L I F E

*The Inward Experience of Christ*
James M. Campbell

The Christ who lived In Palestine upward of eighteen hundred years ago
lives in the world today. He has direct and constant access to the
spirit of man, touching sin-stricken souls with His healing power;
quickening dead souls by the inbreathing of His life-giving Spirit;
''combating, defeating, expelling the slow death which has crept over
the body of humanity.'' In all His activities within the soul His
seeking and saving love is manifest. The eternal love outwardly
expressed in the cross is inwardly expressed In His tireless effort to
make His great salvation an actuality in human experience. The four
Evangelists have given the record of His outward life; those alone, who
know Him, not after the flesh but after the spirit, can give the record
of His never-ending activity within the inner sphere of the spiritual
nature of man.

Of the two hemispheres of truth which constitute the whole gospel - the
work of Christ for us, and the work of Christ in us, the latter often
suffers a well-nigh total eclipse. Many think almost exclusively of what
Christ has done for them, and overlook what He is doing in them; they
look at redemption upon the divine side as a finished work, and fail to
look at It upon the human side as a continuous work; they are so much
taken up with the ideal of Christ dying upon the cross for their
offenses as almost to forget that He is living in their hearts to guide,
to inspire, to bless, to save.

Before Christian experience can be rounded out to completeness the
Godward and manward sides of Christ's work must be embraced in a
comprehensive faith; the work of Christ in its entireness must be
brought within the inner sphere of personal consciousness; the outward
Christ of history must become the Christ of inward experience; the dead
Christ of Calvary must become the living Christ of the present; the
Christ embalmed in a book must dwell and reign within the heart. It is
not Christ upon the cross, nor Christ within the Bible, nor Christ in
heaven that saves; but Christ deeply hidden in the inmost spirit; Christ
constantly present in the life; Christ the inspiration of every thought
and word and deed. Christ in the soul and not Christ buried in a tomb,
enshrined in a temple, or seated upon a throne is the life's true Life.

From: The Indwelling Christ. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company

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