I love this verse in Galatians 2:20, which says,
I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who lives, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Just like yesterday’s portion of enjoyment about the all-inclusive Christ replacing everything with Himself, in this verse we see that God fired us and He replaced us with Christ! But this replacement is not a putting us aside and totally anihilating us – no, it is terminating us on the cross and then replacing us with Christ(who has become our life).
On the one hand, yes, we need to see that we need to enjoy God and drink Him as our salvation, but on the other hand, we need to see that we have been fired by God and replaced by Christ.
Just as in the book of Isaiah where we see that God fires both the nations and the people of Israel, and He fires even the steward in the king’s house and all the vessels in the temple of God – God fires everything that is not Christ!
And then He comes in as Immanuel to replace all these things/persons with Himself! In God’s economy and in God’s eyes there is only Christ: Christ has to replace everyone with Himself! Christ is The One! Eventually in the whole universe everything that is not Christ is fired by God!
Actually we as human beings were created by God in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26), and our purpose in being here on earth is to receive God, contain God, be filled with God, and express God in a corporate way – together with the other people/saints God put us with.
So it’s just like in the illustration of a glove: a glove is designed in the form and shape and image of a hand, and as nice as a glove can look, it is meaningless unless the hand fills the glove. You may use the glove for so many other things than for what it is designed for!
But the only use for a glove, the only thing that gives the glove sense and meaning is the hand that fills it. And as the hand fills the glove, it can use the glove for the hand’s purpose – the glove becomes useful! The glove becomes meaningful, it expresses what the hand does / wants to do.
We were created to be filled with God and express Him – when we receive God, enjoy God, and express God, we are filled with meaning and we fulfill the purpose of our life! Yes, Christ “replaces us”, just like the hand replaces any desire or expression of the glove, but the way He does it is organically.
How does Christ replace us? No, God does not come from the heavens to strike us down, neither are we being put physically on the cross so that we would be terminated. We see that throughout the Bible, especially after man’s fall, although God wants to give Himself to man, man tried to replace God with other things or people.
Man wants to put God aside, reject God, expel God. But God’s desire is to be everything to man, to come into man, and organically be constituted into man! The way God replaces us is by coming into us and becoming our life!
Just as we “don’t mind but really enjoy” the food that comes into us – though we know that this food becomes us and replaces us, so when Christ as the all-inclusive wonderful One comes into us, we are being constituted with Him and replaced with Him!
The only one who does not want this to happen is Satan, who has gotten into us – sneakingly, he deceived us and he still deceives us, taking hold of many areas of our life and being.
Satan in us, mingled with our self and living in our flesh, does not want Christ to be everything to us, and he does not want us to “die to ourselves and live to God”.
This evil corrupted and corrupting one needs to be exposed, put to death, and terminated! When we see a revelation of the wonderful Person of Christ, His death and resurrection, we will be just saying,
“Amen, Lord! Amen to Christ! Amen to the death of Christ! Amen to the resurrection of Christ! Amen to my termination! Because I have been terminated, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me! Christ is the entire replacement in this universe and in my personal universe also! God does not want Moses, God does not want Elijah, and God does not want me in what I am. I just say amen to the fact that God wants only Christ!”
Amen, Lord, we just want You! Work Yourself more into us and replace us organically with Yourself! Grow in us, Lord! Thank You for “firing us”, and “replacing us” with Christ! Gain what You are after in us more today! [enjoyment from the life-study of Mark and the life-study of Isaiah, as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crystallization-study of Isaiah (1)]
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