As the Lord Jesus did, we need to Take Christ as our Person and Live because of Him

Looking at the pattern of the Lord Jesus, we need to take Christ as our person and live because of Him, even as He lived because of the Father by taking the Father as His person.

We need to take Christ as our person – this is the highest and richest experience of Christ; even as the Lord Jesus lived because of the Father by taking the Father as His person, so also we should live because of the Lord by taking Him as our person day by day. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, Taking Christ as Our Person for the Church as the One New Man.

We need to be brought back to Christ, to the all-inclusive Christ as our everything, for the genuine church life.

Only the Lord knows how much we have been distracted, for He knows how many substitutes we have for Christ.

Many things other than Christ Himself have come in during these past years, and the Lord wants us to simply come back to Himself to enjoy Him as the all-inclusive One for the genuine church life.

We may be familiar with the matter of taking Christ as our person for the church as the one new man, and this topic may sound both familiar and simple to all of us.

But we need to touch the reality of what this means.

What does it mean for Christ to be our person? How can we experience Christ as our person? How can we take Christ as our person for the church as the one new man?

May the Lord shine on us and have mercy on us so that we may take Him as our person day by day, in all things, for the church as the one new man.

All believers in Christ know Christ as their Savior, the One who died for their sins, shed His blood for them, and gave them eternal life.

The more seeking believers know Christ not only as their Savior but also as their life and life supply; they know Him as the One who lives in them.

But even fewer believers truly know Christ not only as their life but also as their person.

We need to go deeper and further with the Lord day by day so that we may take Him not only as our Savior and as our life but even more, as our person.

In the Bible, there are three layers of the divine revelation.

First, there’s the layer of the gospel and the salvation of God.

Second, there’s the layer of the blessing and prosperity of God.

Third, there’s the layer of the economy and dispensing of God.

As believers in Christ, we heard the gospel and have received God’s salvation, for we were convicted by the Lord concerning our fallen condition.

Then, after being saved through the gospel and enjoying God’s salvation, we enjoy and begin to participate in God’s blessing.

Our God is a blessing God, and He wants to bless us, His people. His blessing is not primarily physical nor is it merely outward prosperity; it is God Himself as our blessing.

But we need to go further and see a vision of God’s economy and His dispensing, and we need to remain under the divine dispensing day by day so that we can participate in God’s economy for the fulfilment of His heart’s desire.

In His economy, God wants to not only do things for us around us but to come into us, to be in us; now Christ lives in us, for His presence is with us, and He gives us blessing, comfort, and peace.

But there’s a deeper level to this: He is not only our peace and joy but even more, our very life and life supply.

He enables us to go through suffering and is everything to us. And even further, He is our person; His personality is becoming our personality, and we take Him as our person.

This is what we want to see today and this is what we want to experience.

God’s Intention in His Economy is to Work Himself into us not only as our Life but also as our Person

The highest and richest experience of Christ is taking Christ as our person (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17).

We have all experienced Christ to a certain extent, but how about experiencing Him as our person?

Gal. 2:20 is a crucial verse that shows us how Paul took Christ as his person.

He testified that it was no longer him who lived but it was Christ who lived in him.

Yet he lived, and the life he lived was by faith, the faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself up for him.

This is what the Christian life is about; this is the God-man life.

The entire economy of God is this: the old man is no more, for he is crucified and terminated, but now there’s a new man who lives in a resurrected way.

Christ lives in us not as some kind of “power” or “feeling” but as a person.

He lives in us; it is not just the life of Christ in us but Christ Himself, the person, who lives in us.

Eph. 3:17 also shows us that Christ, the person, wants to make His home in our heart.

God’s intention in His economy is to work Himself into us not only as our life but also as our person (Gal. 4:19).

God wants to work Himself into us; what does this mean and how can we experience this? How does God work Himself into us?

Is He working Himself into us just as some kind of life, a kind of feeling, or something like a supply?

