Reflections on the indwelling Christ (Galatians 2:20)

Here's another snippet from my notes from last Sunday's sermon, in which we reflected on Paul's teaching of the indwelling Christ in Galatians 2:20:

 

Paul also describes in v. 20 the indwelling presence of Christ in the life of the believer.  As he says, “nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:  and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God….”
 

If you are a believer this means Christ is living in you. This has some valuable practical outcomes:
 

For one thing, the fact that Christ is living in you spiritually should make you want to stay far away from that which is sinful and evil.  Would you want to bring the pure Christ who dwells in you into contact with anything that is vile and evil?  In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul warns the believers there about the sin of fornication, sexual impurity, and he says this:
 

KJV 1 Corinthians 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
 

For another, positively, the indwelling Christ will draw you to that which is altogether good, noble, just and edifying.  The great positive aid to our practical sanctification is the fact that Christ lives in us.
 

 

And for yet another, the indwelling spirit of Christ in us immediately finds fellowship and kinship with our fellow believers, as like call to like and deep calls to deep.  The spirit of Christ in us resonates with the spirit of Christ indwelling the lives of our fellow saints.  This is why Christians can enjoy a special and usually immediate affinity with one another.

 

JTR