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Though most Christians know that the subject of the Gospel of John is life, few know how to take such a life. Yes, it is correct to say that believing in Christ is the way to take this life, but how can we live out such a life? Since my youth, when I received the Lord, I knew that He was my life, yet I kept wondering how I could live by His life. How could it be practical to me in my daily living?
No doubt you too have this same question. You realize you have eternal life, the very life of God, yet your living is another story. How about your temper? your sulkiness? your gossiping? your loose life? your light, joking words? Are these the living of the divine life? According to the inner life, you are a certain person, but according to your living, you are another. These two stories are with you all day long. The ten minutes you spend in the Word every morning are wonderful, but what about the rest of the time? Part of the day you experience a bird’s life, soaring and free. But you have also the experience of a dog’s life, barking on the earth, even though your barking may be only in a whisper.
Why is it that we have a bird’s life yet have a dog’s living? Our living does not correspond with our life. I was saved over fifty years ago, when I was in my late teens. China at that time was a heathen country, full of the teachings of Confucius and the idols of Buddhism. Yet in that heathen country the Lord granted His gracious visitation not only to me but also to many other seeking college students. I believe this visitation was the answer to the prayers of many saints in England who prayed for China after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, when many foreign missionaries were killed. The Lord came in around 1920 and saved many of us college students. We loved the Lord, and we loved the Bible. Yet we were desperately in need of help. The missionaries were able to help in the gospel, but they did not know how to live Christ. From searching the Word and seeking the Lord, we knew we needed a living to match the life within us. We collected many spiritual books, but even in them we could not find the way.
After a number of years we found out that in the Gospel of John there is first the believing in Jesus as the Son of God and then the loving of Him. In 1:12 there is the matter of believing. To believe is to receive the Son of God. In 21:15-17 the matter of loving is raised. “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was asked three times. To receive this life, we must believe in the Son of God, but to live the life that we have received, we must love.
Neither believing nor loving, however, is the secret of living out the life that we have received. The key is found in John 5, 6, and 7. The principle is that this life of someone has to be lived out by another. Only in these three chapters is it clear that the life is the Father’s, yet He does not live this life out. His desire is to have the Son live it out. The life is the Father’s, but the living is the Son’s. John 6:57 says, “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.” Then 5:26 says, “Just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son to also have life in Himself.” By considering these two verses together, you can see that the life was the Father’s, yet He wanted the Son to live it out. This life involves two persons; it is the life of the first, but it is lived by the second. The two have one life with one living. The matter of living does not pertain to the Father but to the Son. Yet the life is not the Son’s but the Father’s.
Does 5:26 mean that the Father has the life and lives, while the Son also has the life but with a separate living? How many persons are mentioned here? There are two; one is the Giver, and the other is the Receiver. How many livings? Only one. How there could be two persons but only one living is too mysterious for us to understand; all we know is what the Bible says.
I have seen a few marriages that demonstrate this principle. In such cases, the husband and wife have only one living. Though two people are involved, the wife’s living is her husband’s. When there are two livings in married life, the result is separation and divorce. Do you and your spouse have only one living?
Marriage is not only a human living arrangement but also a picture of the divine relationship. Christ is the Husband, and the church is the wife, as Ephesians 5 makes plain. Should the church, the wife of Christ, have a living separate from Him?
The key to married life is not found in Ephesians 5 but in John 5, 6, and 7. Too many Christians study the black and white instructions in Ephesians 5 without ever getting the secret of such a wonderful life. When a couple has only one life and one living, that is heaven.
Perhaps I may illustrate with my own marriage. Most of the time there is harmony in our home, with one life and one living. Sometimes, however, my wife lives her life and I live mine. One cause of trouble between us is her concern for my health. I am very fond of American desserts, but she thinks they are bad for my health. Sometimes some older sisters will bring a cake to the house. My wife tries to hide this from me, but on some occasions I can hear the talking when I am working in my study. Later, I ask her where the cake is, only to find out that she has already passed it on to our grandchildren. Here you can see that there are two lives and two livings.
It is a mystery how the Father and Son can have one life and one living. The life is the Father’s, and the living is the Son’s. The Son’s living is by the Father’s life. “The living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father...The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing...I can do nothing from Myself...If anyone resolves to do His will, he will know...whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, this One is true” (6:57; 5:19, 30; 7:17-18). The speaking and the doing of the Son — that is, His whole living — was the Father’s. Because He lived the Father’s life, His living was the living of the Father.
What I am sharing with you is the fruit of what I have learned and experienced these many years. As I have said, in the early years we collected many spiritual books concerning the way to have a holy, victorious life. We read them and attempted to practice what they taught. Actually, those books did not help us very much.
On the matter of overcoming sin, for example, most writers referred us to Romans 6. You must die, they said, because once you die, you are free from sin. When we tried to practice this, however, we could not find the way to die. Eventually, we concluded that reckoning was the answer. As A. B. Simpson’s hymn says,
I did a lot of reckoning and discovered that if I did not reckon, sin was somewhat dormant. The more I reckoned, however, the more alive sin became in me. That way did not work, nor did most of the other ways recommended by the Christian writers.
