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Scripture Reading: John 14:23; 15:5; Gal. 2:19-20; 5:2, 4; 6:15
God’s eternal plan is to work Christ into us. Christ is the embodiment of God. Thus, Christ being worked into us is God coming into us to be our life. In Genesis chapters one and two, it is clearly revealed that God created man for this purpose. God wanted man to be His vessel so that He Himself could enter into man to be his life. However, man fell. Man fell because he did not receive God as life, but rather he received something else. God wanted man to receive life; instead, man received the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The tree of life is simple; it is simply life. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is complicated; it includes knowledge, good, and evil. In man’s eyes, evil is something undesirable, while both knowledge and good are much to be desired. Everyone loves to have knowledge and good. If we do not have knowledge, others think we are stupid, and if we are not good, others despise us.
From the beginning of time up to the present, the existence of the human race has been depending on these two things: knowledge and good. Immediately after you were born, you began to receive knowledge. When you were little, your parents sent you to kindergarten, and then they sent you to elementary school, high school, and college. Then just one degree was not sufficient; you had to go to graduate school to get a master’s degree, and after that a Ph.D. Wearing one Ph.D. cap was not enough; you had to wear two or three more. Knowledge is what the people of the world desire and seek after today. Knowledge is their human life and their future. Those who have knowledge are considered upper class, while those who do not are lower class. The entire human society lives by knowledge.
Furthermore, there is the matter of good. Man must live according to morality and ethics to be a good person. To elaborate somewhat, this is to have kindness, love, humility, patience, gentleness, and a willingness to yield to others out of humility. “Yielding to others out of humility” is a unique virtue of the Chinese. In the Western languages there is no proper translation of this phrase. For example, if there were one and a half seats here, would you sit on half a seat or on one whole seat? In general, the Europeans and Americans do everything according to the law. If the law says that a person can have half a seat, then he would take half a seat; if the law says that a person can have a whole seat, then he would take the whole seat. Whatever people are allowed by law, they would not give it up even to their own father. Western people do not know what it is to yield in humility; therefore, such a phrase cannot be found in their dictionary. Yet yielding is a traditional virtue among the Chinese. If there were one and a half seats here, a Chinese would yield not only the one seat but also the half seat. Orientals, especially the Japanese, pay much attention to yielding to others. Is this good? It is truly good; this is one of the best virtues. In terms of virtue, the Chinese and the Japanese are on top. The Westerners know how to claim but not how to yield. Therefore, the Oriental culture is superior. The Orientals are a cultured people. However, this is the goodness from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Today the three things that human society pays constant attention to are knowledge, good, and evil. Every country and every society are full of knowledge, good, and evil. Evil is condemned while knowledge and good are exalted. What is human culture? It is the development of knowledge and the spread of good. In human culture there is technology, philosophy, and religion. Technology and philosophy spread knowledge, whereas religion promotes good and uplifts morality. In addition, the law restrains people from committing sins. In China, there is an idiom, “to rope people by the law,” that is, to prosecute people by the law. The law is like a rope, tying people up. Therefore, the law restricts people.
Look at the Philippines today. If technology, philosophy, religion, and the law were removed, what kind of people would the Filipinos become? They would be bandits, robbers, or wild beasts. This is true not only of the Philippines but also of every other country in the world. Therefore, these four items must not be abandoned; technology, philosophy, religion, and the law are necessary items in human culture. The stronger a country is in these four aspects, the greater will be its national strength.
