Continually Experiencing Christ in His Inward Parts for the Church as the One New Man

We need to be those who are continually experiencing Christ in His inward parts for the church as the one new man.

We need to learn from the apostle Paul to remain in the inward parts of Christ, have a feeling for the Body, and live the church life with the consciousness of the new man by living in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.

In order for us to practice the church life in the consciousness of the one new man, we need to live in the inward parts of Christ Jesus, and we need to take Christ’s inward parts as our own.

This is something very deep and profound in our experience, and it doesn’t come at a small price; rather, to know Christ in His inward parts and allow Him to know our inward parts, thus making His inwards ours, requires intense suffering and is very precious.

What we see when we meet others is their behavior, their attitude, and their words; what is hidden as the source is the inward parts.

In Colossians we see the definition of the one new man (where Christ is all and in all) and a practical illustration of the new man being lived out with Paul and those with him, and the saints in Colossae and Laodicea.

Furthermore, in the book of Philemon, a very short book but so full of feeling and sweetness, we see the key to living the church life in the consciousness of the one new man: living in the inward parts of Christ Jesus and taking Christ’s inward parts as our own.

On the Lord’s side, when we spend time with Him personally and when we’re with the saints, He opens His heart to us; He shows us the desire of His heart, and He infuses something of what’s on His heart into our heart.

On our side, however, we need to open our inward parts to Him, allowing the Lord to make His home deep down in our heart, so that our inward parts would match His inward parts, and we would live in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.

When we touch the deep longing in the Lord’s heart concerning His house, the saints, the church, we will simply melt inside, and we will open our being to Him.

The Lord is now praying and ministering to us that we would open our inward parts to Him and allow Him to come in and know our secret thoughts, our tender feelings, our longings, and all our private parts; He wants us to come in and live there, so that we may be one with Him on the level of the inward feeling.

These inward parts signify the inward affection, tenderheartedness, and compassions. The Lord Jesus is the primary example of taking the Father as the source, goal, and everything, and having His inward parts fully for God’s purpose and will, and the apostle Paul as an imitator of Christ is our pattern.

The Pattern of Paul as one who Continually Experienced Christ in His Inward Parts

Paul was a person who continually experienced Christ in His inward parts.

First of all, when he was zealous for the religion of his fathers, he was breathing murder, seeking to imprison and even put to death those who believed into “the way”, the disciples of Jesus (see Acts 9:1).

But the Lord appeared to him, touched him, renewed him, and became so real and personal to him that Paul was one with Christ even in His inward parts – in His affection, tender mercy, and sympathy.

Paul didn’t keep his own inward parts but took Christ’s inward parts as his (Phil. 2:5). He took not only Christ’s mind but also His entire inward being as his. Therefore, Paul’s inner being was changed, rearranged, and remodelled, and his inward being was reconstituted with the inward parts of Christ.

The truthfulness of Christ was in him – what was in Christ as truth, honesty, faithfulness, and trustworthiness was also in Paul (2 Cor. 11:10).

Christ wrought Himself into Paul to such an extent that Paul was a genuine man, one who had the truthfulness of Christ as his inward parts.

Paul’s love for the saints was not his love but the love in Christ, which is Christ’s love; thus, Paul loved the saints not by his natural love but by the love of Christ (1 Cor. 16:24). He didn’t say, My love be with you all; he simply said, My love in Christ Jesus be with you all.

Paul experienced the inward parts of Christ – he was one with Christ in His inward parts in longing after the saints (Phil. 1:8). He didn’t live a life in his natural inner being; rather, he lived a life in the inward parts of Christ.

In his care for the church, Paul took the inward parts of Christ Jesus as his own inward parts, so that his living the church life would be with the Body of Christ and the one new man in view (Col. 3:10-11).

Paul was so one with the Lord that he remained in the inward parts of Christ; therefore, his care for the church was actually Christ’s care for the church, and Christ’s feeling for the church became Paul’s feeling for the church (see 2 Cor. 2:4; 4:12; 11:2; 12:14-15; Col. 1:24).

Paul enjoyed the grace of God; he was one with Christ’s inward parts, he lived Christ, and he longed after the saints in the inward parts of Christ (Phil. 1:8).

