You see, the heart is made the subject of Christ’s dwelling; it is not to dwell in the notion, in your brains. You have no indwelling of Christ unless your hearts are affected.
This is expressly said:
“We all, beholding with open face the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3118).
First, there is spiritual beholding, he speaks of Christ, not only of His person, but of all that is to be known of Christ. Adam’s graces had no glory, but all of Christ’s do.
Such a beholding, letting Christ and His glory into the soul, changes it, turns it, and leaves impressions on it. This is done by the Spirit of the Lord. By “the Spirit of the Lord” the apostle does not mean the Holy Ghost, for he said in the words before, “The Lord is that Spirit.”
It is Christ Himself, by His force and power when He comes into the soul, who changes it, fills it, quickens it, strengthens it, and leaves impressions on it.
As the burning glass contracts all the beams of the sun to a point, but it is the beams of the sun that set on fire the cloth, so it is the Spirit of the Lord that fires our hearts. Thus, to know Christ is to dwell in Him. (57, line breaks mine)
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