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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9; John 1:4; 10:10b; 7:37-39; 6:63; 1 John 1:2; 5:11-12; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 21:6c; 22:1-2, 17; 7:17
Before we continue with the matter of Christ as the meaning of human life, let us review some of the points covered in the preceding chapters. We have seen that man as the center of the universe is the expression of God and the representative of God. We have two wonderful words for these two points. For the first point the wonderful word is image. We have the image of God. The wonderful word for the second point is dominion. We have the dominion of God.
In the Gospel of Matthew, which is the book of the kingdom, we have the term kingdom — the kingdom of the heavens. The kingdom of the heavens simply equals the dominion of God. Hence, kingdom and dominion refer to the same thing. When man became fallen, he was fallen from the dominion, the kingdom, of God, not from the heavens. So man has to return to God’s dominion, not to the heavens.
Dominion is an Old Testament term used in the first book of the Old Testament. But in the first book of the New Testament, the term used is kingdom. “Repent, for the kingdom...has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). You have to realize that you are fallen from the dominion, the kingdom. Now you need to turn back to the dominion, the kingdom. Do not let your thoughts be so much on the heavens. Unfortunately, Christianity preaches too much on the heavens. But John the Baptist did not say, “Repent, for heaven has drawn near. Go back home to heaven.” Rather, he told people to repent for the kingdom. The kingdom is the dominion from which you were fallen. Now you need to return to the very sphere from which you were fallen, that is, the kingdom, the dominion.
Then in the book of Matthew we also have the word righteousness, which equals the image of God in Genesis 1. To have the righteousness of God does not mean merely to be right with God but to be right according to what God is. To be right with God is one thing, and to be right according to God is another thing. The religious people stress the matter of being right with God but often neglect the matter of being right according to what God is. So what is the difference between these two things?
Let me give you a little illustration. Peter received the revelation of Christ as the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16-17). He also saw the vision of the transfigured, glorified Jesus (17:1-5) and even had the experience of the outpoured Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41). Yet in Acts 10 Peter was so religious. He went up on the housetop to keep his prayer time. While he was praying, a trance came upon him (vv. 9-10). In his trance he saw a vision: “A certain vessel like a great sheet descending, being let down by four corners onto the earth, in which were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth and birds of heaven” (vv. 11-12). These animals or beasts were considered common and unclean by the Jews according to the Old Testament ordinances. But a voice came to Peter, saying, “Rise up, Peter; slay and eat!” (v. 13). But what did Peter say? He said, “By no means, Lord” (v. 14).
By no means was according to Peter’s religious concept. Peter did not behave in the right way that is according to God. Rather, he behaved rightly according to the religious concept that was passed down from his forefathers for many generations. But the Lord told him, “Eat!” The Lord seemed to be saying, “Peter, you should not be right according to your religion. You should be right according to Me. Today is the day of Christ, not of religion.”
It is not easy to get away from your religious concept. Peter said no to the Lord three times (vv. 14-16). He was religious, but he was not in the Lord’s dominion. He was in his own dominion. He did not care for what the Lord said. It was the Lord who spoke to him. That was not a voice from hell; that was a voice from heaven. Can you believe that Peter would even say no to the voice from heaven? If that were a voice which came from below, from the ground floor or the basement, to the housetop, it might have been right for Peter to say no. But that was a voice from heaven, and Peter disobeyed.
Brothers and sisters, you have to see that religion is deceitful. You do not know how much you have been deceived by your old religious concepts, nor have you realized how much you are preoccupied with the religion that you inherited from your forefathers. The material things and the moral things are deceitful, and the religious things are even more deceitful. I would even say that the spiritual things are the most deceitful.
It is easy for you to be clear that you are deceived by material things. But it is not so easy for you to realize that you can be deceived by religious things and even by spiritual things. Satan utilizes all things, whether material things, moral things, religious things, or spiritual things, to keep you away from God’s dominion. It does not matter to Satan whether you are materialistic, moral, religious, or spiritual. The only thing he cares about is that you be kept away from God’s dominion. As long as you are not in God’s dominion, whatever you are or do is all right with Satan. Oh, how subtle the enemy is! Today the enemy not only uses material things but also utilizes religion and so-called spirituality to deceive you. He causes you to care only for being religious, for being godly, and for being spiritual, yet not to care for God’s authority.
