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Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:6-10; 2 Cor. 4:7
Philippians 3:8 says, “On account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” The words excellency and transcendence are very close in meaning to Paul’s words in the original language, both meaning “super-eminence.” Based on these two verses we know that the Christ in whom we believe and whom we experience is the One who surpasses and transcends all. If we carefully consider these two verses, we will know what kind of heart and understanding we should have in order to comprehend Christ.
Today we are in an era in which human culture is already six thousand years old. In these six thousand years human society has had many inventions, and the first invention was human culture. Genesis 1 shows us that God’s purpose in creating man in His image and according to His likeness was that man might express Him. Regretfully, before this purpose could be fulfilled, Satan came and tempted man to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The result was that man was joined to Satan. Thus, man fell away from God’s will and lost God. Once man lost God, he did not have any protection, satisfaction, or joy. Therefore, man invented culture as a substitute for God. Genesis 4 shows us that the first few generations of human beings invented different kinds of weapons for self-defense; they invented different kinds of tools for cattle-raising and farming to feed and satisfy themselves; and they invented musical instruments for their amusement (vv. 20-22).
Protection, satisfaction, and enjoyment are man’s three great needs. Originally, God met these three needs, but after man lost God, human culture was invented as a replacement of God to meet these three needs. Today the things sold in the stores are all for man to be protected, satisfied, and entertained. Man needs these things because he does not have God. If we have God, then He is our safeguard, satisfaction, and joy. Today the most cultured countries are all trying to meet these three kinds of needs. They spend large amounts of money on national defense for man’s protection, they develop industry and improve agriculture for man’s satisfaction, and they promote different kinds of recreation and music for man’s amusement. This shows that man does not have God within him. Without God, man needs these things.
Man realized that he still was not inwardly satisfied with human culture alone, even though he had protection, food, and amusement. Why is this? It is because these three things can satisfy the needs only in man’s body and soul but cannot meet the need in his spirit. There is a need in the spirit of man that cannot be satisfied with anything apart from God. Hence, man invented worship.
Over the past six thousand years, all nations, whether big or small, barbaric or civilized, have engaged in the worship of birds, beasts, creeping things, or other kinds of idols. This is what Paul says in Romans 1, that man changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. For example, the Japanese people worship snakes and superstitiously believe that snakes can get rid of evil. The Chinese worship dragons and believe that dragons can bring good fortune. In addition, the Persians worship fire. There is really no end to these strange things. People have all kinds of worship, but they worship wrongly. Worship is a human necessity. A more civilized term for the word worship is religion. Religion is a human invention; it is the product of human culture. Religion teaches people according to the object of their worship; the teaching is based on what they worship. Furthermore, religion is also used to regulate man’s heart. This is why the rulers throughout the ages would never reject religion. In their consideration it is more effective to have religion along with culture. Religion is a great help to culture.
We all know that based on Marxism, Lenin advocated atheism and practiced communism, but the result proved that this was ineffective. Within humans there is the need for religion. At present, in the Soviet Union the percentage of people who go to church for Sunday worship is greater than that in England. The spirit in man needs God. Hence, man cannot be a godless man; even atheists need God. Around 1954 I read a newspaper article in the Philippines, which said that when Beria, the chief secret agent under Stalin, was on the execution field, the execution officer gave him a few minutes and told him that whatever he asked for would be given to him. At the hour of his death Beria said, “I want a Bible.” Such an atheist, a real Communist chief secret agent, asked for a Bible before his death. This tells us that within him there was a need for God. Later, Kruschev, the man who pronounced the death sentence on Beria, was banished to Siberia. I once read a booklet which said that when Kruschev was in Siberia, he repented and believed in the Lord. The Chinese have a saying: “A man speaks the good when he is about to die.” When a person is about to die, he cannot be hardened; he will repent and believe in God. Everyone needs God.
