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Scripture Reading: John 6:57; 14:17-20; 15:4-5; 16:9; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a
Thank God that we have the Bible! This Bible is a complete revelation. Although it consists of sixty-six books, it has only one revelation. This revelation is a complete whole; it is complete in its entirety. In this complete revelation there is one central point. Although believers throughout all the ages have read the Bible extensively, most of them have missed the central point. The central point in the Bible is very clear; it is Christ as our life. Christ is not only life, but He has become our life. This is the central point of the Bible.
Christ becomes our life to fulfill God’s plan. God has an eternal will, and in this will He has a plan. His plan is to gain a group of people to express Him. For man to express God, it is necessary for God to enter into man to be his life. Consider this: If God does not enter into man and live out Himself through man, how can God express Himself, and how could man express God? Perhaps you have seen a variety show featuring two performers, one of whom speaks while the other acts out the gestures. Similarly, I can hide behind a brother, while he acts out whatever I say. It seems that this is an expression of me, but it is actually not so; he is expressing himself. The only way for me to be expressed through him is for me to enter into him and live out myself through him. However, this is impossible for me to do. I cannot enter into him, much less can I live out through him. Therefore, I cannot express him, and he cannot express me. This, however, is the very thing God can do. God can work Himself into us. In other words, God has become our life. Only God is able to do this; no one else can do this. God has wrought himself into man. This is God’s central point in the Bible. When God becomes our life, He is Christ, and this Christ is the Spirit.
Genesis 1 reveals to us that God created man in His image and after His likeness. We have to insist on asking why He would create man thus. There are two answers. The first answer is that God had to create man to be like Himself. If you have your picture taken, and it does not turn out to be like you but looks like a tiger or a demon, this picture does not express you. Likewise, since God wanted man to express Him, He had to create man to be the same as He is. According to the Bible, man is a “photograph” of God because man was created according to God’s image and likeness for God’s expression. The second answer is that God created man to be like Him so that one day He could enter into man. If you have something that needs to be contained, you need to find an identical container, such as a box that is of the same size and shape as that thing. For example, if the thing to be contained is round, you need to find a round box. If the thing to be contained is square, you need to find a square box. The best illustration of this is a glove. A glove is made entirely according to the shape of a hand so that the hand can fit into it. One time I saw someone making a glove with one section for the thumb and one other section for the four fingers. This was a mixed-up item. I greatly disapproved of what I saw, for that was not a glove but a mitten. A proper glove must have separate sheaths: one for the thumb, one for the index finger, one for the middle finger, one for the ring finger, and one for the little finger. Everything must be according to the shape of a hand so that the hand can properly fit into it. God created man in His image and after His likeness for the same reason. God wanted to one day enter into man and feel comfortable in man. God desires to enter into you that He may put you on and make His home in you.
Furthermore, Genesis 2 reveals that in the creation of man, God breathed the breath of life into man’s body. The breath of life was a wonderful thing. According to the Bible the breath of life became the spirit in man, because the word breath in Genesis 2:7 is translated into spirit in Proverbs 20:27. In other words, the word spirit in Proverbs 20:27 and the word breath in Genesis 2:7 are the same in Hebrew. This shows that the spirit of man is the breath of life that was breathed by God into man in the beginning. When God created man, He used two materials. One material was physical, that is, the dust of the ground. God used the dust of the ground to form the body of man. The other material was spiritual, that is, the breath of life; it was intangible yet living. The body made of dust was tangible, but not living. When the breath of life entered into man, man became a living soul. Thus, man has a body on the outside and a soul inside, and within the soul there is a spirit, which is the organ for him to receive God.
God’s creation of man was very special. First, God created man to be like Him that man might have His image. Second, God created man with a spirit as a receptacle. Therefore, when you consider a man, on the one hand, he has an image that is the image of God; on the other hand, he has a spirit within him that is solely for the purpose of receiving God. This spirit may be likened to the receiver installed in a radio for the sole purpose of receiving radio waves.