Nevertheless, we must know that these four items are replacements of Christ. We may ask three young brothers to come up to the platform for a demonstration. We can see that all these three young brothers have been saved. Do they have Christ? They do. However, what do they live by every day? They live by Christ for only a little time. Perhaps while praying at home they enter into their spirit and live by Christ. Furthermore, during the meetings when they have forgotten their own thoughts and emotions, they live by Christ. However, most of the time they are neither living in the spirit nor are they living by Christ. Sometimes even their eyes are rolling and their minds are wandering. They see that the elders are not good, the brothers are worse, and the sisters are even more disappointing. In the meetings they are watching, condemning, and criticizing. Therefore, at times even in the meetings they are not living by Christ. What do these three brothers normally live by? First, they live by technology. They may consider themselves young people of the space age, and therefore they cannot be without technology or knowledge. Second, they live by philosophy. They may say, “We are Chinese who were born in the Philippines. We have the Chinese philosophy and the Filipino philosophy. We have a philosophy of the East meeting with the West.” Third, these brothers live by religion. Their religion, which is the local churches, is first-rate and the most cultured. Fourth, they live by good, morality, and ethics. They have all these items, and they even have them on two levels. One level is the Chinese ethical traits such as meekness and patience. Consider the Chinese character for patience; it is a sharp knife stuck into the heart. This is patience. Moreover, these brothers are willing to yield to others. Another level is that they were born into a Christian family and were raised in a local church. They have not only morality, but they also have the knowledge of the Bible. They normally live by these four items: technology, philosophy, religion, and ethics.
Now if I ask, “Brother, in the past week, did you go to the movies?”, he will say, “No.” If I ask, “Why didn’t you go?”, he may say, “Because there were not any good ones.” Did you hear what he said? He says he did not go because there were no good movies worth watching. He considers that the movies are not good and disdains them because he is rich in knowledge. If these movies were shown to the country people, they would think that they are great. However, this very knowledgeable young man will not go because these movies are not up to his standard. If I ask the second brother, “Why did you not go to the movies?”, he replies, “When I go to the movies, I feel very uncomfortable within, so I do not go.” This seems to be somewhat related to Christ. It seems that it is Christ in him who would not allow him to go to the movies. Perhaps for the first two times, his uneasiness may be due to Christ. However, later on it may be because he is afraid that it would not look proper if others should see him. It may also be that he feels that as one who is in the church he should not go to the theater. He may have a standard for being a Christian. If he were to go to the movies, he would feel that that is improper and have no peace in his heart. Now if I ask the third brother, “Why did you not go to the movies?”, he replies, “This is the custom of the local church.” Did you hear him say that the local church’s custom is to not go to the movies? He is a good brother in the local church, so how can he go to the movies? In any case, you all can hear what these three brothers have said. None of them say that he did not go to the movies because Christ lives in him.
If I ask a sister, “Do you quarrel with your husband?”, she may reply, “Sometimes I want to quarrel with him, but after some consideration, I get the feeling that it would be better not to.” I would ask, “Please explain a little as to why you feel that it would be better not to quarrel,” to which she replies, “This is due to different reasons. First, in front of the children, it is not proper to quarrel.” Brothers and sisters, you can see that this sister is living her children instead of living Christ. She continues, “The second reason is that there are young brothers around, which also makes quarreling improper.” Again you can see that this sister is living the young people instead of living Christ. Then she says, “The third reason is that sometimes it is truly Christ who lives in me.” Brothers and sisters, do you see that Christ’s living in her is not listed first but last? There is still another reason that I can describe for you. You may feel this way: “Now that I am in the church and I am living the church life, how can I quarrel with my husband? This would truly be unseemly. Therefore, I must set up a good example and not quarrel.” Is this living Christ? No, this is merely a kind of religious living. I believe now you are all clear. Do not think that only one sister is like this; all of the sisters are the same. Even the brothers are not any different.
There are some elders who are too impetuous; they speak, act, decide, and handle matters in a quick way. The result is that they hurt others. There are other elders who are full of experience; they do everything slowly to avoid hurting others by being too quick. When they are asked by anyone about anything, they say, “Wait a minute, let me pray about it; I cannot give you an answer today.” However, this is to live wisdom and not Christ. Day by day we read much about Christ, pray much to Christ, and hear much about Christ, but we do not live Christ very much.