I believe that some people have read the book Fragrant Myrrh, which is the autobiography of a French woman named Madame Guyon who lived over three hundred years ago. Madame Guyon was born into an aristocratic French family. One evening she attended an elegant ball and danced until late that night. Upon returning home she sat there asking herself, “What meaning does this have? My own family and my husband’s family are both aristocrats and are wealthy. Everything is available for my enjoyment. I do not know how many balls like this I have attended, but what meaning did tonight’s ball have?” The more she thought about it, over and over again, the more she felt that it was meaningless. She took off her dancing shoes and gown and threw them down on the floor. In that instant she felt that she should get up and pray to the Lord. From the depths of her being she prayed to the Lord, and her entire person changed. Later, Madame Guyon became a spiritual person with a deeper experience of the Lord than many in those hundred years following the bringing in of the Reformation by Martin Luther. Her experiences became a help for the next three hundred years to those seeking the growth of the inner life. This also proves that in man’s deepest part there is a need that only God can satisfy.
The Bible often uses the word thirst to describe this human need. Man has a need like that of a thirsty person who needs to drink water. If someone is thirsty and you give him billions of dollars worth of gold, silver, and precious stones, it still will not quench even the slightest bit of his thirst. Only a glass of water can quench his thirst.
The thirst of the human spirit can be quenched only by the living water. Who is this living water? The Bible says that this living water is God Himself, the Lord Jesus, and the Spirit (John 7:37-39). God is the source of the living water, the Lord Jesus is the course of the living water, and the Holy Spirit is the flowing into us of the living water. God flowed out in Christ, and Christ became the Spirit of life to flow into us as the living water. Only this living water can quench the thirst of man’s spirit. Hence, this living water is what everyone needs.
Moreover, in human culture people discovered that man is corrupted. Although man’s corruption is not always manifested, there is, nevertheless, the seed of corruption within him. However, people discovered that within man there is also good. Therefore, the Chinese philosophers argued as to whether man’s nature is good or evil. Both theories are correct. When God created man, his human nature was good, but after man fell, his nature became evil. Thus, ethics were produced and added to human culture. The ancient Chinese sages all spoke about ethics.
Every nation has its own traditions. The Chinese have their traditions that were handed down from their ancestors through the generations. These traditions are in the blood of the Chinese people. In the same way, the Japanese, the Arabs, the Indians, and the Jews all have their own traditions.
We all know that when someone is born, he is right away under the four great, permeating influences of culture, religion, ethics, and tradition. Today the entire human society is influenced by these four items, even to the extent that man has become a composition of these four items. Simply put, man is an entity of culture, religion, ethics, and tradition combined. I have spoken about these four matters, but these are not my burden; my burden is Christ. These four items are not Christ; they are all replacements of Christ.
Stanza 3 of Hymns, #541 says,
No philosophy or ethical element can produce the members of Christ, nor can they produce the Body of Christ — an organic church. Stanza 4 says,
All our problems are due to our lack of Christ. If we lack Christ, we are like a human body lacking nutrition, and this allows all kinds of sickness to come in. Once the nutrients are balanced and complete, then the sickness goes away. This is similar to what stanza 5 says:
This surpassing Christ, this transcendent Christ, is different from religion. Most people confuse Christ and religion, thinking that Christ is the founder of the Christian religion. Strictly speaking, this is not accurate. In Philippians 3:6 Paul says, “As to zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, become blameless.” These two clauses tell us that Paul had been one hundred percent a Jewish religionist. The Jewish religion is a religion formed according to God’s holy Word in the Old Testament. It keeps God’s holy Word and teaches people to worship the unique, true God and to act and behave according to His commandments so that they may please Him. However, all those who have read the four Gospels in the New Testament know that the true God whom the Jews had worshipped from antiquity was one day incarnated to be a man. God Himself became flesh, was born in a manger, grew up in a poor family, and came out of a despised, remote region. He was Jesus, who is God, the Creator. He is the God of the universe, the Lord of all. The name Jesus means “Jehovah the Savior” or “the salvation of Jehovah.” Therefore, Jesus in the New Testament refers to Jehovah in the Old Testament.
