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Galatians 4:19 says, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” Philippians 1:20b-21a states, “Even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ.” Ephesians 4:13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Verse 19 of chapter 3 says, “To know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” These words show us God’s work in and purpose for His redeemed people.
If we really know the Bible, we should be able to see a particular matter in the Lord’s word, a matter that has never and will never come up in man’s mind. The matter that we are referring to is God’s eternal purpose. Although the truth of the Lord has already spread throughout the world, there are very few who really know this mysterious and marvelous matter revealed by God in His word. Today there are quite a number of Christians who have a pure heart, who are zealous, who have love and faith, who care for the things of the Lord, and who are willing to pay a price by sacrificing themselves and living for others. Yet among these Christians it is hard to find one who can meet God’s standard and who really knows the purpose ordained by God in eternity. May God grant us the grace that we may clearly see this purpose ordained by God in eternity.
What does God really desire? God desires to mingle Himself with man. We have to always bear in mind that God does not desire anything else; He desires only to mingle Himself with man. He wants to mingle with man to the extent that, while remaining the true God, He became a man, a real man. We are not saying that when He became a man, He was no longer God or ceased to be God. Rather, we are saying that He was God mingled with man and that He was both man and God simultaneously. He was the complete mingling of God with man. In God there was man, and in man there was God. The human nature was in God, and the divine nature was in man. In God there was the human element, and in man there was the divine element.
This is the purpose that God desires to accomplish. God’s purpose is to arrive at the stage where the human element is within Him and the divine element is within man. He comes to mingle with us to the point that He becomes man, and we become God. This kind of speaking may shock you. How can we be God? We can be God because we are mingled with God. We are mingled with God to the extent that we can say, “Even though we are humans, we have God in us. We have His life, His nature, and His personality. Because He is in us, His personality becomes our personality, His nature becomes our nature, and His life becomes our life. Moreover, His image is our image, His glory is our glory, His holiness is our holiness, and His goodness is our goodness. Just what He is, so also we are, and right where He is, there also we are.”
We all must see this. In fact, all the saved ones will see this sooner or later. The day will come (perhaps it will be in the kingdom or in the new heaven and new earth) when we will see that all those who serve God are exactly the same as the God whom they serve. Conversely, the God whom we will serve will be exactly the same as we who serve Him. He will be God, possessing the human element, and we will be humans, possessing the divine element. We use this simple word to explain the mysterious heart’s desire of God.
The unique purpose of God in creating all things and mankind, in leading us through all kinds of environments, and in continually working in us in various ways is to mingle Himself with us that He may become our content, our life, and our nature. However, it is very difficult for the saints to be deeply impressed with this kind of word. Why is this? It is because God’s purpose is basically nonexistent in us. It is absent not only from our thought but also from our hope. Hence, all of us who are saved should pray that the Lord will open our eyes not only to see corruption, sinfulness, and vanity but also to see something higher, deeper, and more spiritual — to see that God’s purpose is to mingle Himself with man.
Today many Christians teach people that there are heaven and hell, that man is sinful and evil, that man should fear God and repent to God, that Jesus Christ bore the sins of man and died for man on the cross to receive God’s punishment on man’s behalf, and that by believing in Him man will be saved. Their conclusion is that man should love God, serve God, and live a life of holiness by God. They think that to attain to this stage is praiseworthy and satisfactory. However, it may be praiseworthy for man but not for God. Man may be satisfied by this, but God cannot be satisfied.
God’s central purpose, His central will, His eternal plan, is not merely that man would be redeemed, have a loving heart, and live a life of holiness. What God desires is much more than this. God’s eternal will, His mysterious plan, His heart’s desire, is that He would enter into man, into you and me, to be mingled with you and me. He wants His life to be mingled with our life, His nature to be mingled with our nature, His personality to be mingled with our personality, and His element to be mingled with our element. He wants to mingle with us to the extent that it is hard to say whether He is God or a man or whether we are men or God. At this time God and man, man and God, will be inseparable and even indistinguishable. God’s nature becomes man’s nature, and God and man, having become one and mingled together, cannot be separated.