Even when he sent Onesimus back to Philemon, he didn’t merely ask Philemon (who was the master) to forgive his runaway slave and receive him back; rather, Paul said that Onesimus was his very heart, and he was sending him to Philemon as his own heart (Philem. 12).

Wow! What a pattern we see in Paul as one who continually experienced Christ in His inward parts!

Thank You Lord for opening Your heart to us and showing us the desire in Your heart concerning the church as the Body of Christ and the one new man. Lord, make the desire of Your heart become the desire of our heart. We open our heart to You – we open our inward parts to You, Lord, that You may come in and make Your home deep down in our heart. Make our heart a duplication of Your heart to match You and reflect You. May we continually experience You in Your inward parts for the church as the one new man!

Continually Experiencing Christ in His Inward Parts for the Church as the One New Man

We need to be those who, like Paul, are continually experiencing Christ in His inward parts for the church as the one new man.

We may understand that the one new man is a corporate entity created by Christ on the cross, that Christ is all and in all in the one new man, that the natural man has no place in the new man, and that the local churches are the one new man.

But how can we practically live the church life in the consciousness of the one new man? It is only by continually experiencing Christ in His inward parts for the church.

We need to not keep our inward parts but open to the Lord and take His inward parts as ours. We need to let His mind be in us (Phil. 2:5; 1 Pet. 4:1) and even have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).

We need to spend time with the Lord in His word and let Him work Himself into us to the point that He fills us and saturates us, and He changes, rearranges, and remodels our inward being.

As we allow the Lord to make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:16-17), He is re-arranging, re-modeling, and changing things in our being in a tender and delicate way, so that our inner being would correspond to His.

Our inward being needs to be reconstituted with the inward parts of Christ. What is in Christ as truth – He Himself is truth, reality, the real thing, the real in this universe – needs to also be in us; He is the real honesty, faithfulness, and trustworthiness, and He is working Himself into us to make us real and genuine.

We may still be superficial, easy going, but our inner being may be full of troubles, and when others speak with us and fellowship with us, our inward being will be manifested.

May the Lord with His seven eyes delight to find reality in our being (Psa. 51:6), so that we may seek to be approved and real before the Lord and not seek man approval.

Our love for the saints need to be the love of Christ, that is, Christ’s love; our love for the saints need to be not our natural love but the love of Christ. In our longing after the saints and in loving the saints, we need to be those experiencing Christ in His inward parts, remaining in the inward parts of Christ and living here.

If we would be those who are in Christ, we must be in His inward parts, in His tender and delicate feelings (John 15:4).

In caring for the saints, we need to take Christ’s feeling as our own feeling; this is most necessary for our living corporately in the one new man and practicing the church life in the consciousness of the one new man (Rom. 12:15).

Since we’re members of the Body, we should have a feeling for the Body; our feeling for the Body should actually the feeling of Christ for the Body, for we are those experiencing Christ in His inward parts for the church.

We should take the feeling of the Head for the Body, and we should do this in the principle of caring for the Body.

When one member suffers, all members suffer; when one member is glorified, all members rejoice; all members of the Body need to have the same care for one another (see 1 Cor. 12:25-26).

The only way this can happen is if we’re experiencing Christ in His inward parts for the church as the one new man.

Lord Jesus, we want to continually experience You in Your inward parts for the church as the one new man. May we have the consciousness of the one new man by living in the inward parts of Christ Jesus, thereby practicing a church life in the consciousness of the new man by living in the inward parts of Christ Jesus. Saturate us, Lord, fill us, and permeate us. Do in us, to us, and with us whatever You want for the one new man. We want to remain and live in the inward parts of Christ for the church as the one new man.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 3, “One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man,” chs. 7-8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Church Life (2017 Thanksgiving Conference), week 6, Practicing the Church Life in the Consciousness of the One New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  #Draw closer to the Lord and drink the river of supply, / With every choice and turn allowing Christ to occupy / Our heart in all its inward parts, as open as can be, / Maintaining our enjoyment of the Lord continually. (Song on, The Cross is Not a Suffering)
  # Behold, You delight in truth / In the inward parts; / And in the hidden part / You would make known wisdom to me. / Purge my sin with hyssop, and I’ll be clean. (Song on, From My Iniquity Wash Me Thoroughly)
  # Limit, Lord, my independence, / Let me to Thy Body turn; / Not just seeking light from heaven, / But the church’s sense to learn. (Hymns #1225)