Recently, I read a tenet of faith, which was put out by a very large, respected denomination. It said that the One who visited Abraham in Genesis 18, the Jehovah whose feet Abraham washed, for whom he killed a calf and spread a feast, and with whom Abraham ate, was the Jesus in the New Testament. This is definitely right. However, the Jews wanted their traditional religion and rejected the Savior Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus came to the temple, the Jews considered Him a Samaritan and one who had a demon (John 8:48); they did not want the Lord Jesus. Please tell me, who crucified the Lord Jesus? It was not merely Pilate the Roman governor, because he was in favor of releasing Jesus; three times he declared that he found no fault in Jesus. The Jews, however, demanded that Pilate release Barabbas the robber and crucify Jesus. Therefore, it was the Jewish religion, the high priest, the Pharisees, and the elders who crucified the Lord through the hands of the Romans soldiers. The religionists care for religion; they do not care for Christ.
Before Paul was saved, his name was Saul, and he was zealous for the Jewish religion. Acts 9:1-2 says, “Saul, still breathing threatening and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to Damascus for the synagogues, so that if he found any who were of the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” He was not only zealous for religion, but even more, he was carrying out the orders of the religious leaders to arrest anyone who called on the name of the Lord. However, as he was on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus came, and a light from heaven flashed around him. Then he fell to the ground and received revelation. After this incident he understood that the entire Old Testament spoke of this Jesus whom he had persecuted. He began to know Christ and went on further to appreciate Christ. Thus, he was able to write the book of Philippians, telling people that he had once been zealous in the Jewish religion. As to zeal, he persecuted the church with the intention to completely eliminate the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, he became blameless. But the things that had been gains to him, these he now counted as loss on account of Christ (Phil. 3:6-7). In the past he did not have Christ, so he practiced the righteousness which is in the law and considered it a gain, but now he counted it as loss on account of Christ. This is because Christ is far superior to religion and the law.
In January and February of 1937 I went from Shanghai, passing through Hangchow, to Nanking to hold a gospel conference. During that conference a group of highly educated people came to hear the gospel. One of them was a very modern lady who listened with complete attention to the gospel that I was preaching. After one evening meeting, she came up to the front to see me and said, “Mr. Lee, what you have preached in these past few evenings has touched me very much; I am willing to believe. But I would like to ask you if I can do a certain thing after I have believed in the Lord. If I can do it, then I will certainly believe the gospel that you preach. My believing is totally dependent on your answer to this question.” Then she continued, “After believing in the Lord, I will be able to give up anything, but there is one thing that will be very difficult for me to give up. I like to go to the opera. From my youth I went to the opera with my father, and I have become addicted to it. I can give up breathing, but if I cannot go to the opera, then I will not be able to live. My husband has also been influenced by me. Now that I have heard you speak about Jesus, you have really persuaded me and made me very willing to believe. But if I believe in the Lord Jesus and cannot go to the opera, what will I do? If you say that I cannot go, then I will not believe. If you say that I can go, then I will believe.” This question was certainly a hard one to answer. It so happened that by her side she had a three-or four-year-old child, and the Lord gave me wisdom to answer. I said, “Madam, all children like to play with knives. If your child was playing with a sharp knife and was about to have an accident, what would you do? Would you grab the knife away from him?” She was very clever and immediately thought of the chocolate candy that was so famous in Shanghai and Nanking at that time, so she said, “That is easy; I would scatter pieces of chocolate candy all over the floor; then the child would go to pick up the candy, and in the end he would not want the knife.” I said, “Chinese opera is a sharp knife. Without Christ, you have nothing that can satisfy you, so you need to go to the opera. But now I am scattering the pieces of chocolate candy. Do you see? I have lots of ‘chocolate’; this is Christ. Do not ask me if you can go to the opera, but only believe in Christ and see if He satisfies you to the extent that you will not want other things.” She said, “That is very reasonable; I will believe in Him.” Christ is truly far superior to all other things and matters.
