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Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:15-16a; 2:20; 4:19; Phil. 1:20; Eph. 4:13; Rom. 8:9-11
In the first chapter we saw clearly that life is the Triune God Himself. In the whole universe all the different kinds of lives are not the real lives. They are simply the types, figures, and shadows of life. The real life is God Himself. We have also seen how God comes to be our life. He comes firstly in Christ and secondly through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christ is called “the life” (1 John 5:12; John 11:25; 14:6), and the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2). This very Spirit of life is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, this Spirit is the Spirit of the Triune God. Moreover, the very Spirit of the Triune God comes into our spirit to make our spirit His residence. He dwells there, lives there, and works there, taking our human spirit as His home, His house, His residence.
First John 4:13 says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” We all know that the Holy Spirit is within us, but within what part of us does He dwell? We need to locate the Holy Spirit within us. Romans 8:16 proves that the Holy Spirit today is within our spirit, taking our spirit as His abode, His residence. This verse says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” To be the children of God is a matter of life, which is testified by the Holy Spirit as life in our spirit. This proves that the Spirit of God as the Spirit of life resides and dwells in our spirit. Our human spirit is the abode, the residence, the house, of the Holy Spirit.
A rule, or principle, is that in order to have a strong ground in the Scriptures, we always need at least two verses to prove a matter so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses we can establish it. Therefore, we may also use 1 Corinthians 6:17, which says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” The Lord is the Spirit, and when we join with the Lord, we become one with the Lord in spirit; we are one spirit with the Lord. This proves that the Holy Spirit is mingled together with our human spirit, and our spirit is the place where the Holy Spirit dwells. Today we can locate the Holy Spirit not only within us but also, in a very definite way, in our spirit, because He witnesses with our spirit, and we are joined to the Lord in our spirit as one spirit.
In addition, Philippians 2:13 shows us that God is working within us. This verse says, “It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” The Triune God, who is now dwelling within us through His Spirit, is working within us both to will and to do. In the same principle, Hebrews 13:20-21 says that the God of peace does in us that which is well pleasing in His sight. However, by these two passages alone we cannot prove that it is the Holy Spirit who is working. For this we must use 1 John 2:27, which speaks of the anointing as the indwelling and working Spirit who abides in us and teaches us concerning all things. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life dwelling in us and working within us.
In this chapter we shall see something concerning the experiences of life. Although Christians today speak concerning spiritual experiences, they very seldom say that we experience life or that we have experiences of life. What are the real experiences of life? If we realize that life is the Triune God Himself, we must realize that the real experience of life is the experience of God.
If a person says that he has had some Christian experiences, he may simply mean that he has repented. Formerly he was a sinner, but now he has repented and turned to God. However, there are at least two different kinds of repentance. One kind of repentance is merely a human repentance without experiencing God. There is another kind of repentance: while someone is repenting, he can experience God within him. What is the difference between the repentance of a worldly person and the repentance of a true Christian? According to the general teachings in today’s Christianity, repentance is merely a change of direction and a dropping of the old life. I do not say that this definition of repentance is right or wrong. I would simply beg you to forget about the general teaching of today’s Christianity. What we are presenting here is something real of life, which is different from the general teachings. It is something genuine and real in the Scriptures.
Real repentance is a repentance in which we experience God, a repentance in which God passes through us and we pass through God. It is a repentance in which we have been met by God and we meet God. After this kind of repentance, something of God Himself is mingled with us. We may compare this with our drinking of water, after which the water is mingled with us. For Christians, real repentance is the way in which, with which, or by which we experience God. God passes through our being — through our heart, through our spirit, and even through our understanding — and we pass through God. We experience God in such a repentance.
I can testify that I have had these two different kinds of repentance. When I was eighteen or nineteen years old, I had a repentance that was one hundred percent a human repentance. At that time I felt that as a young man, for the sake of my future, I had to give up playing in ball games and spend all my time in study. I had such a repentance, and I succeeded in that matter. However, I repented by myself, and in that repentance I experienced nothing of God. After more than one year, I went to a gospel campaign. There the Lord truly met me. The Lord passed through me, not merely outside of me, but within me, and I passed through the Lord. I experienced God in that repentance. That was a real repentance in the way of experiencing God. This is a genuine experience of life. The real experience of life is the experience of God Himself.
