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Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 2:24; Gal. 2:20
First Timothy 3:16 says, “Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He [God] who was manifested in the flesh.” First Peter 2:24 says, “Who [Christ] Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose bruise you were healed.” Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”
The three verses quoted above reveal the steps of God’s way of salvation to man. First Timothy 3:16 speaks concerning God being manifested in the flesh. First Peter 2:24 speaks concerning the Lord Jesus bearing up our sins in His body on the cross, and Galatians 2:20 speaks concerning Christ living in us. God being manifested in the flesh, the Lord Jesus bearing our sins, and Christ living in us — these three matters fully reveal the three steps of God’s way of salvation to man.
In previous chapters we saw man’s actual condition: man is empty and sinful, his life is wicked and fragile, and he is wandering and lost. Man’s condition reveals that he needs a way of salvation. Thus, many wise men, from ancient times to the present and from the East to the West, have considered how man can be saved.
Throughout human history man has devised and invented many ways of salvation. The fact that so many ways of salvation have been invented indicates that because of his condition man needs salvation.
First, when we consider man’s behavior, we must admit that man needs salvation. Our deeds are not proper, and our behavior is unrighteous. Although we often have a desire in our heart to do good, what we do outwardly is the opposite of what we desire inwardly. When we listen to the voice of our conscience, we are often condemned because of our fallen behavior. Such condemnation makes it clear that we are people who need to be saved.
Second, when we consider man’s life, we find even more that we need to be saved. The more we have the desire to do good, the more we find that our nature is full of corruption. There is a Chinese proverb that says, “Doing good is like climbing a mountain, but doing evil is like flowing water.” This proverb describes how evil and corrupt our inward life is. As people with this kind of life, we certainly need to be saved.
Third, when we consider the meaning of human life, we realize that we need to be saved. Many people think that the human life does not have much meaning. Man always feels empty and is often discouraged because the human life is unpredictable and difficult. In northern China there is a saying that man’s life consists only of “three fillings and one lying down daily.” This means that a person is filled by eating three meals a day and then lies down to sleep once at night. Thus, a person may ask whether these three fillings and one lying down are all that there is to the human life. He may ask whether man is merely a hanger for clothes and a container for food or whether man exists merely to have some enjoyment and be happy. Those who are thoughtful and full of feeling will consider whether this is the real meaning of human life, and they may sigh, saying, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Fourth, if we consider man’s eternal destiny, we will conclude that man needs salvation. The universe has its laws, and heaven and earth have their governing principles. In our human living we have committed more sin than we have done good. Such a living violates the laws of the universe and revolts against the principles of heaven and earth. Thus, our end will not be a good end. Although many people are not excessively troubled at the time of their death, the Bible says that death is not the ultimate end, for after death comes judgment (Heb. 9:27). Since there are established laws and principles in the universe, it is certain that there will be a judgment on men, and since man’s living has violated the laws and principles of the universe, it is certain that sinful man will be punished. The punishment that sinful man will suffer is eternal perdition (Rev. 20:15). Man’s death in this age does not end his troubles. When a person dies, he passes from the temporary world into an eternal world. Whether his eternal destiny will be good or bad depends on his living today (v. 12). Judging from the way people conduct themselves during their life, it is certain that their eternal destiny will not be good. Therefore, from the perspective of our eternal destiny, we need salvation.
Due to mankind’s need of salvation, many wise men and philosophers have tried to invent different ways of salvation to meet man’s various needs. Some of these ways are intended to meet the needs in man’s behavior. Since man’s behavior is neither proper nor upright, some wise men invented the way of self-cultivation. They believed that what man does and how he behaves will be proper and upright if he sincerely exerts his effort to cultivate himself.
Other wise men have said that a person’s nature is easily corrupted if he is accustomed to living an easy life. Thus, if man endures more hardships by buffeting his body, he will be able to restrain his lusts. Some philosophers have considered that the meaning of human life is determined by a person’s accomplishments and his ability to make a name for himself in the eyes of the next generation. However, others have thought that the meaning of man’s existence is for him to enjoy himself while he can. Thus, they devised different theories and methods for man to have accomplishments and enjoyment. They emphasized that man only needs to be successful in his career and to obtain various kinds of enjoyment in order to have a meaningful human life. These methods are man’s inventions to take care of the sense of the vanity of human life.
