Search
Scripture Reading: John 6:57; 16:9; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a
The central revelation of the Bible is Christ as our life for the completion of God’s purpose. It is God’s eternal plan to have a body of people to manifest Him. For God to be expressed through man, He must enter into him and live within him. This God, who thus becomes our life, is Christ, who is the Spirit.
The first chapter of the Bible tells us that God created man in His own image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26). There are two reasons why man was created in this way. The first is that he might be able to express God. Suppose I take a picture of you, but it turns out to look like a tiger. Such a picture cannot express you, because it does not look like you. For man to be able to express God, he had to be made in God’s image and likeness. The second reason is that God might one day be able to enter into man. The container must be shaped like its content. For a glove to contain a hand, the glove must be shaped like a hand, with a thumb and four fingers. When a glove is a good fit, the hand feels comfortable in it. When God enters into man, He feels as comfortable as that hand in the glove. He feels that He is where He belongs.
In the creation of man God used two materials: one, visible and of the earth; the other, spiritual. Man’s body was formed from the dust of the ground (2:7); this physical part was not living. Then God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In Hebrew the word breath is the same as the word translated “spirit” in Proverbs 20:27. The breath of life, although it could not be seen, was living. When it came into man, man became a living soul. He then had an outward body, a soul within, and a spirit within that soul.
The spirit is the organ by which man can receive God. Man was created in God’s image, yet he did not contain God. In Genesis 1 and 2, man was an empty vessel. God placed him in a garden and called his attention to the tree of life. This tree signified God Himself as life. God wanted man to receive Him; the way for man to do this was to eat of the tree of life.
Right at the beginning of the Bible, it is plain to see that God is received into man like food. When we eat, the food is broken down metabolically and assimilated by all the cells of our body, thus becoming part of us. When we eat Christ, we become Christ. To speak of eating God is offensive to some Christians; to say that God becomes part of us, in their view is heretical. But it was the Lord Jesus Himself who said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:57). Paul could declare, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). His very living was Christ.
In the Old Testament there were ten commandments. In the New Testament, however, there are only two. The first is that we must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. John 16:9 says, “Concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me.” For unbelievers the one sin for which they will be judged by God is that of not believing in the Lord Jesus. Whether their behavior is good or bad is inconsequential. The kind, honest people and the thieves and liars will end up in hell together, if they do not believe in the Lord Jesus. The sin for which they will be condemned is that of rejecting Him.
The second commandment is for the believers: live Christ. You may not consider that this is a serious matter. I realized many years ago that it was a sin not to live Christ, but my sense was not very strong. It was last year that this conviction came upon me. One day, while I was away for a few days of rest, I was waiting before the Lord. He seemed to say, “So often you confess your sins.” This was true. Whenever an evil thought came to me or I had a wrong attitude or I said something wrong, I would confess. It was as routine for me to do this as for me to wash my hands. “Let Me ask you,” the Lord said further, “have you ever confessed to Me the one sin, that you have not lived Christ?” I said, “Lord, forgive me. Not many times have I confessed this sin.”
From that day on, I discovered that there is no end to confessing this sin. How much I lacked living by Christ! In a twenty-four-hour day, how much of the time was I living Christ? Taking out eight hours for sleep, I figured that perhaps not more than two hours a day did I live Christ. The remaining fourteen hours I was not doing wrong, but neither was I living Christ.
How did I live Christ in those two hours? It was mainly when I was in prayer. At the beginning I would not be living Christ. I would be in my mind. But by praying I would come into my spirit and live Christ. The more I prayed, the more I would live Him. Afterward, I might be talking with my wife. I would be in spirit, but after we talked for five minutes, she would ask me a question. I would reply not unpleasantly, but that question caused me to be in my mind. All the time I was answering it, I was not living Christ. I was not blaming her or even feeling angry, but I was not living Christ.
As the day went on, I would sense that I was off. Although I had not done anything wrong, I had not lived Christ. I confessed, “Lord, I have not lived You. I have not been in spirit. I have been living myself. O Lord, forgive this sin of mine. I am untrustworthy. Do keep reminding me that I am one spirit with You. I do not want to have anything outside the spirit.” I would be restored and again be living Him. But a telephone call might come, and again I might be drawn out of the spirit. Even without a telephone call, I might simply drift away and find that I was not living Him.
