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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 4, 14, 17; 8:32; 14:6
The book of John may be familiar to us, yet we can never exhaust the riches in this deep book. The first crucial point in this book is life. In 14:6 the Lord said, “I am the way and the reality and the life.” In our experience we first gain the Lord as our life, then we have the reality, and the reality eventually becomes the way. In verse 6 the Lord mentioned the way first because the disciples had asked Him to show them the way to the Father (v. 5). He told the disciples that He is the way. However, before we can have the way, we need to have the reality, and in order to have the reality, we first need to experience life. Therefore, the Lord ultimately brought His disciples to life. Life is the basic Christian experience.
Most Christians understand the word truth to mean “doctrine.” They think that truth and doctrine are synonymous. However, according to the Greek, the word truth in the New Testament means “reality” (1:14; 8:32; 14:6). Doctrine and truth are two different things and should not be confused. Nevertheless, it is sometimes difficult to separate truth from doctrine because every proper doctrine conveys a certain truth, and the truth is always in a certain doctrine. This is the reason Christians think that doctrine and truth are the same. Although doctrine conveys the truth, the truth is not doctrine. Let us consider some illustrations in order to see the difference.
Concerning the Lord’s table, there are doctrines, and there is the truth. The British Brethren studied many doctrines concerning the Lord’s table. They studied how often Christians should have the Lord’s table, who is qualified to partake of the Lord’s table, who is qualified to distribute the elements of the table, and whether the cup should contain wine or grape juice. They debated much concerning these and other doctrines. They studied whether to use one large cup or many small cups, leavened or unleavened bread, one large loaf or many small pieces. They also studied whether the bread or the cup should be passed first. They spent much time to study and write books concerning all these things. Regrettably, however, all these matters are only doctrine and not the truth.
The truth in the doctrines concerning the Lord’s table is the Body of Christ, Christ the Head, and the death and resurrection of Christ. The loaf on the table signifies the Body of Christ, the church, and the Body points to the Head, Christ. The bread and the cup, which signify the Lord’s body and His blood, being separate on the table display the Lord’s death. The table also displays the Lord’s resurrection through the bread, which is made of many grains that are produced in resurrection and that have been blended into one loaf. It is in Christ’s resurrection that we were produced as the many grains to form Christ’s Body.
When we are at the Lord’s table, if we do not see the Body of Christ, Christ the Head, and the death and resurrection of Christ, we have only doctrine. It is very serious to have only a doctrinal Lord’s table, meeting on the first day of the week merely to view the symbols of the loaf and the cup as a remembrance of the Lord. If we have seen the truth, the reality, of the Lord’s table, we will touch the reality of the Body of Christ in our spirit when we participate in the physical symbols, and through the Body we will realize and enjoy Christ the Head. We will also touch the death and resurrection of Christ, realizing that His death has terminated our natural being and that we are now His Body in resurrection. In this way we not only keep a practice according to doctrine, but we also touch the truth within the doctrine. The truth of the reality of the Body of Christ, Christ as the Head, and the death and resurrection of Christ is conveyed in the doctrine of the Lord’s table, but we are not destined by God for the doctrine. Rather, we are destined by God for the reality, the truth in the doctrine. The doctrine is an otherwise empty means to convey the truth. The truth is the real contents of the doctrine.
It is possible to know and even teach and preach the doctrine of justification by faith yet never experience the reality of being justified by faith. The reality of justification by faith is nothing less than Christ Himself. Christ is the real justification received by us through faith. Someone may know the doctrine of justification by faith yet not have Christ, the reality of this doctrine. Many ordinary believers do not fully know the doctrine of justification by faith, yet they have the reality of justification by faith. They have received and experienced Christ, and this living Christ becomes their justification received through faith. Regrettably, however, some have the doctrine, the shell, of justification by faith, but they do not have the reality, the content.
Every doctrine is a shell; the reality, the truth, is the content. For instance, we may learn all the verses concerning sinners needing God’s forgiveness. We may even teach others concerning the forgiveness of sins. However, we may have never experienced the reality of the doctrine of forgiveness. Like justification by faith, forgiveness of sins is Christ Himself. If we have received the Lord, even if we do not know that our sins are forgiven, we have received the gift of forgiveness. Real forgiveness is not a doctrine but a gift (Acts 5:31).
In every doctrine there is the reality. However, many Christians care mainly for doctrines and neglect the reality. But others who do not have much knowledge concerning doctrines have opened themselves and received Christ. This Christ is all-inclusive — He is forgiveness, redemption, justification, and reconciliation. He is the reality of every proper doctrine.