We do not have an adequate knowledge of the Lord because we do not even know how to answer the question regarding whether the Lord is God or man. One day, however, God will show us that Christ is God becoming flesh, God manifested in the flesh, and God mingled with man. Once we see this vision, we will say with exultation, “The Lord in whom we believe is said to be God, and He truly is God. He is also said to be a man, and He really is a man. He is God yet man, man yet God. Today He is in heaven as the One who is God yet man, man yet God — the One who is the mingling of God with man. He is not only simultaneously God and man but also the mingling of God and man. God and man are not two; rather, the two have become one. It is hard to say whether He is merely God or merely man, because the two have become one.”
What does it mean to be saved? To be saved means that from now on you have God’s life within you, and you are not the same anymore. Originally, you were a real man. One day, however, you repented and believed in the Lord Jesus by opening your heart and spirit to Him. As a result, He came into you. From that point on, you changed in nature. (If you have not changed in nature, I am afraid that you are still not saved.) Formerly, you were only a man, but since you received Jesus as your Savior, you have changed in nature. A person who has changed in nature is a saved person.
For example, if this cup of water tastes sour, you would not dare to drink it. However, after sugar is added into it, it is sweetened and tastes good. Why is this? This is because something else has been added into it. Hence, believing in Jesus is not for man to be improved or reformed. Neither is it to receive the Christian religion and to be taught its beliefs. To truly believe in Jesus is to have the Spirit of Christ imparted into you, to have a great measure of Christ imparted into you through the Holy Spirit, so that you have an additional element within you that is bright, holy, and good. Once this element enters into man, man has a dispositional transformation.
Formerly, you were irritable and unforgiving, but now you yield to others in everything and are willing to be wronged. Being a Christian, however, is not a matter of cultivating oneself in order to eliminate the “sour taste” in one’s life. Even though we Christians have the element of Christ within us, our “sourness” is still here. The difference is that although our “sourness” is still here, something “sweet” has also been added into us. What is a Christian? A Christian is one who has Christ mingled with him. Previously, you were an irritable person, but now Christ’s meekness swallows up your irritability. This is not the result of your improvement, your cultivation, or your exercise, but it is Christ’s life entering into your life, Christ’s nature entering into your nature, Christ’s personality entering into your personality, and Christ Himself entering into you to be mingled with you. Once Christ is mingled with you, He will swallow you up. You have no way to swallow Him up, because He is strong and you are weak, He is great and you are small. Therefore, you are changed in nature. Darkness is changed to light, irritability is changed to gentleness, rebelliousness is changed to submission, cruelty is changed to love, and filthiness is changed to holiness.
For this reason we have to spend much time to pray that the Lord will grant us the light to see that God’s eternal purpose is that He intends to mingle Himself with us. Only when we see this will we know what it is to be spiritual and what it is to make spiritual progress. Only when we see this will we know what the Lord really wants to accomplish in man. What God wants to accomplish in man is this mingling. Apart from this, regardless of what we do, God will not be satisfied. He not only will not be satisfied, but instead He will be sorrowful and will grieve until we see that His eternal purpose is to mingle Himself with man. Only then will He find satisfaction and rest, and only then will He truly gain something within us.
We all have to pray and ask the Lord to show us His eternal purpose and His mingling of Himself with us. Although we may have heard such a word, inwardly we still may not have the vision, the inspiration, and the revelation, and we still may not be able to see. Hence, we have to pray and ask the Lord to show us this spiritual vision related to His heart’s desire. We have to ask the Lord to unveil us that we may know that what He is after within us is not our love, our faith, our zeal, or our good behavior. Rather, what He is after and what satisfies Him is to mingle Himself with us.
Galatians 4:19 says, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” Once a person is saved, he has Christ within him. However, at this point Christ has not yet been formed in him because he has too little of the element of Christ. Although we are saved, up to now we still may not have much of Christ in us. Some people may have been saved ten or twenty years ago. They are full of doctrines — they know about Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When you ask them about Genesis, they say that it is about God’s creation. When you ask them about Revelation, they tell you that it is about the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. They probably know more than you do. However, they do not have much of the element of Christ within them. Such ones are merely saved; Christ has not yet been formed in them.
