'Christ in us is the Way.'
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His body and blood in us are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is His body and blood that will draw us to the "carcass" that will appear at the end of the age, distinguishing between us and the person who is working with us in the field or grinding with us at the mill.
Christ stands at the door of our heart, and knocks. Sometimes He knocks so powerfully that our environment rocks under the blows. When He gains our attention, He speaks. It is a quiet voice.
If we are too busy with our idols we cannot hear His voice. Blessed is the individual who has ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the churches.
As soon as we hear the voice of Christ we have a decision to make. For some believers it can be a very difficult decision.
The Day of the Lord is drawing near. As a result, multitudes of the Lord’s people are being forced into the valley of decision.
What is the decision we must make when we hear that Voice?
The decision is: Will I use Christ to show me the way and tell me the truth, and then maintain my own way before Him? Or will I give up my own life and enter the eternal flowing of His Life?
When we first hear of becoming one with Christ we are told that if we will abide in Him He will answer our prayers. Isn’t that immature and self-centered? Imagine. The Lord God of Heaven proposes marriage to us, and all we can think of is that I will get my prayers answered.
How childish and self-centered we are!
Later we begin to understand that God is asking us to surrender our idols to Him. It is at this point that we are brought to the core of the decision: Will I seek to save my life? Or will I agree to lose my life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s?
The gifted minister is asked if he is willing to become a nobody. The strong in body is asked if he is willing to minister while he is afflicted. The beautiful woman is asked if she will serve God in disfigurement. The young man is asked if he will turn away from the desire of his heart.
Abraham is asked if he will offer his son as a burnt offering.
Peter is asked if he loves Jesus more than he does fish.
How much do we love Christ? Enough to give Him cheerfully and gladly all that He asks for? If not, we have an idol. We can bring no idol into the Temple of God.
No individual ever will be forced to become a part of the Temple of God, the Wife of the Lamb. Christ’s love toward us is intense, single-minded, self-sacrificing. We are invited to return that kind of love to Him. If we do not, He will not accept us in this supreme relationship. We will come short of His highest purpose concerning us.
Christ’s name is Jealous . He is asking for our love.
Christ never will open the door of our heart and enter us. We must open the door. We can open the door of our life and rejoice as He becomes our Salvation; or we can keep Him outside and attempt to learn from His words and to work for Him in our own way, hoping that we will be rewarded for what we accomplish in His name.
If we choose to open the door, Christ enters us. He dines with us, and we with Him, on His own body and blood—the blood of the new covenant. We partake with Him of the abundant Life of the Father. We take His yoke on us and learn of Him. He brings us into the knowledge of the Father; and the knowledge of the Father is eternal life.
Christ becomes the Way to the Father by transforming us from within, by giving us to eat of His body and to drink of His blood.
When first we become a Christian we strive to do what the Scriptures command. This we are required to do.
As we keep the Word, something begins to take place in us. Christ, the Day Star, begins to arise in us. The power to abide in God, the desire and ability to please God, increase in us.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy [the Scriptures]; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (II Peter 1:19)
The new covenant is not the writings of the Apostles, as inspired and supremely valuable as those writings are. The new covenant is the creation and dwelling of Christ in us. This is our hope of glory. But in order to enter the new covenant we must keep the commandments of the Apostles as the Holy Spirit enables us.
Christ Himself Is the Truth from God. Truth is not a statement of theology nor is it a collection of facts. The Truth is a Person. The Scriptures themselves point us to the Truth; they bear witness of the Truth.
The priests and Pharisees believed that they possessed truth in the Law and the Prophets. They trusted in them for eternal life.
Christ confronted them. "Search the Scriptures," He said, "because you hope to obtain eternal life from them. But the Scriptures point to Me, they bear witness of Me. Why will you not come to Me and receive life?"
There is no eternal life in the Scriptures. The purpose of the Scriptures is to bring us to eternal Life, who is Christ.
How many today are confused on this point? They believe that Christ, because He is the Word of God, is synonymous with the Scriptures. Christ is not synonymous with the Scriptures. It is possible to know the Scriptures and yet be empty of eternal life; in fact, to murder eternal life everywhere He appears.
The Pharisees loved the Scriptures. They doted on the Scriptures. Not that they understood the Scriptures because no person can understand the Scriptures until Christ breaks the bread of life to him. If the Scriptures equaled Christ, the Pharisees would have loved and doted on Christ. They demonstrated that it is possible to love the Scriptures and at the same time to hate Christ, who is the Word of God.
The nations of the world are stumbling through the valley of the shadow of death. They are stumbling because there is no light in them. The only true light is the Life of Christ. He is the Truth from God. He alone lights every man who is born into the world.
In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. No system of education can be effective until it is based on the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth does not exist apart from Christ.
Christ Himself is the Way to the Father. Christ Himself is the Truth concerning the Father. Christ Himself is the Life from the Father. Christ is able to give life to us, but it is far better when He Himself becomes the Life in us. This is abundant life. This is the fountain of life that never runs dry. This is the spiritual fulfillment of the Levitical feast of Tabernacles.
Sin always results in death. The individual who is committing sin is the servant of sin, the slave of sin, and is abiding in death. He is walking in darkness, blinded by the God of the world—the devil.
Righteousness and holiness result in eternal life.
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)
The Truth that Is Christ sets us free from the devil and his works. The Truth sets us free in the inner man. Then Divine Life flows into us and the end is eternal life. Eternal life is the energy, the joy, the peace, the creative power that come from the only true God and Christ whom He has sent.
He who is sinning is abiding in death. Christ is the Gift of God to us, the Gift of eternal life.
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10)
Christ is Zion—the "hill" in which the God of Heaven abides forever. Christ is not the Father, He is the Temple of the Father. The holy words that Christ spoke, which are recorded in the four Gospel accounts, came from the mouth of the Father, the God of Heaven.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.
The mighty works that Christ did were not performed by Him, according to His statements. They were performed by God who dwells in Christ in His Divine Fullness.
Christ, the living Word of the Father, was broken on the cross. Since then He has been sown in the hearts of those who have received Him and who have desired fervently to live by His Life.
Christ is the House of the Father and we are the many rooms of that House.
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