Formerly a brother may have been very proud and careless. One day he receives the feeling that he is wrong to be this way, so he makes up his mind to adjust himself to be humble and careful. This is a repentance, and it is a repentance experienced by a Christian. However, do you believe this repentance is a real experience of life? It is not. Such a repentance has nothing to do with God. A real repentance as an experience of life is one in which God one day meets someone, and he meets God. Then in the presence of God he has the feeling that he is proud and careless. God passes through him, and God brings him to pass through Him. He does not make up his mind to be humble or careful. He simply tells the Lord, “Lord, here I am. I am this kind of person, Lord, but I praise You that today You have met me and I have met You. O Lord, praise You, I have met You here!” After this there is a real change within him. This is the real experience of life in the matter of repentance. The real experience of life is that we experience God, we let God pass through us, and we pass through God. It is something in which we and God are mingled together. It is not that we alone do something. It is God Himself mingled with us to cause us to have a change. This is a real repentance as the experience of life.
Many Christians today talk about love. There are also two different kinds of love. One is the human love, and the other is the divine love, that is, God Himself experienced by us. One day we may hear a message saying that we have to love one another. After we hear this, we may repent and make up our mind that from now on we will love our brothers. We may pray, asking the Lord to help us, “Lord, I am weak in this matter. Please help me to love my brothers.” Then we will try our best to love others. The first day we may truly succeed. Then the second day we may succeed about seventy percent of the time, the third day sixty percent, the following week only twenty percent, and after three weeks we may succeed only one percent of the time. We all know this story. Is this kind of “Christian love” a real experience of life? No, it is not. A real experience of life is the experience of God.
One day, perhaps while we are praying, studying, reading the Word, or even walking on the street, God may come to visit us. God meets us, and we meet God. Something penetrates and permeates us. Something of God passes through us. After this, even if we have not made up our mind to love others, we will unconsciously love others very much. We will have love, and this very love is nothing other than God Himself experienced by us and expressed by us toward others. What is the mutual love among Christians? It is God Himself expressed by us toward one another. This is a real experience of life. It is the experience of God Himself.
Because God is life to us in Christ His Son, the real experience of life is the experience of Christ. God can be life to us only in Christ. It is in Christ that God is life to us, so in order to experience God as life, we must experience Christ as life. By our experiences and our spiritual knowledge, we know that the experience of Christ as life has steps, or stages.
According to the Scriptures, the first step, or stage, of the experience of Christ is that God reveals Christ in us. This is the word of the apostle Paul, who in Galatians 1:15-16a says, “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me.” If we have the real experience of life, we have at least had this very first step of experiencing Christ. Christ has been revealed in us. This is a work of the Holy Spirit. One day the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us in a very subjective way, and He brings Christ into us. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we receive Him, but in what way do we receive Him? It is by the Holy Spirit revealing Christ into us.
We may classify Christians in three different categories. Some are Christians of Christianity, some are Christians of Christian teachings, and some are Christians of Christ. We should not be quick to say that we are not Christians of Christianity. We should say, “Apparently I am a Christian of Christianity, yet I am something more.” We are also Christians of Christian knowledge and teachings, but we are still something more. We are not only Christians of Christianity and Christians of Christian teachings; we are Christians of Christ Himself.
I was born of my mother a Christian of Christianity, although I was not yet reborn. Later, when I was young, I became improved. I became a Christian of Christian teachings by the teachings of the pastors and preachers in the denominations. I was taught by Christian teachings to be a Christian. Praise the Lord, eventually I became a reborn Christian of Christ! One day the Holy Spirit revealed Christ into me. From that time I had a certain experience of Christ. I knew that Christ is within me as my life. Christ is no longer merely objective but subjective to me. Formerly I was in Christianity, and I accepted all the Christian teachings, but at that time I did not have Christ. It was at a certain time that the Holy Spirit revealed Christ into me.
I saw many so-called members of Christian churches. They repented, and they were baptized, but later on they simply gave up Christianity. Some who were my age became important members of the Communist Party, which is against Christianity, yet I can recall that when we were young, they were apparently zealous Christians. However, they never met Christ. Christ was never revealed to them. To be a Christian in Christianity is one thing, to be a Christian by Christian teachings is another thing, and to be a Christian by Christ being revealed in us is a third thing. This is to be a real Christian, and this is a real experience of Christ. The first step of the experience of Christ as life is that Christ is revealed into our spirit by the Holy Spirit.
The second step, or the second stage, for us to experience Christ as life is Christ living within us. After Christ is revealed in us, He lives within us. Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” If someone does not know this verse, he has no real part in Christianity.
