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Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:20; John 10:10b; 1 John 1:2; John 1:4; Rom. 8:2; Heb. 8:10-11; 10:16; Jer. 31:32-34
In recent months, the Lord has arranged for me to visit many groups of Christians of various backgrounds. After all these visits, I realize that believers today have a need for the real knowledge and experience of the inner life, a life which is Christ Himself. According to my realization, exceedingly few brothers and sisters know what life is, fewer have the real experience of life, and nearly no one knows the right way to experience the inner life. In all of my recent travel across the United States, this has been my unique impression.
I have also discovered that it is rather difficult to help Christians know the proper way to experience the inner life. Although we may talk about the inner life and read articles about it, it is very hard for us to realize the proper way to experience the inner life. By knowledge, I do not mean knowledge in a general way, which is very easy to attain. For example, we may know very clearly that Christ is life and that what we need is not knowledge but life. We may furthermore know that the life we are discussing is not outward but inward, that is, the inner life. Such a superficial knowledge may be common to many of us, but the real meaning of knowing Christ as our inner life is a mystery to many believers. We may know the words, but we very well may not know the proper way to experience Christ as the inner life. It is relatively easy to receive spiritual gifts, but it is very difficult to bring a brother or sister to know the proper way to experience the inner life. As we progress through these chapters, let us pray to receive a definite and much needed vision by which we can both see and experience the central matter of the Christian faith, the Scriptures, and the Christian life — Christ as our inner life.
God’s desire and ultimate intention is to work Himself into us so that we may express Him and represent Him. However, there is only one way that this can be accomplished: God must come into us to be our life. Today there is a great need for Christians to see that God’s intention is to make Christ life to us. We are vessels, containers, to contain God, and God is the content that should come into us. If God is going to be our content, He must be life to us. The life that we possess through our natural birth from our parents is not the real life. That life is but a figure, a shadow, that points to the real life, which is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit.
Let us use the illustration of a glove to clarify this point. Although a glove has fingers, its fingers are not real fingers. Real fingers are the fingers of a hand, not the fingers of a glove. Even if a glove has many fingers, those fingers are empty. In the same way, the life with which we were born physically is not the real life; it is but a vessel to contain the real life, which is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit. This is why we need to be born again (John 3:3, 7). We do not need to be born again simply because our human life is sinful. Even if our human life were not sinful, we would still need to be born again. This is because it is not enough that we have the human life; we need the divine life. As human beings, we already have the human life. Now, as those who are fashioned by God to contain Him, we need the divine life, which is God Himself. The ultimate goal of God’s salvation is that we take God as our life. Although this is a fact, if we ask most Christians what the ultimate goal of God’s salvation is or why God saved us, we will realize that not many are clear concerning this. We must all realize that God saved us for a purpose. This purpose is that we would take Him as our life. God — the almighty, infinite, omnipotent God — intends and even desires to come into us as life to live in us.
Hence, there are a number of passages in the Scriptures that present this truth. Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” The phrase Christ who lives in me means simply that God is life to us. We know that Christ is the embodiment of God (John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9). Consequently, if Christ lives in us, that means that God is life to us. The Lord Himself told us that He came that we may have life and may have life abundantly (John 10:10b). He also told us that as He lives because of the Father, we must live because of Him (6:57). The meaning of these verses is that God has come to be life to us. My burden is that in these days each of us would pray one thing: “O Lord, open my eyes that I may see one thing in a definite way — that You are my life.” We all must see that the Triune God is life to us. We must see this as God’s goal and as the central matter in the Christian life. The central matter in the Christian life is not the acquisition of holiness, power, or any other spiritual matter. The center of the Christian life is our having God in Christ as the Spirit living within us as our life.
This is not a matter that we can cover in a quick way. We all stand in great need of God opening our eyes to show us His desire. His desire is that He would live within us and that each of us would take Him as life. The unbelievers have missed the mark of God’s intention. They do not know God’s intention for either the universe or human beings. Not only have the unbelievers missed the mark, however; even we Christians do not know God’s desire, much less have a clear vision concerning it.
In God’s intention, He made man in a certain form yet without content. In God’s creation, man is simply a form, a vessel, a container. God intended that the content of this vessel be Himself as the divine life. God’s intention is therefore to make Himself one with man. First Corinthians 6:17 states this clearly: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” When we believed into the Lord and were regenerated, God as life came into our human vessel, and we and the Lord became one spirit. Today our body is a vessel and our human life is our content. If the human life were not in our body, our body would be empty. In the same way that our body is a vessel meant to contain our physical life, so too is our entire being — body, soul, and spirit — a vessel that is meant to contain something. God intends that we be filled with Himself as life. Once we are filled with Himself as life, He intends that we live by Him. God’s salvation, on the one hand, is to recover us and cleanse us because we as created vessels have been damaged and dirtied by Satan, sin, and the fall. This, however, is not the positive side of God’s goal in saving us. God’s positive intention in His salvation is that after cleansing us He put Himself into us. Christ’s redemption and cleansing prepares us as vessels to receive God as life. God’s ultimate and positive intention in His salvation is to come into us as life.
