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Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.” Galatians 2:20a says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Then 4:19 says, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” Philippians 1:20b says, “With all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.” Verse 10 of chapter 3 says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” All these verses show us that Christ is our life and our living.
The reality of the church is Christ, and spiritual reality is also Christ. Without Christ, a person has neither the reality of the church nor spiritual reality. Through all our spiritual experiences — whether believing in the Lord and being saved, being baptized into the Lord, or breaking bread in remembrance of the Lord — we contact and gain Christ Himself. If a person believes in the Lord yet does not gain Christ, his believing is in vain. If a person is baptized yet is not united with Christ, his baptism also is empty. If a person breaks bread in remembrance of the Lord yet does not gain and enjoy the Lord once again, his remembrance is worthless in the eyes of the Lord. This is because true remembrance of the Lord is to receive the Lord into us that we may gain Him and enjoy Him. When we render worship and service to the Lord, we should gain and enjoy the Lord Himself.
The entire spiritual living and work of a Christian must be the experience of Christ Himself. On the surface it seems that Christ wants us to worship Him, serve Him, and work for Him. In other words, it seems as if He wants us to do something for Him. In actuality, however, He wants us to enjoy Him, experience Him, and gain Him. If a person really knows what it means to preach the gospel, while he is preaching, he will be experiencing Christ, gaining Christ, and enjoying Christ. Although he is preaching the gospel to others, and although his gospel preaching is for the Lord, in the process of his preaching he will be enjoying, experiencing, and gaining Christ.
Colossians 3:4 says, “Christ our life.” This reveals how intimate the relationship between Christ and us is. When we say that a certain thing equals our life, it means that we regard that thing as something important, something closely related to us. Christ is our life. He is not only the object of our believing, the reality of our baptism, and the content of our bread breaking, but He is our life. Our life before God is Christ Himself.
However, most Christians’ knowledge concerning Christ as life is far off. Many Christians think that after a person is saved, all his problems before God are related to the matter of improving his behavior. Since he is saved, all his problems before God would be dealt with if he could improve his behavior after his salvation. For example, before a certain person is saved, his living may be loose, his conduct poor, his morality below standard, his character questionable, and his reputation bad. After this person is saved, however, he naturally thinks that since he has become a Christian, his responsibility before God is to improve his behavior, conduct, and character. Therefore, he begins to focus on improving his behavior.
We absolutely acknowledge that after a person is saved, his character should be noble, his behavior should be proper, and his conduct should be upright. Please remember, however, that after a person is saved and becomes a Christian, God’s demand on him is much higher than these things. After a person is saved, what God wants is not to improve his behavior nor to uplift his morality but to change his life. This means that God does not demand a mere improvement in morality from a formerly poor one to a good one. God requires not only a change in the outward living but also a change of the inner life.
God’s salvation is not only for the forgiveness of our sins and the washing away of our filthiness; God’s salvation is to give Christ to us at the time we are saved. When Christ enters into us, He becomes our life. At the instant we are saved, we receive Christ as our life; that is, we receive God as life into us. This life in us is different from our natural life. We receive another life in addition to our natural life. Therefore, from the time we are saved, we have two different lives in us. One is the life we had originally, and the other is the life of God, which has been added into us.
Never think that we need to be saved because our life is poor, and therefore God wants to improve our life. This is not so. When God saves us, He gives us another life — His own life — in addition to our own life. In the beginning we did not have God’s life, but when we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our Savior, God’s life was added into us.
The basic matter with a Christian is that he has God’s life added into him. Once this life comes into him, he has two different lives in him. One is the life he had originally, and the other is the life of God, the life that was added into him. In his own life there are all kinds of wickedness, such as evil, filthiness, darkness, hatred, jealousy, guile, and covetousness. This is his original life. However, the life that is added into him, because it is the life of God, is good, bright, meek, loving, righteous, and holy. The seeds of the goodness of God are all in this life, which is just Christ Himself.
This life that is added into us is Christ Himself. Before we are saved, we live by our own life, the life that is within us. We walk, live, and work entirely according to the life we have originally. In that life we have a little bit of goodness, love, meekness, humility, and other virtues. However, that life is not pure; it is mixed with darkness, evil, hatred, jealousy, and all kinds of deceit. Hence, through our living, we find that in our being we have hatred as well as love, and we have jealousy as well as sympathy. We also find that we harm others as well as help others. We are so complicated and so contradictory; sometimes we are like bad people, and other times we are like true gentlemen.
