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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:7, 20; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:28-29
The basic matter in God’s work is His intention to enter into man to be man’s life. Christianity, however, has lost this basic matter. Without knowing God as life, Christianity is only a religion. When Christianity lost the truth of God as life, it transmuted into a religion.
God does not intend for us to be adherents of a religion. He desires that we receive Christ into us as life so that we may become people who receive Christ as life and let Christ live out of us. Hence, we do not proclaim a religion; we proclaim Christ. According to the Bible, Christ is not only the Redeemer; He is also life. Christ is our Redeemer so that He may be our life. His being our Redeemer is but a procedure; His purpose is to be our life. He accomplished redemption for us, as fallen sinners, so that we would be His vessels and that He would be our life and live in us. This is God’s intention. When God achieves this, His heart’s desire will be fulfilled.
God’s children have never regarded the matter of God as life in a serious way. This is a problem. For more than ten years after I was saved, I did not understand that God is my life. Many good things have distracted God’s children from this matter. The Triune God is great and infinite, but He desires to dwell in our human spirit. He also wants all that He is to be in us as our life. The divine life is beyond our comprehension; it is a mysterious matter.
A seed is small and insignificant. When it is cut open, it looks so ordinary that it is hard to believe that there could be anything mysterious in it. However, when the seed is planted in the soil, all that is contained in the seed will gradually grow forth. A small seed can eventually grow into a tall tree. A seed can at least grow to be a sizable plant with green leaves, flowers, and even abundant fruit. Without these various outward expressions no one would believe that so much is contained in a small seed.
Similarly, it is difficult to gain a thorough knowledge of the mysterious divine life. We can sense that we are sinful; hence, we understand that the Lord Jesus bore our sins on the cross. We have repented, believed in the Lord, and are now saved; hence, we have peace and joy. We are clear concerning these things. However, we do not have much feeling concerning the Triune God entering into our spirit to be our life. This seems to be a light and ordinary matter.
All the riches of God, His fullness, dwell in Christ the Son bodily, and Christ the Lord is now the Spirit (Col. 2:9; 2 Cor. 3:17). This Spirit entered into us when we believed in the Lord Jesus. We did not receive a part of the Spirit. Rather, He entered into us as the complete Triune God. Hence, just as the Triune God is rich in Himself, He is rich in us. We do not have only a portion of His riches. If we could see the riches of this treasure in us, we would experience joy unspeakable.
When I was in Tientsin in 1936, the Lord pointed out to me that He is the same in me as He is in Himself; there is no difference. The God in me is the complete God; He is not lacking anything. When I saw this fact, I was beside myself. I wanted to tell everyone, “Come and see! Here is a man who has God in him. The complete God dwells in me!”
We need to see the treasure that we received when we were saved. This treasure is God with all His riches. This treasure is God with His experiences of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, becoming the life-giving Spirit, entering into man, and bringing man into God. The fullness of the Godhead with all these experiences entered into us as the Holy Spirit to be our life. When we see this, we will be overjoyed.
One evening in the summer of 1932, before the first church in northern China was raised up, a Christian visited me, and we talked about many matters. As we walked and talked, we came to the seashore and talked about baptism. I quoted several verses to show him what the Bible says concerning baptism. When it became late and I suggested that we go home, he held my hand and said, “You cannot go home now. You must baptize me in the sea.” I said, “I am neither a pastor nor a preacher. I am just a young man in my twenties. How can I baptize you?” He held on to me and said, “You are all words with no action. You just told me the kind of people who are qualified to be baptized and the kind of people who can baptize others. Please consider whether you are qualified. I will let you go home, if you say that you are not qualified. Otherwise, you must baptize me tonight.” Hence, we knelt down there at the beach and prayed. After we prayed, we went into the water, and I baptized him. When he came out of the water, his joy was beyond description. The next day when he saw me, he said that he was so happy that he could not sleep.
If every believer saw what he received at the time of his salvation, he would be beside himself with joy. We received the rich and glorious Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Very few believers experience this kind of joy when they are saved. Usually believers know that their sins have been forgiven and that God loves them. They might say, “I was a prodigal son, but He found me and brought me home. I deserved death; I was going to hell, but He rescued me.” We have heard such testimonies from many brothers and sisters after their salvation. However, they did not see the treasure that they have received when they were saved. What they saw was merely a shell, the covering of the treasure.
