«　WEEK 5　DAY 2　»

　　Phil. 1:8 For God is my witness how I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.

　　Eph. 4:16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

　　Whenever a person moves into a new house, it takes him a while to become settled in that house. His getting settled is his making his home in the house. This is what Paul means by Christ making His home in our hearts. Christ wants to become settled in every part of our heart. Paul realized that the believers in Ephesus had Christ in them but that they did not have Christ making His home, getting Himself settled, in every part of their heart. This is why Paul prayed such a prayer. Our emotion, mind, will, and conscience must be touched by Christ and gained by Christ. The indwelling, occupying Christ needs to take over our emotion, our mind, our will, and our conscience until He gets Himself fully settled in all the inner rooms of our inner being. This is carried out in a coordinated way by the Divine Trinity. The three coordinate together in a beautiful way so that Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, can become fully settled in our inner being. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, "Living in and with the Divine Trinity," pp. 321-322)

　　[The] overflow [of a cup filled up with water] is the fullness, and the fullness is the very expression of what is contained within the cup. When we experience Christ in such a deep way, this will issue in the fullness of the Triune God. This fullness is the church, the Body of Christ, as the very expression of the Triune God. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, "Living in and with the Divine Trinity," p. 322)

　　[In Philippians 1:8 inward parts means] "bowels"; signifying inward affection, then, tender mercy and sympathy. In longing after the saints, the apostle was one with Christ even in the bowels, the tender inward parts, of Christ. This indicates that for Paul to enjoy Christ meant that he was one with Christ's inward parts, in which he enjoyed Christ as the supply of grace. (Phil. 1:8, footnote 1)

　　As a man, Christ had the human inward parts with their various functions. Christ's experience in His inward parts is His experience in His mind, emotion, will, soul, heart, and spirit, including His love, desire, feeling, thought, decision, motive, and intention.

　　A number of verses reveal Christ's experience in His inward parts. According to Luke 2:49, when the Lord Jesus was twelve He said, "Did you not know that I must be in the things of My Father?" This can also be translated, "I must mind My Father's business."...His mind was occupied with the Father's business. Here we have the function of the Lord's mind, and we see how much He was inwardly for the Father. John 2:17 speaks of the Lord's zeal....Zeal is a matter of the emotion. The zeal within the Lord Jesus was on fire, was burning, for God's temple. Here we see the exercise of the Lord's emotion. In Matthew 26:39 the Lord Jesus prayed, "Yet not as I will, but as You will." This was His prayer in Gethsemane when He was about to be arrested and brought to the slaughter. He took the Father's will, for His own will was subdued to the Father's will. This was a matter of the function of the Lord's will.

　　Isaiah 53:12 prophesied concerning the Lord Jesus in His death on the cross: "He poured out His life unto death." The Lord Jesus lost His soul-life, voluntarily pouring out His soul unto death. This, of course, was a function of His soul. Isaiah 42:4 says, "He will not faint, nor will He be discouraged." This speaks about the condition of the Lord's heart. He was never disheartened; He was never discouraged in heart.

　　Mark 2:8 says, "Jesus, knowing fully in His spirit." The Lord Jesus used His spirit, and He knew things in His spirit. In whatever situation He was, He knew that situation by exercising His spirit. He used His spirit for God and for making Himself a burnt offering. (Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 68-69)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 7, 9