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Scripture Reading: John 6:57; 14:17-20; 15:4a, 5
From the past chapters we see that most Christian teachings have altogether missed the mark. The lost ones, of course, have missed the mark, but even those who are saved have missed the mark. Man realizes that in his own life there is a lack, but he does not understand what the real shortage is. Christians know that they have been saved, but most of them do not have a clear vision that God’s intention is to work Himself into them as their life. Regardless of whether we are saved or not, God’s intention is still the same, that is, to work Himself into us as our life.
All human beings are short of something. In our daily life we are short of something. As husbands, we are short. As wives, we are short. Whether we are rich or poor, high or low, we are short. But so many do not realize that they are short. Even those who realize that they are short of God do not know that they are short of God as life.
Today on the earth there are many different things that appear good, yet they are so distracting. First, there is religion. Then there is human culture. Besides this, there are the ethical teachings of many great philosophers and teachers. Many things are good, yet they are very misleading. Some may think that they are short of ethical teachings. Others may think that they are short of good character. But none of these things are our lack.
Perhaps some sisters think they are short of patience. In their home life with their husband and children, they always sense that they need more patience, and they always appreciate those who have more patience. But they really do not know what they are short of. The very ones they appreciate as having patience are also short. Those who do not have patience are short, and those who do have patience are also short. They are all short of the same thing.
What is it that we are all short of? Some will immediately answer, “Jesus.” This is right, but what do you mean by saying that we are short of Jesus? I am afraid that we have the same kind of saying but a different dictionary. We say the same word, but our understanding differs. I have been doing this work for many years, and I still do not have the proper terminology or vocabulary. Some words are right, but they have been spoiled by Christianity, which has entirely missed the proper meaning of the proper words.
In the past chapters we have seen something of God’s intention from the Gospels of Matthew and John. But I am still not confident that you have seen the matter. Someone would say that our shortage is Jesus. But who is Jesus? There are thousands of different definitions of Jesus. It is very difficult to define Him, and yet it is also very simple. The most difficult things on earth are the most simple. I am breathing now, but perhaps in thirty minutes my breathing will stop, and that would mean death. What then is death? It is hard to define. It is also hard to define life. These are the most simple things, yet they are the most difficult. It is the same with Jesus. It is simple to understand Him, yet He is the hardest person in the world to understand.
All human history, including all of Christianity and all other kinds of religion have missed the mark. And the mark is so simple. God wants to work Himself into man, and He has never changed His intention. In creation God’s intention was the same. In redemption God’s intention was the same. In salvation God’s intention is still the same. For eternity God’s intention is the same. God has never changed His intention. It is to work Himself into you and me as our life. Whether we are saved or lost does not change God’s intention. If we are lost, we need God’s intention. If we are saved, we still need God’s intention. If we hate others, we need it. If we love others, we need it. Whether we are old or young, we need it. Whether we are strong or weak, we need it. Regardless of what we are, who we are, or where we are, we need God to work Himself into us.
Some may feel that they know all this already, but I am afraid that it is only a kind of doctrine to them. So many, including us, have come to know this doctrine. But there are not many who day by day, hour by hour, live by Christ. We all know the doctrine, but very few live it. The Lord Jesus told us in John 6:57, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” These are such simple words. The Lord said that He lived because of the Father. The words are simple, but the effect is profound. To live by someone else’s life is not a small thing.
All Christian wives know that the Bible teaches them to submit to their husband as their head. They must learn to live by their husbands. This saying is easy. Even a first-grader can say it. But to live it out is not so easy. I believe that all the sisters who are wives really love their husbands. But how many of these sisters actually live by their husbands? To love your husband is one thing, but to live by your husband is another.
However, there walked a person on this earth who said that He did not live by Himself. He lived by someone else. He was living, but it was not Him but the Father. He was living by the Father. And He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” I believe that we all know this. But let me ask, in the past hour, by whom did you live? This is the problem.
We are all familiar with Matthew and John, but not many Christians have gotten into the heart of these two books in reality. These Gospels show us that God intends to get into us to be our life and be one with us. In order to do this, He first became incarnated. He mingled Himself with man. Then He went to the cross, solving all negative problems. After this He was resurrected to become something so mysterious, so profound, and yet so real. This was the life-giving Spirit, who is the very embodiment of the Triune God. The Father is in the Son, and the Son today is the wonderful Spirit. When we call on Him, He comes into us. This is the most simple thing, yet it is the most profound matter in the universe. When we call, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus,” the Triune God comes into us, mingles with us, and is one with us. Whenever we call on His name, we are in Him, and He is in us. This is not a superstition but a fact. It is just like the air that we breathe. We are in the air, and the air is in us. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we are in Him, and He is in us.
