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Last Lord's Day, we saw that it is possible for every Christian to have a life that is perfect [see "The Extent of the Believer's Salvation," Collected Works, Volume 8]. It is possible for him to have a pure conscience, a clean heart, and to be anxious for nothing. It is possible for his mind to be single and undistracted. It is possible for him to obey God and love Him absolutely. It is possible for him to overcome whatever peculiar physical constitution he has, and to present his members as weapons of righteousness to God unto sanctification. Every Christian can reach the point where he can say that he is crucified with Christ and that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him. This is possible and attainable. Today I will speak on another subject, which is the way to obtain the overcoming life.
When Christ lived on the earth, He was absolutely obedient to God. He had absolutely no love for the world, and He did not speak or walk according to His own will. He never allowed any temptation to overcome Him, and He never sinned. He was obedient to God unto death. This was the life of Christ.
But how about us? Have we obeyed God absolutely? No. Have we denied our self-will completely? No. Are we sinless? No. Are we totally free from the love of the world? We may not love the world outwardly, but our heart loves it secretly. Has anyone here never been shaken by any temptation? No. This is terrible! According to the Bible, a Christian should obey God absolutely. He should not love the world or go along with his own will. He should not sin at all or be shaken by any temptation. But brothers and sisters, both you and I have to confess that this is impossible! We have been Christians for more than one or two years. Some of us may even have been Christians for three, four, or five years. Where have we been successful during these years? We often repent, feel remorseful, or even weep. But where is our victory?
We know the standard of a Christian set forth in the Bible. We must absolutely deny our self, we must be righteous as God is righteous, and we must pursue after the kingdom with singleness of heart. But what is our real condition? We often sin, our hearts are unclean, and we still lose our temper. We love the world secretly, and we are controlled by our lusts. We do not like to read the Bible or pray, and sometimes we almost think that it would be better if we were not Christians at all.
The Bible says that we "ought to," but we say that we "cannot." Truly, we always "ought to," but it is also true that we forever "cannot." Can we lower the standard of God's truth? Can we say that it is all right for us to sin just once? Can we say that some should love God, obey God, deny themselves, and be holy, but that this standard is not necessarily for everyone, but only for a few special ones?
Brothers and sisters, we have seen that although we cannot make it in ourselves, there is One who has made it. This One is Christ. We ought to be perfect, but we cannot be perfect. Yet Christ has made it; He is perfect. This shows us three things:
(1) The standard which God has set for our living is something which every Christian should be able to achieve.
(2) However, we cannot meet this standard.
(3) Throughout history, only one person made it — Christ.
Do we believe that we cannot make it? Yes. Do we believe that Christ has made it? Yes. All of us must admit that we ought to make it, but we cannot. However, we also must admit that Christ has made it all the way to perfection. What then does this mean? A standard of living that is according to God can only be lived out by God. This is true because God is higher than we are. But this would be true even if God were lower than us; there must be the same kind of life in order to have the same kind of living. Only a bird can live a bird's life, and only a beast can live a beast's life. Therefore, only God can live God's life. Since Christ is God, only He can live out God's life.
Philippians 1:21 says, "To me, to live is Christ." Does it say that to live is to be like Christ? No. Does it say that to live is to imitate Christ? No. Does it say that to live is to make Christ our pattern and example, and to follow Christ? No. It says, "To me, to live is Christ." It is absolutely useless to imitate or to do good. Even if we can read the Bible, pray, live a good life, and pursue diligently, as long as we have a wrong life, we will still end up with a wrong living. We may yearn, weep, repent, and pray to God, "God, I really want to obey You," but there is something basically wrong with us — we have a wrong life.
God has not merely put Christ on the cross to die for us; He has made Christ our life. Brothers and sisters, please be clear that God has no intention that we live the Christian life in such a difficult way. God wants us to be Christians, but He has no intention that we be like monkeys who are taught to put on clothes, to eat, and to move around. For a monkey to imitate a man is a great suffering. It would prefer to be a monkey rather than learn how to be a man. God has no intention of dealing with us in this way.
We have no taste for reading the Bible even for five minutes. Yet we have considerable interest in reading other books. We get nothing from our prayer. Yet if we do not pray, our conscience condemns us. We cannot give up the world. Yet we have no peace when we love the world. It is truly difficult to be a Christian, and it is impossible to live as God does. What a suffering this is! Yet it is good that we can still suffer, because this proves that we are still on the right path. If you do not feel any suffering at all, I feel sorry for you, because this means that you have left the proper path.