Many Christians realize that at the time of their regeneration they received forgiveness, peace, joy, rest, and satisfaction. However, very few believers have the central concept that in addition to these things, we have received God Himself as life. As those who have been regenerated by God, we have God Himself as life living in us. I am afraid that although many of you enjoy peace, joy, rest, and satisfaction, you do not know that God, who is life, is now living within you. Even if you know this fact, I doubt whether you know how to experience God as life or live by Him. This is a great problem among the Lord’s children today.
We all know that Christ is the bread of life to us (John 6:48). We also know that the Lord said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57b). But who knows the way to eat Christ? Although we know that Christ is the bread of life, many of us do not know how to eat Christ. God is life to us in Christ as the Spirit. But what is the way for us to live by Christ? What is the proper way for us to experience the inner life which is Christ Himself? I wish to challenge you with these questions. You may say that the proper way to experience Christ as life is by experiencing the Body, but I in turn would ask you by what way we can experience the Body. Again, you may answer that we experience Christ as life by prayer or by contacting the Holy Spirit. Although both prayer and contacting the Holy Spirit are good, these answers are somewhat vague. This matter of experiencing Christ practically as life is a real problem among Christians today. In Christianity today very little is ministered concerning Christ as life to man. Although there is an abundance of lectures, sermons, messages, teachings, doctrines, and talks that are delivered in Christianity, very few of them take Christ as life as their topic. On occasion, Christian teachers will speak something concerning Christ as life, but it is very difficult to find a message that tells us the actual way to experience this inner life. Throughout the past year, in which I have been speaking much about Christ as life, I have come to find out that many saints do not know the way to experience the inner life.
So I would ask the question again: What is the way for us to experience Christ as our inner life? Perhaps you would again attempt to answer this question, saying that in every situation in life, we must recognize that first He is our life and that second we must contact Him in our spirit and draw our strength from Him. Then in every situation, instead of our acting by ourselves, Christ will act through us. This, you may continue, is Christ flowing Himself through us to minister Himself, instead of our trying to minister in ourselves. This would be an excellent answer, but it is still not specific enough.
It is very difficult to be clear on this matter. Although many of us may have insight into this question, it is very difficult to answer with clarity and specificity. I have been perplexed very much about the lack of clarity among the saints concerning the proper way to experience the inner life and have spent considerable time before the Lord considering our situation. Although you may be clear in a limited way, you are not clear to the extent that you can make yourself understood to others concerning the proper way to experience Christ as life. Hence, I would repeat the question once more: What exactly is the proper way for us to experience the inner life?
My burden is not to give you many messages; my burden is simply to help you to be clear about one secret. This secret is worth more than one million dollars, but I would like to give it to you freely as a gift. Secrets are always very simple — for if something is not simple, it is not a secret. This secret is like a key that gives simple access to something that is otherwise difficult to penetrate. If we have the key, the door is open to us. If, on the other hand, we do not have the key, even if we do many things, the door will remain closed to us. The secret I would like to share with you in these chapters is the key whereby we can enter into the practical experience of Christ as the inner life.
Before I give you the key, however, we have to be clear concerning four matters. First John 1:2 says, “And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” This verse speaks of the eternal life. The apostle John tells us that he saw, handled, and declared that life to us so that we may have fellowship. If we want to know the proper way to experience the inner life, we must know the fellowship of life. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In this verse we have the light of life. Then in Romans 8:2 we have two additional matters of life: the law of life and the Spirit of life. Hebrews 8:10-11, 10:16, and Jeremiah 31:32-34 all speak of the Lord imparting a law into us and writing this law upon us. The law spoken of here is the law of life. Hence, we have four matters: the fellowship of life, the light of life, the law of life, and the Spirit of life. These four matters, taken together, are the key of the inner life. If we are to know the proper way to experience the inner life, we must know these four matters. If we do not know them, we do not have the key to experience the inner life. I am concerned that many of you do not know these matters and consequently do not have the key. I am furthermore concerned that even if some of you do have this key, you do not know how to use it.
In the following chapters, we will begin to see something concerning the fellowship of life, the light of life, the law of life, and the Spirit of life. These matters, taken together, are called the law of the Spirit of life. This is a line of ministry that requires much prayer and fellowship on our part. I beg of you to read the above portions of the Word carefully and pray concerning these matters desperately. If you do this, you will have a foundation upon which you will be able to take in the fellowship in the following chapters. I believe that once we become clear concerning these four matters, we will have the key to the inner life and become clear concerning the proper way to experience Christ as life.
