[November 5th, 1865.]
The names and titles of Christ are used, 1. Sometimes for his office. 2. For his whole theanthropic person. 3. For his humanity. 4. For his divinity or the Logos. The sense in which any designation is to be taken depends upon the context and analogy of Scripture.
I. What is meant by Christ? It is,
- Not here an official designation. 2. Not his humanity. 3. Not his theanthropic person, as the realistic mystics teach. 4. But the Logos, the second person of the Trinity. But the Scriptures say that God dwells where the Spirit of God is. So as the Holy Ghost bears the same relation to the Son as to the Father, and is therefore called the Spirit of the Son, or of Christ, to say that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us and that Christ dwells in us, means the same thing. God and the Son come and abide with the people of Christ, and make their abode with them.
II. What is meant by dwelling in us?
- As God is everywhere, he is said to dwell where he specially and permanently manifests his presence. It is thus distinguished from the general manifestation which he makes of himself in all his works and at all times; and from more transient exhibitions as at Sinai, in the plain of Mamre, and elsewhere.
This dwelling includes 1. Such a manifestation as leads to a sense of his presence; a feeling that he is near, which fills the soul with awe, reverence, peace and confidence. 2. A manifestation of his power. As his presence in nature is revealed by his efficiency, so his presence in the soul is evinced by his control over its thoughts, feelings and purposes. 3. Although the presence of the Father assumes the presence of the Son and Spirit, and the Father and Son are present in the Spirit, yet there is a difference between God dwelling in us and Christ dwelling in us. As we are conscious of standing in different relations to the several persons of the Trinity, so the indwelling of the one is distinguishable from that of the others. When Christ is said to dwell in us, it is God in the person of his Son, God in the peculiar relation which the Son bears to us, who is in us. It is the sense of the presence of Christ as our Redeemer, who loved us and gave himself for us, who is near us. And the effects produced in us are not merely those states of mind which have God for their object, but of which Christ, or God in Christ, is the object. 2. The control or efficiency exerted, is that exercised by Christ as our Prophet, Priest and King, not only out of us and in our behalf, but within us.
III. He dwells in our heart, i.e., the soul; not in the body as a temple, although that is true; not merely in the understanding, although that is true also; but in the whole soul, and especially in the heart as considered the seat of the affections, and of the life.
IV. He dwells in us by faith. This teaches, 1. That where faith is not, Christ is not. 2. That the state of mind expressed by faith is the essential condition of this indwelling of Christ. We must (a.) Believe the record which God has given of his Son, both as to his person and his work. (b.) We must appropriate, or receive him as our God, our Saviour and Redeemer. (c.) We must constantly exercise towards him the love, reverence, confidence and devotion which are the fruits and manifestations of faith. It is to faith as to the eye of the soul, that he reveals himself; and it is through faith that he exerts that constant influence over us, which is intended and expressed by his dwelling in us.
- We should reverence ourselves. The temple of God was holy. It could not be profaned with impunity. If we are the temple of Christ we should keep our hearts pure from all defilement of error, suspicion, or sin. 2. We should reverence our fellow Christians, from the highest to the lowest, as we reverence the temple of God. We should dread polluting their minds by error or evil. God will destroy those who defile his temple.
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