In addition, some wise men invented the way of rendering distinguished service to mankind in order to achieve virtue so that they can atone for their mistakes. They believed that a person who commits sins during the first half of his life can render distinguished service when he becomes old to make atonement for his past mistakes. Many people believe in this way of salvation.
All the ways of salvation invented by the intellects throughout the generations are nothing but an attempt to solve the problems of man’s behavior, man’s nature, the vanity within man and the meaning of human life, and man’s eternal destiny.
If we examine all the man-invented ways of salvation, we will see that they are only temporarily effective. Self-cultivation cannot solve the inherent problem of man’s behavior, buffeting oneself cannot solve the basic problem of man’s corrupted nature, accomplishments in man’s career and material enjoyment do not remove the sense of emptiness that comes from man’s ignorance of the meaning of his human life, and doing good deeds and developing virtues cannot atone for one’s wrongdoings in the past. All of these are only ways to bribe man’s conscience and bring in a false and temporary comfort. Therefore, all the man-invented ways of salvation cannot solve man’s problems.
However, we thank God that the way of salvation lies in God. The Bible tells us how God prepared a wonderful way of salvation for the human race in order to deal with and to meet all of man’s needs.
God’s wonderful way of salvation has three major steps, and each step comes out of God’s heart of love toward man. God has a fervent love for man. The Bible says, “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). If we consider the words of the Bible, we will see that God’s heart is set completely on man. God has no other love in this universe but man. Although we do not know why God loves man so much, we know that His entire heart is set on man. In a sense, all that He thinks of, all that He is concerned for, and all that He worries about is man. Human words cannot describe God’s love toward man. The Bible uses the love of a mother for her child to describe God’s love toward man (Isa. 66:13). From our experience we know that the greatest, richest, sweetest, and most intimate love is the love of a mother toward her children. However, the Bible says that God’s love toward man is greater than a mother’s love toward her children. God said, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, / That she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? / Even though they may forget, / Yet I will not forget you” (49:15). God is not willing to lose or forget man.
Without man, God would feel lonely and would not be satisfied. After creating the first man, Adam, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). In saying this, God was also referring to Himself. In other words, it is not good for God to be alone, to be without man. Therefore, He created man so that man could be His counterpart. As a result, God is man’s unique satisfaction, and man is God’s satisfaction. God is man’s happiness and rest, and man is God’s happiness and dwelling (Isa. 66:1-2). Man lacks everything if he lacks God, and God lacks satisfaction if He lacks man. If man does not have God, he is empty, and if God does not have man, He has no one to fill. Man needs God, but God also needs man. The relationship between man and God is like the relationship between children and their parents. Children need their parents, but parents need children even more. Although the prodigal son needed his father, he did not know how much more the loving father had been eagerly awaiting his return (Luke 15:20).
All parents find it difficult to sleep when their children are out until late at night. When the children are out wandering, they may forget about their parents, but their parents at home will be thinking of them restlessly. Sometimes when the children return home at three or four o’clock in the morning, they are fearful that the noise from parking their car or walking to the entrance might wake their parents. Thus, they try to come into the house quietly, expecting everyone to be asleep. They do not know that at the moment they stand at the entrance, their parents will hear them and will rush out to open the door and let them in. A parent’s heart is always thinking of his children.
Therefore, on the surface, children need their parents, but actually, parents need children more. Children who are without parents have no rest, and parents who are without children are even more without rest. This is the analogy that the Bible uses to describe God’s love toward man and His need for man. We often feel that, as desolated sinners, we greatly need God. But we hardly consider that God also needs the desolated sinners because His heart loves man, is toward man, and is fully on man.
God came to accomplish salvation for man because He loves man. God’s way of salvation has three major steps.
