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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:15-16; 15:16; 12:2a; 8:29-30; 10:12; 8:4, 14
The matter of God’s relationship with man is deep and mysterious. The grafting of the divine life and the human life into one portrays the most intimate of relationships.
In human society the relationship between husband and wife is the closest. But the grafting together of two lives is still closer. When a branch is grafted to a tree, these two from that point on share a common life. That such a picture could illustrate God’s relationship with man is beyond human thought. Our thought is that God is high and lofty. He is to be revered as the Creator and worshipped as the Lord of all. On our side, we feel far off, small, and low; surely God and we can have nothing in common.
But God had the intention to become one life with us. To accomplish this He made preparations. Man’s creation was part of this preparation. He designed man so that His life could be joined with man’s life. He created man in His image and according to His likeness. He breathed the breath of life into him, thus creating a spirit in him.
This spirit is the organ for receiving God. It gives us a spiritual sense. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit” (John 4:24). For us to contact anything, we must use the proper organ. We have our five sense organs by which we can know the physical, material world. For seeing we must use our eyes. If we are blind, however beautiful a scene is before us, we will not be able to realize it. To perceive scent, we must use our nose. If we have a cold and a stuffy nose, we will not be aware of a sweet fragrance, even though others insist that they can smell it. Similarly, our spirit is the organ by which we can contact God. Those who say that there is no God are not using their spirit. Because they do not use the proper organ, to them God does not exist. They are not using the spiritual sense by which they could substantiate Him.
Such is the wonderful way in which we were made. We have God’s image, His likeness, and a spirit with which to contact Him. Thus God prepared man to be joined to Himself.
God also had to prepare Himself for this union. Finally, He was ready. He had passed through creation, incarnation, the thirty-three and a half years of human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Now He descended as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
Both parties are now ready. All that remains to be done is for us to turn back to Him and repent. He is waiting for us to call on Him: “O Lord, I believe in You. I want You. Without You life is vanity. Without You I am empty.” When we pray this way, this marvelous Spirit will gladly enter our spirit and make us one with Him. We are like a radio with a receiver inside. When we turn on the radio and adjust the dial, we receive the sound waves and can hear the radio program. The sound waves are in the air, but we do not hear them until we tune in to them. Our spirit is the receiver; rather than exercise our mind or our emotions, we can exercise our spirit and contact God.
All of us at one time or another have sensed that there must be a God. Deep within we have had an assurance that there is a Lord in this universe. We may not have expressed it in words, but we have had such a sense. The source of this sense is our spirit; to impart such a feeling is one of its functions. We may not have heeded it. We may have been busy with our plans for the future. We may have given ourselves to a career or made schemes to make money. We may have told ourselves that things about God are too abstract and incomprehensible; we should be practical.
You may be a student, working hard on your lessons. But one day you push the books aside. Why am I studying? What is the meaning of life? What does the future hold for me? These questions come not from your mind but from the deepest part of your being. You reject them, refusing to be superstitious. You turn back to your books, resolving anew to finish your schooling, to get a degree, and then go abroad for even further study. Then you will be able to marry a well-educated person. You keep your mind and your hands busy.
This is the story of all of us. Finally, a day came when we refused to pay attention to the dictates of our mind. We had a longing to walk according to our spirit. In spirit we repented, we believed, and we called on the name of the Lord. Then this all-inclusive life-giving Spirit entered into us, making the two spirits one and the two lives one. This Spirit is life. When He moves in us, our spirit becomes life. This divine life unites with our created life, making both one.
Do not think that God wants you to bow before Him, as though He were an idol. He does not want you to think of Him as being on a lofty throne. He wants to get off His throne and be in you. Even if you live in a most humble abode, He wants to be there too, because you are there. He wants to be in you. He is tired of being in heaven.
