Date: October 17, 1936, eveningPlace: Kulangsu, AmoyScripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:30a; Eph. 1:3
Our messages during the past few evenings have been fragmentary in nature. Beginning from tonight they will be more systematic. I hope that in the next few days, I can impress you deeply with the matter of being in Christ. The words in Christ are very simple, but their significance is profound. Without being in Christ, there is no gospel and there is no church. If there is not such a thing as being in Christ, there is not even Christianity, and there is certainly no redemption and salvation. Everything that God has done is done in Christ and not in man. Everything that God has accomplished within us is done in Christ.
Tonight is an introductory word. Following this, every evening we will see a little more about being in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 says that God "has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ." We may think that God is redundant and cumbersome by adding the words "in Christ" after the words "every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies." It seems unnecessary to do this. Why does God's Word say this? If we understand this, we will understand Christianity. We also will understand God's plan of redemption and how His work is accomplished in the Bible. In God's plan of redemption, He does not deal with man individually. The Bible shows us that God does not deal with the world as individuals, but as a corporate whole. God does not ask how many sins and evils you have committed. He only asks if you are in Adam. Man pays attention to individual sins, but God has included the world in one man — Adam. We can find out what we are from this man. If he did not have a problem, we would not have any problem, and if he has a problem, we have a problem, because we are in him.
According to the principle of the Scripture, there are only two men in the world. The Bible says that Adam was the first man — the first Adam. Christ is the second man — the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Some may ask, "What about all the men who were between these two men? There are obviously many men in this world. Why does the Bible only speak of two men?" This is because in God's eyes everyone is included in these two men. Other than these two men, there is not a third man; there is no other man. You are either in Adam or in Christ. Adam is like a big man. Once you are born, you are born into this big Adam, and when you believe in the Lord and are regenerated, you are transferred into Christ.
I once saw a picture of a woman with a big skirt and under her skirt were many small children. God views us the same way. We are human beings in Adam. God has put the whole human race into Adam. We can include the children in the parents, and the parents in the grandparents. Each successive generation is included in the preceding generation. This goes on all the way back to Adam. In this way we see that everyone is in Adam. Today we see that we come from Adam. Strictly speaking, we are still in Adam. Whatever Adam did on that day, we did the same. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, we sinned as well. What Adam did we also did.
What does it mean to be in Adam? I can explain this with an illustration. When I was in Kaifeng, a person asked me what it means to be in Adam and asked me to give him an illustration. I answered, "The Chinese say that our ancestor is Hwang-ti. Once Hwang-ti fought with Tzi-you and killed him. Suppose at that time that Tzi-you was not killed, but that Hwang-ti had been killed instead. If that had happened, would there still be the Chinese race today?" He answered, "Of course not." I said, "Why would there no longer be a Chinese race when Hwang-ti died?" He answered, "Because if Hwang-ti had died, we would have all died." I argued, "Hwang-ti's death was his business. Our life has nothing to do with him!" He said, "No. We all came from Hwang-ti. If Hwang-ti had died, we all would have died as well." Have you seen this? Tzi-you would not need to kill all of us. All he would have to do would be to kill Hwang-ti, and all of us who come after him would be gone. This is the way the Bible sees Adam. We do not have to commit sins in ourselves. Everyone who is born of Adam has sinned. Adam's experience is our experience. First Corinthians 15 says that in Adam we all died. When Adam died, the whole world died with him. You do not need to search your personal history. As long as you are in Adam, his experience has become your history.
God saves us according to the same principle. We are saved in Christ. How could the Lord die on our behalf and save us? Individually speaking, we were saved when we believed in the Lord. But corporately speaking, we were all condemned in Christ. For example, here is a chalk box. We can say that this is a picture of us in Christ on the cross. I do not have to throw the pieces of chalk into the sea one by one. As long as I throw the chalk box into the sea, all the chalk will be in the sea. The chalk will be wherever the chalk box is. In the same way, we are now in Christ. All of His experiences have become our experiences. He was judged on the cross, He was crucified, and He resurrected and ascended. We have also been judged, crucified, resurrected, and ascended because we are in Him. All of His experiences have now become ours. In Christ, God sees us as Christ, having the same experiences that Christ had. This is God's work of redemption.