The Lord told Peter to “slay and eat!” Yet Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean.” No doubt, Peter was wrong, and there would have been no rescue for him if he had been wrong intentionally. But because he was wrong unintentionally, there was the rescue for him. Afterward, he became clear and saw that the age had changed. He began to realize that he should no longer care for his religious concepts. He should simply care for what the Spirit said. Eventually, he went to eat the unclean things. That means that he went to contact the family of Cornelius (vv. 17-33). To eat is to associate with people (vv. 13, 28). Cornelius and his relatives and intimate friends as Gentiles were considered unclean by the Jews. But Peter went to “eat” them, to associate with them, to preach the word of God to them.
When Peter went back to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision disputed with him, questioning him about his eating with the uncircumcised (11:2-3). Peter had acted wisely when he went to the house of Cornelius. He had six brothers from Joppa accompany him (10:23; 11:12), so there was a total of seven who went. Therefore, with the six brothers as witnesses to his word, Peter narrated the whole story to the brothers in Jerusalem and was vindicated of his way (vv. 4-18). This illustration shows us that we can be religious yet be outside of God’s dominion. We have to be right day and night according to what God is and according to what God says, not according to our religious concept or opinion.
Thus, in Matthew we have the kingdom that equals God’s dominion and the righteousness that equals God’s image. Furthermore, in Matthew, in the so-called Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus said, “You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48). The Lord did not say that we should be perfect according to what the law of Moses teaches. That we should be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect means that we should be the expression of the Father. We are the children of the Father, so we have to be the same as the Father. To be the same as the Father is to express the Father. This is the expression, the image. Now you understand what the Lord meant when He said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (6:33). This simply means that you need to seek the dominion of God and the image of God. This is to go back to the very beginning of the Bible. You became fallen from Genesis 1, so now you have to go back there. You became fallen from the dominion and the image of God, so now you need to return to the dominion and the expression of God.
The gospel of God is not a matter of repenting so that we may go to heaven or so that we may be forgiven of our sins. The thought of God’s gospel is that we return to the original state from which we became fallen. Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, brings us back to Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. We all have to go back to Genesis 1. What does this mean? It simply means to go back to God’s original purpose. God’s original purpose was to have man as His expression and as His representative. But from these two main points man became fallen. Now man needs to return to these two main points. For so many centuries Christianity has been short of this. But I do have the assurance and deep conviction within me that the Lord today is going to recover these two main points.
When the Lord Jesus came the first time, there was a strong religion. With that religion there was, first, the Holy Land. Then, within the Holy Land there was the holy city. Moreover, within that holy city there was the holy temple in which was the Holy Bible. People there were worshipping and serving God according to the Holy Scriptures in three holy things — in the holy temple, in the holy city, and in the Holy Land. In that kind of holy situation, the Lord Jesus came. Have you noticed that when the Lord Jesus came, He did not do anything according to those holy things? He did not bring people to the holy city or into the holy temple. Instead, Matthew tells us that when the Lord started His ministry, He went to “Galilee of the Gentiles” (4:12, 15). He did not go into the temple and call some of the praying priests to follow Him. Instead, He went to the Sea of Galilee. There He saw some fishermen, and among them were Peter and Andrew. Going on further, He saw James and John mending their nets. So the Lord called the fishermen and the menders to follow Him (vv. 18-22). But He did not bring them into the holy temple to worship God. Rather, sometimes He brought them to the mountain, and other times He brought them to the seashore. One time He gave Peter a lesson of faith by having him jump into the sea and walk on the water (14:28-29). Jesus did a lot of seemingly strange things outside of religion and against religion.
The Bible gives us a clear record, a picture, showing us how the religious people were zealous for God. Nevertheless, they were out-of-date. According to Luke there was an old sister, a prophetess, named Anna. She did not depart from the temple and was serving God with fastings and petitions night and day (2:36-37). She was absolutely for God. But for the actual carrying out of God’s new move on the earth, the Lord had to go to Peter, a young man who was fishing in the sea, not praying in the temple.