No, the way Christ works Himself into us, according to His intention in His economy, is as a person; His intrinsic being is being worked into us.

He is not only dispensing something of His love or power into us but Himself, His person and personality.

Gal. 4:19 reveals that Paul travailed again in birth pangs until Christ as a person is formed in the believers.

Just as a baby is being formed as a person in the womb of her mother, going through the process of growth and development until a little man is born, so Christ is being formed in us.

What we have in us is not just Christ as our life but even more, Christ as a person.

Christ desires to be formed in us as a total person; He is not only after His life growing in us or His supply being dispensed into us but Him as a person to be formed in us.

In Gal. 1:16 Paul said that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him.

We get saved not merely by listening to the gospel and finding the way of the truth; we are saved by having the revelation of the Son of God in us. A person is revealed in us.

Becoming a Christian is not merely having a change in concept, accepting a new religion and a new set of rules, or being converted to Christianity.

Becoming a Christian is receiving a person, the person of the Son of God, into us; now He lives in us, and we take Him as our life and person.

God’s intention is not only that Christ would be our life so that we live by Him but even more, that Christ would be our person so that we live because of Him.

As believers in Christ, we did not only take the way of truth and live in the way of life; even more, we take Christ as our person and live because of Him.

He as a person is revealed in us, and we receive Him as a person in our spirit.

He as a person wants to spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion and will, and He wants to be our very person.

Lord Jesus, cause us to see that God’s intention in His economy is to work Himself into us not only as our life but also as our person! Thank You, dear Lord, for coming into us not only as our life, our peace, our joy, and our rest, but also as our person! We take You as our person today. We want to enter into the highest and richest experience of Christ. May Christ be revealed in us a little more today. May Christ make His home in our heart a little more today. May Christ live in us. May Christ be formed in us. Lord, we take You as our life and even more, we take You as our person. Live in us today. Work Yourself into us as our life and as our person. Hallelujah, Christ is our life! Praise the Lord, Christ is our person! Amen, Lord, we take You as our person for the church as the one new man!

As the Lord Jesus did, we need to Live because of the Lord by taking Him as our Person

What does it mean to take Christ as our person? How can we practically take Christ as our person for the church as the one new man?

The Gospel of John reveals that in His human living, the Lord Jesus took the Father as His person and lived by the Father as His person (see John 5:19, 30; 14:10; 6:57).

The Lord Jesus was the almighty God who was incarnated to be a man; He could have just done what He wanted, speak what He wanted, and do the work that He wanted, but He took the Father as His person.

He declared again and again that He could do nothing from Himself but instead of living by Himself, He lived by the Father as His person.

He spoke not His own words but what He heard from the Father, taking the Father as His person (14:10).

He admitted that the Father sent Him and He lived because of the Father (6:57).

Just as the Lord lived because of the Father by taking the Father as His person, so we as believers in Christ should also live because of the Lord by taking Him as our person.

He did not do anything from Himself, but as He heard from the Father, so He did and judged (5:30). Wow.

The very God Himself who became a man, who could have done whatever He wanted, took the Father as His person, and He lived because of the Father.

Is this how we live today?

When Lazarus was ill and the Lord found out about it, He didn’t just go to visit him but rather, He waited for a few more days until Lazarus died and was buried.

Then, He went to see Lazarus and raised him from the dead, for He depended on the Father and did not do things in the way and at the time that He wanted.

The Father was in Him and He was in the Father; the words He spoke were not from Himself but the Father who was in Him did His works.

This is what it means to take Christ as our person; we speak, yet not us but Christ who lives in us – He does His works.

Whatever the Son was speaking, He was representing what the Father was doing. Christ was the Son of God, but He declared that He could do nothing from Himself except what He saw the Father doing.

He took the Father as His person and did not do, say, work, or express anything except what the Father did, say, work, or express.

Yes, He did great miracles and even commanded the storm to quiet down, stopping the winds and the waves, but He still declared that He didn’t do anything by or in Himself but of the Father.