The third step, or stage, in the experience of Christ is that Christ is formed within us (4:19). The experience of Christ is not the experience of humility, patience, or any aspect of good character. All those things are not the real experiences of life. The real experience of life is Christ Himself experienced by us. It is regrettable that today there are very few Christians who can differentiate between Christ experienced by us and mere patience. Someone can be very patient or humble yet be one hundred percent without Christ. To experience Christ as our patience or humility is absolutely different from simply having patience or humility.
A brother may have been taught to be patient, and he may have made up his mind to be patient. Day and night, morning and evening, he tells himself to be patient, and he may even place a slogan or proverb in his room to remind him to always be patient. This is mere patience and nothing more. When he succeeds in being patient, he may be very proud of himself. He may say, “I am the most patient one. Look at that brother and sister; they are not patient.” However, he is self-deceived, and he is also deceiving the other brothers and sisters. Others may say, “Oh, look at that brother! He is so patient. He is very much of the Lord and like the Lord.” This is a form of deceit. It is not the real experience of Christ.
The real experience of Christ is that day by day, even today, Christ meets us and we meet Him. We may not know anything about patience, but we do know something of Christ. We may have no intention to be patient. In our dictionary there may not even be such a word as patience, but we have it unconsciously. When we go to the Lord, we may not feel or sense that we are patient. Rather, we may confess, “O Lord, I do not love You enough, and I do not keep myself in contact with You moment by moment.” However, the brothers and sisters can realize that within us there is a divine, spiritual, and pleasant patience.
The real experience of life is nothing other than the experience of Christ Himself. In this spiritual dictionary there is only one word: Christ. It is very easy to have this spiritual vocabulary. There are not many words but only Christ Himself.
Whenever we pray to ask the Lord to help us in certain matters, such as loving others, being humble, and being patient, He never answers such prayers. The more we pray to love others, the more we find that we hate others. The more we pray to be humble, the more we find that we are proud. The Lord never answers this kind of prayer. Real prayer is to say, “Lord, I feel that I have not contacted You much this day. I did not go along with You moment by moment.” The real experience of life is the experience of Christ Himself, that is, Christ revealed in us, Christ living in us, and Christ formed in us.
The fourth stage of the experience of Christ is that Christ is magnified in us (Phil. 1:20). For Christ to be formed within us is something inward, but for Christ to be magnified in us is something expressed outwardly. We need Christ revealed in us, Christ living in us, and Christ to be formed within us, and we also need Christ magnified in us.
For Christ to be magnified in us means that there is always something of, or something as, Christ Himself expressed through us. People can always sense something of Christ expressed and magnified in us. This is the real experience of life. It is not simply to be humble, to be patient, and to love others. To be humble, patient, and loving is common among humans. In the history of China there were certain men who succeeded in their practice to be good. They were so good that compared to them, many Christians may be put to shame. Many Christians put together could not compare with them in their good character. However, that is not Christ. Good character is not Christ Himself. Christ Himself is something else. Do not try to teach Christians simply to have a good character. This is the teaching of fallen Christianity. Rather, do your best to experience Christ as everything in the spirit, and try your best to help others to experience Christ in such a way.
How can we realize what the real experience of Christ is and what the experience of something other than Christ is? When we experience something other than Christ, we are always aware of it. When we love others merely by ourselves, we know that we are loving. When we are patient and humble merely by ourselves, we know that we are the most patient and humble person. To be aware that we are humble and patient with the brothers simply proves that we are not experiencing Christ. When we experience Christ, we simply sense Christ Himself, and we are not aware of anything else. Other people realize that in us there is something strange, heavenly, and divine, but we ourselves do not sense it. As long as we know we are loving the brothers, that means we are not loving by Christ; we are not experiencing Christ. Try to test this. If we can say, “O brothers, do you realize how humble and patient I have been with you?” this simply proves we are now out of Christ. If we can feel how good we are, this shows how much we are out of Christ.
The real experience of Christ as everything is that we sense only the presence of Christ and nothing else. Other people can realize many good, heavenly, eternal, spiritual, and divine things with us, but we ourselves do not sense them. What we sense is the presence of Christ. We are not aware that we are patient or that we are loving others, but, praise the Lord, we are dealing with and seeing the Lord Christ Himself! This is the real experience of Christ.
