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Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:20
It is a very joyful thing that there are so many newly saved brothers and sisters who came from various villages and towns to break bread with us. Though we cannot shake hands and greet each one of you, we believe we do love one another in the one Lord. He is our Lord, and He is also the Lord of the brothers and sisters from these villages and towns. We all have one Lord and one life, we enjoy one salvation, and we are in one Body.
Because of the sovereign grace of the Lord, in these few years through the full-time training in Taipei the Lord has prepared almost two hundred brothers and sisters who have gone to the villages and towns to announce the gospel and set up churches. We do worship Him for this. For over a year now we have seen the fruitful result. At the time when the outreach to the villages was about to set off, I could not go myself since I was in America. I made long distance calls to the ones going out and talked to them over the phone. Now, seeing such a result, I truly rejoice.
The gospel that we announce is “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,” as declared in 1 Corinthians 15:3. The first crucial point of the gospel is that because of His love for us, our dear Savior became flesh, passed through human living, and finally on the cross gave up His body, shedding His precious blood to accomplish an eternal redemption. We were all sinners, yet the Lord loved us and died for our sins that we may be redeemed. Moreover, He was buried and was “raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (v. 4). This portion of the Word in 1 Corinthians 15 mentions according to the Scriptures twice, the first time in conjunction with His dying for our sins and the second time with His being raised on the third day. This is truly glad tidings — the dead can be raised. What a miracle that the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead!
This principle of death and resurrection can be seen everywhere in the universe. For example, any kind of seed after having been sown into the ground dies first and then bears much fruit. If there is no death, there is no life. Because the seed that falls into the ground has this kind of life, it is not terminated by death. On the contrary, through death it grows and bears much fruit. After the Lord Jesus died and was buried, those who hated Him and plotted to kill Him had a great celebration. However, they did not know that in a matter of three days, this Jesus who had died was raised. His death was a death with accomplishments, and His resurrection was a resurrection with even greater accomplishments. The chorus of Hymns, #227 says, “Thine the cup of suff’ring, / Mine the cup of blessing; / For Thy love in Thy redemption, / Praise we ever sing!” Through the death of the Lord Jesus our sins were dealt with, and through His resurrection we have received His life.
Through His death the Lord accomplished many things for us. First, He died for the sins of each one of us (1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Gal. 1:4; Heb. 9:28). As believers of the Lord, we all confess that we are sinful. Even though it has been over sixty years since I have received the Lord, I still have to confess that I am sinful. Every morning when I pray to the Lord, I still have to confess my sins, such as losing my temper and speaking too rashly. Even though such things are not big sins, all trespasses, whether big or small, are sins before God.
Every morning when we draw near to the Lord, we have to “wash our hands” and confess. Confessing is like the washing of hands. We have to wash our hands many times a day because we touch many filthy things every day. In the same manner, in our experience we may not speak anything sinful, yet we often commit sins in our thoughts. Whenever we think of others, it is always easy for us to think of their wrongdoings. When we think of our parents, we ought to remember their love in raising us. Yet instead, what we often remember is how they do not understand us and how they have mistreated us. Once we think of our children, we think of how they do not appreciate us and how they do not obey us. Whenever we consider, we commit sins. Moreover, whenever we open our mouth, we commit transgressions. This is why the Chinese have a saying: “Calamities come from the mouth.” Yet it is impossible for us not to think and not to speak. Therefore, after one day our entire being has been contaminated. At this time we need to draw near to the Lord and confess our sins to Him. He is the One who is holy and sinless. As long as we confess to Him, He forgives us and cleanses us of all our sins.
If we say that we do not sin after we have received the Lord, that is a lie (1 John 1:8). After we receive the Lord, we should not sin, but we may still sin. Even Paul says, “The evil which I do not will, this I practice” (Rom. 7:19). This proves that after we are saved, we may still be overcome by sin occasionally. Yet after we have sinned, as promised in 1 John 1, as long as we confess to God, He forgives us, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin (vv. 7-9). Every day we need to apply the blood of the Lord Jesus for the cleansing of our sins. In this way we can maintain the fellowship we have with God.
The Lord Jesus not only died for our sins, but even more He died for us (2 Cor. 5:14-15). We were worthy of death and perdition, but He died for us. This is a glad tiding. In His dying for us the Lord Jesus bore not only our sins but also our whole being. We all were included in His death. This may be compared to what happened two to three hundred years ago when the ancestors of the Taiwanese migrated from Fukien to Taiwan. All the Taiwanese were included in that migration and crossed the sea to Taiwan. This is because they are joined to their ancestors and are included in them.