Do not think I am going too far. Isaiah 66:1-2 says, “Thus says Jehovah, / Heaven is My throne, / And the earth the footstool for My feet. / Where then is the house that you will build for Me, / And where is the place of My rest? / For all these things My hand has made, / And so all these things have come into being, declares Jehovah. / But to this kind of man will I look, to him who is poor / And of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
In these verses the Lord indicated that He has been sitting on His throne and seems to be tired of it. He has been putting His feet on the footstool and has had enough of that. Where, He asks, is the place for Him to rest? He answers His own question by saying that He finds His home in those who are poor and of a contrite spirit. He desires to rest in man rather than remain in heaven. His rest comes when He is in those who are poor and of a contrite spirit.
Those who worship idols do so by bowing down before them. But idols are false gods, made of clay or wood or at best gold. They are not Spirit. Our God, in contrast to them, is Spirit; He can come into us. Do not treat God like an idol by bowing down before Him; that is not the way He wants to be worshipped. Suppose there is a delicious drink on the table, containing all the ingredients it needs to taste just right. Instead of drinking it, you bow before it and pay homage to it. The glass would say, “Foolish one! Why are you kneeling there? If you leave me on the table, we both suffer. Stand up! Pick me up and drink me! Drink me!”
This is the relationship that God wants. I know you find this hard to believe because of the way you have been brought up. I was raised in a Christian family and taught to worship in a traditional way. I might run around and be noisy outside a church building, but once I stepped inside, I would be reverent. I would walk in slowly and quietly. I would sit down, bow my head, and pray. Such is the so-called worship. I practiced that from my boyhood until I was almost twenty. But I never touched God.
One day, however, I heard a gospel message. While I was walking home that afternoon, that message was working in me. I was not bowing before God, but right then I took that “glass” and drank it.
Do you think I am talking wildly to say that I drank God? Consider the conversation the Lord Jesus had with the Samaritan woman in John 4. He sat by the well, waiting for that thirsty woman to come. She was the one whose thirst needed to be quenched; the Lord asked her to give Him a drink just to make her aware of this. Everyone who wants to drink of the Lord Jesus has to deal with the matter of sin. When the Samaritan woman asked Him for the water, He raised this issue by telling her to come back with her husband. The mention of a husband touched the sinful life she was leading; if she wanted to drink the living water, she had to confess her sins. Her reply was to switch the subject to the matter of worship. Then the Lord told her that the real worship to God was to worship Him as the Spirit in our spirit (v. 24).
Do you see that the Lord Jesus was there at that well for her to drink of Him? He told her, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever” (v. 14). This water was simply Himself. He was there before her as a drink. Why would she talk to Him about worship? He was no longer on the throne in heaven. Now He was on earth, offering Himself to her not to be worshipped but to be taken into her as a drink. John 4:14 and 24 strongly show us that to drink of Christ as the living water is the real worship to God as the Spirit in our spirit.
However much we “worship” God, He is still God, and we are still ourselves. What He wants is that we receive Him; to drink Him is to receive Him. God is not satisfied with an outward relationship. When we drink Him, He is assimilated into us, just like our food. If we eat a stone, we will not be able to digest it, because it is not organic. But when we take something nourishing into us, it is organically assimilated.
So it is with the Lord Jesus. When we receive Him, He becomes part of us in an organic way. He is Spirit and life, and we can assimilate Him. After we have eaten our food and it has been digested and assimilated, even a surgeon cannot remove it from us. After we receive the Lord, we may want to get rid of Him. We may resolve not to believe in Him any longer. But it is too late. He has been assimilated into us and is part of our very being. There is no way for us to expel Him.
The idea of worshipping God in silence and awe is not to be found in the Bible. His people are to shout for joy (Psa. 5:11; 132:9, 16; Isa. 12:6). They are to sing (Psa. 30:4, 12; 98:4-5; Isa. 12:5) and praise Him (2 Chron. 5:13; Psa. 135:1-3; 150:1-6). When we shout for joy and praise with singing, we are eating and drinking Him. The more we do this, the more He is assimilated into us and the more we are joined to Him in one spirit.