We know that in Genesis 1 and 2 God had not yet practically entered into man. Man was still an empty vessel. Although man had the image of God outwardly and was a receptacle to receive God inwardly, God had not entered into him yet. After God created man, He placed this empty vessel before the tree of life. If you read and understand the Bible, you can see that the tree of life signifies God as our life. The tree of life is God Himself. God’s intention in putting man before the tree of life was for man to receive God into him. Moreover, at the outset the Bible speaks clearly that the way to receive God is by eating. We know that if we want to receive anything into us, we need to eat it, but the things we eat must be organic. In other words, if you eat a piece of stone, it will not have any organic reaction within you; it is inorganic and cannot be absorbed into your bloodstream or cells. But if you eat something nutritious, an organic process will take effect within you. For example, a few hours after you eat a piece of fruit, it will become your cells and eventually will become you. It is often said that you are what you eat. Whatever you eat, that is what you will be. If you eat mangoes, then you will smell like a mango. I sometimes tell the Americans that they smell like cows because they drink so much milk and eat a lot of steak. Therefore, if you eat beef, you will become a “cow.” This kind of speaking does not sound nice. However, if we eat Christ, we will become Christ. Do you believe this?
The theologians in Christianity do not have the concept of eating Christ and living Christ. If they hear this kind of speaking — “eating Christ to become Christ” — they are bothered and are quick to judge it as heresy. They wonder first of all, how can we eat Christ? Secondly, how can we become Christ? However, the Bible is very clear concerning this. The Lord Jesus said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:57). This word is not my speaking; it is the speaking of the Lord Jesus and is recorded in the Bible. Later, a disciple who was called Paul also declared, “For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21a). Can you see this? Eat Christ and live Christ. The words eat and live are not adjectives but verbs. I eat Christ and I live Christ. Eventually, to me, to live is Christ. This is not heresy.
We have been fighting for this truth for many years in America. America is known as a Christian nation, and it has old, traditional theology. Since the Lord’s recovery went to America, we have released messages on eating Christ. The theologians and seminary professors in that country said, “This man from China is of a small stature, yet he is so bold; we have never heard such a thing as eating Christ!” They began to fight against this teaching, and we also fought back. After fighting for a period of time, they stopped and conceded defeat. This is because the light in the Bible is very clear. It is sufficient simply to read John 6:57, where the Lord Jesus said, “He who eats Me.” Therefore, they could not argue any longer. After that, we released messages declaring that if you eat Christ, you will become Christ. They began fighting again, saying, “Now we have found reason to say that you indeed teach heresy. Christ is God, so how can you say that you are Christ? Do you really mean to say that you can become God?” But Paul clearly said in Philippians 1:21, “To me, to live is Christ.”
Now let me ask you if you can declare, “To me, to live is Christ”? Can you? Your “amen” is quite feeble. I know you may be thinking, “This word is right and is clearly in the Bible. However, I am not Paul. An hour before the meeting time, I had an exchange of words with my wife at the dinner table. How can I say that I am Christ? I cannot lie, so I cannot say that I am Christ.” Therefore, if I ask you if you can declare, “To me, to live is Christ,” you can only utter a soft “amen.” This is not a proper Christian. Today Christians will not make this declaration, “To me, to live is Christ,” mainly because they disobey the Spirit. This is a pitiful situation. Nevertheless, we need to see that a Christian who is up to the standard is one who eats Christ and who lives out Christ; perhaps we should not use the word “out” and simply say, who lives Christ.
In the Bible we see that in this time of the New Testament, man has only two sins before God. If you are not a believer, you will go to the lake of fire and perish there not because of any other sin but because of your not believing into the Lord Jesus. In John 16:9, the Lord said, “Concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me.” The unique sin of the unbelievers before God today is the sin of unbelief. This is because God does not charge us to do anything other than to receive the Lord Jesus. In the Old Testament there were the Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, however, there is only the one commandment: Repent and believe in Jesus. This is the one and only commandment. Whether you commit sins or do good, you should repent and believe in Jesus. If you do not believe in Jesus, your unbelief is sin; this is the unique sin. In the future all the perishing ones will go to the lake of fire not because of stealing or lying but because of not believing in the Lord Jesus. Many good men will end up in the lake of fire in the coming age, even though they have never committed murder, robbery, or adultery. Perhaps they will argue with God, saying, “I have not sinned, so why am I here in the lake of fire?” God will say, “It is because you do not believe in Jesus.” People perish because of their unbelief.
After believing in the Lord, we have another sin. Many brothers and sisters are not sensitive to this. What is this sin? It is the sin of not living Christ. Your not living Christ and not living by Christ is the greatest sin. I saw this many years ago but did not have a strong consciousness of it until mid-July of last year when I was on a mountain having a quiet, intimate time with the Lord. At that time I practiced confessing my sins daily. Whenever I had a wrong intention, said a wrong word, or had a wrong attitude, I would confess my sins. Every day I would confess my sins just like I would wash my hands. Then the Lord asked me, “Have you ever confessed this one sin, that you do not live Christ?” I said, “Lord, forgive me! I have not confessed this sin. Although I have confessed saying the wrong thing or having a wrong attitude, I never confessed this sin of not living Christ. O Lord, I do not live You out. O Lord, I do not live You. O Lord, forgive me!”