Throughout the ages, there have been too many substitutes for Christ. Perhaps we should call them replacements of Christ. Many things have replaced Christ. I have divided them into two big categories. The first category comes from God. This will definitely shock you, causing you to wonder how things from God can replace Christ. The more obvious ones are two items. The first item is the Bible. Many Christians have made the Bible a replacement of Christ. The Lord Jesus once told the Pharisees, saying, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). Today there are many theologians and Christians who read and study the Bible, yet they are not willing to contact Christ in their spirit. They have made the Bible a replacement of Christ, and they even put Christ aside.
The second item is the law. The Mosaic law was given by God but the Jews replaced Christ with the law. The reason Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians was that, after believing in the Lord, the believers in Galatia returned to the law and replaced Christ with the law. Paul seemed to be saying to the Galatians, “O Galatians, because you believed into Christ, you are now in Christ. All of Christ’s riches and grace have become blessings to you, yet you have now returned to Judaism to keep the law. O Galatians, I want to tell you that if you return to the law, then you are separated from Christ and fallen from grace. This is to say that you are severed from Christ and have reduced yourselves to nothing.”
In the original language, Galatians 5:4 implies, “When you were saved, you entered into Christ. God grafted you into Christ. Thus, all the riches of the life of Christ as the tree have become blessings to you who are the branches. However, since you have returned to the law, you have ruined your status. You have reduced yourself to nothing and brought to naught all of the rich grace in Christ. Hence, you have fallen from the grace of Christ. You are deprived of grace and of all the riches in Christ.” The law was given by God to be used temporarily by Him until Christ should come. Now that Christ has come, the law should be set aside. You should only remain in Christ and not return to the law.
Perhaps you would say, “Today we have nothing to do with the law.” However, I must tell you that although you do not have the law given by Moses, you do have your self-made laws. Especially all those whose will is strong have their own laws: “I do not do this; I do not do that; I am a well-behaved person. My will is strong, my mind is sober, and my emotions are proper; therefore I have regulation one, regulation two, and regulation three. This is my human life.” This is your law, and it is not Christ. Thus, the Bible and the law have become replacements of Christ.
Even the gifts today have become replacements of Christ. Some people speak in tongues, some heal the sick, and some practice other gifts. Although these are things given by God, they can become replacements of Christ.
The second category of replacements for Christ comes from human culture. Not one nation is without culture. The book of Colossians deals with culture. At that time the believers had fallen totally into culture. Colossae was in Asia Minor, and among the Colossians, some were Jews and others were Greeks. The Jews had their religious philosophy; the Greeks had their Gnostic philosophy. These two philosophies intermixed to become the Colossian philosophy, which the Colossian believers received and by which they lived and walked. Therefore, Paul said, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.…Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:6, 8). According to the Bible, all philosophies are elementary things. Although the Chinese speak of The Great Learning, it is nonetheless elementary. Therefore, the philosophy and tradition referred to in these verses are things of human society. In the early days these things invaded the church in Colossae to replace Christ.
Among us here we have Chinese, Japanese, Indonesians, and Filipinos. Consider yourselves. Are you living Christ today, or are you living yourselves as Chinese, Japanese, Indonesians, or Filipinos? I know that even among the overseas Chinese brothers and sisters, those from the Philippines have one flavor, those from Indonesia have another flavor, those from Malaysia have a third flavor, and those from Thailand have a fourth flavor. There is only a bridge separating Malaysia from Singapore, yet the flavors from the two sides are not the same. You all live the many flavors of the overseas Chinese, but you do not live Christ.
Consider three brothers from Japan, three brothers from Indonesia, and three brothers from the southern islands of the Philippines. You may see that all these brothers have been saved and have Christ in them. They have the same Bible and sing the same hymns. However, forgive me to say that they seldom live Christ. What do they live? These three live Japan, these other three live Indonesia, and the last three live the southern islands of the Philippines. It is not the Christ who lives in them that directs them. Sometimes there is a little of Christ living in them but not much. There are replacements in them. What are these replacements? They are the Japanese culture, the Indonesian culture, and the southern Filipino culture. All of these different cultures have been constituted into their blood to become a part of their being. Although we love the Lord and we say that we live by the Lord, in reality, instead of living the Lord, we live our culture. Unconsciously we are living in our culture.
