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In this chapter we will continue to dwell on Philippians 3:10, one of the great verses in the New Testament. This verse speaks of four things: knowing Christ, knowing the power of His resurrection, knowing the fellowship of His sufferings, and being conformed to His death. Thus, four things are included in this verse: Christ, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and the conformity to His death.
Not many Christians have a proper understanding of the power of Christ’s resurrection or the fellowship of His sufferings. Many do not even know much about His sufferings, knowing only that He suffered during His crucifixion. But this verse speaks of sufferings, not suffering. Knowing Christ, knowing the power of His resurrection, knowing the fellowship of His sufferings, and being conformed to His death are all related to our experience of Christ. If we would experience Christ, we must know Him. Knowing Him depends on how much we know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Hence, knowing the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings is vital in our knowing Him.
The New Testament clearly reveals that resurrection, especially the resurrection of Christ, is related to death. Without death there is no need of resurrection and no opportunity for resurrection to be manifested. In order to know the power of resurrection, we must enter into a death situation and remain there. Since it is necessary to be in death in order to know the power of resurrection, we must understand what it means to be in death.
For this understanding, we need to consider the record of the life of the Lord Jesus as found in the four Gospels. The Gospels are not merely an account of stories, lessons, teachings, or examples but a record of a person who is our life. According to the record of the Gospels, His life is a crucified life. Not only was Christ crucified when He was put on the cross; before He was put on the cross, He lived under the cross. In other words, He continually lived a crucified life. This means that He always put Himself under the death of the cross in order that He might be terminated. Christ was constantly being crucified; nevertheless, He lived.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (KJV). In this verse there are three significant words: nevertheless, yet, and but. Hence, Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” To be crucified is to be terminated and slain. Although Paul had been crucified with Christ, nevertheless he lived, yet not Paul, but Christ. This “nevertheless...yet...but” is the Christian life.
The mystery of the Christian life is related to the fact that both Christ and we have two lives — the divine life and the human life. Christ was God, but one day He became man. As God, He had the divine life; as man, He had the human life. Thus, Jesus was the God-man, a person with both the divine life and the human life. Was God’s intention that Christ live out the human life or the divine life? The answer is that God intended Christ to live out the divine life in His human life. It will help us to understand this if we ask another question: Did God intend that Christ express His humanity or His divinity? The answer to this question is that God wanted Christ to express divinity in His humanity by means of the divine life. God can only be expressed by the divine life. For example, a cat cannot express a bird, for a bird can only be expressed by the life of a bird. In like manner, the human life cannot express God. To expect God to be expressed by the human life is like expecting a bird to be expressed by a cat. A cat cannot possibly express a bird because it does not have the life of a bird. Likewise, a man cannot express God if he does not have God’s life. God’s intention was that Christ would express Him by the divine life. Nevertheless, God wants to have Himself expressed in man. If God is expressed only in Himself, He will not be satisfied. He loves man and wants to be expressed in man.
Once again, let us use the relationship between a husband and his wife as an illustration. Every husband wants to be expressed not in himself but in his wife. Thus, the secret of being a good wife is for the wife to be the expression of her husband. For example, I enjoy eating Mandarin dumplings. However, I do not like to say this. Instead, I prefer that my wife say it for me. This indicates that I desire to be expressed by my wife. If she does not express me, I am disappointed and displeased. Just as a husband wants himself expressed not in himself but in his wife, so God desires to have Himself expressed not in Himself but in man. This is not my concept; it is the concept of the Bible, wherein the relationship between God and man is likened to that between a husband and wife. A wife needs to learn one secret: to know what is in the heart of her husband and express it. If your husband likes to eat Mandarin dumplings, do not simply tell others that he likes to eat them. Rather, you should say, “We like to eat Mandarin dumplings.” This will be most pleasing to your husband. Whenever my wife says this, my heart leaps for joy. This shows how much I desire to be expressed through her. In like manner, God wants to express Himself in man.
For the expression of God in man, two lives are needed — one life to express Him and another life to be the channel for this expression. This means that one life is needed to express God and another to be the channel. When some hear this, they may say, “This is not logical, for to express is to be the channel, and to be the channel is to express.” Nevertheless, there is a difference here. It is impossible for man’s life to express God, just as it is impossible for the life of a cat to express a bird. Only the divine life, God’s life, can express God. Nevertheless, God desires that this expression be in man. Although the human life cannot express God, the human life is needed for the accomplishment of this expression. As we have pointed out, the Lord Jesus had two lives, the divine life and the human life. The divine life expressed God, and the human life accomplished the expression of God.
We have seen that only the divine life is able to express God. We have also seen that God does not want Himself expressed in Himself but in man. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, everyone could see that He was a man, but very few realized that God was concealed within Him. God did not want Jesus to express Himself; He wanted Him to express God. Therefore, in order for Jesus to express God, He had to deny His human life by constantly putting it to death under the cross. In other words, He had to live a crucified life. Although He was always being crucified, nevertheless He lived, yet not He, but God. As Jesus lived the crucified life, this crucified life gave the opportunity for the divine life to be lived out for the expression of God. The power of Christ’s resurrection needed the death that killed His natural life. The Lord Jesus had to place His natural life under death. When this took place, there was the opportunity for the divine life to rise up. In this we see the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Concerning this matter of the power of Christ’s resurrection, as in so many other matters, many Christians are missing the mark. When I was a child, the principal of the Southern Baptist elementary school that I attended taught me to celebrate Easter by coloring eggs. Later, after I was saved and had begun to love the Lord, I was told to celebrate Easter by attending a sunrise service. Although Christianity may teach people to color Easter eggs or have sunrise services, it does not teach them concerning the power of Christ’s resurrection. If we know the power of His resurrection, every meeting of the church will be a resurrection meeting, and every day will be a resurrection day.