The first step of God’s wonderful way of salvation is His coming to be joined to man. Whether barbaric or civilized, whether in the ancient times or in the present, and whether in the East or in the West, man has always had the concept of worshipping God. In the ancient times of ignorance, in the mid-ancient age of superstition, and in the present century with all its technological advancements, man has been unable to break away from his concept of worshipping God. Not only are the uneducated countrymen fearful toward God, but also some famous scientists are filled with thoughts of worshipping God. Actually, the more intelligent and thoughtful a person is and the more feeling he has, the richer his concept of worshipping God will be. Those who are rich in emotions, deep in thought, and firm in will have a concept of God.
Someone once said that he who says in his mind that there is no God does not look like a man. History has proven that almost all atheists have lost their humanity and behave like beasts (Psa. 10:4; 14:1; Rom. 1:18-32). A proper man who is rich in his mind, emotion, and will has no way to deny that there is a God in the universe. This is the reason that the world is full of religions. Every nation and tribe has its ways of worshipping God. Although the objects of their worship may be different or completely wrong, mankind in general has the concept of worshipping God.
Man has a concept of worshipping God, because God desires that man have a relationship with Him. God created such a longing within man (Eccl. 3:11). However, the relationship that God desires to have with man is not merely that man would adore Him as a God who is high and far above man. God’s thought is deeper than this. God desires to enter into man and to have a life union with man. When a person thinks of God, his natural concept is that God is sitting in the heavens and that he, as man, is somewhere below. His thought is that God is high in heaven and that he is a small man on earth; hence, he can only prostrate and worship God from afar. It is far from man’s natural concept to think that God desires to enter into man and to have a union in life with man.
Once, I visited a famous Islamic mosque in Jerusalem. In the mosque many people were lined up to worship Allah, that is, God. Such a scene was touching. When these people reached the peak of their worship, they prostrated themselves with their whole body and even crawled. If I had asked them where the God whom they worshipped was, they would not have dared to lift up their heads and look at the heavens but would have kept their heads bowed with humility, saying, “God is in the heavens; He is honorable, high, and great; He is too noble, too glorious. We are people who are small and lowly; therefore, we dare not stand but can only prostrate ourselves to worship Him.” They worshipped five times from the morning to the evening, and they took turns to worship one group after another.
When I was visiting that place, I was impressed on the one hand, but on the other hand, I felt sorry for these people because they did not know who God is or how He wants man to worship Him. Although they genuinely had a heart to worship God, they did not know who God is, and they did not know the way to worship Him or the kind of relationship He desires to have with man. Today we need to know that the relationship God wants to have with man is not merely for man on earth to worship God in the heavens but for the God of the heavens to come to the earth and enter into man to have an intimate union with man. The heavenly God wants to be united with the earthly man to become one with this man. This is a wonderful step in God’s way of salvation, and it is the most mysterious item in the truth of the Bible. God desires to enter into man, to be joined to man, and to become one with man. The result of such a union has the appearance of man outwardly and the reality of God inwardly. In such a union God and man are joined and become one, with God being the life and content inwardly and man being the living and expression outwardly. This is God’s way of salvation.
The God in the heavens lowered Himself to become flesh (John 1:1, 14). He was born among men and entered into the human race. The God who is in heaven was born in Bethlehem to be a child, to be a man (Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:1). After being born, this little child was laid in a manger (Luke 2:7). According to His flesh, He was a man, a little child, but according to His inner being, He was God. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / ...And His name will be called / ...Mighty God, / Eternal Father” (9:6). He was a child, but He was also the mighty God. On the one hand, He was a human child, but on the other hand, He was the eternal Father. This child’s name was Jesus (Matt. 1:21).
Jesus was taken by His parents to Galilee and grew up in Nazareth (2:23). When He was thirty, He came out to minister throughout the land of Palestine (Luke 3:23). He lived for thirty-three and a half years and was crucified on a cross. While He was on the earth, the man Jesus spoke many words of wisdom that have never been conceived in the minds of intellects and philosophers throughout the generations (2:52; Matt. 13:54). Those who have studied the four Gospels acknowledge that the words that Jesus Christ spoke in the four Gospels are full of wisdom. A great philosopher in France once said that if the Jesus described in the four Gospels was fabricated by a man, the man who fabricated Him would be qualified to be Jesus Christ. This means that the only person who can have such wisdom is Jesus Christ.
