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Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:10; 6:4; Titus 3:5; 15-16, Eph. 4:22-24; 2:21; Col. 2:19; 1 Pet. 2:2, 5
Thus far, we have seen the way to take life in and how life grows and transforms us. In this chapter we want to see something more about life.
Romans 5:10 says, “Much more we will be saved in His life.” Life grows, life transforms, and life saves. We all have to pay our full attention to Romans 5:10. It says that when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. To be reconciled to God is good, but we still need something more, much more. Much more we will be saved in His life. Once we were enemies to God and were absolutely fallen. In one sense, even today while we are here on this earth and in this flesh, we are still in a fallen condition, a fallen situation, and a fallen nature. So we need to be saved.
We need to spend time in the presence of the Lord to pray, “O Lord Jesus, show me the items from which I need to be saved.” You may say that you need to be saved from self, Satan, and the power of sin. But if you ask the Lord, He will show you hundreds of items from which you need to be saved.
One thing from which we need to be saved is our looseness. This looseness comes not from God’s original creation but from our fall. To be loose proves that we are fallen. An example of our looseness is that we are not accurate when we report something. We may say that there were about one thousand people present in one of our meetings, but our report is exaggerated. We need to be saved from our looseness and from many other things.
We have been saved from eternal perdition and from God’s condemnation, but we are fallen people, and all the things related to us are in a fallen condition. The way we talk is fallen, the way we express ourselves is fallen, our attitude is fallen, and our talk is fallen. Even the way we walk is fallen. The way we dress and cut our hair is fallen. The way we laugh and shout is fallen. The way we look at people is fallen. Whatever we do, whatever we are, whatever we have, whatever we say, and however we behave are altogether fallen. Our conduct is absolutely a fallen matter. Since it is fallen, we need salvation; we need deliverance.
We need to be delivered from the way we talk to people, from the way we laugh, and from the way we express ourselves. We need to be delivered from the way we dress. Now that we have been reconciled, much more we will be saved in His life. In the fallen situation, Satan is subtle with certain persons in one aspect and with other persons in another aspect. Some people are wild. Wildness is a proof of the fall. We are wild because we are fallen, so we need to be saved from being wild. But this does not mean that we should be refined. To be refined is a matter of culture. Some people may be refined without, but within they are like wild beasts. We all need to be saved by His life. When we call on the Lord by saying, “Lord Jesus,” we take Him in as life, and this life saves us from being wild or from our natural refinement.
Another manifestation of our fallen situation is our politeness, in the sense of being a kind of politics. That is actually falsehood. You may say that to be polite is to be nice. But you need to be saved from being so nice. The wild people need to be saved from being wild. The nice people need to be saved from being nice. Then we may wonder whether we should be wild or nice. But whether we are wild or nice, we are still fallen. We need to be saved from everything of the fall. We need to be saved from our being nice or wild. We are saved not by teaching but by Christ as life.
Some people are naturally emotional. Generally speaking, the northern people from the cold region are rather conservative. When they are happy, they are happy within. It is really hard for us to know that they are happy. They are hiddenly and conservatively happy. But the southerners from the tropical zone are more emotional and easily excited. Maybe they are not that happy, yet they express themselves as being very happy. The northerners need to be saved from their being conservative, and the southerners need to be saved from their being excited. They both need to be saved in Christ’s life. Christ is not so conservative or so excited. The southerners need to be cooled down a little bit by Christ being life to them. When the Lord fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, He was very calm. He did not jump up and say, “Hallelujah!” The disciples may have been excited, but the Lord Jesus was calm and told them to pick up all the fragments and put them into baskets (Matt. 14:14-21).
Christ as life to us saves us from what we are. If you are slow, Christ will save you from your slowness. If you are quick, Christ will be your life to save you from your quickness. We had a co-worker among us whom I met in 1934. Brother Watchman Nee told me concerning this brother that if you tell him to go east, he will go west. If you said yes, he would say no. So it was very easy for you to get along with him. If you wanted him to go east, you just needed to ask him to go west. Then he would go east. Many times when we say no, the Lord says yes. When we say yes, the Lord says no.
If you are a slow person, the Lord will ask you to hurry. If you are a quick person, the Lord will tell you to be patient. This is according to Christ as life, not the law. We all need to be saved from what we are. If you like to laugh, the Lord says, “Don’t laugh.” If you like to be quiet, the Lord says, “Be excited.” The Lord will say to the northern Canadians, “Be excited,” and to the southern Mexicans, “Be quiet.”
We are fallen people. Whatever we are is in a fallen condition. Do not keep anything of what you are naturally. We need to be saved from our natural condition, from what we are naturally. Some may ask whether it is right to be quiet or to be excited. Our answer is that neither is right or wrong. If the Lord saves you to be excited, you have to be excited. If the Lord saves you to be calm, you have to be calm. It is up to Him. There is no legality. But I do know that the Lord’s salvation, the Lord’s deliverance, is always against our nature.
