I.　"Christ our life"—Col. 3:4a:

A.　God's salvation is Christ as a living person coming into us to be our life—Luke 2:30; 3:6; 19:5, 9-10.

B.　The life of God is the life of Christ, and the life of Christ has become our life— John 5:26; Col. 3:4a.

C.　For Christ to be our life means that He is subjective to us to the uttermost— John 1:4; 14:6a; 10:10b; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11.

D.　With Christ as our life there are three characteristics; this life is a crucified life, a resurrected life, and a life hidden in God—Gal. 2:20; John 11:25; Col. 3:3-4; Matt. 6:1-6, 16-18.

II.　"It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me"—Gal. 2:20:

A.　In Galatians 2:20 we see the most basic truth of God's New Testament economy—no longer I but Christ living in me.

B.　We and Christ have one life and one living—1 Cor. 6:17; John 15:4a:

1.　We live by Him, and He lives in us—6:57.

2.　Christ lives in us by causing us to live with Him—14:19.

III.　"To me, to live is Christ"—Phil. 1:21a:

A.　The basic thought of the Bible is that the Triune God desires to work Himself into us that we may take Him as life and live Him—Eph. 3:16-17a; Phil. 1:21a.

B.　The Christian life is not a life of ethics, religion, culture, or even morality; the Christian life is Christ, and the believers should live a life which is actually Christ Himself—Col. 3:4a; John 6:57.

C.　The Christian life is a life of living Christ for the constitution and building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:1-3, 12, 16; Col. 1:24; 2:19.

IV.　"That Christ may make His home in your hearts…that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God"—Eph. 3:17a, 19b:

A.　We need to be strengthened into the inner man with the result that Christ could make His home in our hearts and thereby occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate our inner being with Himself—vv. 16-17a.

B.　When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God—the ultimate consummation of the corporate expression of the Triune God—v. 19b.

V.　"We may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ"—4:15:

A.　If we would be no longer little children, we need to grow up into Christ; this is to have Christ increase in us in all things until we attain to a full-grown man—vv. 13-14.

B.　Our growth in life by the increase of Christ should be the growth of the members of the Body under the Head—v. 15.

VI.　"Holding the Head, out from whom all the Body…grows with the growth of God"—Col. 2:19:

A.　The growth of the Body depends on the supply that comes from the Head— 1:18.

B.　The growth of the Body depends on the growth of God, the increase of God, within us:

1.　God gives the growth by giving Himself to us in a very subjective way— 1 Cor. 3:6-7.

2.　The more God is added to us, the more growth He gives to us.

3.　For God to give us growth actually means that He gives us Himself.

VII.　"Until we all arrive…at a full-grown man," "full-grown in Christ"—Eph. 4:13; Col. 1:28:

A.　We need to have the proper understanding of the growth of life:

1.　The growth of life is not the improvement of behavior, the expression of piety, zealous serving, the increase of knowledge, to abound in gifts, or the increase of power.

2.　The growth of life is the increase of the element of God (2:19), the increase of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 3:17a; 4:13), the expanding of the ground of the Holy Spirit (5:18), the decrease of the human element, the breaking of the natural life, and the subduing of every part of our soul (2 Tim. 1:7).

B.　To be a full-grown man is to have the maturity in life; maturity is a matter of having the divine life imparted into us again and again until we have the fullness of life—John 10:10b; 2 Cor. 5:4b.

C.　To be full-grown in Christ is to mature with Christ as the element of the divine life unto full growth—Col. 1:28.

D.　God's eternal purpose can be accomplished only through our transformation and maturity—Gen. 1:26; 2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 1:28; 2:19.