paul calls it a mystery. The natural mind has great difficulty in comprehending this mystery. One moment it thinks of Christ as seated on the right hand o f God the Father in heaven, another moment of the same Christ as being enthroned now in the individual believer’s heart. To think of Christ as actually and personally indwelling the believer here on earth at the same time as He is located in heaven causes a conflict of concepts. It is a mystery— blessed mystery! In these days of radio, it should be easier for the mind to reconcile these two concepts, if not conclusively, at least sufficiently to reasonably realize for the present how won derfully true it is that Christ is in the heavens and we are seated with Him there (Eph. 2 :6 ), and that at the same time we are here on earth and Christ is with us here. To day, a mere man speaks from a definite location, and that one voice is heard in a million places at the same time. It was reported some time ago that, from a plane soaring above Los Angeles, radio connection was made with Mus solini at Rome; he spoke, and his voice was heard dis tinctly above the city. Again a message was sent, this time to Ambassador Dawes at London, and his voice was heard in response immediately. Through the medium of the ever-present ether, the voice of man is everywhere present. Through the ever present Holy Spirit, not only the voice but the very person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the very attributes of His blessed deity, now clad in His glorified humanity, are present in the heart of every believer. When the receiving set of faith is tuned in, you can hear Him speak, you can appropriate to yourself His grace, peace, joy, love, purity, holiness. Blessed mystery— Christ in you ! A C hrist -C entered L ife T P he indwelling C hrist reveals the secret o f God’s ^ purpose in grace. Stop to think for a moment o f the *Pastor, Swedish Tabernacle.
wonder of personality. Each o f us has a universe within and without. Who is at the center of your world ? Is that cen ter point yourself ? They tell us we think in circles just as our eyes picture everything in circular frames. Every cir cle has a center. The tragedy of existence is a self-centered world. A self-centered world and a self-centered life are both doomed to destruction. That is why world history drips with human blood, and on every page you hear the cries of suffering humanity. It is self-centered, and that self is in the grip of Satan (1 John 5 :19). Leaving the col lective mass of humanity and turning to the individual, we find that every individual away from Christ is self- centered—every man for himself. There can be no har mony when there is no common center. There is chaos, or there is Christ. God’s purpose is to bring about in grace a universe with Christ as the hub, “ that in the dispensation o f the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” (Eph. 1 :10). In this universe, every individual of the new race will be Christ-centered. The Lord has already begun to bring this about. The individual today who knows true peace and joy in the Holy Ghost is the person who has Christ within, who knows the indwelling Christ. What happened at Pentecost? The believers in the upper room, up to this time only partially Christ- centered—think of Peter, John, and Thomas up to that time—were all filled with the Holy Spirit until their hearts were so dominated by the risen Christ that they became the channels of heaven’s dynamic on earth. They were both joined to Christ and filled with Christ. S ocial P roblems ow the indwelling Christ solves the problems of the s individual life ! Take the problem of social associa tions, amusements, and the like. We are social creatures. God made us that way. We desire the companionship of others. If we do not, something is the matter with us, either physically, mentally, or spiritually. The world has its social life, its colorful program of amusement and so ciability appealing mainly to the senses, its theater, its dance, and kindred pleasures. This program, planned for the unregenerate life, is considered so necessary to life, particularly to the life o f youth, that many homes, schools’ and even churches have adopted it for “ the welfare of the young folk.” The indwelling Christ does not center in that program,
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