Some of us have been in the church for more than twenty years. We have heard many doctrines, we are zealous, and we also love the Lord, but Christ’s element has not increased much in us inwardly. We have very little of Christ’s element both in our judgment and in our conversation. Why is this the case? It is because we only have a small amount of Christ in us, and Christ has not grown in us or been formed within us. This is why Paul says that he travailed again in birth until Christ was formed in the believers.
If we know this and see this, we will prostrate ourselves before God and say, “O God, have mercy on me. Even until today I do not have much Christ in me. There is very little sense of Christ in my living, in my inclinations, in my daily walk, and in my attitude. There is very little of the element of Christ in all these aspects. Christ has not yet been formed in me, and I have just a small amount of Christ.” Then what other things do we have in us, seeing that we have only a small amount of Christ? We have our self, the world, our preference, our sins, our goodness, our meekness, and our temper. In short, within us there are both good things and bad things. Many things apart from Christ occupy us, leaving no room for Christ.
Therefore, Paul told the Galatians, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” The problem with the Galatians was not that they loved the world or lusted after sins. Their problem was that they turned their attention to things other than Christ. They paid attention to doing good deeds by themselves. Since they relied too much on themselves, they left very little room for Christ. This does not mean that it is wrong to perform good deeds but that when you rely on yourself, Christ has no place or opportunity to gain your time and space so that He can gain ground in you. As a result, He has still not been formed in you.
Paul told the Philippians, “According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death” (Phil. 1:20). What Paul meant by saying this was that he always allowed Christ to be magnified in him in any circumstance, whether through joy or through sorrow, through light or through darkness. Christ was not only formed in him but also magnified in him. Paul allowed Christ to fill him continually so that whatever circumstance he encountered, whatever pain he suffered, and whatever hardship he experienced, Christ could be magnified in him, not just in any particular situation but always.
Therefore, we all need to know one thing. There is no way for Christ always to be magnified in us and in our Christian life except to allow Him to be our element within and to increase in us. If we do this, Christ will be expressed through us. Our insight will be Christ’s insight, our mind will be Christ’s mind, our expression will be Christ’s expression, our preference will be Christ’s preference, and our living will be Christ’s living because Christ will have been mingled with us.
Ephesians 4:13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Here Paul indicates that once we know Christ, we will progress and arrive at a full-grown man and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Do not think that the church is progressing simply if it increases in number from several hundred to three or five thousand. It may not be. The growth of the church hinges not on an increase in number, in love, or in zeal but on the increase of the element of Christ. The church progresses when there is the increase of Christ’s element and the growth of Christ’s life. It is true that zeal, love, and the denial of the self can be found in Christians; however, the zeal, love, and self-denial in the lives of Christians should not be of man but of Christ.
Therefore, we must know that the content of the church is Christ, and the growth of the church is also Christ. Only Christ Himself should increase in the church. Some people had only a certain amount of Christ in them in the previous month, but after one month, three months, or five months, they have more of Christ’s element in them. Now when we meet them, we not only touch their zeal, love, meekness, humility, and freshness, but we also have the feeling that Christ’s element has increased in them. When we come into contact with them, they give an atmosphere that they have more of Christ’s element in them. It is not merely an increase in love, faith, zeal, and self-denial, but something that is most real and subjective — the element of Christ — has increased in them. This is the genuine growth of the church. The genuine growth of the church hinges on the increase of the measure of the stature of Christ in the church, the increase of the element of Christ day by day.
In the past we only knew that as Christians we needed to have love, zeal, faith, humility, and meekness. Now we know, however, that Christ as an element has to be added into us and that He has to grow in us, be formed in us, and be expressed through us. How wonderful it is that Christ lives in us to be our life, our nature, and our personality! However, although we know, realize, and understand this, we do not really know this Christ. We do not know how Christ becomes the life in us, how His element becomes our element, how His life becomes our life, how His nature becomes our nature, and how His personality becomes our personality. Therefore, we need to pray and look to God that He will give us the revelation. Our eyes must be opened so that in our spirit we may see the light, the revelation, and the vision that Christ wants to mingle Himself with us. We really cannot convey this with words; hence, we need to petition, pray, and look to the Lord for the light and revelation.
