The truth of the divine indwelling is developed more fully in the epistles of Paul.
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? . . . For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor. 3:16-17).
And again (1 Cor. 6:19), "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
Without question, the teaching of the New Testament is that the very God Himself inhabits the nature of His true children.
How this can be I do not know, but neither do I know how my soul inhabits my body.
Paul called this wonder of the indwelling God a rich mystery: "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
And if the doctrine involved a contradiction or even an impossibility we must still believe what the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
"Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar" (Rom. 3:4).
The spiritual riches lying buried in this truth are so vast that they are worth any care or effort we may give to their recovery. Yet we are not concerned primarily with the theology or metaphysics embodied here. We want to know the reality of it.
What does the truth mean to us in practical outworking?
What does it have for a serious-minded Christian compelled to live in a dark and godless world?
As Paul would say, "Much every way" (3:2).
verse
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
— 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
thought
From the context and the grammar it is clear that in 1 Cor. 3:16, Paul is referring to the church, the body of believers, as God's temple. In 6:19, it is individual believers whose body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God does not live in buildings (cf. Ac
prayer
O God, that You should dwell in a shack, a rat-hole like me! Tear me down and make me Your temple.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
— Ephesians 3:16-17a
The doctrine of the divine indwelling is one of the most important in the New Testament, and its meaning for the individual Christian is precious beyond all description. To neglect it is to suffer serious loss. The apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith. Surely it takes faith of a more than average vitality to grasp the full implications of this great truth. Two facts join to make the doctrine difficult to accept: the supreme greatness of God and the utter sinfulness of man. Those who think poorly of God and well of themselves may chatter idly of "the deity within," but the man who trembles before the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, the man who knows the depth of his own sin, will detect a moral incongruity in the teaching that One so holy should dwell in the heart of one so vile.
But however incongruous it may appear to be, in the Holy Scriptures it is taught so fully that it cannot be overlooked and so plainly that it can hardly be misunderstood. "If a man love me," said our Lord Jesus Christ, "he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). That this abiding is within the man is shown by these words: "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (14: 20). Christ said of the Holy Spirit: "He ... shall be in you" (14: 17), and in His great prayer in John 17 our Lord twice used the words "I in them."
thought
God in us. God in us! But He doesn't take over as would be His right as God. It is for us to turn our heart-house over to Him. As we do He changes us.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, You don't remodel me. You make me new!
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
— Galatians 5:24-25
Christ in a believer's heart will act the same as He acted in Galilee and Judea. His disposition is the same now as then. He was holy, righteous, compassionate, meek and humble then, and He has not changed. He is the same wherever He is found, whether it be at the right hand of God or in the nature of a true disciple. He was friendly, loving, prayerful, kindly, worshipful, self-sacrificing while walking among men; is it not reasonable to expect Him to be the same when walking in men?
Why then do true Christians sometimes act in an un-Christlike manner? Some would assume that when a professed Christian fails to show forth the moral beauty of Christ in his life it is a proof that he has been deceived and is actually not a real Christian at all. But the explanation is not so simple as that. The truth is that while Christ dwells in the believer's new nature, He has strong competition from the believer's old nature. The warfare between the old and the new goes on continually in most believers. This is accepted as inevitable, but the New Testament does not so teach. A prayerful study of Romans 6 to 8 points the way to victory. If Christ is allowed complete sway He will live in us as He lived in Galilee.
thought
Christ in us does not mean that we no longer are. Our old nature is not ripped out. Christ will change us and live out through us as we daily live under His control.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for Your patience with me. I sometimes stumble and miserably fail. But You convict me and forgive me. Live through me!
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
— John 14:23
That Christ actually inhabits the nature of the regenerate believer is assumed, implied and overtly stated in the Holy Scriptures. All the Persons of the Godhead are said to enter the nature of the one that engages New Testament truth in faith and obedience. "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). And the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is too well known to need support here; everyone that is taught even slightly in the Word of God understands this. Whatever God is, the Man Christ Jesus is also.
It has been the firm belief of the Church from the days of the apostles that God is not only manifest in Christ but that He is manifest as Christ. In the days of the Arian controversy the church fathers were driven to put the teaching of the New Testament on this subject into a highly condensed "rule" or creed which might be accepted as final by all believers. This they did in the following words: The right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. God of the substance of His Father, begotten before all ages: Man of the substance of His mother, born in the world. Perfect God and perfect Man. . . . As the reasonable soul and flesh is one man: so God and man is one Christ.
thought
God stoops to make His home with us! In us! He is closer than friends, family and loved ones around us. We are His temple.
prayer
How can it be, O Lord, that You live in me? How can it be? I cannot comprehend it but I open to You all of me.
Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father."
— John 14:9
It is a rare mind, I suppose, that is much concerned with the conduct of God in those distant realms that lie beyond human experience. But almost everyone has wondered how God would act if He were in our place. And we may have had moments when we felt that God could not possibly understand how hard it is for us to live right in such an evil world as this. And we may have wondered how He would act and what He would do if He were to live among us for a while. To wonder thus may be natural but it is wholly needless. We know how God would act if He were in our place ? He has been in our place. It is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in human flesh. They called His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.