Eventually, we discovered that the way is Christ (John 14:6). The way to overcome sin is Christ. The way to die is Christ; when you take Him, you die. The way to holiness is Christ. The way to pray is Christ. The way to study the Bible is Christ. The way to love your wife or submit to your husband is Christ. He is the way.
When we are saved, we are joined to Christ (1 Cor. 6:17). Salvation is not merely to be rescued from hell; it is primarily to be joined to the Lord as one spirit. We are one with Christ. Consequently, His life becomes our life.
Christ today is hidden. He does not live Himself out. No one on the whole earth can see Him directly. Where is He? Christ has two concealments, one in heaven and the other on earth. We are His earthly concealment. When Christ was on earth, the Father was hidden; the Son lived the Father out. Today the principle is the same. The Son is hidden. We are charged to live Him out. The life is the Son’s, and the living is ours.
To realize this is a help when you touch the Word. Give up your concept that Christ wants to teach you and correct you. The central thought in the Bible is that Christ must be your life and you must live Him out as your living. You may ask, “Don’t I have my own life?” Yes, you do, but that life is not the real life. It is a life of form, not of reality; it is a container, not the content. Your life is a container to hold Christ as your life. He wants to be the content of your life. This is the concept you must bring to your reading of the Bible. If you come to the Word for teaching, you are behaving like a disciple of Confucius, not like a believer in Christ. Come to the Bible for more supply of this life. Every morning, when you turn to the Bible, do not look for teachings. This natural concept is in our blood. When we read other books, we are looking for knowledge. Drop this thought when you turn to the Word. You are coming to it for nourishment, not for instruction.
The daily walk of a Christian is not a matter of morality or ethics. It is the living of this divine life. “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” (John 6:57). To live because of Him means that He is your life. He is within you as your life, and He has to be without as your living. Though He is one person and you are another, He wants you to be one with Him. Human culture, whether Western or Eastern, has developed a code of ethics to uplift morality. We have all been raised under this influence. Our natural concept when reading the Bible is to find out how we should behave ethically. This concept is a frustration to the proper Christian life. Though the Christian life undoubtedly represents the highest ethics, it is not concerned with ethics. Our morality, humility, love, and kindness are the highest because they are Christ Himself. In our dictionary there is only one word, Christ, and one footnote, the church. It is Christ who is our love or humility or kindness. We live Him. He is our everything. This I say partly from what I have read but mostly from my experience.
Let us come back to the illustration of the cake. When I found out that my wife had given away the cake brought for me, years ago I would be annoyed and ready to say some angry words to her. But within I would be checked, “Who is this who is angry — you or Christ? Those angry words about to come out are yours, not Mine. Remember the message you gave last weekend on not living by yourself? Who is chasing after this cake? Is it Christ or you?” I would feel so ashamed, I would not have the boldness to say the Lord’s name or to pray. I could not and would not pray. I would just go on strike! After many such experiences, I learned. Now, by His mercy, however many cakes are concealed from me, I can smile and say, “Praise the Lord!” Because that is what He says, I say it too. I live Him. He does not want that much American dessert. I am one with Him. He is my life, and I am His living.
You may sing, “Amen the Word of God,” but suppose the Lord says, “No more cake for you! All the cakes that come are for your grandchildren.” Will you still say Amen? Saying Amen is not what matters; He wants you to be one with Him. This is what Paul testifies of in Galatians 2:20. It was no longer Paul who was living, but Christ who lived in him. The Lord said in John 14:19-20, “Because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Christ and we live together, having only one life and one living.
You need to come to the Word several times daily in order to receive the supply of Christ. Do not use the Word the way many Christians do when they have a Bible study. Suppose there is a Bible study class every week, and one week the topic is Ephesians 5. The Bible teacher charges the husbands in accordance with the Scriptures to love their wives. Then he charges the wives to submit to their husbands. After the class a quarrel develops between a husband and wife, each accusing the other of not fulfilling the exhortations they heard.
Such is the effect of teaching. There is no life supply. The Bible teacher has made the Bible the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life. It is better to pray when we come to the Word, “Lord, supply me. I come to Your Word to receive nourishment. I am not interested in knowledge or instruction. I care only for Your supply.” Do not try by yourself to do the things that are taught in the Bible. I realize that this sounds strange, but I know what I am talking about. Come to the Word with a sincere heart and an open spirit, to receive the Lord Himself through the Word as your supply. The best teachings do not come from the black and white pages, but from the real nourishment. The nourishment of life will teach you.
This kind of teaching through being nourished transforms you. It seems to be a correction, but actually it is transformation. The Word as the life supply metabolically changes you, carrying away the old and replacing it with the new. This change is organic, not lifeless.
To practice living out this life, do not do or say things quickly. If your spouse gives you a hard time, do not be troubled. Be steady. Check with the Lord. “Lord, You act in me. I would not do anything. I am one with You. You be the One to answer for me.” Do not be pushed into reacting hastily. If you will practice this secret, you will see how different we are from worldly people. They have only their own life, but we have the life of Christ. This makes us a special people. We are privileged to have Christ as our life. Now He wants us to live Him and to have Him as our living. That is why I said that we should not try in ourselves to keep the word of the Bible. That is the wrong way. Just be one with the Lord. Hold the attitude that you are one with the Lord and that He is your life. This is the secret of how to take the life revealed in the Gospel of John.