Likewise, we all died in the death of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus died, and we also died, because all those who believe in the Lord are joined to Him as one (1 Cor. 6:17). The first stanza of Hymns, #233 says, “O what a miracle, my Lord, / That I’m in Thee and Thou in me, / That Thou and I are really one; / O what a wondrous mystery!” We have nothing good to give to the Lord, yet we can partake of all the good things in Him. When He was crucified, we were crucified with Him because we were in Him.
The Lord Jesus is God who became flesh with a physical form, a body with flesh and bones, and as such, He died for our sins on the cross and was buried. Then after three days He was resurrected and transfigured into the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, to enter into us as life. Therefore, not only did He die for us, but He also resurrected for us. We who believe in the Lord Jesus not only receive the forgiveness of sins, but we also have Him in us as life.
Before we believe in the Lord, we have nothing to do with the Lord Jesus. However, after we receive Him as our Savior, He begins to bother us from within. He does not want to do the things we want to do, and we do not want to do the things He wants to do. The two, He and we, are in discord. Sometimes we are in harmony with the Lord, and we pray in our morning prayer, “Lord Jesus, I love You. I want to obey You.” Nevertheless, in the afternoon when we come across something that we like but He does not like, He troubles us within so that we have no peace for the whole afternoon. This is so in particular for the sisters. In the past when they went shopping in department stores, they simply bought whatever they pleased. However, when they go shopping after they have believed in Jesus, the moment they pick up a dress, within them Jesus may say, “Put it down and go home.” If they would not obey and put it down, thinking that they may be missing an opportunity unless they buy it, the Lord will say, “Do not reason! Put it down and go home.” Eventually though, they may still buy it, but they will not have peace within. We all have this kind of experience. It is so good to have the Lord Jesus in us giving us peace and joy all the time. However, because He is holy, when we do something that is incompatible with His nature, He troubles us within and makes us restless.
In our daily life the Lord Jesus always does this kind of thing. Sometimes when we grumble to our mother, the Lord Jesus bothers us within, so we have no other way but to obey. Finally, we can only confess to Him and say, “Lord, I am really corrupt. I have broken my mother’s heart again.” Nevertheless, sometimes we truly cannot obey, and we immediately lose our temper with our mother. After the incident, however, we regret and come to the Lord, confessing to Him, “O Lord, I am really bad. Please forgive me of my sins.” We all have this kind of experience. We surely can sympathize with one another because we all have the same problem. The Lord Jesus often bothers us in this manner, proving that He truly lives inside us. This is His grace to us.
When the Lord Jesus was crucified, we were crucified with Him. When He was resurrected, we were also resurrected with Him. Furthermore, now He lives in us. Whenever we live in Christ, that is the time we have joy. Even though we had our first birth through our parents, our spirit was deadened because of our sins (Eph. 2:1). However, we were regenerated through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (v. 5). Before we believed in the Lord, we were active outwardly but dead in our spirit. However, after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, when we exercise our spirit by calling on His name, our spirit within is enlivened. The resurrected Jesus as the life-giving Spirit not only regenerated us but also lives in us and makes us His home (v. 22).
Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ wants to make His home in our hearts. Once He makes His home in our hearts and lives in us, we have Him as our Lord. Before we were saved, we were pitiful because we were wandering about and were lost. After we are saved, because He is living in us, we have Him as our Lord, and we are blessed because we are under His preserving and cherishing. Regardless of whether people believe in Confucius, Buddha, or the sea goddess Matsu, they cannot and dare not say that the one in whom they believe is the Lord. Only those who believe in Jesus say they believe in the Lord, because only Jesus is Lord.
Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). As God, the Lord Jesus left His throne in heaven and came to the earth to be a man in the flesh. Then He was crucified on the cross, He died, He was buried, and He resurrected. In His death in which He bore our sins, He not only dealt with our sins, but by bringing us with Him in His crucifixion, He also dealt with us, the sinners. Furthermore, through His death and resurrection, He was transfigured to be the Spirit and came into us to regenerate us that we may live with Him and be one with Him.
He died for our redemption, and He was raised for our justification. Now He is living in us as the living Savior. This is the gospel that we announce. The Lord Jesus has come into us. We and He, He and we, are joined as one. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” He as the Spirit has become one with our spirit; the two spirits have become one spirit. In His salvation the Lord is able to save us to such an extent. What a gospel this is!
(A message given on April 16, 1990, at the Lord’s table meeting in Taipei.)