When Jesus walked on earth He was a man acting like God; but equally wonderful is it that He was also God acting like Himself in man and in a man. We know how God acts in heaven because we saw Him act on earth. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, 'Show us the Father?'" (John 14:9). As glorious as this is, it does not end there. God is still walking in men, and wherever He walks He acts like Himself. This is not poetry but plain, hard fact capable of being tested in the laboratory of life.
thought
Follow Jesus through the four Gospels. See Him as He interacts with people in daily life, all kinds of people. Listen to His words. Consider His actions. In getting to know Jesus Christ we come to know the Father.
prayer
You walk among us, Lord. You express Yourself through Your people and by Your Spirit. You are here in my highest and lowest moments. Thank You!
The earth is filled with your love, O LORD.
— Psalm 119:64a
God always acts like Himself, wherever He may be and whatever He may be doing; in Him there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning. Yet His infinitude places Him so far above our knowing that a lifetime spent in cultivating the knowledge of Him leaves as much yet to learn as if we had never begun. God's limitless knowledge and perfect wisdom enable Him to work rationally beyond the bounds of our rational knowing. For this reason we cannot predict God's actions as we can predict the movements of the heavenly bodies, so He constantly astonishes us as He moves in freedom through His universe. So imperfectly do we know Him that it may be said that one invariable concomitant of a true encounter with God is delighted wonder.
No matter how high our expectation may be, when God finally moves into the field of our spiritual awareness we are sure to be astonished by His power to be more wonderful than we anticipate, and more blessed and marvelous than we had imagined He could be. Yet in a measure His actions may be predicted, for, as I have said, He always acts like Himself. Since we know, for instance, that God is love, we may be perfectly sure that love will be present in His every act, whether it be the salvation of a penitent sinner or the destruction of an impenitent world. Similarly we can know that He will always be just, faithful, merciful and true.
thought
It is for us to discover the delighted wonder of God. As we do, we find as did Frederick Faber: ". . . the love of God is broader than the measures of man's mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind."
prayer
Your wonder, O God, is beyond my ability to take in. Your infinite love and kindness is You even when I cannot understand their expression.
He [the Holy Spirit] will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.
— John 16:14
he primary work of the Holy Spirit is to restore the lost soul to intimate fellowship with God through the washing of regeneration. To accomplish this He first reveals Christ to the penitent heart (1 Cor. 12:3). He then goes on to illumine the newborn soul with brighter rays from the face of Christ (John 14:26; 16:13-15) and leads the willing heart into depths and heights of divine knowledge and communion. Remember, we know Christ only as the Spirit enables us and we have only as much of Him as the Holy Spirit imparts. God wants worshipers before workers; indeed the only acceptable workers are those who have learned the lost art of worship.
It is inconceivable that a sovereign and holy God should be so hard up for workers that He would press into service anyone who had been empowered regardless of his moral qualifications. The very stones would praise Him if the need arose and a thousand legions of angels would leap to do His will. Gifts and power for service the Spirit surely desires to impart; but holiness and spiritual worship come first.
thought
Worshipful workers, that's what God wants us to be. It is by worshiping in spirit and in truth that we become worshipful workers. For most of us it is easier to work than worship. Out of a worshiping heart we can do all things to the glory of God.
prayer
O Holy Spirit, show me Christ and the things of Christ. Help me to worshipfully gaze on Him and then worshipfully serve Him.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:23
To teach that the filling with the Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to provide "power for service" is to teach truth, but not the whole truth. Power for service is but one effect of the experience, and I do not hesitate to say that it is the least of several effects. It is least for the very reason that it touches service, presumably service to mankind; and contrary to the popular belief, "to serve this present age" is not the Christian's first duty nor the chief end of man. As I have stated elsewhere, the two great verbs that dominate the life of man are be and do. What a man is comes first in the sight of God. What he does is determined by what he is, so is is of first importance always. The modern notion that we are "saved to serve," while true, is true only in a wider context, and as understood by busy Christians today it is not true at all.
Redemption became necessary not because of what men were doing only, but because of what they were. Not human conduct alone had gone wrong but human nature as well; apart from the moral defect in human nature no evil conduct would have occurred. Fallen men acted in accord with what they were. Their hearts dictated their deeds. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth" (Gen. 6:54). That much any moral being could have seen. But God saw more; He saw the cause of man's wicked ways, and that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (6:5). The stream of human conduct flows out of a fountain polluted by evil thoughts and imaginations. To purge the stream it was necessary to purify the fountain; and to reform human conduct it is necessary to regenerate human nature. The fundamental be must be sanctified if we would have a righteous do, for being and doing are related as cause and effect, as father and son.
thought
We emphasize "doing" ? getting things done and so making a difference in this world. But in God's order "being" precedes "doing." "Being" affects how and why we do as well as what we do.
prayer
Sometimes I try to camouflage what I am by what I do. But Father, You know the real me. And it is the me who must be changed. Purify my heart, O God!
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
— Philippians 4:13
A. B. Simpson knew by experience the unavailing struggle to be holy, and he knew also the Bible way to holiness. In a little hymn composed to be spoken at the conclusion of one of his sermons he states it this way: I take Him as my holiness, My spirit's spotless, heavenly dress, I take the Lord my righteousness- I take, He undertakes. We have but to abandon the effort to be holy and trust God to do the work within us. He will surely undertake. There are many other happy exchanges we Christians may make if we will, among them being our ignorance for His knowledge, our folly for His wisdom, our demerit for His merit, our sad mortality for His blessed immortality and faith for sight at last.
thought
As we give ourselves to Christ, He undertakes for us. We cannot make ourselves holy but He can and will as we rest in Him. The exchanged life is ours by trustful faith in Him.
prayer
I can do everything You want me to do but only through You, Lord Jesus, who gives me strength.