There is pride in our humility, hatred in our love, falsehood in our honesty, and there are evil intentions even in our good intentions. There are many evil things hidden in all our good elements. This is because man’s life has become evil, corrupted, and filthy. It is impossible for man’s life to be acceptable to God. However, even if man’s life were not evil or filthy, man’s life would still be man’s life. No matter how good man’s life is, it still is not God’s life.
Christians are people who have received God’s life. Once a person is saved, he has Christ, God, and God’s life in him. From that time on, God’s life is in him, not for him to change his outward behavior but for him to live by God’s life. Formerly, he lived by his own life, but now God wants him to live by God’s life in him instead of by his own life.
We may use the following illustration. In the past we lit kerosene lamps, but now we have lamps that run on electricity. However, many people, owing to their habit of lighting kerosene lamps, still prefer lighting kerosene lamps instead of switching on electric lamps. Hence, the question is not whether or not the light shines but what the source of the shining is. We cannot assume that once the light shines, everything is fine. We must also ask, “Does this shining come from kerosene or from electricity?” Our life was formerly a “kerosene lamp,” but after we were saved, God’s life came into us. This was like the installation of an electric lamp into us. Thus, instead of using the “kerosene lamp,” we should switch to the “electric lamp.”
We all know that if a kerosene lamp is not shining, it will not smoke; however, the more the kerosene lamp shines, the more it smokes. There is both light and smoke in the kerosene lamp. Likewise, in our natural life there is both good and evil. The more we try to do good by ourselves, the more mistakes we commit; that is, the more we “shine,” the more we “smoke.” In our being there is good and there is also evil. In fact, our natural life is simply the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s intention is not for us to forsake evil and to do good by ourselves. This is man’s concept, not God’s intention. God’s intention is that we would live not by our own life but by His life. If we live by God’s life, we will “shine” but not “smoke.” If we walk by God’s life, we will immediately see that there is only good and no evil in His life.
God’s life is God Himself. Hence, when we live by God’s life, we live by God. In this way what we live out is not only good but also God Himself. What is expressed through us is God’s nature and His flavor. When we live by our own life, we may do good or evil — either way it is lived out by our own life. People may touch the goodness in us, but they cannot touch God. They may not notice any wickedness in us, but neither can they see God’s nature in us. Why is this? It is because at the most we have only improved our behavior; the source of our life within remains unchanged. Strictly speaking, this is not to be Christians but to be moralists. Christians are not merely ethical; they also live by God. Christians have Christ as their life, and they live by Him as life. As a result, what they live out is not merely something good or ethical but Christ Himself.
We must be clear that since we are saved, we now have Christ in us as our life. What does this mean? For example, if we have a body that is without life, we will be unable to speak, think, see, hear, sit, or walk. Our whole being will be unable to move. The reason why we can move and think is that we have life within us, and all our actions are according to this life and are of this life. That Christ is our life means that all our actions, thoughts, words, and doings are according to Christ and are of Christ. Our moving is Christ’s moving in us, our speaking is Christ’s speaking in us, and our thinking is Christ’s thinking in us. Our entire living and walk are according to Christ in us; we do everything by Him.
Do not think that this is merely a theory. We all must grasp this basic point firmly. What is a Christian? A Christian is one who has Christ in him as his life. What is baptism? Baptism is being immersed into Christ. What is bread breaking? Bread breaking is to eat Christ — to eat the Lord’s body and to drink the Lord’s blood. It is to eat and drink of the Lord Himself and to receive the Lord Himself. The basic principle of the Christian living is to be in Christ, by Christ, and of Christ for the gaining of Christ.
Most people have the concept that a Christian is one who observes rules and regulations, has a high morality, and is honest and upright. Although this is good, strictly speaking, such a person is not a Christian but a moralist. A Christian is not defined by how proper or lofty his behavior is but by Christ’s living in him. A Christian is one who has Christ in him as his life.
We think that if a person were spiritual, he would be meek, would not lose his temper, would speak gently, would not act hastily, and would not be irritable. We must realize, however, that such a quiet and good-tempered person is just like a sculpture. Of course, there are some people who are born calm, steady, and good-tempered. For instance, there may be a certain mother with several children, all of whom are naughty and unruly. Everyone around the children gets angry with them, but the mother does not get angry. No matter how bad her children behave, she maintains her composure. Is she spiritual? No, it is because she was born this way. Therefore, whether or not a person is spiritual cannot be judged by his outward appearance. Not everything that shines is a lamp running on electricity. We still must ask what the source is.