When we read the whole New Testament, we see that God became a man. Then He went to the cross to take away our sins, crucify our old nature, and terminate all negative things. He solved everything. After being put in a tomb for three days, He was resurrected to become a wonderful being — the life-giving Spirit, the embodiment, reality, and realization of the Triune God. When we have this Spirit, we have the Son, Jesus Christ, and we have the Holy Father. The Triune God is realized by us in the life-giving Spirit. Whenever we call on Him, we are in Him and He is in us.
In Romans 10:8-9 Paul says, “What does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of the faith which we proclaim, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Both the word and the Spirit are so near to us. They are even in our mouth and in our heart. If we will just exercise our heart and our mouth and say, “Lord Jesus,” immediately we are in Him and He is in us.
The problem is that after calling on Him, we do not live by Him. We still go back to our own ways and our own decisions. We may even begin to talk about some of the brothers and sisters in a negative way. After we call on Him, we forget to live by the One on whom we call. This is what Christians are short of today, and this is what we are short of. We are short of living by this life-giving Spirit. We must all learn to live by Him. This must not simply be a doctrine to us; it must be our experience day by day.
Matthew tells us that we have all been baptized into the Triune God. This means that we were baptized into Christ and into the one Body. Then John tells us that this Triune God has been processed into us just as water, food, and breath. Now we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us: “Abide in Me and I in you...I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (15:4a, 5). To abide in Him means that we have been put into Him, and to let Him abide in us means that He is now within us. In other words, it is just as the apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” We have been terminated and buried in the Triune God. Now it is no more us but Christ who lives in us. We have been put into Him, and now He is within us.
Suppose we have two brothers together. How many lives do they have? Some may say that they have two; others may say they have three. But I do not agree. They only have one life, and Christ is that very life. We all have the same life because we all have Christ within us. But to have one life is one thing. To live by this life is another matter. The problem is that although we have one life, we live by another life. We all have one life, but we all live by different lives. Instead of living by Christ as our life, we live by our own life. We may have done nothing wrong. In fact, we may have lived the whole day without doing one wrong thing. But can we say that for the whole day we lived by Christ? There is a big difference.
The Lord Jesus said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” This is not a standard of good or a regulation of doing everything right. The standard and the regulation are just Christ. Good should not be our standard; neither should right be our regulation. Our standard and regulation must be the Lord Jesus Himself. Why do you not go to the movies? Is it because it is wrong? If this is the reason you do not go, I am afraid that you do not know how to live by Christ. The proper reason should be that the Lord Jesus does not wish to go. If He does not go, then I do not go. The reason we do not do something should never be because it is bad. It must be because the Lord Jesus does not do it. We should be one with Him, and we should live by Him.
The real love is to live by the person you love. If we love the Lord Jesus, we should not try to do anything for Him. We should just live by Him. To live by Him is the real love. All wives know that it is much easier to do things for their husband than to live by their husband. They all know that to live by their husband will surely put them to the cross. Any wife can do good for her husband, but I am afraid that there is not one wife that really lives by her husband. To do things for your husband is one thing, but to take him as your person is another.
Many times I have told the Lord Jesus that I would do anything for Him. But He would say, “I know that you will do things for Me, but you will not take Me as your person. You like to do things for Me, but you do not like to live by Me.” To do things for the Lord is easy, but to live by Him is not so easy. To help a brother for the Lord’s sake is easy, but to go to that brother living by the Lord is not so easy. To do things for the Lord requires no denial of the self, but to live by the Lord requires putting the self aside. Whenever we are going to contact a brother or a sister, we must be abiding in the Lord and let Him abide in us, for without Christ we can do nothing. The problem is that without Christ we can do everything. We can talk without Christ. We can fellowship without Christ. We can do many things without Christ. But as far as God is concerned, what we do without Christ is nothing.
The indwelling of Christ is a life, not a doctrine. This indwelling Christ must become our daily life. The problem is that we all have been educated. We have been taught by all the religious teaching. We know all about the baptism, and we know the doctrine of the indwelling Christ. But who is living by Christ? There is the real need to practice the indwelling of Christ. This means that whatever we do, we must not do by ourselves but by the Christ who lives in us. We must be able to say, “Lord Jesus, it is not me doing this; it is You. You are the One who indwells me, and Your indwelling must be my daily life.”
The basic issues of the Gospels of Matthew and John are really simple. Matthew tells us to baptize into the name of the Triune God, and the Lord Jesus is with us all the days until the consummation of the age. Then John tells us how the Lord breathed into His disciples. That is all. One book tells us that we have all been baptized into Him. The other tells us that He has breathed Himself into us. Now He is living within us. Matthew says that we are in Him, and John says that He is in us. It is so simple. Yet we stray from the simplicity of Christ.
We all have to come back again and again. Many times a day, hour after hour, we must come back to this one point that we are in Him, and He is living within us. He must be our daily Christ. When we practice this, we will see that our daily life will be enriched by the indwelling of Christ. Then our daily life will become so living and new. Whenever we come together in the meetings, we will always have something to share of Him because we will be so rich, so new, so fresh, and so one with the Lord in our spirit. His indwelling life will become our daily life.