In China I once met some scholars who studied the works of Confucius and Mencius, and when I preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus to them, they all said very proudly, “You Christians who believe the Western religion preached by the Westerners are very shallow. The Western culture is materialistic and superficial, so why should we follow it? Our upbringing is not like a tree without roots or water without a source, but it is with roots and with a source, as what Wang Yang-ming the philosopher said.” If I had not had some foundation in the truth, I would have been confounded by their speaking. In spite of the fact that the philosophers have good things, the best of their good things is merely brass, and when real gold is brought out, the brass is shown to be worthless. The Lord gave me wisdom, and I said to them, “Sirs, please do not be hasty. Show me the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and I will also read a few verses of the Bible to you so that we can make a comparison.” Eight or nine times out of ten, this kind of person would bring out The Great Learning because this book is their specialty. It says that the principle of the great learning is in developing the bright virtue, in introducing new life to people, and in attaining the highest good. Even though this is good, it is still merely brass. They brought out the doctrine of the great learning, so I brought out the Word of mystery, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality” (John 1:1, 14). This is not the bright virtue; this is grace and reality. The bright virtue is the conscience, and to develop the bright virtue is to cultivate the conscience. If the conscience were not cultivated, it would be dimmed; this is to neglect the bright virtue, to disregard the conscience. I said to one person, “Sir, please speak according to your conscience. If your son and someone else’s son both went to take a competitive examination and the other person’s son passed while your son failed, would you be happy or not?” He said, “Of course, I would not be very happy.” He said this even though to be unhappy is to disregard the bright virtue instead of developing it.
The Bible speaks of God, of the Word who was in the beginning, and of the Word becoming flesh. This Word, however, is not the doctrine of great learning; this Word is God. When the Word became flesh, that was God coming to the earth as a man. When God came, both grace and reality came. The Chinese philosophers do not know what reality is. I told the scholars that the so-called ethics and morality were created by God for man. Philippians 4:8 says that we must take account of the things that are true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of; this means that we must live these virtues out. These virtues, which were created by God for man and are all in the human nature, are only empty shells and are not the reality; they are empty terms, having only a name and are without reality.
When God became a man, that is, when the Lord Jesus came to be our Savior, He brought the reality of these virtues with Him. Then He died for us, was resurrected, and became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us, His believers, to be our life and our content. In this way He lives out of us a kind of living that is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of. When this happens, man has not only empty terms and expressions, but he also has the reality. The reality is not lived out by us; it is lived out by God from within us — after He became the life-giving Spirit to come into our spirit as our life.
I can testify that some of the Chinese Confucian scholars became truly convinced, and they confessed that the teaching of the Bible is superior to the principles of The Great Learning. Actually, there is no comparison. Paul was originally a “Confucian scholar” and a “Wang Yang-ming” in Judaism. He thoroughly studied the Jewish religion as well as the Greek culture and philosophy, but after he was conquered by the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, he saw that everything in Judaism was an empty shell, just as the tabernacle was an empty shell and was not the reality.
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” When Jesus came, God came. When God came in the flesh, He dwelt among men as a tabernacle. The tabernacle in the Old Testament was a shell, a shadow; the Lord Jesus is the body, or the reality, of that tabernacle. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” All the Jews at that time understood this sentence because every day they slaughtered the lambs and offered them as sacrifices for the daily redemption of sins, but they did not understand that the blood of the lambs that they killed could not wash away their sins, because it was only a type, a shadow. It is just like the airplane in a kindergarten textbook. It is a picture, not a real plane. You may teach the children to say that it is an airplane, but it is still only a picture. A plane flying in the air is the reality.
Now the reality has come, and the reality is Jesus. Jesus is God who became a man; His becoming a man is the reality. Thus, He is the virtues, He is the morality, and He is the ethics. What things are true, what things are dignified, what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are lovely, and what things are well spoken of — Jesus is all these. He is all the virtues: He is our humility, He is our honoring toward our parents, He is our love toward our wives, He is our submission toward our husbands, and He is our love toward all. Without Him, everything is empty and is without reality. Who is He? He is the real and living Creator who was born of a virgin to be a man, and His name is Jesus. He is God, and He is also man. He died for our sins, and then He resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit. Today He is not only in the heavens as the Lord and Christ, but He has also entered into our spirit to be our life (10, Rom. 8:34).