Our relationship with God, then, is organic. It is a union of spirit and of life. We are one spirit and one life with Him.
This life relationship between God and us has five great functions, or processes. Of course, our human life has its functions too. If we are ill, for example, the doctor may perform surgery. But nothing he could do would be of any help if we were dead. It is only because we have life that the techniques the doctor applies can restore us to health. This life in our physical body carries on its functions and thus sustains us.
The first function of the divine life is to regenerate us. When this life comes into us, we are born again and receive “a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15). This spirit of sonship is the Spirit of life mingling within our spirit and making us sons. It then becomes quite natural to call God our Father.
Someone once went to Brother Nee to ask how he could be sure that he was truly a son of God. Brother Nee asked him if he was married. Yes, he was. “What did you call your father-in-law the first time you met him?” was the next question. “Well,” the brother replied, “I forced myself to call him Dad, but it felt very awkward.” Brother Nee then asked, “How do you feel at home when you call your own father Dad? Does that seem awkward to you?” “No,” was the reply. “That is sweet to me.” Brother Nee then pointed out to him that the awkward feeling when he called his father-in-law Dad was evidence that he was not born of his father-in-law. The tender feeling he had in saying “Dad” to his own father was proof that he had indeed been born of him. “How do you feel,” Brother Nee then asked, “when you call God Father?” “That is also sweet to me,” was the brother’s response. “This is an evidence that you are saved and a son of God,” Brother Nee told him.
Romans 8:15 has the two terms, Abba and Father; not only Abba but also Father. This is doubly sweet. Because we have been regenerated, it is natural to us to call God Father, Abba Father. “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God” (v. 16). Before we were born again, we were not God’s children. We were only creatures, higher perhaps than dogs or cats but still not His children. We were created by Him and had His image and likeness, but we nonetheless did not have His life. Now — praise Him! — we have been regenerated. The spirit of sonship has entered into us to become our life. We are no longer only His creatures but His children with His life in us.
There have been erroneous teachings concerning sanctification. In Catholicism only special “holy” people are called saints, meaning “sanctified ones.” But this second step, the function which follows regeneration, means the increase of God’s element in us.
Consider the behavior of those who are of the world, those you see at work or at school or among your relatives. Their way of living is blind. They follow whatever others do. If it is convenient to tell a lie, they have no hesitation about doing so; if they might be caught, then they do not. There is little difference among them.
What characterizes those in the world should not characterize us who have the Lord’s life within. There should be a separation. This is not to say that we should wear a sign saying that we are Christians and different from others. Nor should we try to give the impression that we are superior to others.
Sanctification does not refer to any such artificial distinction. It is simply the adding of God to us, as day by day we open to Him. From the time we are saved and His Spirit comes into us, there should be a continual increase of His life, making us different from those around us. This change can be observed by our parents or teachers; they will see that we are not the way we used to be. We do not need a label saying we are separated from the world. There is an inward work going on, something growing up and living out of us, that makes us different from others. We are being “sanctified in the Holy Spirit” (15:16).
What we are talking about is not moral improvement but a renewing in life. We are not laboring to be better behaved. The change others see comes because we have a life and a spirit within that produces this fruit.
Suppose there is a tree that seems dead. There is no foliage, and the branches are dry and brittle. The root, though, is still intact. You begin to supply fertilizer and water to it. In time signs of life appear. Some tender buds sprout. The trees around it may be withered and lifeless, but this one is showing evidence of life by its newness and freshness. There is life in this tree; that is what makes it different from the other ones.
Sanctification is the adding of God’s element into us, making us different from others.
The third process is the metabolic change that takes place in us. As God’s element is being added into us, the old elements are flushed out and replaced. In our physical body the process of metabolism never ceases. It regulates the assimilation of our food, the discharge of the dead cells, and their replacement with healthy, new ones.