There may be nothing wrong with the way you are living, but you may still be living apart from Christ. You may be living your morality. You may be living your own reasoning. You may be living the doctrines in the Bible. A couple may not argue, but their love may still not be in the spirit. For this they do not condemn themselves; in their eyes there is nothing sinful. A brother may feel that what he is doing is quite all right; another brother even told him he was right. He goes ahead, doing it according to his reasoning. These are just examples to show you how little you live Christ. I doubt that even the best of you live Christ more than five percent of the time. The rest of the time you may not have been arguing, but neither were you living Christ.
God offered Himself to man as the tree of life, but man was deceived. He chose to eat of another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:6). Everything that is not God belongs to that other tree. It is not just the evil that pertains to this tree; it is also the good. Your doctrine belongs to that tree; so do your reasoning, your humility, your pride, and your morality. Both stealing and giving away all your money have their source in this tree. You may argue with your wife, or you may love her so much that you never argue with her; both are from the same tree.
Yes, you have changed since you came into the church life. You used to be coarse and vulgar. Your wife had a fiery temper. But as you observed the more refined ways of the rest of those in the church, you gradually changed. I am sorry to say that you were conformed to the image of the church, not to the image of God’s Son. Your change was not the result of partaking of the tree of life. You may seem less rough now and look neater in your appearance. Your wife has her temper under control. Your in-laws tell others how much you both have changed since you came into the church life. Others may be impressed with your milder ways, but both your coarseness and your gentleness are from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They are not Christ.
When I look at your faces, I can see that you do not look like the unbelievers. Before you came into the church life, you may have painted your face like the women in the world. But when you noticed that the sisters did not wear makeup, you stopped wearing it too. Now your appearance conforms to what the others look like.
I used to be pleased when I saw how new ones changed after they came into the church. The long hair would be cut, the beard shaved off. I thought it was the result of life. But I came to see that it was only the outward appearance that changed; the disposition remained the same. If these new ones had truly been transformed, their whole disposition would have been different. They were not transformed; only their customs changed. They were being conformed to the local church. The length of their hair was still being determined by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God is not interested in your changing outwardly. He does not ask you to wear your hair long or short. He is not trying to make you loving instead of hateful or humble instead of proud. God’s eternal purpose is to have Christ in you. The only thing that pleases Him is that you live Christ.
There is only one tree of life. All the things we do that do not come from life are from that other tree. To the tree of the knowledge of good and evil belong religion, doctrine, evil, and goodness. Whatever is not of life is of that other tree. According to man’s thinking, you should be honest, moral, and humble. God’s concern, however, is not with your behavior. It is His intention that moment by moment you live out the Christ within. Do not live according to the thoughts in your mind, your knowledge, your doctrine, or your outward circumstances. Live in your spirit, in fellowship with Christ, and according to the Spirit. This is what satisfies God.
The church today lacks this living by Christ. Our way is right. The ground of the church is correct. On this proper ground, however, we must have the content of the Spirit. We must be filled with God. We must not be satisfied to be on the right track and to have the proper ground. There must be a practical, real testimony of living out the Spirit. We must be constantly in fellowship with Him, praying all the time, so that we have the boldness to say, “To me, to live is Christ.”
You have learned that you must live by Christ. However, are you in this reality? Are you living Christ every day? For this to be your experience, you must pray. Moreover, your prayers must not be for things or for people. If you pray only for things, you cannot pray unceasingly; you will run out of things to pray for. Your prayer must be a contacting of the Lord. To fellowship with Him in unceasing prayer is our spiritual breath, the means by which we breathe Him in.
It is not enough to love the Lord. To love the Lord is one thing; to live out Christ is another. I believe that most of you love the Lord; otherwise, you would not be here. However, the question is whether you live Christ. God is not satisfied with your merely loving Him. Because you love Him, you must not live by yourself.
Over the years, young people have often come to me for help with their problems. I used to be full of answers for them. When someone wanted advice, I would give him point-by-point instructions. If a brother asked how he should handle his wife, I would give him some commandments to follow. Whatever the problem, I would have an answer. This kind of advice, I came to realize, is of no real help.
Now, if you come to me with a problem, I have no suggestions. I have no solutions to propose. All I can tell you is that moment by moment you must fellowship with Christ. How you should talk with your wife I cannot say. All I know is that you must be constantly breathing Christ in. While you are with your wife, you must keep communing with the Lord: “Lord, You are my life. I am one spirit with You. You are in my spirit.” Breathe Him in, in this way.
You do not need a method. Simply fellowship with the Lord. Keep telling Him that you are one with Him, that He is within you as your life, and that He is one with you. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, pray unceasingly to contact Him within. When this becomes your way of living, you will be out of the realm of religion and doctrine. You will be in spirit living Christ. This is what God wants.