The words of Jesus were not only words of wisdom but also words of authority (7:29). Although He was only in His thirties when He ministered on the earth, Jesus performed many signs and wonders. He spoke to calm the wind and the sea (8:26). He raised a man who had died, been buried, and become stinking (John 11:14, 17, 39, 43-44). He also caused the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear (Matt. 11:4-5). These facts cannot be erased from human history. Jesus was a man, yet He was able to do all these things. There was a mysterious story in Him, and this story is that God was in Him. He was not merely a man but was God manifested in man.
While Jesus was on the earth, those who followed Him saw the things that He did and were puzzled concerning Him. Thus, they asked Him and asked one another privately who He was (8:27; 21:10; John 8:25; 10:24). In appearance He was a man in every way. He was hungry when He did not eat, thirsty when He did not drink, and tired when He did not sleep. His stature was not different from others, and sometimes He wept (Matt. 4:2; Mark 11:12; John 4:6-7; Phil. 2:7-8; John 11:35). However, His words were full of wisdom and intelligence, and His actions were full of power and authority.
Although people at His time did not know who He was, we need to know who He is today. He is the Lord who created all things, the God of the heavens and the earth (1:3; Heb. 1:8, 10). In order to contact man, to be joined to man, and to put Himself before man, Jesus lowered Himself, put on the flesh, and became in the likeness of man so that He could be with and live with man (Phil. 2:5-8).
Generally speaking, it is difficult for a great person and a common person to contact each other. Whenever a great person comes, most common people will only look from afar and will not dare to come too close or to contact such a great person face to face and talk to him. If a great person desires to contact common people, he needs to lower himself, dress in a way that is more common than the common people, and have a pleasant smile so that the common people can contact him, talk with him, and touch him without fear.
This is the principle of God becoming flesh. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, outwardly His appearance was that of a man, but inwardly He was nothing less than the glorious and great God. If He had come only with majesty and had suddenly appeared among men, it would have been a tremendous matter, and many people would have been so frightened that they would have prostrated themselves on the ground. They would have had the sense that He was majestic and great and that they were poor and low. However, the Lord Jesus did not come in that way. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, the little children were not afraid of Him, the lepers were not afraid of Him, and even the corrupted people were not afraid of Him (Matt. 19:13-15; 8:2-3; Luke 15:1). Crowds were able to press upon Him, and a woman was able to touch the fringe of His garment (Matt. 9:20-22). Another woman was able to wipe His feet, and another was able to pour ointment upon His head (Luke 7:38; Matt. 26:7). People did not have the sense that He was someone great and exalted. He was more ordinary than any normal person.
Many people considered the Lord to be merely the son of a carpenter, with nothing extraordinary about Him (13:55; Luke 3:23). Although He was the son of an ordinary carpenter outwardly, in reality He was much more than this. As a man who had a poor and low origin, He had no attracting form nor majesty (Isa. 53:2-3). He had no air of self-importance about Him. Outwardly, He was ordinary, and thus, everyone could come close to Him and contact Him. Inwardly, however, He had God within Him. He was the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). The Lord Jesus was God manifested in the flesh. Today this principle of God becoming man to contact man remains the same.
In any philosophy or religion, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Islam, none of the followers have the sense that the leader of their philosophy or religion is close to them or related to them. When a person does not believe in the Lord Jesus, He seems very far from him, but immediately after he believes in the Lord, he has the sense that the Lord has come into him. When a believer prays to the Lord, he senses that the Lord Jesus is dwelling in him. Many Buddhists often burn incense and chant Buddhist scriptures, but in their chanting, none of them feel that Buddha has come into them. Their sense is that Buddha is still outside of them. However, all the believers in Jesus can testify that when they believed in Jesus, mysteriously they sensed that Jesus came into them, and when they pray to Him, this sense within them becomes stronger.