The fact is that not only does each region or each race have its own culture, even all of us individually have our own self-invented culture. Consider the three Japanese brothers. They are genuine Japanese, but each has his own individual philosophy, and each has his own individual culture. If you want one brother to jump, it is very easy for him to jump; if you want another brother to jump, even if you threaten to kill him, he will not do it. All three brothers have been saved; all have Christ within them; all have the same Bible, sing the same hymns, and shout the same slogans. However, each one lives his own individual culture, because each one is living himself. Besides sleeping eight hours a day, they still have another sixteen hours of the day. At most they spend one hour in the spirit, in which they forget about Japan, forget about themselves, and live Christ. However, apart from this brief time, what do they live? They live technology, philosophy, local church religion, and their own moral standard, but not Christ.
Brothers and sisters, please consider if there is any one of you who is without his self-invented culture. Sometimes you hear a brother say, “Brother So-and-so shouldn’t have done this, and Sister So-and-so shouldn’t have done that. I am not boasting, but I myself would never do things in their way. I am not that kind of person, and I would not do things according to their kind of principle.” What is this? This is your own culture, invented and enforced by yourself. Then there are times when you hear a sister pray, “O Lord! I thank You and praise You for saving me and putting me in the church. Lord, from this day forward I will do such and such.” The numerous things she subsequently mentions are part of her own self-invented culture. Therefore, brothers and sisters, when you are not living Christ, you are living your self-invented culture.
All that I have said is to prove to you that it is really difficult to live Christ, and it is even more difficult to live only Christ. Most of the time we do not live Christ. What we live are scientific knowledge, philosophy, religion, or culture. There are too many replacements of Christ. The sinful, evil ones allow wickedness and the world to replace Christ. While wickedness and the world do not have too much room in us, things such as scientific knowledge, philosophy, religion, and culture still have too much ground in us. Unconsciously, unintentionally, we live these things instead of living Christ.
However, the Bible tells us that as we have received Christ, we ought to live and walk in Him. We should not live technology or philosophy or religion or the law; rather, we should live Christ and live and walk in Christ. Paul said that we need to be careful to not let anyone carry us off as spoil, taking us away from Christ through the tradition of men or the elements of the world (Col. 2:8). We must remain in Christ. Let philosophy go, let the law go, and let culture go; just remain in Christ. Christ surpasses technology, philosophy, religion, the law, and culture. Take care of only living in Christ and of living Christ.
Who is Christ? What is Christ? Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit. He is not only the Sovereign One over all, the One who is in the heavens on the throne, but He is also the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit living in your spirit now. He is in your spirit, and He is joined with your spirit as one spirit. You need to remain in this spirit, live in this spirit, breathe in this spirit, pray in this spirit, and fellowship with Him in this spirit. Christ as the Spirit in your spirit should direct you in everything. Then you will live Christ, and what you live out will be Christ.
Today all of you have clearly heard and seen that it is not knowledge, good and evil, religion, or culture, but it is Christ. You must live Christ. However, I am afraid that right after the meeting, you will altogether forget this message. By this afternoon you will go back to your culture and back to your living the local church religion. As long as you are not living in spirit, you are not living Christ; you are living something else. There are too many other things that are replacements of Christ. Mere doctrines regarding Christ are not Christ, the life-study messages are not Christ, and even the Bible is not Christ. We must see that Christ as the Spirit has entered into our spirit to become one spirit with us. Only this Spirit is Christ. To live Christ is to live this Spirit. You need to understand this and simply remain in the spirit: live in the spirit, walk in the spirit, pray in the spirit, and let go of all other things. This is to live Christ.