The Gospel of John concerns not doctrine but truth, reality. John 1:14 does not say that the Word who became flesh was full of grace and doctrine. Verse 17 does not say that grace and doctrine came through Jesus Christ. Most Christians understand truth to be doctrine, but it would not make sense to substitute the word doctrine for the words truth and reality in John. A brother may teach a certain outward practice as a doctrine, but the doctrine alone has no reality. The reality is Christ. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” We are crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. The reality of every virtue is Christ. Christ is real humility, real kindness, and real love.
John 1:17 says, “Grace and reality came through Jesus Christ,” and 8:32 says, “The truth shall set you free.” No doctrine can set us free; it is the reality contained and conveyed in the truth, the reality that is Christ Himself, that sets us free. There are many doctrines, but there is only one reality, the person of Jesus Christ. He is the living Lord, and He is the reality of every doctrine. However, because few Christians realize this, many do not have much experience of Christ as the reality.
We need the Lord to unveil to us the truth, the reality, of the doctrines concerning practices such as the Lord’s table and baptism. We may keep the doctrines yet miss the reality. It is possible to have the Lord’s table according to the Bible and thus be scriptural but still miss the reality. When we participate in the table, we should realize deep in our spirit that we are participating in the Body of Christ, of which Christ is the Head, and that we are enjoying and sharing in the all-inclusive and all-accomplishing death of Christ as well as His resurrection. We need to have such an inner apprehension of the reality, the truth, of the Lord’s table. Whenever we come to the Lord’s table, we need to experience the reality.
We first receive Christ as our life, and as we experience this life, it becomes reality. Every genuine virtue is Christ. Our love and our humility should be Christ. We are able to have these virtues by experiencing Christ as our life.
Most Christians realize that Christ is enthroned in the third heaven to be our Lord and our Master. However, Christ today is also the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit for our experience. Although we may know this, we may not daily experience it or live by it. Every morning after we rise up, we need to thank the Lord for another day to live Him. Then we may pray, “Lord, remind me throughout the day to reject my self, to not trust in my self, and to not live by my self. Lord, strengthen me to live by You. Thank You, Lord, that You are within me to be my life. Lord, make this day a day for me to live You, to live by You, and to live You out, taking You as my everything.” Such a prayer will never be in vain. We do not need to pray much for outward things, such as our job and the safety of our children. The Lord takes care of all these things. As branches in the vine, we need to have prevailing prayer each day for the Lord to strengthen us to live Him, grow Him, and produce Him.
In Philippians 2:12 Paul says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” According to the context of this verse, Paul is saying that it is possible for us to move out of Christ and live in our self, speak by our self, and even do good and love others by our self. We should be in fear of this danger, this risk. The salvation mentioned in verse 12 is not salvation from hell but salvation from everything outside of Christ. We need to be saved daily, hourly, and instantly from anything other than Christ. We need to always be kept in Christ. This is to work out our own salvation, our instant salvation, to be saved from things other than Christ and to be preserved in Christ. This is the daily salvation that we need. We need to be in fear and trembling to work out such a salvation.
We need to see that Christ today is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit in our spirit and that our Christian life is simply to live this Christ. Every morning, before we do anything else, we need to ask the Lord to keep us in Him. If we pray like this, we will live Christ — we will live by Him as our life. This is the experience of life, and it will be manifested in some situations as kindness, in other situations as humility, and in others as love or wisdom. We first have the experience of life. The experience of life then becomes lived-out virtues, the reality of which is Christ Himself. Our experiences of Christ as life become the reality. The reality of love, humility, kindness, wisdom, and every virtue is simply Christ experienced by us as our life. Thus, the experience of Christ as life becomes our experience of reality. This reality is the way.
A group of saints recently asked me about the proper way to preach the gospel, and I answered that we do not need any way. A way is wrong, because any way is a replacement for Christ. We preach Christ not by any way; we preach Christ by Christ Himself as the unique way. We may think that to preach the gospel we must work hard and find the best way. It is possible to have many ways to preach the gospel yet not have Christ.
In some local churches a misleading word has been spoken that we must “get our hands dirty” in order to “catch fish.” Some have taught that, according to this principle, we should go to various worldly places in order to gain new ones. Such ways are altogether not Christ. Christ should be our way of gospel preaching. In the Lord’s recovery we do not care for any other way. Rather, we depend on Christ as our daily living. As branches in the vine, we live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ. If we continually live Christ, our relatives, neighbors, friends, schoolmates, and colleagues will see what kind of person we are. Then, according to the Lord’s leading, the time will come to speak something to them. We will not need to endeavor, strive, or use any gimmicks to bring them to the Lord. We will be able to simply say a brief word concerning the Lord Jesus.