There was another one, an old brother in Jerusalem named Simeon, who “was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel” (v. 25). Both Anna and Simeon were absolutely for the Lord, but the Lord did not call them to follow Him. Instead, He went to the Sea of Galilee to call Peter, Andrew, James, and John, who were all young people. They were not like the holy Anna, praying in the temple all day long, nor were they like the holy Simeon, teaching people according to the prophecy of the Bible. Yet the Lord called these Galilean fishers to follow Him. The old holy people, holding the Holy Scriptures, were worshipping and serving in the holy temple, in the holy city, and in the Holy Land. But the Lord went to the seashore of Galilee of the Gentiles and called out two fishermen and two menders.
Brothers and sisters, today the situation is exactly the same as in that day. In today’s Christianity there are many holy things — holy cathedrals, holy services, and holy days. I am convinced that this is why the Lord is going to the beaches, the parks, the street corners, the parking lots, etc., to gain the young people. You may say that these young people are hippies and are not holy, but the Lord says, “They are coming along with Me. They do not go along with you religious people. But they do go along with Me. I will never bring them into your religion. But I am bringing them back into the dominion of God. I don’t care whether they have long hair or short hair, whether they are shaved or unshaved, whether they have bare feet or have shoes. I care for only one thing, that is, whether they are in God’s dominion or not.”
I believe that the Lord is going to move in a fast way. When the day of Pentecost came, three thousand were saved on that one day (Acts 2:41). On another day five thousand were saved (4:4). If one day in Southern California, ten thousand people, especially the young people, would turn to the Lord’s dominion, it would not be a surprise to me. In this country today a great number of young people are rebellious toward the old way of life. Of course, this is not good for the families, the society, and the country. But the Lord is sovereign; all the nations are under Him. The United States was and still is a Christian country. But look at the situation today. If the young people of this generation were still stuck to the old way of living, it would be rather hard for them to be saved.
But today thousands of young people, many of whom are hippies, have been saved. They forget about the world and give up the old way of living. We do believe that the Lord will turn a great number of hippies to Himself. How can you bring them in? Do you bring them into the cathedrals, into the so-called church buildings? No! Go to meet with them on the beaches. If two or three hundred of the young saints have the feeling and the burden to go to the beach to meet, they should do it. You can bring with you the public-address system and broadcast the good news to everyone, asking them to come and join you in the church in Los Angeles.
We can never confine the Lord Jesus. Today the situation of Christianity is exactly the same as that in the ancient days of Judaism. My burden is to share with you that today the Lord Jesus is going to do a new thing with a new generation. Apparently, Anna and Simeon were not in that move, but they were absolutely for that move, and they prayed very much for it. I believe many elderly ones who are for the Lord are in the same position as Anna and Simeon. You have to pray night and day for the Lord’s new move. Yet for the move itself, the Lord will use mostly the young people.
When the Lord was on earth, He used the fishermen and the menders, the Galileans. He used those who were not in the temple but in the boats on the sea, and He used those who were willing to jump into the water. The Lord Jesus came to the disciples, walking on the sea, and said to Peter, “Come.” That means Peter had to jump into the water, and he did it. Suppose Peter would have said, “No, Lord, I won’t jump into the water. Why can’t I stay in the boat? To be in the boat is safe. It is the logical thing to do. Sooner or later I will come to You. You just wait awhile.” Then he would have become a materialistic person, who was so rational, logical, and sound that he would not jump into the water but would stay in the boat and come to the Lord gradually. The Lord Jesus exercised much training with Peter to bring him out of the religious and materialistic concept and into the dominion of God.
You should learn a lesson from Peter’s experience. Whatever the Lord says, do it. Whatever the Lord says, take it. Whatever the Lord says, stand on it. You do not need to exercise any reasoning. You do not need to be religious or spiritual. You need to be under God’s dominion.
In Genesis 1 we see man with God’s image and God’s dominion. Then in Genesis 2 there is the tree of life (v. 9). By reading through the Bible, we know that the tree of life is a symbol of Christ. Christ is the tree of life. John 1:4a says, “In Him was life,” and 10:10b says, “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” In John 14:6a the Lord said, “I am...the life.” Also, in John 15 He said that He is the vine tree. Christ is the tree and the life. Therefore, Christ is the tree of life.