The world's temptations are often great, yet we have nothing to say about them because we are inwardly touched by them, and we can only sympathize with others for being the same. When we see a person giving himself to the Lord, turning his back on the world, and turning to God to obey Him, we think how wonderful it would be if we could do the same. So we make an effort to try again, only to realize the suffering related to the attempt. Brothers and sisters, it would indeed be a great suffering if God required that we be such a Christian. How can one succeed when the standard is so high? It is cruel to ask a five-year-old child to lift a three- hundred-pound burden. It would be inhuman to ask a child to bear a ten-thousand-pound weight. Yet asking a Christian to live a life that belongs only to God involves a greater suffering than asking a five-year-old child to bear a three- hundred or ten-thousand-pound weight.
Many times we make an effort to try. We try to suffer through it, or not exercise a craving for it. But we find ourselves committing one sin after another. We have not finished repenting before the things for which we repented come back. While our tears are still wet, the things for which we shed tears come back. Brothers and sisters, it would be wonderful if we believed that we cannot make it. God does not want us to try. The Bible says that the life God gives is not a life which falls and repents over and over again. It is a life in which "to me, to live is Christ." It is a life in which the Lord Jesus lives within us and out of us.
Mary gave the Lord a body, and through this body the Lord manifested the life of God. In the same way, we should give ourselves to the Lord and receive Him into us. When we do this, He will make us live a life that is the same as His.
Brothers and sisters, a Christian does not need to try or imitate in order to be holy, to deny the self, to love the Lord singleheartedly, and to obey Him absolutely, because God has prepared Christ for us. This is the full salvation. God has appointed Christ to do two things. On the one hand, Christ has kept the law for us. On the other hand, He inwardly empowers us to keep God's law. On the one hand, He died for us, and on the other hand, He lives for us. He accomplished salvation for us at Golgotha and applies this accomplishment at Golgotha in us. At Golgotha, He justified us. Now He lives within us to enable us to live righteously. Not only has He obeyed God, but He now lives in us to enable us also to obey God. Not only has He done things on our behalf, but He is now doing things within us.
Here we see the importance of resurrection. Paul said, "And if Christ has not been raised...you are still in your sins" (1 Cor. 15:17). He did not say that the record of our sins was still present; Christ has died, and the record of our sins has been removed. But if Christ had not resurrected, we would still be in our sins, and our salvation would only be a half salvation. In our preaching of the gospel, we often compare the act of sin to owing a debt; Christ is like a rich friend whose death repays our debt. This, of course, is right, and it is the gospel. But unfortunately, this is only a half salvation. It is true that the Lord Jesus has paid our debt, but we must ask if He has done more than just pay our debt. Will we not incur any more debt? Since He has cleared our old debt, will we incur new debts? If we continue to incur more debt that our Friend has to take care of, even though what we once owed has been paid by our Friend, is our salvation only a half salvation? Is God's salvation all about continuing to owe, even though our Friend has paid our debt, and continuing to sin, even though Christ has died for us?
Oh, God's salvation is the Lord Jesus dying for us at Golgotha and living within us. He has paid all our debts, and He lives in us so that we do not have to be in debt anymore. God has not saved us from hell merely to go to heaven. He has saved us to the extent that Christ becomes our life. If we only receive half of this salvation, we will surely suffer and not have the joy of salvation. Jesus Christ is our life. God does not say that a Christian should do this and do that. Paul said, "For to me, to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). Paul was able to bear all the beatings and persecutions, pass through all kinds of danger, and be imprisoned in Jerusalem and sent to Rome because Christ lived in him. He was not trying to be like Christ, nor was he imitating Christ. He was what he was because Christ was living in him. Otherwise, he would not have been able to live the way he did. Just as a monkey cannot become a man, a Christian cannot learn to be "like Christ."
Philippians 2:12-13 says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure." Verse 1:21 tells us about Paul's personal experience. These two verses tell us what every Christian can experience.
When some people read, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," they think that salvation is something to be worked out. Therefore, they make up their minds to rise up early to read the Bible and to be zealous to testify to others. But they fail because they have forgotten the words in verse 13 which say, "For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure." Since the word "for" denotes a cause, "Work out your own salvation" in verse 12 is only a result.
