The Gospel According to Paul # 11

In His Letter to the Galatians

The Power of Christ Within

Now Christ is  an actual, living Person: not an abstract idea, an historical figure, but an actual, living Person. "Christ liveth in me." I do not wear a crucifix of a dead Christ on the outside. I have a living Christ within, the good news of a living Christ inside. You can read that, or hear it said, and you can nod your head and say, "Yes, Amen": you agree with that! But I have known people to hear that for years, and agree with it as heartily as you do - and then one day to wake up to it. "You know, after all I have heard about that, I have only just come to realize that it is true that Christ really lives in me!" It is something more than the doctrine of Christ within - it is the experience.

Paul focuses his whole history as a Christian and as a servant of God upon that one thing. 'God has shined in my heart' (2 Corinthians 4:6). "It pleased God, Who separated me from my birth, to reveal His Son in me" (Galatians 1:15, 16). "The gospel which I preached  was not of man," "but ... through revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:11, 12). How did it come? Not only objectively and outwardly, but inwardly. "God has shined within." "Christ liveth in me." The most startling thing that ever happened to a man in the course of human history was that which happened to Saul of Tarsus on that noonday when he realized that Jesus of Nazareth, Who he thought was done with, dead and buried, was alive, alive, actually alive. Remember how very alive He was. And Paul says: "That One liveth - and not only in the glory - He liveth in me, IN ME!" A living Person, a living actual power within, yes, a real power inside, is Christ.

The Intelligence of Christ Within

Furthermore, He is a real Intelligence, Who possesses the full knowledge of all that God wants, and, possessing that, dwelling within me, is the repository and vehicle of God's full will for my life. Full intelligence by Christ within! All the knowledge that Christ possesses is within, and if that is true, if Christ is within - the Apostle, of course, is speaking here not only about Christ within, but much about the Holy Spirit, to which we will come presently - if the indwelling Christ has His way, then that which He is becomes actual in the life of the child of God: the fact that He is a living Person, the fact that He is a mighty power, the fact that He is a full, Divine Intelligence.

Christ Within: The Knowledge of the Will of God

We would like to have all understanding in our mind, all knowledge and intelligence in our reason. We have not got it, but we have another kind of intelligence. The true child of God has another kind of intelligence, altogether different from that which is of the reason. We do not know how to explain and interpret it, but somehow we know. We can only say, "We know." We know what the Lord does not want where we are concerned. We find it impossible to be comfortable along any line that the Lord does not want, and we come to that position so often. We put it in different ways, but we have to say, "I know the Lord does not want me to do that, to go that way; it is as deep in me as anything. To do it would be to violate something that relates to my very life with God."

That is on the negative side. And on the positive, if the Lord really wants something, we know it; in spite of everything, we know it. If only we will wait for that, it will be so sure. The trouble is that we cannot wait for the Lord; we get into such tangles over these problems of guidance. But when the Lord's time comes, there is no question about it at all: we know. How do we know? It is spiritual knowledge, it is spiritual intelligence. It is Christ dwelling within, in possession of all the mind of God.

Now, here are these poor Galatian Christians, torn between the Judaizers and Paul. They do not know what to make of this. These, on the one side, are so strong about their line of things; and on the other hand, here is Paul, saying that they are all wrong! What are they to do? The answer comes: "If Christ is in you, you will know - you will know what you ought to do". And that is the only real way of knowing what you ought to do - what is right, and what is wrong: Christ in you. But you will know!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 12 - "Christ Within: The Power of Endurance")