Precious jewelry is sold in a beautifully decorated box. A child would rather have the beautiful box than the treasure in the box, because he is confused and does not know what is precious. Many believers are just as confused as a child with a box. They do not have much feeling related to the treasure within them. They sense only that their sins have been forgiven and that they will not perish in the future. Little do they realize that this is merely the shell of their salvation. In God’s salvation He Himself is the center. God, with all that He is, is salvation. When we receive His salvation, we receive God. Salvation is precious, but God is even more precious. As believers, we all must see this.
The emphasis of God’s salvation is that He has given Himself to us. Hence, our being a Christian depends on our having a normal relationship with the indwelling God. The Bible shows that God dwells in us in order to be our life. Not only does He lead us in every matter, but He wants to be the power of our living. This power is the power of His resurrection. The Lord Jesus went into death, and although death tried its best, it could not hold Him. On the third day the Lord broke through death and Hades, and He ascended to the heavens, transcending everything. This was accomplished by the resurrection power. Resurrection power enabled a Nazarene to break forth out of death and to ascend to the heavens. Such a resurrection power has entered into us to become our life.
Several places in the New Testament use a particular word in relation to the power that raised Christ from the dead. In the original Greek the word operation or operate is often used (Eph. 1:19-20; 3:7, 20; Col. 1:29). The resurrection power that operates in us is not harsh; it is gentle and refined but nonetheless very powerful.
Many Christians do not realize that there is such an operation within them. Hence, they are Christians outwardly but not Christians according to this inner operation. For example, a newly saved brother desires to learn how to live before the Lord. When he draws near to the Lord, this inner operation will give him the sense that he should spend more time to fellowship with the Lord and to have a thorough dealing. If he continues to fellowship with the Lord instead of being distracted, the operation within him will intensify. As a result, he will have a thorough dealing with the Lord. He will also enter deeper into God and let God enter deeper into him. While he is learning to fellowship with the Lord, a few brothers might encourage him to preach the gospel. If this young brother is active by disposition and also eloquent, he will feel happy while preaching the gospel. However, when he turns to outward things, he may become an outward Christian. Initially, he was experiencing the operation of the resurrection power within him. However, he may be distracted and begin to focus mainly on outward activities. It is good to preach the gospel, but some people cannot turn back to the inner operation after they are distracted and become involved merely with outward activities. Thus, this brother can become an outward, zealous Christian who is busy with many outward activities in the service but does not understand the inner operation of life.
Many years ago I met a gospel preacher in Shantung province. Before his salvation he was an emaciated opium addict. One day he was genuinely saved, and he threw away his opium pipe. Then he put on weight and became plump and healthy. When he preached the gospel, he carried two pictures with him: one picture of himself looking emaciated and another picture of himself looking plump and healthy. He said that he was an advertisement for the gospel. However, this brother had merely dropped his bad habit and changed from being skinny to being plump; he knew nothing concerning God being life to man. He was energetic in preaching the gospel, but when he lost his temper, he was terrifying. At the time I met him, I was giving messages, and he came every day to hear the messages. The strange thing was that before and after the meeting he was interested to speak with me about gospel preaching, but he was not interested in hearing the messages that I was giving concerning life. From his speaking I was clear that he was a zealous Christian who lived in outward activities but knew nothing of the life within him.
We should preach the gospel, but the gospel should be preached by the operation of resurrection life. The apostle Paul was a minister of the gospel, but his gift of preaching the gospel was not out of his natural ability or natural eloquence. His preaching the gospel was the issue of the resurrection power that operated within him. This gift was produced in him by the resurrection life.
I know a brother who, after being dynamically saved, completely forsook all evil activities. He no longer desired the world, was clear concerning God’s calling, and consecrated himself. He liked to pray and to read the Bible. When he drew near to the Lord, he experienced the Lord’s operation within him. He told me of how the Lord operated in him. Although his mother had not spoken with him for many years, the Lord asked him to apologize to his mother. This was truly the operation of life within him. He received much light in reading the Bible, was desperate to understand the Bible, and desired to be a preacher. He often asked me, “Where can I go to learn the Bible? Where can I go to learn to serve the Lord?” I would reply, “Brother, your living is your Bible school. If you live fully in the church life, you will learn to serve the Lord.” However, he was quick by disposition and was not willing to learn to know God’s life in his daily living, to allow the divine life to grow in him, or to know the Bible according to life. Neither was he patient enough to coordinate with others in the church in order to learn to serve the Lord according to the measure of life. While he was in this situation, a pastor who also loved the Lord encouraged him to study theology. As a result, he went to a seminary to study theology.