From that day on, I would confess this sin thoroughly before the Lord. Then I found out that there is no end to the daily confession of this sin. It is extremely difficult for us to live Christ every moment of the day. I did a little calculating for myself and for others as well. There are twenty-four hours in a day. After deducting eight hours for sleeping, there are still sixteen hours. How much of the remaining sixteen hours do I spend living Christ? I found out that I may not even have two hours of living Christ. In the other fourteen hours although I did not commit any sin, neither did I live Christ. Do you see this? Within the sixteen waking hours, I had only two hours at most in which I was living Christ.
These two hours of living Christ started with my prayer time. In fact, at the beginning of my prayer time, I was not in my spirit but still in my mind. Then gradually I prayed myself into my spirit. When I prayed myself into my spirit, I lived Christ in my spirit. When I prayed, I lived Christ. After praying, I was living in my spirit, but this did not last long. After five minutes Sister Lee asked me, “Yesterday you gave some money to So-and-so. Why did you not discuss this with me first?” Her questioning halted my living of Christ. Immediately I turned to my mind, asking, “What is this?” This was not to live Christ. I spent the next fifteen minutes telling her all the reasons, and in those fifteen minutes I did not live Christ. What did I live? Even I myself do not know. I did not sin or lose my temper, but neither was I in my spirit living Christ. This would go on until two or three o’clock in the afternoon; then I sensed something was wrong. I turned to the Lord to confess, “Lord, I did not live Christ throughout the day. Although I did not do anything wrong, I have been living in myself. Lord, I am not trustworthy. Lord, forgive my sin! Lord, remind me that I am one spirit with You, and You are one spirit with me. I do not want to live outside of this spirit. I want to live only in this spirit.” After my confession I felt much better within and sensed the Lord’s sweetness, and I was again in my spirit living Christ. However, at this moment the phone rang, and I picked up the receiver. That one phone call got me out of my spirit again. Also there were times when the telephone did not ring, and I was just working and not committing any wrong, yet I still was not living Christ.
What do I live when I am not living Christ? First, ethics; second, logic; and third, biblical teachings. For example, when a husband and wife who are believers quarrel, they condemn themselves. But suppose that, instead of quarreling, they love each other, yet not in spirit. Since not loving each other in the spirit is not counted as a sin, they do not condemn themselves but rather consider that they are doing the right thing. In this way, every day we live mostly either according to ethics or according to logic; we spend very little time living Christ in our spirit. One day I did a little more calculating. I am afraid that even the best brothers and sisters among us live Christ only five percent of the time; ninety-five percent of the time they do not live Christ. Some are contentious and do not live Christ; others are peaceable and never say much, but they also do not live Christ.
Brothers and sisters, please consider, how much do you live Christ in a day? After the creation of man, God placed man before the tree of life that man might eat of the tree of life. However, man foolishly ate of another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We all know that the tree of life signifies God, whereas the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies anything that does not belong to God. For example, your ethics, logic, humility, and pride all belong to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil includes not only things that are evil but also things that are good. We invariably think that our goodness does not belong to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are wrong. Both our goodness and our badness belong to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Whether you are moral or immoral, whether you are honest or dishonest, whether you steal or do not steal, whether you are a robber or a gentleman, whether you are quarrelsome or peaceable, whether you are a shrewd woman or a virtuous woman, all belong to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Anything that is not of God belongs to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By this you can see that only a small percentage of your living is of the tree of life; ninety-five percent is of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Most of us have become well-adjusted after being in the church life for a long time. Let us use a husband and wife as an example. Before they were saved, the husband was rude, and the wife was ill-tempered. Then they were saved and came into the church. One day they had a discussion. One said, “We have now come into the church. Look at the church people. In general, they are better than we. So from now on we should not be rude or ill-tempered.” Indeed, after a few years under the influence of the church they gradually changed and were no longer rude or wild. The more they lived the church life, the more they were conformed to the image of the church. Is this Christ? No. Is this the tree of life? No. When this brother was rude, his rudeness was not of the tree of life but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now he has improved; instead of being rude, he looks very much like one who is in a local church. Even so, his behavior is still of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The same is true with the wife. Many of her relatives and friends praise her, saying that she has changed. Both of them have changed. However, whether changed or unchanged, their behavior is of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Brothers and sisters, forgive me for being frank with you. When I see your faces today, I have a few words that I must say to you. Have you noticed that among the unbelievers, the ladies paint their lips red, powder their cheeks white, and color their eyebrows black? The red, white, and black colors are not real; these are all masks. We thank and praise the Lord that when you come to the local churches, you do not see these masks. The sisters here neither paint themselves red nor powder themselves white; they do not apply any color at all to themselves.
