“And not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God.” Colossians 2:19
If I am not holding fast to Christ, my Head, if He is not my point of reference in relating to all things, then nothing “works” in my Christian life. Christ’s work in me — His living and operating — comes to a halt. There is no growth, no sanctification, no conformation to the image of His Son, and no way to proceed in the Christian life. If I am not interacting with Christ, then I am interacting with the law, or what is formed in my mind. I am interacting with my feelings of discouragement or the reasonings of my mind. My point of reference when I go through things is not Christ, but something else. My point of reference is my feelings, the outward circumstances, the situation, the law, what I am supposed to be, or even what I am not — all these mental gyrations that go on within us. The principle is that I interact with whatever is formed in me. If Christ is formed in me crying “Abba, Father,” I interact with Him. If something else is formed in me, I interact with that.
Christ formed in me does not mean that I am perfect, that I am a finished product. It means that my point of reference is always Christ — that He would have the first place in everything. So I do not know how to handle myself. I do not know how to handle sin. I do not know how to handle my reactions to my environment. But Christ has already handled all these things. By taking Him as my point of reference in all these things, I remain in fellowship with Him.