Welcome to Welling. This is for your spiritual well-being and your ministry overflowing. We are in a most powerful verse which captures the entire essence and process of your vital spiritual life with God. Over the last seven episodes we’ve been looking at Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 which is so pregnant with meaning I’m not able to finish it in one or two episodes, it is taking a whole bunch of explanation. And the explanation comes from my devotional emotion, and my devotional understanding, my devotional affection, in the text.
We’ve looked at the concept of the I’s, in Galatians 2:20 the apostle Paul declares, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live,” those are the two we have completed until now. But that’s only half a sentence because the prideful self-made self-empowered I is now dead I’ve been crucified with Christ. But now he uses what they call an adversative or a contrast.
It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. Something incredible has happened on this side of the cross. Rest in Peace is what we see in cemeteries. That’s what the apostle Paul is saying to the law, rest in peace. I remembered a wife’s inscription on a tombstone to her husband, which simply read, Rest in peace till I join you.
You are now on the peace side of the equation because Christ allows you to live a new life. If the law is joined to your new life, you will not rest in peace. That’s exactly what happened to the apostle Peter. He was trying to mix an old jurisdiction with a new jurisdiction, and he was conflicted on the inside and confused everybody else, driving on the left side of the road when he should be driving on the right side of the road.
This little phrase, Christ lives in me, those four words, they are the secret to our Welling, which is Christ’s indwelling. Christ lives in me. That at point zero, at the point of the cross, when you embrace the Lord Jesus as the only God who saves you through His death and Resurrection, when you relied on Him, that transition happened to a total new administration.
And while you might still bring some baggage from the old, tempted to drive to left side of the road, He says, No, it’s a complete new environment, complete new structure, complete new system, a complete new strategy. Christ lives in me. These are not just external laws, there is an internal empowerment which happens, an internal endowment.
The view of Paul is that you become the residence of Christ. Christ lives in me; how does He do that? By His spirit. You are Christ-indwelt, Christ-powered, Christ-guided, Christ-motivated from now on. You are in Christ. One of his great themes, some think it is the main theme of the apostle Paul, you in Christ, and Christ in you. It captures what the Lord Jesus said, I knew you and me.
Can you imagine that as you have been rescued from the old jurisdiction, you are being restored now into a new jurisdiction. You went through point zero and ground zero. That the old administration is no longer an identity formation for you, even though you met all its standards and excelled in it. You’ve got a new source, the new power, you’re no longer in the law because the law could not give you life, but Christ lives in you and you’ve got a new law, the law of Christ, which cares for everybody else and you’re simply the means by which His power works to serve others.
You know what? Death–I hate death. During this time, I’ve had so many people who have died. And I don’t know how long I have. I hate death, but there’s only one thing which I hate more than death, which is sin. And for me to conquer sin, Christ needs to live in me. Christ has made me alive. And He enlivens your spiritual life. I saw a quip which said, during the COVID, coronavirus environment, said, Rest at home is better than rest in peace. Six feet away is better than six feet under.
Keep the law away, you can now rest in peace as far as the law is concerned. RIP, old, rest in peace; new, because when Christ dwells here you have a new RIP. His residence is you, His influence is in you, you got a new controller, and then His presence is in you. A new RIP: Residence, Influence and Presence. Christ lives in me. The secret of our Welling is Christ’s indwelling–His residence, His influence, His presence.