Someone asked how we can be in Christ, and I answered, "If Watchman Nee, weighing only one hundred and fifty pounds, has the strength to put the chalk into the chalk box, is it too hard for God, who is the creator of the universe and millions of times stronger than me, to put us into Christ?" Please read 1 Corinthians 1:30. Of whom are we in Christ? Of God! We are in Christ. But we do not know how we got into Christ, in the same way that the pieces of chalk are in the chalk box, but do not know how they got in. However, as long as the chalk is in the box, whatever happens to the box will happen to the chalk. I do not know how I got into Christ. I only know that God has put me into Christ. Whatever Christ has passed through, I also have passed through. You must realize one thing: God's work of redemption does not deal with you as an individual; He only deals with Christ. Today God has set up two great camps in this world — the camp of Christ and the camp of Adam. Man has a choice to be either in Adam or in Christ. If you are in Adam, your end is perdition. If you are in Christ, your end is salvation. God did not do anything outside of Adam. In the same way He is not doing anything outside of Christ.
Someone once asked me, "Do you think I will go to hell?" I answered, "You are quite qualified to go to hell." He answered, "But I am such a good man. Will I still have to go to hell?" I said, "You were already qualified a long time ago. I do not have to ask whether you are good or bad as an individual. I only ask if you are in Christ or in Adam. You do not have to steal, murder, or commit any gross sins. As long as you are in Adam, you are qualified to go to hell." I remember one wonderful passage of the Bible in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a difficult book. The apostle who wrote this book was trying to prove to us that Christ is higher than Moses, Joshua, the angels in the Old Testament, and Aaron. He compared Christ with many people. One of the comparisons he made was of Christ as the High Priest and Aaron as the high priest. How did the apostle prove that Christ is higher? He said that Christ is a priest according to the order of Melchisedec; His priesthood is derived from Melchisedec. Aaron was a high priest, but his priesthood was derived from Levi. Aaron had an ancestor, who was Abraham. One day Abraham went to war. After he won, he gave one tenth of what he took to Melchisedec, from whose order Christ's priesthood was derived. This proves that Aaron is less than Christ. Aaron was the descendant of Levi, Levi was the son of Jacob, Jacob was the son of Isaac, and Isaac was the son of Abraham. Abraham offered one tenth of what he took to Melchisedec. When Abraham offered one tenth to Melchisedec, Isaac was in Abraham's loin. Jacob and Levi were even smaller, but they were within Abraham as well. Hence, they also offered one tenth through Abraham to Melchisedec. Consequently, Christ, whose priesthood is after the order of Melchisedec, is surely greater than Aaron, whose priesthood is after the order of Levi.
Once I talked to a few college students who majored in biology. I told them that according to the Bible, the father's age is less than the son's age, and the son is older than the father. This is because the source of life extends all the way to the first ancestor. By the time the line of life reaches the father, it may already be six thousand years old. Suppose his son is thirty years old. It means that his life is now six thousand plus thirty years old. Does this not therefore mean that the son's age is greater than that of the father?
Just as Adam's life was in us, the life of Christ is now in us. When we received the life of Adam, we became a part of Adam. Today the same is true about being in Christ. When we are in Christ and receive the life of Christ, we become a part of Christ. Everything in Christ becomes ours. This is God's way of salvation as revealed in the Bible.
Some may pose a question: If this is the case, why do we still need to have individual pursuit? Does this mean that we no longer need to seek after holiness and victory? Please remember that if you want to be holy and perfect, you have to view yourself according to God's view. Forget for the moment whether or not you have sinned. All that matters is being in Christ. Whether or not you are good, whether or not you have the overcoming life, and whatever way you are going does not matter. As long as you are in the box, everything that the box passes through will become your experience. This is the gospel. This is why we say that the gospel is free. It is free because it has nothing to do with us. As long as we are in Christ, everything becomes ours. Ephesians 1:3 mentions every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. All of these are ours when we are in Christ. When we are in Christ, God cannot hold back anything from us. When we are in Christ, God cannot withhold any spiritual blessings from us. God cannot withhold them because He has already put them into Christ. God can choose not to put us into Christ, but as soon as He puts us into Christ, He cannot withhold any spiritual blessings from us. We lack nothing in Christ. God is not satisfied with giving us nine things when there are ten things in Christ. Everything that is in Christ is ours. This is God's work. Whether it is salvation, the overcoming life, power, the way, or anything else, we have them all as long as we are in Christ.