Some people are born calm, others are trained to be calm, and still others pretend to be calm. The outward expression and attitude of a person do not necessarily show that he is spiritual. If we want to know whether or not a person is really spiritual, we have to inquire as to the source of his expression and attitude — is it Christ or himself?
Living out calmness by oneself is completely different from living out calmness by Christ. Only when we have Christ as our life are we really Christians, and only when we live out calmness by Christ are we really Christians. A person who merely lives out virtues such as calmness, meekness, and propriety is not necessarily a Christian. Only a person who lives by Christ is a Christian. Many Christians are calm, meek, and proper. They have a high morality and are the best among all men. Their living, daily walk, and behavior are really convincing. However, we cannot judge a Christian only according to his outward living; we must also judge him according to his inner life. A person is a genuine Christian only when he has Christ living in him as his life. We must hold tightly to this principle, this main point.
If we apply this principle or main point in examining our own living, can we say that we live and walk by Christ today? Today all our living, our speaking, and our behavior, including our thoughts and judgments on every single matter, should not be according to ourselves but according to Christ in us. The question is not whether we are Christians who do good or evil but whether we are Christians who live by ourselves or by Christ. Are all our words, our thoughts, and even our views and judgments about every matter according to ourselves or according to Christ? Do they come from our life or from Christ’s life? This is a big question.
Husbands and wives ought to love one another. A Christian husband should love his wife. Likewise, a Christian wife should submit to her husband. This is similar to the Chinese saying: “The husband sings, and the wife sings along.” However, the Bible does not require Christian couples to only be in harmony with each other. Rather, the Bible requires that the husband love his wife not by himself but by the Christ who lives in him and that the wife submit to her husband not by herself but by the Christ who lives in her. Thus, a Christian wife has a few possibilities in being a wife. One possibility is that she would not be submissive to her husband. However, this would be improper and unsuitable for a Christian. Another possibility is that she would be very submissive to her husband. However, with such a submission there are also two possibilities. One possibility is that she would submit to her husband by herself. The other possibility is that she would submit to her husband by Christ, by living in Christ’s life, and by having Christ’s life as the power, origin, and source of her submission to her husband. This second submission is not mere submission but a submission that comes out of Christ.
Hence, there are at least three kinds of wives. The first kind of wife does not submit to her husband. The second kind of wife submits to her husband by herself. We can praise this kind of wife as a good wife but not as a spiritual wife. The third kind of wife not only submits to her husband but does so not by herself but by taking Christ’s life as the origin, power, source, and center of her submission. This kind of submission is not only good but also spiritual.
If the virtues we live out in our daily life are not Christ living out from within us, at the most, we can say that we have done well and rightly, but we cannot say, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” People will appreciate our virtues, but we cannot say, “It is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). Furthermore, we cannot say, “Even now Christ will be magnified in my body”; neither can we say, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:20-21). We may know how to be meek, how to behave well, and how to be quiet, but we may not know Christ. We may live in our meekness, proper behavior, and quietness but not in Christ. We may know the power of morality but not the power of Christ. We may live in an ethical atmosphere but not in the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, we may be moralists who gain others’ praises without living in the Holy Spirit or living Christ’s life. We may be able to say that we are moralists and well-behaved persons, but we may not be able to say that we are Christians.
Although we have been saved and have Christ’s life, when we live by ourselves and not by Christ, we are not Christians who live out Christ practically. We may give all the ground in us to meekness, quietness, and good behavior, but we may not give any ground to Christ. Every day we may still be living by ourselves with fear and trembling, being full of meekness, quietness, and humility yet without Christ. People may praise us for our meekness and quietness, but they cannot see Christ in us because Christ has vanished from us.
If in our daily living we enjoy Christ, depend on Christ, fellowship with Christ, and are filled with Christ, then we can say that for us to live is Christ. Then what we express will spontaneously be meekness, quietness, and proper behavior. Moreover, people will sense a special flavor in us — the fragrance of Christ. This is not being a moralist or a virtuous man; this is the living Christ living Himself out from us. This is proof, not only by our life but also by our living, that we are Christians. What is a Christian? A Christian is one who has Christ in him and who lives by the Christ who lives in him.