After four years he graduated from the seminary and came to see me. He said, “I learned Bible knowledge in the seminary and received much instruction concerning how to preach the gospel. However, I cannot touch God anymore. What is the reason?” I asked him how long he had been in this situation, and he said, “From the day I enrolled in the seminary, I was very busy with seminarian studies. As a result, my fellowship with God was interrupted. Ever since I began to study theology, the ‘-ology’ replaced God in me.”
Many Christians have the same problem. God has been in us from the day that we were saved. He is the God of resurrection, He is full of riches, and He is the God of great power. As such, He lives in us and is operating unceasingly within us. The most troublesome matter to Him is that we do not remain with His inner operation; we do not care about His operation in us. We often become outward Christians; we run around asking for advice and wanting to engage in various activities. As a result, not many people are inward Christians, and there are too many outward Christians.
A person who learns Chinese boxing must develop outward skills as well as internal strength. Boxing with outward skills consists of many gimmicks and actions that appear exciting but are not of much value. Boxing with internal strength does not seem to have many actions, but it has much power. There are two kinds of Christians, those with “outward skills” and those with “inner strength.” However, very few Christians have inner strength. Regrettably, Christians either indulge in sins and love the world, or they zealously preach the gospel, study theology, and are involved in Christian activities. Most pay attention to good behavior and working for the Lord. Such Christians have outward skills, not inner strength. God desires for us to be Christians with inner strength — Christians who afford His life, the resurrection power, the opportunity to grow in them.
Every plant grows slowly from the life within. A plant cannot be forced to grow fast. According to a Chinese proverb, any effort to make a plant grow faster would only pull up the seedling. There was a man who wanted to help his wheat grow faster, so he pulled on the plants. He did not know that his pulling on the wheat caused the plants to die. Often our efforts to help others is in the principle of pulling up a plant. We see that a brother is growing slowly, so we pull him up a little. However, we have not helped him grow faster, for after a short period of time he will wither and die. Hence, outward help is futile. If we desire a seedling to grow well, we should not attempt to pull it; rather, we need to loosen the soil and add compost so that nutrients and water can reach the plant and cause it to grow. Loosening the soil and adding compost and water will supply the plant, but pulling on the plant will cause it to die. Often instead of watering, adding nutrients, or loosening the soil, the saints pull when they visit people. As a result, people are “pulled out.”
Furthermore, the leaves, flowers, and fruits of a plant are not added outwardly; they grow from within. Similarly, various Christian activities should be the result of growth from within; they should not be something added outwardly. The things that are added outwardly will not last long. They will wither and die after a short period of time.
These illustrations show that being a Christian is altogether an inward matter; it is not outward. Some people like to kneel down and pray for twenty minutes. Although it is good to kneel down to pray, such outward kneeling does not matter. What matters is whether we take care of the operating of God’s resurrection power. Being a Christian does not depend on outward conduct, work, activities, or accomplishments but on taking care of God’s operation within us. The apostle Paul says that God “is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us” (Eph. 3:20). Everything that God accomplishes for us is based on this operation.
Many saints wrongly apply Ephesians 3:20 to outward things and matters. A brother once testified, “I asked God for a bungalow. I prayed for half a year, and God gave me a two-story house. What God accomplished is above all that I asked or thought.” Ephesians 3:20 does not refer to such things. According to this verse, what God accomplishes for us is altogether related to the inner life, to the operation of His power in us. Suppose a brother is giving me a difficult time, and I pray only for patience in order to not lose my temper. However, if I allow the resurrection power to operate in me, I will not only be patient and not lose my temper, but I will also love him in a sweet way. In this situation the power that operates in me has accomplished above all that I asked or thought. I hoped that the life within me would lead me to overcome, but I did not expect that this life would lead me to more than overcome. This life achieves above all that we can ask or think. This is the meaning of Ephesians 3:20.
Paul says that he labored to present every man full-grown in Christ and that his laboring was according to God’s operation which operated in him in power (Col. 1:28-29). We must see that God’s desire to be life in us and to live out of us is altogether an inner matter; it is not outward. This desire is accomplished by life growing within us, not by adding something outward to us. The resurrection power in us is constantly operating; hence, we should cooperate with this operation and live by it. In this way the divine life will grow in us, and we will live out this life practically.
