«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…

　　4:19 My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.

　　God's purpose is not simply to forgive our sins, to justify us, and then to carry us away to heaven. His intention is to work Christ into us. Before the foundation of the world, He chose us in Christ and put a mark on us. Then, in time, He called us. When God called us, His desire was that we focus our attention not on forgiveness or justification, but on receiving His dear Son into us. As long as Christ is living in us, we shall have no problem with forgiveness, justification, salvation, or heaven. Only by having Christ in us can we become part of the Body of Christ. It is Christ alone who constitutes us a part of Himself. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 657)

　　Without Ephesians 3, Ephesians 2 would only be doctrine to us. It is a fact that Christ has abolished the ordinances in order to create the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man. But for this to be practical in our daily experience, we must allow Christ to make His home in our hearts (3:17). One way to tell whether or not you still have ordinances is to check whether or not Christ is making His home in your heart. Are you allowing Him to make His home in your heart? If we are honest, most of us would have to say that we do not give Him much opportunity to do this. The reason for this is that we do not care firstly for Christ, but for our own way.

　　Consider the experience of Peter in Acts 10. As he was praying on the housetop, he “beheld heaven opened, and a certain vessel like a great sheet descending, being let down by four corners onto the earth” (v. 11). In this sheet were “all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth and birds of heaven” (v. 12). Then a voice said to Peter, “Rise up, Peter; slay and eat!” (v. 13). However, Peter's response was, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean.” (v. 14). On this occasion, Peter did not take Christ as His person. Instead, Peter was his own person.

　　We should not think that we are more spiritual than Peter. Most of the time we also fail to take Christ as our person. When the Lord speaks something to us, we often respond, “Not so, Lord.” We may say, “Lord, I don't believe that You would ask me to do such a thing.” Our experience testifies that whenever we refuse to go along with the Lord, we lose His presence and His anointing. However, when we agree with the Lord, we enjoy His presence and experience the inner anointing in a fresh way. We may even be beside ourselves with joy in the Lord.

　　Many married sisters are reluctant to read Ephesians 5 because it speaks about wives submitting to their own husbands. When they read this chapter, they are exposed and realize that they are not submissive. Some may blame their husband or environment for their lack of submission. They may even blame the Lord and tell Him that if He had given them a different husband, they would surely be submissive to him. Sisters, do not try to submit to your husband but let Christ make His home in your heart. If you take Him as your person and allow Him to make His home in your heart, you will surely submit to your husband. We need to forget about everything religious and simply take Christ as our person. If we do this, we shall have the growth spoken of in chapter 4, and we shall put on the new man. This is the proper church life. God does not want us to try in a religious way to submit to our husbands or to love our wives. His concern is that we take Christ as our person and set aside all ordinances. God wants a people in whose heart Christ is making His home. This is our need in the church life today. The Lord's recovery is not simply a matter of following the teaching of the Bible… [but] a matter of Christ living and making His home in our hearts, so that in all things we may grow up into Him as the Head….Our unique need today is to take Christ as our person for the church life. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 657-659)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 32, 78