… but Christ lives in me.
Summary: As we look at this passage, the first question that confronts us is existential. Are we purely physical beings, or is there something more, some invisible part of us that only God can see?
As I’ve mentioned, these are deep waters. This passage sounds simple, but there is a lot to it. Before I begin, I want to add a word of caution.
If you are reading this, and you know Jesus Christ personally, then your relationship with Jesus is just that, yours. How you experience Jesus and visualize or verbalize that experience is legitimate. The words in this meditation are meant to deepen our understanding of God’s Word, not diminish it. Do not allow these words to throw your relationship with Jesus into question. That is not their purpose.
How does Christ live in me?
The first question that comes to mind is not grammatically correct, but I think you will get the point. Who is “me?”
According to Peter and Paul, the body is like a “tent” (2 Corinthians 5:1,4; 2 Peter 1:13). A tent, of course, is a fabric house. From the outside, the tent looks solid. Standing outside, we see the tent, the color of the fabric and the shape of the tent. If we talk to the tent, whoever is inside can hear us and answer. What happens inside the tent is hidden from the outside.
In the same way, our bodies have an outside and an inside. Outside people see our skin and the color of our eyes, and when we speak, they hear the voice (or voices) within. What happens inside, however, is hidden from view.
The world inside of a person is difficult to talk about because it is so personal. Our experience of life is, for all of us, unique. Each person has unique feelings, experiences, needs, and wants. It is almost as if we are each given our own personal spiritual universe to live in.
Apart from God, this personal spiritual universe is not alone. It exists in a larger spiritual realm that includes angels (Matthew 18:10) and demons (Luke 4:41).
The physical tent we live in is so well connected to the physical world around us that it can seem like the physical world is more “real” than the spiritual. Oddly, the opposite is true. The physical world is subject to decay, and our bodies are subject to a time limit imposed by God. At some point our spiritual selves are separated from the “tent” we live in, and we become fully aware of our spiritual environment.
Who is “me?” I am not the tent. I am a spiritual being who lives in a tent for the moment. Like a person living in a tent while their house of wood is being built, I live in a physical tent while my spiritual house is being built.
Application: Visualize the body as being separate from the spirit.
Food for Thought: How do we learn to “see” our spiritual self?
Our spirit is either alive in Christ or dead without Him (Romans 6: 23). For those who have faith in Christ, their spirit is alive (John 3: 3). The Holy Spirit tells us that we are a child of God. More important than “seeing” our spiritual self is “seeing” the Holy Spirit and walking in Him on a daily basis (Romans 8: 12 – 17).
Rich,
You make a good point. Being focused on God is the primary requirement for life.
That is a very tough question. I appreciate the grace of your words at the beginning of the meditation. I may need some of that grace in my attempt to answer. 🙂
In my life, the revelation of my spiritual self has only come about through the Holy Spirit. And I do not have a compete understanding of it. I think I have enough of an understanding as the Holy Spirit has allowed, in a measure that allows me to grow in the Spirit. As I grow in the Spirit I grow in my understanding of my spritual self. I “see” who I really am inside, beyond the events of my life. That it doesnt matter the circumstances of what has happened, my reactions to them would have been similar because I was created a certain way. But here is where the spiritual self comes in. Christ has awakened my spiritual self, my understanding of Gods holiness and how the way I choose to operate with how God created me will either bring me closer to Him or seperate me from Him. That He created me for a purpose, He created me the way that I am, and that by following His Will He will use me to fufil His purpose. That the person He created is not sin, but that not following His will is.
So I would say, we see our spiritual side in the presence of the Holy Spirit, when we come before God and are willing to measure our hearts against His Will. Reading His Word, in prayer, in meditation and fellowship with His Spirit.
Now I would just add this. The evidence of spiritual growth is evident in the fruit of the Spirit. To see a person truely change from selfish to selfless can only come about through the Spirit. I believe this is a way for someone to also recognize their spiritual self. That the change is not a learned response to conditioning, but a true change of the heart, a redirection of who we choose to be. The fufilment of who we are created to be.
Thank you, Chris.
I can relate to what you are describing. It ties in with Rich’s point as well. In the Light of God’s Spirit the reality of our own spirit comes into focus.
How do we learn to “see” our spiritual self?
We are all born as spiritual beings confined to physical bodies.
However as Rich says, our spirits receive life as we receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit and accept Jesus Christ, our gift of life from God.
In the OT, the prophet Elisha, by faith, could see into the spiritual world and in prayer, by the power of God, his servant’s eyes were opened to see what he knew to be true. He saw the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding as God’s army surrounded the enemy who had surrounded them. 2 Kings 6:15
Gabriel said of John the Baptist….“He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.”
Luke 1:15
When Mary was carrying Jesus in her womb, she visited Elizabeth, and John leapt in his mother’s womb for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth was also filled with the Holy Spirit as she greeted Mary.
Luke 1:39-45,
By the power of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist, proclaimed Jesus Christ to be the lamb of God. John 1:29-34
Under the New Testament Covenant, the Holy Spirit is in all of God’s people and available, by His power to discern, what the unsaved cannot see. Believers have become’God’s chosen people, being transformed into His royal priesthood, holy nation, special possession, as we respond to being called out of the darkness to shine His light to the world around us.
1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 4:18, 5:17, Ephesians 2:10, 2:19, 1 John 3:1
As spiritual beings, we develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit and receive His gift of spiritual eyesight, discernment, with which, we can learn to see through our circumstances into ways we have never seen before. Spiritual eyesight gives an advantage to believers. The power to see in the heavenly realm what we refused to see as unbelievers, and we begin to separate ourselves from this world which contradicts all we learn to be true. We continue to see the world with our natural eyes, but with our spiritual eyes, we look at the Kingdom of God!
“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”
C.H. SPURGEON
Ron,
Great words! Thank you!
These words especially caught my eye: We discern “… what the unsaved cannot see,” because we have God’s Holy Spirit.
That is something to think about.
Sorry, I should have written, will not see!
John 16:8 tells us, al (which would include non-believers) are convicted by the Holy Spirit, of right, wrong, and coming judgement. All human beings are on a level playing field, all receive conviction and are given a choice to receive God’s call to righteousness, or reject His call.
Romans 1:26-32, Those who reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit are given over to a reprobate mind.
Romans 1:18-20, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.