From now on, we need to pray specifically, not for any other thing but to know Christ. We should not pray for our work but for this revelation, the revelation that Christ in us has become our life. We have to comprehend, to sense, and to practically experience Christ’s mingling with us.
The genuine spirituality of a Christian depends on Christ’s being mingled with him. If Christ is mingled with us to one degree, we have one degree of spirituality. If Christ is mingled with us to ten degrees, we have ten degrees of spirituality. The extent of our spirituality is based upon the extent to which Christ has mingled Himself with us. Thus, our spiritual reality depends on Christ’s being mingled with us. We should have the realization that our pursuing and our spirituality all depend on Christ’s being mingled with us.
Take reading the Bible as an example. A person may have read the Bible for one year, but Christ was not mingled with him one bit. Why not? It is because he does not know what the Bible is. Second Corinthians 3:6 says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” This shows us that we have to read the Bible with our spirit, because what the Bible reveals to us is not in our mind but in our spirit. That which is in our mind is of doctrine, of the letter, which kills us. That which is in our spirit gives us life and makes us living. Therefore, when we read the Bible, we have to know Christ through the words of the Scriptures. We have to know Him in our spirit and give Him the ground to increase in us.
Now we all are clear that the purpose of reading the Bible is not to gain some biblical knowledge but to allow Christ to increase in us. Many times, through our reading of the Bible, Christ comes into us. Many people, however, merely read the Bible without having Christ mingled with them. A person may have been a Christian for over ten years and may have read the Bible many, many times, but he may not have much of Christ added into him or have much knowledge of Christ. When others come into contact with such a one who has read the Bible numerous times and yet does not have the increase of Christ, what they touch is simply doctrines in letter. Such a person always thinks that others are wrong and at fault, because his mind is filled with doctrines in letter, and he is short of Christ.
Many Christians like to refer to “learning the truth.” Actually, learning the truth is not a bad thing, but today many people are misusing this term. The truth is Christ Himself. To “learn the truth” is to let Christ come into us, to let the element of Christ increase in us. Many people allow Christ to add Himself to them in a continual way through their reading of the Bible, the divine word. Thus, when we contact them, they do not have to give a long discourse, but after only a few simple words they give us the sense of the presence of Christ. They have Christ’s life and Christ’s element, so when we meet them, we feel that we are meeting Christ. There is something in their words that causes our spirit to feel sweet, at ease, and watered, and also to sense that Christ is nearer and more glorious.
At other times, however, we meet certain saints who read the Bible regularly and know how to preach. Yet the more they speak, the colder we become; the more they speak, the more we lose the Lord’s presence; the more they speak, the more we lose our interest in attending the meetings. Why is this? It is because they are full of doctrines. The letter kills. Only Christ gives life. We should read the Bible not to look for doctrines but to seek after Christ. If you really see the revelation through these words, when you go and read the Bible again, you will hate to have merely the doctrines, and you will pray, “O God, save me from knowing mere doctrines without meeting You. Reveal Yourself in Your word, and touch my spirit with Your word that I may give You the ground in me. Lord, do come in.”
If we read the Bible in this way, the Lord will touch our inner being and even deeply touch our opinions and concepts. We may have been saved for ten or twenty years but not have much of the increase of Christ in us. We are still full of our natural man, our opinion, our self, and our disposition. We do not have much Christ in us. From now on, however, when we read the Bible, the Lord may touch our inner being with just one sentence or one verse. When this happens, we have to pray, “O Lord, forgive me. I have not been seeking after You all these years; rather, what I have been seeking is just doctrine in letter, and what I have been seeking is just myself. I am filled with the world, my lusts, and my preferences, yet I am so short of You. You have not gained much ground in me. Lord, please forgive me.” If we read the Bible with a contrite spirit — asking the Lord for His mercy that He would break in us what we are unable to break by ourselves and remove what we are unable to remove by ourselves — then perhaps after just twenty minutes or half an hour Christ’s element will be added into us.