The meaning of Christ as our life is very deep and mysterious, and it is also very important. Once Christ becomes our life, He becomes our everything. We all know that everything we have depends upon our human life. If I were to die today, everything that is of me would be finished, but while I am living here, I can talk, eat, drink, and put on clothes. I can do this and that. When a person has life, he can do everything. When a person does not have life, everything is finished. The Lord Jesus Christ has come into us to be our life, that is, to be our everything. He has become our love. Our love for others is not our own love; our own love is empty, but His love is reality. Without Christ, all human virtues are empty shells; they are like a glove without a hand in it; the glove therefore is empty. All our virtues, such as love, kindness, goodness, humility, and refinement, should be Christ. Christ is everything because He is our life. Paul says that he was once zealous for religion, killing Christians, and keeping the law in such a way that he was blameless. He had once considered those things precious, but then he considered them as loss, as dung. The religion and law that he had before were like junk, but now he obtained Christ, who is like gold and gems. Christ in him was not an empty doctrine but a reality. The Christ whom he had obtained was the real and living God, the real and living Lord. Because Paul had the One of peerless worth in the universe, he suffered the loss of all things and considered them dung.
I grew up in China and saw a number of Chinese who were moral. Their morality was quite high, but they did not have Christ within them. On the other hand, I also saw a few of the Western missionaries who went to China whose love and morality were truly outstanding and remarkable because their love and morality had Christ in them. The morality of the Chinese moralists is purely Chinese morality without Christ. However, if Christ is in me, when I love, it is not I who love, but Christ who loves. I have been crucified with Christ, and I am completely finished. Now it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. It is not I who love nor I who obey nor I who honor my parents; even more, it is not I who am gracious, kind, and virtuous, but it is He. My loving is His loving; it is He who loves from within me. My honoring my parents is His honoring; it is He who honors them from within me. This is because He already lives in us as our everything, and as long as we live according to this Christ who is within us, He will be all the virtues being lived out from within us. Thus, we will become those who live in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2).
In Philippians 3:9 Paul says, “And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.” Paul had been altogether in the Jewish religion under the law and had always been found by others in the law. However, when he saw the great light on the road to Damascus, he repented and received revelation (Gal. 1:15-16). Then he turned from the law and the religion of his ancestors to Christ and aspired to have his entire being saturated with Christ and filled with Christ that Christ might overflow from him so that all who observed him might find him to be one who was fully in Christ. This was why he said, “Not having my own righteousness...but that which is through faith in Christ.” This was to be in Christ, where Paul aspired to be found by others. God could be expressed through him only in such a surpassing condition. Such a condition was not the result of his keeping the law but of his living Christ. This was not Paul’s behavior or Paul’s righteousness but God’s righteousness obtained through faith in Christ.
The salvation that we have obtained today is a salvation not by relying on Christ but by living in Christ. Today we are not just in Christ, but we are even living in Him. This can be compared to taking a 747 jet plane. We can walk up and down within the plane. We not only sit in the plane, but we also live in the plane. Paul says that he wanted to be found living in Christ. Christ is not only our life but also the realm of our living; we can live in Him. First Corinthians 1:30 says that it is of God that we are in Christ. God has made Christ to be our righteousness. When we are joined to Him and live Him out, we have the righteousness which is in Him.
Christ is living. Once He gets into our spirit, He has an organic union with us. Because of this organic union, we can have a kind of living that is not lived out by us but lived out by Christ from within us. In this way the righteousness of God is manifested in us. This is the living that Paul desired to live out. Paul knew Christ, appreciated Christ, and realized that Christ was exceedingly precious; so he diligently pursued the experience of Christ. We need to experience Christ and the power of His resurrection. Resurrection is a matter of life. A stone cannot resurrect, but a seed can because the seed has the power of life within it. Christ is in us as a seed that sprouts and grows within us to bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.
As we have seen, we are not in religion but in Christ. Christ is life, and within Him as the seed of life there is the power of resurrection. He grows within us so that we may participate in His sufferings, being conformed to His death. In this way we experience His resurrection power and know that He is a treasure within us. In this treasure there is an exceedingly great power, even the most excellent power. This transcendent and remarkable power, which is in us, enables us to endure the sufferings that others cannot bear and to live a life that others cannot live, thereby manifesting the fragrance of Christ. Through the power of His resurrection Christ leads us in joyful triumph in His victory procession and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us.
This is the transcendence of Christ. This is the Christ whom we live out. This is not human culture, religion, philosophy, ethics, morality, traditions, or customs. This is the living Christ as life within us who is leading us in triumph and manifesting His fragrance.