In our daily lives we mainly do two things: (1) will (decide) — this is an inward resolution, and (2) act (work) — this is outward behavior. All our living is composed of these two things. Inwardly we plan, and outwardly we speak and act. We are able to will and work because God operates in us. This verse does not say that we should will and work; it says that God is operating in our hearts until we are able to will and work. God's operation is God's working. God works in our hearts until we are able to will and work. Since God has already worked in, we are able to work out. If nothing is worked in, nothing can be worked out.
We often tell God, "O God, I am willing to obey You absolutely. But this is extremely difficult. I do not want to love the world. But this is extremely difficult. I do not want to go along with my self. But this is extremely difficult." There is a way of deliverance; God can work in us to the point that we are able to obey Him absolutely. He is able to work to the point that we do not have to love the world and do not have to go along with our selves. Although we are not able in ourselves, God is able to work until we are able.
Full salvation for a Christian is not getting rid of one sin today and another evil tomorrow. Complete salvation means to receive the complete Christ. If you have Christ, you have full salvation. It is most difficult to help a Christian whose eyes are not set on Christ! He looks at what is good and bad about himself. He pays attention to his particular sins, to certain persons who entangle him, and to certain things that attract him. He blames himself and tries to overcome all these. But this is a big mistake. God has no intention that he overcome these things one by one or make things right one by one. God only wants him to receive a complete Christ.
Suppose that a child loves to eat fruit. He may want pears one day and go buy them from an orchard. The next day he may want oranges or bananas and go buy some more. Suppose that he later learns that his father is the owner of the orchard and is giving him the orchard. After he realizes this, his way of eating will be different because all the fruit is his. As Christians, we want to do one thing today and another thing tomorrow. Today we want patience, and tomorrow we want love. This is like the child who buys a pear one day and an orange the next. God wants us to receive the complete Christ. All the things in the "orchard" are ours. If we buy them piece by piece, we will have to buy again and again when we run out.
I am not saying that we do not need to be patient or to have love. We should be patient, and we should love. But if we try to practice these things item by item, we will not succeed. If we do this, day after day we will find ourselves loving the world more and being prouder than before. We should realize that the whole "orchard" is ours. God wants us to have one common goal — the complete Christ. God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
In the past perhaps we may have heard the truth concerning Christ living His life out of us. But today I must ask, "Is this our case?" Although we know this, we only practice it on a trial basis. The result is that we inevitably fail.
First Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption." We have to read this verse very slowly and carefully. At the time we were saved, God made Christ our personal righteousness and our personal sanctification. If someone asks, "What is sanctification?", we have to answer, "Christ." What is overcoming? It is Christ. What are patience and humility? They are Christ. If we can answer this way, all will be well and we will overcome. We are thoroughly corrupted and fleshly. But Christ is sanctification. He is my sanctification. No one is holy and no one can overcome. There is only one way to be holy and overcome. It is to say to God, "O God, I receive Your Son!"
Only Christ has the overcoming life. When did Christ begin to live in us? When we were saved, we received Christ. "He who has the Son has the life" (1 John 5:12). "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name" (John 1:12). At the time we believed, we received Christ. Second Corinthians 13:5 says, "Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?" Who are those who are not disapproved? "Him who comes to Me I shall by no means cast out" (John 6:37). Have we come to the Lord? Yes. Since we have come to the Lord, we are not disapproved. What do we have? We have Jesus Christ in us. It is wrong if anyone says that, even though we have believed in the Lord, we do not have Christ within, and therefore, need to receive Christ again. If one is not saved, he should receive Christ. But if he has been saved, Christ is already living in him.
We know that only Christ can overcome, we know that Christ lives in us, and we know that when we believe in the Lord we have Christ, but day after day we still remain the same. Nothing changes at all. How can Christ live out His life in us? There are two ways or two conditions:
It is true that Christ is in us, but if we do not allow Him to work, He will not do anything. We must submit to God. What does it mean to surrender? To surrender is not promising God to do His will or doing good; it is not covenanting with God to do what we cannot. To surrender is to take our hands off our lives and to hand over both our good and evil, our capabilities and shortcomings, our past and future, our problems, our lives, and ourselves totally to God, and to solely allow Him to operate in us.