Many people can testify to the reality of Jesus dwelling in them, and anyone can pray to Him. When a person first begins to pray, he may feel that the Lord is still in heaven, and he is on earth. However, after praying for only five minutes, he will feel that Jesus is very near. If he prays for another five minutes, he will sense that Jesus has come into him. If he prays for an additional ten or twenty minutes, he will have many “stories” of Jesus being in him. If he continues to pray, after five additional minutes he will sense Jesus speaking within him; after ten minutes he will feel that Jesus is supplying him with power; and after fifteen minutes he will sense that he and Jesus have been mingled together to become one. This is a wonderful and inexplicable feeling. Every believer in Jesus should have this kind of experience in prayer.
A new believer shared his experience after believing in the Lord, saying, “I not only believed but also prayed. After I prayed, I had some experiences of the Lord.” The longer we believe in the Lord and the more we pray, the more we will be filled with many experiences of the Lord. Our only regret will be that we did not pray enough.
Recently, a certain hostel hired a new manager. One night, while the manager’s wife was ironing her clothes with an electric iron, she had to take care of her child. Thus, she ironed for a little while and went to check on her child. However, after checking on her child, she fell asleep and left the electric iron plugged in. The iron continued to heat up, and after some time the iron overheated and was set on fire. The flames from the burning iron set the table on fire, and because the table was close to the wall, the wall also was set on fire. Since the hostel was a wooden building and the fire occurred between three and four o’clock in the morning, it was probable that the hostel would burn down. However, a brother who usually did not wake up at night was staying in the hostel. That night this brother suddenly woke up because he had to use the restroom. When he opened the door, he saw the fire burning and rushed to put the fire out. His action saved the hostel from burning down.
Although many people may consider this brother’s timely awakening to be coincidental, if we asked other Christians, they would testify of many similar experiences. If such experiences occurred only once or twice, they could be considered coincidence. However, if these experiences occur often, we must admit that they are stories of Jesus in us.
We can compare ourselves to an electric iron, God to the source of electricity, and Jesus Christ to the electricity. If we remain “plugged in,” joined to Christ without any interruption, and open our heart to Him by praying to Him with our full attention, coming to Him and waiting on Him, His life will flow into us continuously. As a result, we will be set on fire.
I often say to Christians that if they quiet themselves before the Lord Jesus and pray earnestly to Him for an hour, their cold and hardened heart of hatred will be softened, set on fire, and full of love. The longer we pray to the Lord Jesus, the more He comes to us and makes us willing to be filled with Him. This is the wonderful way of God’s salvation. God is not merely sitting on His throne in heaven and commanding angels to rescue us, nor is He merely sending forth a surge of power to meet our need when we pray. This is not God’s way of salvation. God’s way of salvation is to enter into us, join with us, and bear every burden with us. Whenever we call on Him, He enters into us to be our power to strengthen us and our life to supply us.
Once, after I spoke to some highly educated people with high-ranking professions about God’s way of salvation, they invited me to speak with them in their office. They said that although my speaking was good, it seemed to be superstitious. They thought that Jesus coming into us by our praying to Him was superstitious. Thus, they asked me to give them some examples. I responded that it was difficult to give examples, because God’s salvation is a matter of life within us, but I could tell them of my experience. I said, “Although you did not know me before my salvation, I can tell you that I was worse than you. I was exceedingly impatient and strict; if a person said something wrong or did something improper, I would hit him. This is the kind person that I was. However, what do you think about me today?” They responded, “Based on what we see, you are quite a nice person.” Then I asked, “How could I have changed from the kind of person that I was to being a nice person? I am not the only one like this; there are many others who have had similar experiences. How could they have changed from what they were to be nice persons?” They all admitted that they did not know.
Then I answered emphatically, “There is no other reason — not my will, self-cultivation, or trying hard to restrict myself — but my praying to the Lord Jesus. Since the day I believed in Him, I have prayed to Him every day. I can testify that it has been impossible for me not to be set on fire after praying for half an hour, and it has been impossible for me not to be changed after praying for an hour. Before praying, I might have envied and hated a certain person, but after praying to the Lord Jesus for half an hour, the envy and hatred within me were dissolved. After praying for another half an hour, it became impossible for me not to love the person whom I hated. After praying yet another half an hour, I was compelled to run to this person, shake his hand, and with tears speak words of love to him. Such a burning fire and such a change from being cold to being hot are absolutely not generated from within me but from Jesus Christ entering into me.”
