UPDATE (4/22/14): I have written several posts about specific passages from Polanyi’s book, Personal Knowledge. You can see more HERE. For some direct quotes see HERE.
Polanyi is extremely helpful with his insights on the process of indwelling knowledge. I cannot truly ‘know’ the words I read unless I enter into them (that is, indwell them). I cannot drive my car properly if I do not ‘indwell’ the road which is ahead of me. If my mind slips from the story (in the former) or from the road (in the latter) there will be genuine consequence upon knowledge. Indwelling is about tuning in. It involves focused meditation and intense attention as well as forgetfulness of self.
If we were to apply this idea of indwelling to the biblical data of being ‘in Christ’ or ‘abiding in Christ,’ we gain an interesting perspective.
1. In the objective sense, indwelling is the ‘grafting in’ or uniting of the believer to Christ by faith. In this one time act, the Spirit unites us to Christ in such a way that his person and work is credited to us creating the basis for our justification. This is objective, or justifying indwelling.
2. In the subjective sense, indwelling is tuning in to Christ. That is, subjective indwelling is our meditative, focused attention on Christ as he is revealed in Scripture by the aid of the Holy Spirit. As we indwell him, he becomes the word and road into which we must invest our minds. This is none other than what the Apostle Paul called being ‘spiritually minded.’ To take the mind off the road is to cause the car to swerve. To take the mind off Christ is to cause the soul to swerve. To take the mind off the story (by focusing on words or letters or by being distracted) is to miss the narrative. To take the mind off Christ is to lose the story of sanctification.
Objective indwelling brings justification. Subjective knowing precipitates sanctification.
Indwelling also takes various forms in sanctification.
1. Christ is the road to which our eyes must focus. We must indwell him by laser sharp focus upon him.
2. Christ is the windshield through which we look at all other roads. His person and character are so infused in us in sanctification, that even when we look to objects other than him, it is through him that we look at these other objects. He is the road in some cases and the windshield in others so long as we are subjectively indwelling him.
See Mars Hill Audio’s wonderful treatment of the life and work of Polanyi, available as an audio download. I have listened to it at least a dozen times and never cease to profit from it.