He was very powerful, and preached to thousands of people, saving thousands, but there was never a moment in which He did not take the Father as His person.

Here is a person who was fully positioned and qualified to do all the things that He wanted to do, for He was the almighty God, but He declared He didn’t do anything of Himself but what He saw the Father doing.

Wow! This is our Christ. This is the One who lives in us today.

In John 6:57 He said that, as He did, so we should do; as He took the Father as His person, so we should eat Christ and take Him as our person so that we live because of Him.

Christ didn’t live “by the Father,” as if He needs the Father as help for His living; He lived “because of the Father,” taking the Father as His person.

What we need is not something of Christ to help us go through the day, be more spiritual, and be victorious; we need to take Christ as our person and live because of Him.

Following the pattern of Christ, the Son of God, we need to be one with Him so that when we speak, He would do the work in us, and when we do something, He would be the One doing the work in us.

The Father didn’t just send the Son and then remained in heaven, waiting for the Son to return; rather, He went with the Son, the Son lived in and with the Father, and whoever saw the Son, saw the Father.

The Lord Jesus took the Father as His person; in the same way, we as believers in Christ must take the Lord as our person.

We don’t need to try to be more patient, loving, humble, or spiritual; what we need is simply to take Christ as our person.

Genuine spirituality is Christ; genuine love, humility, patience, and spirituality are just Christ Himself, a living person.

We need to take Christ as our person so that we live because of the Lord in all the things of our daily life.

Like the Lord Jesus, we need to be able to say that, when we speak to our spouse, it is Christ who speaks in us, and when we go shopping, it is Christ who does the shopping in us.

We should drop all our striving and endeavouring to improve ourselves and simply take Christ as our person, even as the Lord Jesus took the Father as His person, so that we live because of the Lord in all things.

Lord Jesus, we want to drop our striving and struggling to improve ourselves and simply take You as our person. We stop our trying to be patient, humble, loving, and spiritual, and simply take Christ as our person. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You that, even as You took the Father as Your person and lived because of the Father, so should we! Lord, we take You as our person in our speaking and in our daily living. We want to live because of You, for You are our person. Amen, Lord, may it be Christ who lives in us, and the life which now we live in the flesh, we live in faith – the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us! May You be the One speaking in us. May You be the One doing all the work in us. Dear Lord Jesus, just as You lived because of the Father by taking the Father as Your person, so we want to live because of the Lord by taking Him as our person!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1971, vol. 2, pp. 215-216, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life (2023 spring ITERO), week 3, entitled, Taking Christ as Our Person for the Church as the One New Man.
• Similar reading on this topic:
  – Taking Christ as our person, a portion from, The Life for the Preaching of the High Gospel, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – 8 Verses that Show Jesus Christ Lives in You, article via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Message 4: Taking Christ as Our Person, a portion via, Church in Montreal.
  – Growing by taking Christ as our person, a portion from, One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – Taking Christ as my Person in my daily life, article via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Oh, Christ in all His glory put on humanity / So He could be my Person, and live instead of me. / A man in life and being, He fully fits my case, / So all His glorious Person can me replace. / O Lord, O Lord, You are the man for me! / I take You as my Person, as my full identity. / O Lord, O Lord, subdue my every part, / And every moment, every place, make home in all my heart. (Hymns #1177 stanza 1)
  – Lord, to know Thee as our Person, / Earnestly we seek and pray; / To experience Thy fulness / In a constant inner way. / Never longer only outward / Or with soulish thoughts obsessed, / But, O Lord, in realest contact / We by Thee would be possessed. (Hymns #1181 stanza 1)
  – Christ, my Person, in my spirit lives; / And my heart to Him I’d daily give; / That my inner man could have a home / And a place to settle down, yes, / A place to call His own, and— / There be my complete reality, / There expressing all He is to me, / Living in my heart abundantly / As my Person real. (Hymns #1180 chorus for stanza 1)