Christ Within

From A. Paget Wilkes' book The Dynamic of Life:

Christ Revealed Within

"But when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." -- GAL. i. 15, 16.

"When after he had met the Lord on the Damascus road it was further made known to the Apostle that God would give him an inward revelation of His Son, he tells us he did not go up to Jerusalem to learn from the apostles of Christ's earthly life, His miracles and teaching, the details of His death, resurrection and ascension, as a preparation for, or as a means to the promised revelation; but he went into the solitude of the Arabian deserts, there to wait on God the Holy Ghost. It was there that he received: it was there that he saw and heard and found. It was there that Christ was revealed within; and it was a revelation with a purpose. That he might be a winner of souls, that he might preach Christ among the heathen, that he might travail in birth for the salvation of men, these were the purposes of God for His servant. From that hour Christ became all in all to the Apostle. Henceforth his one and only theme was Christ and Him crucified. The promise of the Lord was fulfilled, 'Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.'

"Truly St. Paul was strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man that Christ, the real Christ, not a poetical, theological, social, ideal Christ, but the saving, sanctifying, satisfying, suffering Christ might dwell evermore in his heart by faith. Christ was REVEALED within him. Like Sarah, he received strength that he might conceive seed, even the seed of a mighty mountain-moving faith.

Christ Formed Within

"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." -- GAL. iv. 19.

"If a Christ revealed within makes Him all in all to the one who receives the revelation, Christ formed within surely makes Him real to others, who know us and who live and walk with us day by day. His form becomes visible to men through us. What that gracious form is like we are told by the same Apostle. In writing to the Philippian converts, he tells them that Christ, 'took upon Himself the FORM of a servant,' and so was obedient unto death. Humility and obedience were its features. And again we note that all was for a purpose, the purpose of saving a lost world and sanctifying a carnal Church. It is very commonly misrepresented that, the only need for humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God is our sinfulness: undoubtedly both our sins and our sinfulness are reasons enough for so doing. But it is a most egregious error to suppose that there is none other. There was no sin in the Sinless One, and yet the outstanding feature of the Saviour's life was His humility. 'I am meek and lowly in heart,' He cried. That was the only feature of His own moral beauty to which He ever called attention. For what purpose then did He Who 'was without sin' humble Himself? Was it not that He might save? Did He not stoop to conquer? Did He not take His place with the meanest and lowliest among the sons of men that He might make them sons of God and joint heirs with Himself?

"Such is the need with us; we cannot save others unless and until such a Christ as this be formed within. It is through Him and only through Him that the promise holds, 'Come ye after Me and I will make you to become fishers of men.' That 'coming after' is but another name and word for following in the steps of that Great Servant of humanity, the Son of God; it is another representation of the same truth, Christ the meek and lowly One being formed within the soul.

Christ Living Within

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now life [sic] in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me , and gave Himself for me." -- GAL. ii. 20.

"The word in our text translated 'liveth' is entirely different from the word 'dwell' employed in the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where Christ is spoken as 'dwelling in the heart by faith.' The Apostle has no intention of conveying any such idea in the Galatian passage. The word 'life' is the same as that contained in our word Zoology. Its meaning is rather that Christ within is the source and principle of spiritual life, the great dynamic of the soul. He further defines the secret of that life, as 'the faith of Christ,' implying that Christ within the soul reproduces in us His faith. The very faith that He exercised when He walked on earth, is now seen and reproduced in us. On one occasion the Lord Himself used that remarkable phrase, 'Have the faith of God' . . ., connoting far more than the usual phrase, 'Faith in God.' In the original language of the New Testament there are several different ways of expressing 'faith in God.' The one that Christ employed on this particular occasion differs from them all, 'Have the faith of God.' This surely must connote the very faith which God the Father had in His beloved Son, when He sent Him forth on His divine mission, that faith which the Father had in the Holy Ghost, when He sent Him forth on the day of Pentecost, that same faith which the Father had in His own Word, when He said, 'Let there be light and there was light.' Oh! to be filled with such a faith as this.

"Of this faith Christ is the author. Living within the soul He alone can create and reproduce it in us His people. An indwelling Christ then is not only the source of light and illumination wherein and whereby He Himself is revealed to our consciousness: not only is He the Fountain-head of all lowliness of soul and humble service; but He is also the source of that living faith, whereby we walk with God, and live a life well-pleasing unto Him."