Many electrical appliances can receive the flow of electricity, yet no one can see the electricity in these appliances. That electricity is able to pass through electrical appliances is a fact, yet man cannot see the electricity. Many households can use a radio to receive the radio waves from the United States and listen to radio programs from the United States. By means of a little radio the activities in the Western Hemisphere are made known to the people in the Eastern Hemisphere without connecting any electric wires. Today there is a very small radio that a person can carry around with him. When he turns it on, he is able to hear voices from the United States and from South America. This is wonderful. God is Spirit (John 4:24), and in the same way that electricity is transmitted into electrical appliances, He transmits Himself into man. God’s way of salvation is wonderful.
The Chinese characters for Spirit and electricity are grouped together, both containing the same radical. This is meaningful. It indicates that the Spirit, like electricity, is invisible yet real and has an expressed reality. God does not want to be separated from man. Rather, He desires to reach man and enter into man. Therefore, in Christ, through His death and resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). He did not remain a God far away in heaven who bestows favor on man to save man on earth. Rather, He became a man, lived a human life, died on the cross, and was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit in order to enter into man on earth. Wherever and whenever anyone calls upon Him, He will enter into him and operate within him. When He enters into man, He enters not as someone extraordinary but as the Spirit to be joined with man’s spirit as one spirit (6:17); thus, it is difficult for man to distinguish whether he is experiencing the Spirit of God or the spirit of man, or whether the one living is God or man. This is the way that God joins Himself with man to become one with man, and this is the mystery of the faith of a Christian.
This joining of God to man is the power of a Christian (Phil. 4:13). Most people acknowledge that the most powerful preachers are Christians. This is because there is a motivating power within Christians that makes it impossible for them to stop preaching. Often people ask me what advantages I gain from preaching and why I am burdened to persuade people to believe in Jesus. I respond by telling them that there is no advantage; there is only a story. The story is that if I do not pray for thirty days, I will not preach the gospel, but if I pray for half an hour in the morning, I must preach the gospel on that day. I cannot help it; once I pray to Jesus, I must preach Jesus. If I do not preach Jesus, He will bother me within. If I speak Him forth, He will be happy, and I will be at peace. The more I speak, the happier I am. Therefore, I am always thankful for many of my dear friends who have given me great opportunities to preach Jesus to many people. Whenever I preach Jesus, my heart is full of joy, and I am able to go home and sleep peacefully. I can testify that every time I preach the Lord Jesus, I mysteriously have peace and power within.
The peace and power that I enjoy is Jesus Christ. He enters into man to be man’s life and power. If a person desires to overcome sin, to have a proper living, or to live in the light, it is futile for him to make up his mind, practice self-cultivation, and try harder. There is only one way of salvation, the way of calling on the name of the Lord Jesus so that He immediately enters into you (Acts 4:10-12; Rom. 10:13). Once He enters into you, all your sins will be forgiven and forgotten (Heb. 10:17-18), all your lusts will be subdued (Rom. 8:1-2), and you will become a proper person who lives in the light (Eph. 5:8; 1 John 1:7). Once the Lord Jesus enters into you, you will be able to love whatever you were unable to love in the past, you will be able to endure whatever you were unable to endure previously, you will readily forgive what you formerly could not forgive, and you will easily bear what you previously could not bear. Once He enters into you, your entire perspective will be changed. Jesus is God, and once He enters into you, He joins Himself to your spirit to become your life (Col. 3:4) and causes you to be filled with power (Eph. 1:19).
In this chapter we have covered only the first of the three steps of the wonderful way of God’s salvation to man. In the following chapter we will cover the two remaining steps. I hope that many will see clearly that God’s way of salvation is to enter into us and to be joined with us. We only need to open our heart, receive Him into us, confess our sins, unload our transgressions, and let His Spirit fill us inwardly. If we are willing to believe and to pray in this way, He will enter into us and save us to the uttermost.