If you never like to talk, the Lord will say, “Talk.” He will urge you to call more on His name, to praise Him more, and to speak for Him more. If you are talkative, the Lord will say, “Be quiet.” The Lord would not allow you to talk. He would save you from being talkative. This is the Lord’s salvation. I like to see the Canadians shouting praises, but I do not like to see the Mexicans shouting so much. We need to be saved in His life. By our life we live in a natural way, but by His life we live in a way which is absolutely versus our nature. I encourage you to go to the Lord and see what He would say to you. We need to go along with Christ as life within us. When the Canadians are excited, they will have the growth of life, but when the Mexicans shout too much, they will not gain the increase of life. We all need to be saved, not by outward doing but by the inward life, by Christ as life. Christ is going to live within us another life versus our natural life.
Now you may wonder what you should do. You should simply go along with the inner life. Life saves. You need to be saved from every item of your natural being. If you are faithful and mean business with the Lord, the more you say, “O Lord” to take in the Lord, the more you will be saved from what you are. You will be saved from your being and from your behavior. Then you will know how to behave yourself, not according to your life but according to Christ as your life within you.
We will eventually be saved to such an extent that we will become the highest people in life. As those who are for the Lord’s testimony, for the Lord’s recovery, and for the local church, we need the highest manner of life in our offices, our schools, and our neighborhoods. We need the highest behavior, not by our own doing but by Christ as life. We will convince people not just by our shouting, our praising, our singing, or our calling, but by having our being on the highest plane.
We have to convince people not just by what we say or by what we claim to be, but by our being, by our saved behavior. Our being on the highest plane will cause people to look up to us. We will be on the highest plane because we are being saved by Christ being our life. We are living by Christ, the highest life. If we are like this, the Lord has a way to move on, and nothing can prevail against the Lord’s way. So we look to the Lord for His saving by His life. We all need to declare, “Much more we will be saved in His life!”
The divine life, the highest life, the eternal life, the everlasting life, never gets old. If anything can become old, that is not the real life. Our human life is becoming old, so this is not a real life. The real life is always new; it is everlastingly new, ever fresh.
Romans 5:10 says that we will be saved in His life. Then Romans 6:4 says that we should walk in newness of life. Life renews. We should tell the Lord, “O Lord, every day You are new.” If we are faithful to the Lord and honest in saying this, we will never be the same as we were yesterday. Every day we will be renewed. We will have the new experience of Christ every day. I would say a word to the elderly brothers and sisters among us. No doubt, physically speaking we are old; we may be at least one generation older than the younger ones. But Psalm 103:5 says that God can satisfy us so that our youth is renewed like the eagle. Our youth can come back by taking Christ as life into us. We have to drop our oldness and say, “Praise the Lord! We have Christ within, so our youth has to come back.” It is possible for us to have our youth renewed like the eagle by taking in Christ all day as our life. The Lord may tell the elderly saints to be more excited and the younger saints among us to be less excited.
We all need to be renewed day by day. Yesterday’s manna should not be today’s food. Every day we have the new manna (Exo. 16:14-22). By this renewing, we will be delivered from our old manner of life, and we will be renewed into the new manner of life (Eph. 4:22-24). This is the church life. To put on the new man includes the putting on of the church life. We need to be renewed again and again.
Some of the brothers, according to their nature by birth, like to be alone. They like to stay home in their own room. This kind of disposition is not good for the church life. We all need to be renewed day by day from the old manner of life into a new manner of life. This new manner of life is the church life. Some are not used to talking to others. But in the church life you need to talk with others and be mingled with others. Otherwise, how can we be one Body?
On the other hand, there are some who are so open according to their natural disposition. These brothers are used to being one with others, not in the spirit but in the natural life. One young brother may even be so open that he would exchange his shoes with another brother. Some would say that these two brothers love one another, but eventually these brothers will fight one another. Their relationship is not spiritual for the church life but something in the natural life. We need to be renewed in every aspect of our daily life. If you are closed, the Lord will say, “Be open.” If you are so open, the Lord will say, “Be careful. Don’t be so open.” If you like to contact people by your nature, the Lord will say, “Restrain yourself a little bit.” If you do not like to contact people by your nature, the Lord will say, “Go out.”
We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (v. 23). If we call on the Lord day by day, we will be renewed little by little. Eventually, we will have the Body life, the church life, absolutely not in a natural way. We will have a lot of contact, fellowship, and mingling in a very spiritual way. Natural relationships do not last. Enemies are made between people who were once friends. If you are fellowshipping with the brothers and sisters in a natural way, be prepared for discord. Today you may love a certain person, but later you may dislike him. We all need to be renewed by calling on the name of the Lord. By continually calling, “O Lord Jesus,” we will be renewed in the spirit of our mind.