When the Scripture tells us, “Be transformed” (Rom. 12:2), it does not mean that we should try to make ourselves different in an outward way. If my metabolism is poor, I may look pale and ill. The answer does not lie in using artificial coloring so that I seem healthy. What I need is nourishing food, adequate rest, and proper exercise. Then, after a few months, my skin color will improve as a result of the metabolic changes that have taken place.
As Christians, we do not care for outward pretension. The transformation that we experience happens metabolically as God’s element is added to us. We are being inwardly transformed, not outwardly improved.
The work in a mortuary is to make dead people look well. The pallid skin is masked with rosy coloring. Some messages in Christianity in effect do the work of a mortician. The object is to make lifeless ones look healthy. What a contrast this is to the Lord’s way! He cleanses away all that is false. He puts His life into us so that we can be changed in our very being. He provides us with nourishing food and rest. Transformation is the result.
On our part, we need to be sure to get the proper nourishment. Without eating, the metabolic process cannot operate properly. It is as we nourish the divine life in us that we are transformed.
After we have been regenerated, the life of God works within us to make us different from those of the world. As we are thus sanctified, we are changed metabolically. This transformation can be likened to a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. The result of our being transformed is that there is a new form. It is to this that Romans 8:29 refers, when it says that we were “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.”
By transformation we are conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus. Not only is there the life within; outwardly, we have the form of the Son. Notice that He is called the Firstborn here, not the only Begotten. Through death and resurrection He became the Firstborn, with the human nature as well as the divine nature in Him. We will become like this firstborn Son of God.
Conformation is the work that God is doing today. He is not satisfied to have us only regenerated. He wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son. To accomplish this we need life. Teachings may improve us outwardly, but they do not transform us. The grafted branch is sanctified, transformed, and conformed by the life supply it receives from the tree to which it is grafted. The fruit that results from the grafting indicates maturity.
The life within us spreads from our inner part to our soul and eventually to our body. Glorification is when it is manifested in our body. Someday this life will permeate our whole being, and we will be glorified (v. 30).
If we want the divine life in us to accomplish God’s goal, we need to give it a free way. How can we cooperate?
Romans 10:12 tells us that “the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him.” For the Lord’s life to increase in us, we need to call on the name of the Lord. If our environment allows, we can call loudly, “O Lord Jesus!” If we would be disturbing others, we can simply call His name softly.
Calling on the Lord corresponds to breathing. We are told that it is most healthful to exercise to the extent of having to breathe deeply. When we exercise to breathe deeply the name of the Lord, we are kept healthy.
We must “not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit” (8:4). We have a spirit within us. We are to walk according to that spirit, not according to our feelings, opinions, or teachings. Choosing to walk according to the spirit will save us from quarreling with our spouse, from feeling unhappy toward our parents, from losing our temper, from gossiping, and from living in our vain imaginations.
To walk according to the spirit, you must pray continually. Do not focus your prayer on various items and on different people. Pray to contact the Lord and to breathe Him in. Pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17). All the time you are at home, keep praying. You must pray as spontaneously as you breathe. Christ is our life (Col. 3:4). To be detached from life means certain death. Your relationship with the Lord cannot afford any interruption.
It is most frustrating to lose our temper, yet humans are prone to do this. We hate the damage it does to our relationships, yet, try as we will, we keep failing. It is only when we touch the Lord, praying without ceasing, that we are kept from losing our temper. Constant prayer will keep us walking in the spirit. As the element of Christ increases through prayer, we will no longer even discuss those matters that lead to argument.
Gradually, in our lives there will be nothing but Christ. Victory or defeat will be gone. Losing our temper or not losing our temper will not be an issue. Only Christ will matter. For this we must keep contacting the Lord and breathing Him in. Then we will experience His constant supply.
In this way the life we have received in regeneration will increase. We will be sanctified, transformed from within, and conformed to the image of the Son. When we are finally matured, His life will saturate our bodies and break forth in glorification.