As a result, when we fellowship with others, our careless speaking will disappear, our evil and perverted thoughts will vanish, and our contemptuous and jealous heart will depart. Why will these things happen? They will happen because Christ will have increased in us. His sweetness in us will replace our sourness. This kind of Bible reading is real Bible reading. The Bible is neither doctrine nor knowledge but Christ Himself. If we do not gain Christ and touch Christ, our reading of the Bible is empty and in vain. Only when we touch Christ will we have the genuineness and the reality of the Bible.
Today although many people pray, they do not gain much of Christ. If you merely pray for your family to enjoy peace, your children to be free from danger and harm, and your business to prosper, you miss the real significance and purpose of prayer. Real prayer is for you to contact and touch Christ. We need the light to see that if we do not touch or meet Christ, it would be better not to pray. This is not to say that we should not unload our burdens before God; rather, this is to say that we should do all these things in spirit. We have to touch Christ and tell Him, “O Lord, I still have this problem. Would You like to solve this problem for me? I still have this burden. Would You be willing to bear this burden for me?” We should touch and contact the Lord in our prayers. His answering our prayers is a minor thing. What we should treasure is His contact with us during the process.
For example, before you go to visit someone, to do a certain activity, to help the saints, or to preach the gospel, you should first touch Christ and ask Him, “Am I doing good, helping others, and preaching the gospel out of myself or out of Christ? Am I doing all these things by myself or by Christ?” The same matter may be of two different sources; it may be out of ourselves, or it may be carried out through Christ. The same matter may originate from us or may originate from Christ. Different sources will have different outcomes.
We need to realize one thing. Not only hatred comes out of ourselves, but love can also come out of ourselves. We should not only reject our hatred, but we should also reject our love. We have to seek to touch the Lord’s presence, because in Him is love, and it is by Him that we love others. By touching Him in this way, it will not be we who love but He who loves. Consequently, when we love, He loves.
Ten years ago someone from the northern part of China asked me a question, “Since our love may come either out of ourselves or out of Christ, how can we tell the difference? How do we know if our love is of ourselves or of Christ?” This question is hard to answer. However, we know that when we love others, we do have some feeling within. Sometimes when we love someone, we are murmuring within, asking why we love this person so much even though this person does not love others. If this is the case, we should know that this kind of love is one hundred percent of ourselves. When you have the feeling that you love people, yet others do not love people, this kind of love is, no doubt, from yourself. When your love is of Christ, although obviously you love others, you do not sense that you are one who loves others, nor do you boast in yourself.
It is the same with virtues such as goodness, meekness, and humility. If our virtues are of ourselves, we will boast in ourselves and condemn others. If, however, our virtues are of Christ, others will sense them, but we will not have any feeling about them. We can see this principle in Moses. People saw the shining of his face, but he himself did not see it (Exo. 34:29). Perhaps some will ask, “If we do not have any feeling that we are doing something, how can we do it? If we do not feel that we are meek, how can we be meek?” Seemingly, this is paradoxical, but actually, when we are living in our spirit, we will know and sense what is from our self and what is from Christ. When we have a clear feeling that something comes from our self, we have to reject it. At that time Christ will come out of us. When we have a feeling of the self, we have to hate and reject it. We have to hate and reject not only the evil self but also the good self. We do this because we have a revelation within. We see that Christ has a place in us and that He is our life and our nature. Because of this seeing, we will not allow our evil self to replace Christ, nor will we allow our good self to replace Christ.
If we really have the light, we will see that many things in us are enemies of Christ and that many matters in us are substitutes of Christ. If we have the light, we will see that all these things are frustrations to God and to Christ. May God have mercy on us by removing these substitutes and frustrations from us so that Christ may increase and grow in us. Eventually, Christ will be mingled with us to such an extent that we and He, He and we, will be completely one. This is genuine spirituality and real spiritual growth. This is God’s eternal purpose and God’s work.