Of all our acquaintances who see our way of living, the Lord may work on one each year. Perhaps one year one of our cousins will become seriously ill. From within he will be reminded of us because he has seen for many years the kind of life we have lived. As a result, he may ask us to come visit him. When we go to see him, we do not need to work hard. If we simply say, “Let us pray to the Lord Jesus,” he will pray with us. By praying a short prayer, he will receive Christ and be saved. Perhaps the next year a colleague who formerly mocked us for being a believer will be in a serious car accident and remember us because of the kind of life we live. He may recognize that we have hope and that he has none, and he may decide to ask us for help. When we speak to such a one, we do not need to say very much. We can simply say, “Yes, my hope is the Lord Jesus. You need Him. Would you pray with me?” Our colleague may pray with tears of repentance and be saved. This is to take Christ as the way to preach the gospel.
If we use gimmicks to attract people, most of them will not be remaining fruit. However, if we bring people to the Lord simply by living Christ and speaking a simple word as the Lord leads, our fruit will remain. This is the most prevailing way to preach the gospel. Apparently, we are not preaching the gospel, but we are living the gospel. Because we live Christ, Christ is our preaching. Christ is the way that we preach the gospel.
Instead of merely preaching the gospel, we should live the gospel as the Lord’s living witnesses. In Acts 1:8 the Lord said to the disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” As witnesses, our living is a testimony of Jesus, and this testimony will gradually bring others to the Lord. This is what it means for Christ to be the way to preach the gospel.
This does not mean that the church should not have special times of gospel preaching. We need such special times. The church may announce that a particular meeting will be dedicated to gospel preaching. Then we should each pray concerning which of our acquaintances the Lord would lead us to bring. This is the proper preaching of the gospel by taking Christ as the way. In God’s economy and in the church there is no way but Christ. Christ is the unique way in everything. He said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). We do not have any other way.
Christianity is a composition of mainly four things: concepts, ways, activities, and organization. The doctrines of a denomination are its concepts. Every denomination is built upon a certain doctrine. For instance, the Baptist Church is built upon the doctrine of baptism by immersion. This doctrine is its concept. The Presbyterian Church is built upon the concept, or doctrine, of the presbytery. According to a group’s concept, it finds a way to practice its kind of Christianity. In order to practice this way, the group will have certain activities. Finally, it will need to organize to carry out its activities. If concepts, ways, activities, and organization are removed from today’s Christianity, there will be nothing left. We should never rely on these things in the Lord’s recovery. We do not care for doctrines, ways, activities, or organization. We care only for Christ.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we should know only Christ. Christ is our method, our speaking, our way, and our living. We live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ. The Lord’s recovery is to fully recover the Christ missed by today’s Christianity. In the Lord’s recovery we are for nothing but Christ Himself. He is our life, our reality, and our way in doing everything. Even our way to pray is Christ. Christ is our unique way.
Question: I recently met some brothers who are in the same profession as I am. My tendency is to invite the brothers to work together for the gospel’s sake. However, I wonder if this is the Lord or something of my self, my natural man, trying to organize or have an activity.
Answer: A tendency to try to organize something for the gospel comes from our natural life. We do not need to organize or initiate anything, because Christ is the Lord and the Head. We have no right to make a decision concerning what to do or what not to do. We are merely slaves of the Lord. We need to pray, “Lord, I am not the Lord. You are the Lord. I do not have the right to initiate anything. Lord, I just want to live You. I live because You live. If You go, I go. What You do, I do. If You stay, I stay.” If we are truly living Christ, we even do not need to seek His leading in how to preach the gospel, for the gospel will be our living.
In this way we simplify our Christian life. We often complicate the Christian life by thinking about different ways and by initiating different activities. We should forget about all the ways and activities. When we rise up in the morning, we should simply worship the Lord and contact Him. When many Christians pray, they are trying to force the Lord to do something for them, because they have already made a decision and planned something. We need to realize that this kind of prayer insults the Lord’s headship.
I used to plan and make decisions and then ask the Lord to help me. I regret that I insulted the Lord in this way. Today I have no plan, and I initiate nothing. Every morning I simply pray, “Lord, thank You for giving me another day to worship You, live You, enjoy You, walk with You, and take You as my life. Lord, strengthen me and hold me in Your hand.” After praying like this, we should simply follow the Lord throughout the day. If the Lord leads us to work together with some other brothers, we should simply do it. If the Lord does not lead us to do something, we should not do it. As a result of living in this way, we will have no burdens, complications, troubles, or anxieties. We will have nothing but Christ.