How glad I am to have two lives, the human life and the divine life! I was born of man to be a son of man, but I have also been born of God to be a son of God. Thus, I have a dual status, the status of a son of man and the status of a son of God. Although all real Christians have two lives, only the divine life can express God. Our natural human life is pitiful and cannot possibly express Him. Most of the sermons preached in the so-called churches teach people to use their human life to imitate the divine life. This is like teaching a monkey to act like a human being. Even if monkeys could act like humans, such behavior would not be genuine but an imitation. Likewise, it is useless to teach people to imitate the divine life. In the Lord’s recovery we are not teaching people to do this. The goal of this ministry is not imitation but dispensation. Our goal is to dispense something divine into you so that you may live by the divine life, the only life that can express God.
The one good aspect of the human life is that it is capable of making a decision whether or not to put the human life aside and to place it under the death of the cross. God cannot make this decision for us. We need to make it ourselves. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, God did not decide for Him that He should be crucified. As a human being, He Himself decided to put Himself daily under the cross. It is the same with us today. We need to decide whether or not we will be crucified. We need to realize that we are good only to be crucified. If we are willing for this, we will make a strong decision in favor of it. We will say, “Brothers, if you want to crucify me, it is all right. I want to be crucified, terminated, placed under death.” When we are willing for this and are placed into death, the crucified life will become the base for the resurrection life to rise up. Thus, by being crucified, we will come to know the power of Christ’s resurrection. But if we are not crucified, we cannot know the power of His resurrection. There is only one way for us to know the power of His resurrection, and that is to live a crucified life.
Often, brothers and sisters have told me about the problems they have in married life. Some have said, “Brother Lee, I have prayed about the situation, but the Lord has not answered my prayer. In fact, the more I pray, the worse the situation becomes. The situation is always the opposite of what I ask for in prayer.” The reason for this is that so many brothers and sisters are not willing to be crucified. There is not always the need to pray so much. The Lord Jesus did not always pray as much as you do, but He was always willing to be crucified. He did not pray to the heavenly Father regarding the difficulties in His family, asking the Father to change His mother’s disposition so that she would not be so troublesome to Him. Instead of praying like this, He was willing to be crucified, to put Himself under the death of the cross. Furthermore, although Peter caused the Lord Jesus considerable difficulty, the Lord did not send him away. Instead, He always put Himself under the death of the cross. Not only with Peter but with all the disciples, the Lord Jesus continually put Himself aside. For example, the last time the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He was about to be crucified, none of them had an ear to hear this (Matt. 20:17-19). Immediately after the Lord spoke this word, they began to discuss among themselves who would be the greatest. If we had been the Lord Jesus, we would have rebuked them harshly for paying no attention to the word regarding crucifixion. But because the Lord Jesus was living a crucified life, He did not speak to them in this way.
When the Lord put Himself under death, this death gave the best opportunity for the divine life within Him to come forth. Although He lived in the human life, He did not live out the human life. Instead, He lived out the divine life. The human life in Him was put to death, and His divine life was lived out. The result was the expression not of Jesus of Nazareth but of the very God, the divine person within Him. This is the way to know the power of Christ’s resurrection.
By the Lord’s mercy and grace, we have come to know that the desire of God’s heart is to express Himself through us. This expression, however, cannot be by our human life but must be by the divine life within us. For this expression we must be willing to put aside our human life. The Lord may give us certain helpers to assist us in this — a wife or husband, children, and the brothers and sisters in the church. Our environment helps us to be crucified. Nevertheless, we must be willing to be put under the death of the cross and to live a crucified life. This death will afford the opportunity for the divine life within us to be lived out. In this way we will know the power of resurrection. If we still preserve our natural life and pray that God will help us in certain matters, we are wrong. God will not answer the prayers to preserve our natural life, nor will He render any help to our natural life. Rather, He will say, “Don’t pray for Me to help you. Go to the cross and remain there. If you are willing, I will help you to be put on the cross.” This is what it means to live the crucified life.
In our family life and in the church life, we all need to go to the cross and remain there. The best way to know the power of Christ’s resurrection in our married life is to go to the cross. The unique way is not to pray; it is to be crucified. This is true not only in our family life but even the more in the church life. To be a good brother or sister among the saints in the church life requires that we go to the cross to be crucified. Do not pray for God to change others. God will never answer such a prayer. Instead, go to the cross and remain there. This is the way that is according to His economy. If we are willing to go to the cross and stay there, we will know the power of Christ’s resurrection.
If you read the four Gospels again in the light of this vision, the Gospels will all be new to you. You will see that they are a record of a crucified life. In nearly every chapter we find the Lord Jesus living under the cross. He lived this way for the release of the divine life. Because He lived a crucified life, He was never defeated. It is possible to defeat a living person but not a crucified person. The best way to escape the attacks of the enemy is not to counterattack; it is to go to the cross. When Satan attacks you, go to the cross and remain there. That is all you need to do. Satan cannot defeat a crucified one. As we have seen, crucifixion affords a base for the power of Christ’s resurrection to rise up so that the divine life may be expressed. Thus, there is no need for us to counterattack. In fact, it will not always be necessary even to pray. What we need the most is to go to the cross and stay there to live a crucified life. If we do this, the divine life will be released and manifested. As long as we are willing to go to the cross and to remain there, everything will be in the power of resurrection. This is the way to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. This is not a matter of doctrine but of experience. May the Lord give all of us the willingness and the determination to go to the cross and stay there so that we may know the power of His resurrection.
