CHRIST LIVING IN ME!

Richard Kirkland

(Romans 8:1-11)

Introduction:

What a wonderful difference it makes in our lives when Christ lives within us.  Jesus says to us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).  On another occasion “...Jesus answered and said ..., ‘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.’”  (John 14:23).

Paul says that before we become Christians “sin lives in us” (Romans 7:14) but after our conversion “Christ lives in us” (Romans 8:14), and though the body is dead because of sin the spirit is made alive because of his indwelling.

What an honor to wear the name of Christ, to be called a Christian and to know that Christ lives in us.  We glory in the name -- but do we really live worthy of it?  We really need to examine our lives!  Do we have divided heart?  We want Christ to live in us, but we want sin to have a place also.  We are not willing to give up sin in order to obtain Christ.  We are not moving sin out of our lives in order to make room for Christ.

Friends, we will not move forward in our spiritual lives or make much progress in our spiritual development with the approval of God until Christ really lives in us.  The church cannot grow, the lost cannot be saved, the church cannot be edified without the presence of Christ in our lives.  It is not enough to wear the name, we must also live the life.  So I pose to you the question to you, “Does Christ live in you?”

 

I .    CHRIST LIVES IN THE CHRISTIAN!

                    A.   “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Romans 8:9).

                    B.   “Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith.  Test yourselves.  Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?  -- unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

                    C.   “[A]s His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

D.   “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

E.    “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4)

  

II.        II.  HOW DOES CHRIST LIVE IN US?

A.   He dwells in our hearts by faith.  Faith is the means by which we perceive His indwelling.  If the Word did not tell us that He lives there, we would not know it.  But this doesn’t really help us to under how, that is, the mode, of His indwelling.

B.   Does He actually, personally dwell in us, or is His presence just a representative indwelling consisting of His influence through the Word?

1.   Brethren have held different views and had different understandings of how Christ indwells the Christian.

2.   I believe 1 John 3:24 helps us understand.  “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.  And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”  (Acts 5:32).

3.   The Scripture has much to say about the matter of the Spirit living in the Christian, but it doesn’t explain the matter sufficiently for us to be dogmatic or argumentative about how He lives there.

a.    I can’t see, taste, touch, smell or hear the Spirit.  I can’t gain knowledge of His presence through any of my physical senses.  But I know that the Spirit lives in me because the Bible tells me so.

                                            b.   The belief in the presence of the Spirit of Christ in my life (and body) is not sacrilege (as one described it). He said that if we had the Spirit of Christ personally, or really, living in us it would make us deity.  According to him, if we claim to personally have the Spirit of Christ we are guilty of sacrilege.  But this argument is easily enough exploded.  That is parallel to saying that if a squirrel personally lives in a true that somehow the tree has  been transformed in a squirrel!  How absurd! Christ, through the Spirit, could personally take up residence in our bodies as easily as a squirrel could take up residence in a tree.  And could just as easily leave when our bodies become an unsuitable place for Him to live!

C.  The Spirit of Christ can live in us without our being able to explain it, just like the human spirit lives in us and we can’t explain that either.  The Bible tells us that the body without the spirit is dead.  But I can=t look at a dead body or a living body and tell you anything about the manner by which the spirit lives within.  But I know whether the spirit is present or not.  So it is with Christ.

D.  Just as the leaves which blow provide ample evidence of the invisible wind, the character of our lives is the evidence by which we perceive the presence of Christ in our lives.

E.   People have often commented, “You have a lot of your father in you.” Yes, I think that’s right.  Just how did that happen?  Does that mean that his influence has been great in my life?  Yes.  But that’s not all.  There was something that took place at the very moment of my conception (I can’t provide the scientific explanation) where his genetic makeup was transferred to me.  He was not diminished in the least.  He remains whole -- yet he lives in me!  So it is with the Spirit of Christ.

 III.       WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE OF CHRIST LIVING IN US?

A.                  First, there is the evidence of our disciplined life.  “I am crucified . . . .”  (Gal.  2:20).

B.                  Secondly, we have become the savor (aroma) of Christ.   “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.  For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.  To the one we are the aroma of ‘death leading to death’, and to the other the aroma of ‘life leading to life’.  And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 3:14-16).

1.   The savor (aroma, smell, odor, fragrance).

2.   To some we are a stench.  A terrible odor -- like death.

3.    To others we are the sweetest smell on earth -- the fragrance of Christ.

C.  Thirdly, our lives have become a letter of commendation for Christ.  “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).

D.  Finally, we are a reflection of Christ.  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord?”  (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Conclusion:

1.  When does Christ come to live in us?  (1 John 3:24).

            2.   When we keep His commandments:

                    a.   He lives in us and the Holy Spirit lives in us.

b.      The Spirit lives in those who obey Him. (Acts 5:39)

c.       Those who obey Him are those who repent and are baptized. 

(Acts 2:38). “...you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”