If you do not take your hands off, God has no way to live His life out of you. Suppose you give someone a book, but your hands do not let go of the book. The person has no way to possess your book. You should come before God and say to Him, "I will give You all my good and evil, likes and dislikes, willingness and unwillingness, successes and failures." Are you willing to do this? If you are not willing to do even this, God has no way to operate in you. It is your responsibility to hand over your failing self to Him. Today God only wants you to hand over your sinful self to Him.
To surrender does not mean that God wants you to do something you cannot do. He only wants you to hand over your good and evil and merits and defects to Him. I read a story about a young man who said, "I am willing to do everything, but there is one thing that I am not willing to do. If God asks me to preach to a Catholic, I cannot do it." Brothers and sisters, are you willing to hand over your unwilling heart to Him?
There are two kinds of surrender: one is to consecrate to God for His use, and the other is to consecrate to God for His operation. Many think that surrendering is just consecrating to God for His use. Brothers and sisters, God requests one thing of us: to henceforth give ourselves to God. This is the meaning of putting the self to death and being delivered from our flesh. We must hand over ourselves to Him. Are we willing to do this? If we are willing, we will overcome.
It is very difficult to take your hands off the persons or things that you love. I can say plainly that it is truly a very difficult thing to do. Whenever a price is too high in your eyes, you become very unwilling to let go. Suppose you always fail in the matter of friendship. It is very difficult to say to God, "No matter what will happen to my friends, I give them all to You. Deliver me from this friendship." Let me give you another example. Suppose you pray for a sick person who is not related to you. It is easy for you to believe that God will help him. Even though no one helps him and no one comes to his aid, you are not concerned. But if your parents, wife, or husband is sick, it is very difficult for you to commit them to the Lord. When no one comes to help them or cure them, you are afraid that they will die. This shows that those you love the most are the hardest for you to take your hands off of.
Today God does not want us to do good. He just wants us to give everything to Him. We have already had enough failure to chill our heart. I had a sin which I was not able to overcome until a few months ago. I tried to hand it over to God but lacked the faith. I tried once, twice, three times, even many times, but everything remained the same. Eventually, I simply gave the matter to God. Today we do not need to care about anything else. We only need to ask if we are willing to commit ourselves completely into the hands of God. If there is anything that we cannot let go of, whether a person, the world, a sin, or a certain matter, all we have to do is say to the Lord, "Lord, I give You whatever I am not willing to let go of. I ask You to operate in me until I am willing to let go." It does not worry me if you are not willing to let go of a person. It does not worry me if you are a hundred times weaker than you were before, and it does not worry me if you commit more sins. The only thing that worries me is that you may not be willing to give yourself to God's operation. Are you willing to commit to God your loved ones, a certain sin, a certain difficulty, or a certain matter that is not pleasing to God? It does not matter if you have a thousand or a million weaknesses and failures. But are you willing to say to God, "God, I commit everything to You"?
To surrender is not a matter of taking some bitter pill and suffering to death. To surrender is just allowing God to operate in us until we become willing. To surrender does not require that we do what we cannot do. It only requires us to place ourselves in the hand of God, to let God work until we become submissive and are willing to forego everything. As long as we are willing, God will have a way. God does not worry how great our sin is and how corrupted we are; God is only concerned that we do not put our heart into His hand.
In brief, surrender is just the submission of our will. It is to commit ourselves to God's hand, and to allow Him to work to His satisfaction.
After we have surrendered, we must believe that God can surely save us from our love, our unwillingness, and our inabilities. Psalm 37:5 says, "Commit your way to Jehovah, /And trust in Him; and He will act." To commit is to surrender, and to trust is to believe. The result of surrendering and believing is that He will act. We cannot do anything except commit ourselves to God and believe that the indwelling Lord will accomplish His purpose.
Can you say, "I have overcome"? Hallelujah! I can say that I have overcome because the Bible tells me so. What a pity, not only is our faith not as big as a grain of mustard seed; it is not even as big as a speck of dust! If we have faith, God will operate. God used only the word of His mouth to create the heavens and the earth; when He said, "Let there be light," there was light. If we have faith, God will operate, because it is God who will accomplish His work.
A few weeks ago a brother came to me and said that he could not overcome three or four sins. Sometimes he even wanted to commit suicide. I asked him, "Do you believe that Christ can save you from your sins?" He answered, "I believe." Then he said, "But I commit these sins again and again. I have overcome all other sins, but I cannot overcome these few." I read Romans 8:1 with him. "There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." I said to him, "The Bible says that there is a condition for being saved, which is to be in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus?" He responded, "Yes." The Bible says, "For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death" (v. 2). I asked, "Are you free?" He said, "The Bible says I am free from the law of sin and of death, but I dare not say it." Then I said, "Where is your faith?"