In Matthew 11:30 the Lord said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The Greek word for easy means “pleasant.” The Lord’s yoke is pleasant. Actually, we do not bear anything. We simply live Christ and enjoy Him. We should not complicate our Christian life. The Lord does not need us to do anything. If He wants something to be accomplished, He can do it simply by speaking a word. Genesis 1:3 says, “God said, Let there be light; and there was light.” The Lord does not need us to accomplish something for Him, but He needs us to live Him. If we see this, we will be liberated from all burdens, complications, considerations, and anxieties. Moreover, we will be full of Christ as peace, rest, and enjoyment.
Question: Before I came into the church life in the Lord’s recovery, I met with different religious groups, which had different doctrines. Recently, when I began reading the Bible, I quickly became distracted, thinking about doctrinal matters. What should I do?
Answer: Because today’s Christianity has become complicated and confused, it is very difficult for a new believer to discern all the different teachings and practices. Nevertheless, the Bible clearly reveals that there is only one God, the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. One day God in the Son became a genuine man named Jesus. After living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, He died on the cross for our sins to accomplish redemption for us by the shedding of His blood. After three days He resurrected physically and spiritually and ascended to the heavens. Now, as our Savior, Lord, and Master, He is sitting at the right hand of God, and one day He will come back to receive us. Moreover, He is now the life-giving Spirit in our spirit as our life. Therefore, today while He is in the heavens and we are waiting on the earth for His coming back, we can live by Him, taking Him as our life. We need to fellowship with Him, pray to Him, and read the Bible. The basic items of the Christian faith revealed in the Bible are simple. We need to come back to the Bible and to the Lord in a simple way.
We also need to meet with the saints in the Lord’s recovery in a pure, simple way. We should never bring in different concepts to complicate the Lord’s recovery. We must keep the Lord’s recovery pure and simple. For this reason we should not have different concepts, ways, activities, movements, or organizations. We should have only the Bible and the living God. We need only to live by Him according to the truth in the Bible.
We need to be simplified. Especially if we have spent time in different religious groups, thoughts will often come into our mind to bother, distract, veil, and cover us. Therefore, we need to pray that the Lord will cover our mind and thoughts with His helmet of salvation. Then the Lord will save us from many distracting thoughts. If we pray in this way, we will be preserved in a simple and pure way to enjoy the Lord’s presence and the church life.
Question: I desire to have a simple, uncomplicated enjoymentof the Lord. However, I often feel that there are many distracting complications in me. How can I get rid of them?
Answer: We do not need to get rid of these complications. We should simply ignore them. We need to reject the thought that complications are still in us. After we repent and ask the Lord to cover our mind, we should not believe that complications are still in us. According to our consciousness, they may still be in us, but this is a lie from the devil. We need to declare to the enemy, “Any sense I have of complications in me is a lie. Only God is the truth, the reality. There are no complications in me. The simplicity of Christ is in me. All I have is Christ.” Furthermore, our human spirit is indwelt by Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, and these two spirits are mingled together as one. We simply need to walk in this mingled spirit.
We should deny any distracting thoughts that come to us. If the devil comes to us with some accusation, we should not argue with him but flee to our spirit. Satan’s occupation is to bother us, and he is very subtle. He will usually not do something big but will find a small way to bother us. As long as he bothers us, he is satisfied. We need to see through his subtlety and not respond to his proposals. We should deny any distracting thoughts and stay in our spirit, enjoying the Lord.
Question: I want to go on with the Lord and to express Him in my daily life, but it seems that I live two lives — one at my job and another outside my job. I am very busy the whole time I am at work. I do not know how to lay hold of the Lord in the midst of all that I have to do at my job. What should I do?
Answer: The subtle enemy often uses a fact related to our living to deceive us. The biggest lie is often told using the truth. Apparently, something spoken may be a fact, but the intention in speaking it is to deceive. You should not think that you have two lives. You need to tell the enemy and the whole universe, “I do not believe that I have two lives. I have only one life.” Also, begin every day by worshipping and contacting the Lord, telling Him, “Lord, thank You for another day for me to live You. Lord, be with me today. Strengthen me, sustain me, and hold me in Your hand this whole day. I may forget You, Lord, but You would never forget me. I do not trust in my ability or my faithfulness. Lord, I put my trust fully in You for the whole day.” Pray in this way.
Many of us have been influenced by different doctrines from our background in Christianity. As a result, we have considerations that are frustrations and distractions. We need to deny, ignore, and not believe all these things. We believe only one thing, that is, the living Lord. Our trust is in Him. We do not need to plan or prepare how we will face different situations in our daily lives. We have no expectation, plan, or schedule. We have only the living Lord. All day, and especially in the morning, we contact Him and allow Him to sustain us. We do not need to be concerned for tomorrow. We never have tomorrow; we always have only today. Every day is today. The Christian life is simple, real, living, sweet, and joyful.