We must be careful. Today Christians talk much about power. Many think that when they are powerful, they are full of Christ. It is not so. Many powerful people have very little of Christ. To have power is one thing, but to experience Christ as life is another thing. We must differentiate between the so-called spiritual power and Christ Himself as life. To experience Christ as life is absolutely something in the Spirit of life, but to experience spiritual power is something else. In the Old Testament times there was a very powerful person named Samson. Does this mean that he truly knew something of Christ as life in reality? Far from it! Someone may be powerful in a certain way, but he still may not have experienced Christ as life. This is not something from our imagination. In the past years I have seen many persons who were powerful in preaching the gospel, yet when we look into their lives, we feel sorry for them.
A person may be powerful in a certain way, but that may not be the right way to be powerful. The right way to be powerful is to be powerful not in power only but also in life. It is possible for Christians to be powerful in a wrong way. We need to differentiate these two ways. To be powerful in a wrong way is one thing, but to experience Christ as our life as well as our power is another thing. The apostle Paul was very powerful, but in his writings we can realize that he was a man full of Christ. He was full not merely of power but of Christ. Perhaps some people will not agree with me; that is their business. We commit this matter to the hand of the Lord. As a mouthpiece of the Lord, I must speak what I have been burdened with. I am purposely raising this matter once again because there is an urgent need for this kind of knowledge.
Today many Christians pay too much attention to the so-called gifts. We must realize that the gifts are one hundred percent different from Christ as life to us. We may have all the gifts, but we may not have experienced Christ. This is illustrated and explained clearly and emphatically in 1 Corinthians. In 1:7 Paul told the Corinthians that they did not lack in any gift, but in 3:1 he says, “I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshy, as to infants in Christ.” In the first two chapters of this Epistle, Paul indicated that whereas the Corinthians taught concerning the gifts, he preached Christ crucified (1:23), and he did not determine to know anything among them except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified (2:2). Christ and the cross of Christ are the answers to all the problems in the church today. To have all the gifts is one thing, but that is not the experience of life. The experience of life is to experience Christ Himself revealed in us, living in us as life, formed within us, and magnified through us.
I can never forget a story that was passed on to me more than twenty-five years ago. In the fifth or sixth century, one of the Lord’s servants was very learned, eloquent, and powerful in ministry. One day after he ministered, a young brother remained after the meeting had been dismissed. The minister came to him and asked, “Young man, why are you still here?” The young man replied, “I feel there is something I must fellowship with you.” This minister, an aged, qualified, learned, eloquent, and powerful man, looked at the young man and asked, “What do you have to fellowship with me?” The young man said, “I will speak to you humbly. In your ministry there is knowledge, eloquence, and power but very little Christ.” The aged man trembled, prostrated himself on the floor, and cried, “Lord be merciful to me! I am here doing something with so little of Yourself.” From that time on there was a revolutionary change in that minister. He changed from being eloquent and powerful to being a person with Christ.
We must realize the difference between gifts and Christ. We may have the best gift, but we may not have the real experience of Christ. It is very possible to be this way. This is why we have often said that as far as the experience of life is concerned, many persons have been damaged by their “gifts.” The so-called gifts are one thing, but to experience Christ as life is something else.
If you would ask me what the best record of the experience of Christ as life is in the entire Scriptures, I would say that it is 2 Corinthians. Second Corinthians is the best record of how the apostle experienced Christ as life. In the first Epistle to the Corinthians the apostle deals with the gifts, but in the second Epistle the apostle reveals to us the right way to have the real experience of Christ as life. There is a big difference between these two Epistles; we should read them once again to see this.
The fifth stage of the experience of Christ is that we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). This, of course, is a corporate matter. To have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is not a matter for individuals. It is a matter of a corporate Body. When we are built together in Christ by experiencing Christ, we will have the stature of the fullness of Christ, and this stature will come into full measure. We will have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
All the above experiences of Christ are in the Holy Spirit. The real experience of life is the experience of the Spirit, not as the Spirit of gifts nor as the Spirit upon us, but as the Spirit of life, the Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit now is the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of life, living and dwelling within us as the reality of the indwelling Christ, causing us to experience the indwelling Christ. The real experience of life is the experience of the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of life living within us to make the indwelling Christ a reality in our daily life.
For this matter we need to read Romans 8:1-30. Verses 9 through 10 say, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” Verse 9 speaks of the Spirit of Christ, and verse 10 speaks of Christ Himself. This means that when we experience the Spirit of Christ, we experience Christ. Verse 11 begins, “And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.” This proves that this Spirit of Christ, who is the reality of Christ Himself, is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God who raised up Christ from the dead. Here we have the three-one God, the Triune God. To experience the Holy Spirit is simply to experience Christ and to experience God, because God is in Christ and Christ is realized as the Spirit.