I am not afraid of man's weakness, corruption, or sins. But I am afraid of those who do not believe in God's Word. How precious are the words "has freed"! God's Word says "has freed"; it does not say "will free." Do we believe?
Christ has died for us. As long as we believe in Him, we have eternal life. What more evidence do we need? The Bible has said it. The Bible has also said, "The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death." I am already free and already delivered from the law of sin and of death. Even if there are a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand sins, I am delivered from them all. I am also delivered from the spiritual death that comes from Adam.
Brothers and sisters, do you believe this word? Do you believe that you are already delivered from the law of sin and of death? The Bible says that you have been delivered. If you believe, you will say, Hallelujah! Praise God! God's Word says that you are delivered from the law of sin and of death! Do you have certain sins or unclean thoughts which you cannot overcome? If so, please know that there is a gospel for you today: the law of the Spirit of life has freed you in Christ Jesus from all kinds of sins.
Brothers and sisters, we must see that surrendering and believing work interdependently. Once these two things are linked together, we will certainly overcome and not fail. It is impossible to overcome merely by believing, without committing one's life to the Lord in exchange for the life of Christ. It is true that we received everything at the time of regeneration. But if our will does not cooperate to commit ourselves to God and if we do not allow Christ to live through us, God will not force us to do anything. On the other hand, if we merely surrender but do not believe, the surrendering is only a dead work. Although one is prepared to grant God the opportunity to work, he has not yet granted God the opportunity to come in.
We must: (1) lift up our head to say to God, "I commit my all to You; I am willing to let You work," and (2) believe that God has accomplished everything according to His Word.
Christ has fought all the battles for us. The government is upon His shoulders (Isa. 9:6). Day by day we only have to believe in Him this way. Faith is something continual, while surrender is only needed once; once it is done it is settled forever. (While it is true that some people surrender gradually and slowly, this is not at all necessary.) We can commit everything to God in an instant; there is no need to repeat such an act. Since we have committed everything to Him, we should believe that God will cause Christ to live out His holiness and victory through us. Formerly, salvation involved being delivered from the judgment of hell; now, salvation involves being delivered from the authority of sin. There is no need to do anything else; all we have to do is commit and believe. I hope that everyone of us can testify to our victory.
Brothers and sisters, all we have to do is believe. Unbelief profits nothing; belief brings in change. God has spoken. We have to praise and thank Him! We should believe calmly, without depending on any feeling. God has spoken and that is it. We have not seen heaven and hell; however, we believe that there is heaven and hell because of God's Word. As long as we believe, there is no need of further proof. Only one proof is needed — the Word of God; there is no need of other proof. We do not have to see if we have changed. We only need to believe that what God has spoken counts. If we believe, there will be change. If we do not believe, we will see no change.
Once, I shared Romans 8:2 with a brother and asked him if he believed. He said, "I believe." I asked him again, "If you rise up tomorrow morning and sin again, what will happen? Suppose you still sin, what will you do?" He did not know how to answer. Brothers and sisters, the greatest danger is the first temptation that comes along the way. Satan will say, "Your surrendering and believing was in vain. Have you not sinned again? Are you any different from before? You are still the same!" But brothers and sisters, I have said this and I want to say it again: "Faith is always long-lived. Anything that is short-lived is not faith. Of everything in this world, faith survives the longest." Trials may come, but as long as God says you are victorious, you will certainly overcome and the trials will fail. How you deal with the first temptation will prove whether or not you have faith.
The Lord Jesus said to the disciples, "Let us go over to the other side" (Mark 4:35). Later there "arose a great windstorm, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already beginning to fill up....And they woke Him and said to Him, Teacher, does it not matter to You that we are perishing? And having awoken, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Be silent! Be still! And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And He said to them, Why are you cowardly in this way? How is it that you do not have faith?" (vv. 37-40). Since the Lord commanded them to go over to the other side, they would certainly arrive there. Even if the waves were greater, they would not have stopped them from reaching the other side. Brothers and sisters, the most important thing is to believe the Word of God. God has spoken; this is sufficient; do not care for anything else.