In America I saw many young men with long hair and beards. When they walked into the meeting hall, I, a Chinese, had to examine them closely to determine whether they were humans or demons. They were actually humans, but from the back they looked like demons, and from the front they looked like cats full of whiskers. After they had been in the church life for a period of time, they cut their hair short and shaved off their beards. I was very happy to see their new look. At first, I thought that this was the transformation of the life within them. I had also boasted to others, saying, “You see, the local church is very powerful; it can cause a long-haired man to cut his hair short and a bearded man to shave his face clean. This is the transformation of life.” However, after a while, I realized that this was not the transformation of life but a conformity to what they saw in the local church. Why do I say this? Because even though a person’s hair has been shortened and his beard has been shaved away, his nature remains untouched. Do you believe that this one has truly been transformed? No, he has not been transformed but has merely changed his attire. If he were truly transformed, not only would his hair be shortened and his beard shaved off, but his nature would also be dealt with. Hence, the length of the hair and having a beard or no beard are of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are not of life. Life is Christ Himself.
Dear brothers and sisters, God wants neither our long hair nor our short hair, neither our pride nor our humility, and neither our love nor our hatred. What God wants is Christ. God’s intention is to work Christ Himself into us. Your living out Christ is the greatest pleasure to God. Sadly, today there are too many substitutes for Christ. The tree of life involves only one item, that is, life, whereas the tree of the knowledge of good and evil involves hundreds of items, such as religion, ethics, doctrines, knowledge, good and evil, honesty and hypocrisy, and pride and humility. Anything that is not of God is of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is where the distinction lies. For example, you may be an evil man who is prone to lie and steal. From the human standpoint, you should not behave like this; rather, you should be humble, ethical, and honest. However, from the point of view of the spiritual life, merely being humble, ethical, and honest are not necessarily a spiritual living. What God wants is not that we live a moral life, but that we live Christ. You should not live in your mind but in your spirit, nor live in your knowledge but in fellowship with the Lord. Neither should you live according to outward regulations but according to Christ. Furthermore, you should not live according to doctrines but according to the Spirit. Always remain in your spirit to have fellowship with Christ and thus live out Christ from within you. This is what God desires. This is what we lack today.
The way of the church is right, and the ground of the church is proper. There is not the slightest problem along these lines. However, on this right way and on this proper ground, we need the Spirit as the content. We need the tree of life to be our content. We have to be full of God and full of Christ. This is not only a matter of the way and of the ground of oneness but also of a practical testimony. We have to live out the Spirit and live out Christ. When we live in constant fellowship with Him by praying unceasingly, we will ultimately have the boldness to say, “To me, to live is Christ.” I hope that the brothers and sisters will not feel it is enough to love the Lord. You must see that it is one thing to love the Lord and another thing to live the Lord. There are many who love the Lord, and I believe that most of you love the Lord. If you did not love the Lord, you would not be here. I am afraid, though, that very few brothers and sisters live Christ. Loving the Lord is one thing; living Christ is another thing.
God desires not only that we love Him, but much more that we live Him and live Him out. If we love Him, we will live by Him instead of living by ourselves. To live Christ requires that we pray unceasingly. This kind of prayer is not for our daily affairs but for our contact and fellowship with Christ. If we pray only for our daily affairs, we will not be able to pray unceasingly. It is not possible to pray continuously twenty-four hours a day for our daily affairs. Besides, we do not have that many daily affairs to pray about. Praying unceasingly is a spiritual breathing. This is not a matter of praying for daily needs but of breathing in Christ. If you pray to the Lord, “Lord, You are my life; I am one spirit with you; Lord, You are in my spirit,” you will live in your spirit and will be in constant fellowship and contact with the Lord. At all times and in all places, the Lord is in you to be your life and to be one with you. In this way you will be delivered from religion, ethics, and logic, and you will truly live out Christ in your spirit. This is what God desires.
