Christ in the Soul

"Yet not I, but Christ lives in me." "O," he would say, "look not at Paul; take not your measure of him as if he were able to do these things in his own strength. Look not at him, but at Christ; in him Paul lives, it is true; but not in his own life, but in Christ's. He fights against sin and self; not however in his own strength, but in Christ's. He stands righteous before God. Not however in his own righteousness, but Christ's. He has both will and action; yet neither is his own, but Christ's; for Christ works in him both to will and to do his good pleasure." This made the apostle say "Not I." It could not be his natural "I," for that was crucified; and he even disclaims any part of the work as done by his spiritual "I;" for though that lived, yet, it only lived by Christ living in it.

But how it may be asked, does Christ live in a believer's soul? By his Spirit and grace; by being formed in his heart, the hope of glory; by blessing the soul with his presence and power; by communicating and shedding abroad his love. Thus, it is not the believer, but the Spirit of Christ in him, by which he lives unto God. Do you not find this true in your daily experience? If we pray with any life or feeling in our soul, with any access to a throne of grace, or obtain any answer; it is not we that pray– it is the Spirit of God praying in us. If I preach anything that may instruct, comfort, or edify your soul, or write anything that may be blessed to build up the Church of God on our most holy faith; it is not I, but the Spirit of God that speaks in me, and guides my pen. How else could I, or any other man, be made a blessing to the church of God? It is not my abilities or learning, but the dew and unction of the blessed Spirit resting upon me, which glorifies God or edifies the church.

Or take me as a private Christian. If I repent of my sins, it is not I who repents, but the Spirit of God giving me repentance. If I believe in the Lord of life and glory, it is not I who believes, but the Lord giving me faith by his holy Spirit. If I watch, he must watch in me; if I live to his praise, he must live in me; if I act for his honor, he must act in me; if I enjoy his presence, it is he who must communicate a sense of that presence to my heart. So it is not I, but Christ himself who lives in me. O blessed guest! O gracious inhabitant!

Who that fears God would not have such a blessed inhabitant ever to dwell in his bosom? And who that has had him once does not long again and again for his sweet presence, and to experience renewed and repeated manifestations of his love? It is true that those are rare seasons; but the Lord never leaves the heart into which he has ever come. If you have not the felt presence, you are longing for it; and these longings, breathings, and desires manifest more or less of his power and presence. You will also find from time to time how secretly and yet how blessedly the Lord will come into the soul. He will come sometimes in a word of promise; sometimes in a look of love; sometimes in a sweet smile; sometimes in a soft whisper; sometimes in a heavenly touch. How he will melt at one time your heart into sorrow for sin; how he will at another time encourage you with a word when much cast down; how he will shine upon your soul when it walks in thick darkness; how he will renew your life that seems almost gone, and revive your spirit. And as you will thus find your dependence upon him for every spiritual breath and for every gracious desire, you will learn that it is not you who lives, but Christ who lives in you.

 But to come to our last point, The nature of this life"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God." It is a life still "in the flesh," with all the infirmities, with all the frailties, all the sins, and all the sorrows of a body of sin and death; a life in the flesh and therefore surrounded with everything that belongs to the flesh. And yet though a life in the flesh, not a life of the flesh, but a spiritual life in a body of sin and death. Christ in the heart the hope of glory; and yet the heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. What a mystery of grace is this! That so holy a guest should take up his abode in the breast of a polluted sinner, and yet not partake of the sinner's pollution; should work in him by his Spirit and grace, and yet keep himself free from all the sinner's filth and folly.

The great blessedness of a believer here below is that he lives a life of faith in the Son of God. But how can he do this unless he has had a believing view of the Son of God as having loved him, and given himself for him, as having risen from the dead, and to be now ever living at God's right hand to make intercession for him? It is, then, as he is pleased to send his Spirit down into his heart to testify of his grace, and to draw up faith, and hope, and love, and every sweet affection to center in himself that he lives a life of faith upon him. "Because I live," says the Lord, "you shall live also;" and we live because he is "the resurrection and the life." Thus as Jesus lives at God's right hand, he lives also in the believer's soul; and as he sends his Spirit down into the believer's heart, and draws his faith and hope and love to himself, he enables him to live a life of faith upon him as the Son of God.

Viewing the Son of God at the right hand of the Father, he looks to him for the supply of all his needs. He sees him at one time a kind God in providence; he views him at another as a most blessed and suitable Savior in grace; he looks sometimes to his atoning blood as cleansing from all sin; to his glorious righteousness as his only justifying robe; and to his heavenly love as the sweetest balm that God can shed abroad in his heart. He desires from time to time to have fellowship and communion with the Son of God; to be conformed to his suffering image here below, that he may be conformed to his glorified image above. It is in this way he comes up out of the wilderness, leaning upon Christ as his beloved. By his super-abounding grace he is recovered and restored from his innumerable slips and falls and backslidings; by his gracious renewings, his youth is renewed like the eagle's; and thus day by day, as the blessed Spirit works in his soul both to will and to do of his good pleasure, he lives by the faith of the Son of God. And as all this can only be done by the power of faith, by faith he lives, by faith he acts; by faith he walks; faith being the grand moving principle of every action of his soul, and the uniting chain that links his soul to the Son of God upon his heavenly throne. Thus living a life of faith upon the Son of God, he receives out of this fullness grace for grace; and by God's help and strength eventually dies in him, and rising up to the glorious mansions of light, lives with him to all eternity!

Now this is a feeble sketch of the life of a Christian; what we must know something of in our own souls, before we can really believe ourselves to be saints of the living God, by the testimony of the Spirit in our breast. We have to confess that we come painfully short in many of these things; and yet we have every reason to praise the Lord if he has put any measure of this experience into our breasts, for where he has begun that good work he will surely perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.