The History or the Mystery...2

In both The Antichrist in Man and The Kingdom of God is Within You, they talk about the inability, unwillingness, disbelief about the Christ within. Eckhart talks about this too….just in different terminology than either Salmon or Murray. Different words…same theme.

So Murray words it this way….

Do you fully and truly believe in the indwelling Christ? You do believe in an incarnate Christ. When the name of Christ is mentioned, you at once think of One who was born a little babe at Bethlehem, who took our nature upon Him and lived as a man upon the earth. That thought is inseparable from your faith in Him. You believe, too, in the crucified Christ, dying on Calvary for our sins. You believe, too, in the risen Saviour, one who lives for evermore. And you believe in the glorified Lord, now sitting on the throne of heaven. But do you believe as definitely – as naturally – in the indwelling Christ? Have you made that one of the articles of your faith, as really as you believe in Christ incarnate or Christ crucified? It is only as the truth is accepted and held that the others can really profit. The experience of the love and the saving power of our incarnate, crucified, glorified Lord depends entirely upon His indwelling in us to reveal His presence and to do His work. If you find your life feeble or sickly, you may be assured that it is because you do not know that Jesus Christ is in you.

Okay…let’s face it. It oftentimes seems like a really big stretch to imagine Christ is living in me….and sometimes it is even harder to believe he is living in others. Why is that? The Bible clearly states it but it is a concept that is really hard to wrap your head around. Joseph Salmon blames it on “the whore”…..your fleshly wisdom….the Matron of iniquity. (He does use some pretty strong language to describer her) He claims the reason we don’t/can’t believe Christ dwells within us is her doing!!!

She wants to keep you distanced from the Christ within

It is the property of this strange woman, your fleshly wisdom, to render Christ to be at a distance from you….

The wisdom of the flesh will tell you that the Goodman Christ Jesus is gone abroad; He is at a distance from you. This whore will be contented that you should know anything but Christ Jesus, and Him crucified in you. She is willing that you should know Christ naturally, but not spiritually; Christ in the History, but not in the Mystery: Christ for you, but not Christ in you.

Your fleshly wisdom will be contented that you should be acquainted with what Christ has done for you, but she will not endure to let you see Him in you.

....she is willing to let you understand that Christ has been made flesh for you, but not that the Word is made flesh in you; that is, that God by His own power has begotten Himself, brought forth Himself in His own likeness in you; that you are this virgin that is over-shadowed with power from on high; and have the immortal seed of God in you, which immortal seed by its own power brings forth its own self in your soul, by the puttings forth of the motions of the Spirit in you. This your fleshly wisdom will not let you behold.

The egoic mind/man of sin/Harlot is content to let you dabble in the superficial aspects of religion. The pomp and circumstance, the ritual, the works of the flesh, the outward shows of religious tradition…fasting…public prayer, legalism. The point is to keep your mind off the spirit within you…the Christ within. There is a vast difference between the history of Christ and the mystery of Christ…Christ in you, the hope of glory.

She will even encourage you to become religious…

She will move you to fasting, prayer, and humiliation, provided, that all this while you attribute the glory of all to herself. She will move as high as any outward ordinance with you, and all this is lest you should ponder the path of life.

So she will involve you in busy work lest you should ponder the path of life…..

Hmmm...the path of life.  Now that seems like a bit cheerier topic.  More on that to come....