Thus, besides these two words image and dominion, we have another crucial word — life. In order to do anything, we need the proper life. A dog barks because it has the dog life, which is a barking life. A cat is capable in catching mice because of the capacity in the cat life, but we do not have this capacity. Likewise, if we want to express God and exercise God’s authority, we need the life to do it. The human life is good neither for expressing God nor for exercising God’s authority. But the human life is good for receiving another life that is capable of expressing God and representing God. All the animal lives, such as the dog life, the cat life, or the bird life, are not good for receiving another life. God did not create them in this way. But God did create us in a way that we can receive another life. This life is the eternal life of God Himself, which is Christ.
God created us with a human spirit as the receiving organ to receive God Himself into us as our very life. The human life is not capable of expressing God and not good for exercising God’s authority. But the human life is good for one thing, that is, for receiving the life which is capable — the eternal life (1 John 1:2). “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (5:12). This is the unique life signified by the tree of life.
Christ came and presented Himself to His disciples as life. He told the people that He came that they might have life and might have it abundantly (John 10:10b). In Matthew the message is, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (3:2). But in John the message is, “Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (3:3). Matthew and John both deal with the kingdom. Matthew deals with the kingdom as a kind of requirement or demand on us. If we seek to have the kingdom of the heavens, we have to fulfill its requirements. When we read Matthew 5—7, we may want to give up, because what the Lord says here is impossible for us to carry out by our human life. When someone slaps you on your cheek, would you be willing to turn to him your other cheek (5:39)? I am afraid that you would fight back right away. This means that you are not in Matthew but in the law of Moses (v. 38).
After Matthew we must come to the Gospel of John. John also deals with the kingdom, not with its requirements but with the fulfillment of its requirements. The fulfillment of the requirements of the kingdom is Christ as life. You cannot make it, but when Christ comes into you, He will make it. Matthew requires and demands, whereas John affords and supplies. If you have never come to know how much Matthew requires of you for the kingdom, you will never appreciate how much John affords you to meet the requirements of the kingdom. Matthew comes first, and then John follows. Matthew requires so much of us, causing all of us to be disappointed. But in John the Lord comes and says to us, “Don’t be disappointed. I am here. I can give you the supply to meet Matthew’s demand on you. Whatever Matthew requires of you, I can make it for you.”
Do you think that you can express God? Do you think that you can exercise God’s authority? You need a higher life, even the highest life. You need Christ. Christ is the life (John 14:6; Col. 3:4), not the teaching. No teaching can make you turn your other cheek to your striker. But there is One who is the life and who is able to do it in you. This One is Christ. “Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Once we have been born anew and have Christ as life, we see the kingdom, the dominion, the authority, of God. Spontaneously, whatever we are, do, and say expresses God.
Therefore, without Christ everything is empty. Without Christ everything is vanity. Man is the meaning of the universe, and Christ is the meaning of human life. Although man is the meaning of the universe, without Christ man has no content or reality. Without Christ man is merely an empty vessel. Man as an empty vessel needs Christ as the content. This is why we have to open up ourselves to Christ and receive Him as our life. Praise the Lord that many of us have done this. But the problem is this — after receiving Christ, we do not live by Christ. We still live by ourselves. Suppose you go to the beach and are rejected and persecuted by someone. If you reason in your mind, you will get into the law of Moses. Instead of reasoning in your mind, you need to say, “O Lord.” When you call on the Lord’s name, you get into the Gospel of John. The very Christ who is your life will become so vital to you.
Hence, we all have to practice one thing, that is, not to live by ourselves but to always live by Christ. To live by Christ you need to forget about being religious and spiritual. You need to open up yourself all the time and call on His name. Do not keep anything religious or spiritual in your mind. Then you will see that He is the instant, present, up-to-date, moment-by-moment Christ. He is the Christ at this moment. At the moment when people reject and persecute you, He is the Christ. Do not keep so many doctrines in your mind. Doctrines do not work. Only Christ works. This Christ is the living Christ. He is not the doctrinal Christ or the Christ in teachings, but the Christ who is so present, real, and practical as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Simply call upon Him.
In conclusion, we need to keep in mind that for us to express God and to exercise His authority, we need Christ as life. We also need to realize that Christ today is the life-giving Spirit. He is the living Spirit who is with us all the time. He is present, prevailing, available, and instant. No matter where you are, no matter what situation you are in, whether you are dealing with someone or you are being dealt with by someone, forget about yourself and your reasonings; simply open to Him and call, “O Lord Jesus.” Just enjoy Him. He is your life and your content. He is the meaning of your human life.