It does not make any difference even if you are the chiefest of all sinners. God has put you into Christ. When Christ died on the cross, God's punishment on Christ became your punishment, and His judgment upon Christ became your judgment. Your sins are all forgiven in Christ. God has no way to take back what He has done even if you commit more sins. This is based not only on God's grace, but also on His righteousness. Romans is a book on grace and righteousness, whereas Ephesians is on God's grace. There is a difference of timing between the two. It is God's grace for Him to work in Christ. If God did not put man into Christ, man would have no way to help himself. It is God's grace that we can be in Christ. After God put man into Christ, He judged the man who is in Christ. Today you are saved. However, you are saved not only because of God's grace, but because of God's righteousness as well. Can God judge us again after He has judged Christ? No! After He has judged Christ, He has to justify us, because we are in Christ. God is righteous, and He has to recognize everything that Christ has done.
After we become a Christian, everything depends on seeing what it means to be in Christ. After we see the meaning of being in Christ, we will enjoy great blessings.
I do not have time to go into detail concerning the matter of being in Christ. There are countless spiritual blessings in Christ such as holiness, victory, power, spirituality, faith, spiritual progress, humility, endurance, and love. Every spiritual blessing that you can imagine is in Christ. The worst kind of Christians are those who look inward instead of outward. If you search within yourself to see whether or not there is holiness, I can tell you the answer right now — you will find no goodness within. God has saved us. But we often forget that God has saved us in Christ. We often think, "I am saved. But why is my temper still so bad? Why am I still so proud? Why is there still so much uncleanness in me?" You wish you could overcome, and you begin to consider yourself to see whether you have endurance, humility, holiness, etc. Please remember that as soon as you look within, you will not find any endurance, humility, or holiness. On the contrary, you will find uncleanness, temper, pride, and all kinds of sins. Why is this? It is because you have forgotten that God's way of salvation is in Christ, not in yourself. Humility is in Christ. Endurance is in Christ. Holiness is in Christ. Everything is in Christ. In yourself you are always unclean and defiled. But when you live in Christ, you have everything. When you live in yourself, nothing will change.
Never think that God is doing something within you independently. What is within you is still uncleanness, evilness, unholiness, and pride. God's grace is not bestowed upon you, but upon Christ. When you are joined to Christ, everything of Christ will be transmitted into you. When you are cut off from Christ, all of your filthiness will come back. This is like connecting a pipe to clean water; the result is clean water. But if you connect a pipe to dirty water, the result is dirty water. After you are saved, you think that you should at least be better than before. You think that your old Adam will gradually change. But God has to prove to you that this is not possible. No, there is not such a thing! As long as you are in old Adam you will still be unclean. Only Christ can make you different. Only when you are in Christ will there be any change. How does a lamp shine? The lamp does not shine by itself. It shines when an electrical current passes through it. The same is true with Christians. All virtues and power, as well as the fruit of the Spirit, are found in Christ. As long as you are joined to Christ, you will have all of these. This is the same as saying that electricity is in the power plant. When the lamp is joined to the power plant, it shines. Being in Christ is being joined to Christ and being related to Him. When this happens, His power and His everything will be transmitted to you. It is not wrong to say that the lamp is shining. But strictly speaking, it is not the lamp that is shining, but the electricity shining through the lamp. The lamp overcomes darkness with the light of electricity.
When I was ten years old, I saw an electric lamp for the first time. At that time I marveled at it very much. It was clearly a lamp, but how could it suddenly light up? I waited until it had shined for two hours. Then I moved it to a dark room, thinking that it would continue to shine. However, it stopped shining as soon as I moved it away. The lamp went dark. It did not have any light in itself; it was dark in itself. It shined only when it was in contact with the power station.
We were all in darkness. But when we were put into Christ, we began to shine, and we began to be patient and humble. Yet we forget that the reason these things exist is because we are in Christ. After having been a Christian for a few years, we begin to think that these things are ours. Little do we realize that once we are separated from Christ, we have nothing.
First John 5 says that God has given His life to us in Christ. He has not given His life to us independent of Christ. Suppose I wrap a piece of iron in some paper. When I take the paper, I take the iron as well. "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life" (5:12). Apart from Christ, we cannot have anything. Nothing is given to us independently. Everything is given to us in Christ. If we know and believe this fact, we will be so happy that we will not go to sleep tonight. It is of God that we are in Christ; we have no part in this work. Everything is Christ and not us. When we see this, we will realize that there is no hope in us at all. We cannot change at all, and we cannot improve at all. Just as a lamp cannot shine when it is not connected to electricity, we have nothing in ourselves when we are cut off from Christ. If there is any difference or change in us today, it is not because we have changed in ourselves. Everything is in Christ and everything depends on Christ. It is all of Christ, not of us. This is God's way of salvation.
