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Now we come to the critical point of the Christian faith; it is the peak of the salvation of God. We want to see how Christ can be our life in a subjective way.
In order that we may know and contact Him, God was incarnated to become a man. Through this man we come to realize what God is like. This man was none other than Jesus of Nazareth. He was God clothed with humanity.
Physically speaking, the body of Jesus was no different from ours. But the life within Him was absolutely of another category. His life was purely the life of God. It had the characteristics of God. God bestows to those who are in Christ the very same life that was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth.
However, when Jesus was walking on the earth, the life that He possessed could not be imparted into us. His life was bound by time and space. It was confined to Himself. It could not enter into the believers to be their new source of existence. Therefore, Christ had to die in the flesh. When He died, the bondage of the flesh was shattered and His life was released.
In John 12:24 the Lord said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." The Lord compared Himself to a grain of wheat. There is life embodied in the seed. When the grain falls into the ground and dies, the life within is released, and much fruit is brought forth.
Hence, God did not stop at incarnation. He went through death in order that His life would be freed from the flesh and released into the Holy Spirit. He is no longer limited by time and space. His life can now be dispensed unreservedly to all who believe. The death of Christ on the cross was not merely for redemption of sin but also for the release of divine life. The latter is the primary goal, while the former is only a remedial necessity.
However, before we could receive this life, God also had to solve our problem of sin. Hence, the death of Christ had the aspect of redemption with it. Now God has a just ground upon which He can dispense life to us, and we also have a proper standing to receive boldly this new life from God.
There is a passage in the Bible with which we are quite familiar. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life." I wish to point out two things in this verse.
First, it does not say that God loves sinners; it says that God loves the world. The world denotes humanity in general and has a higher sense than sinners. I do not mean to say that God does not love sinners. But the purpose of God in this verse — the bestowing of eternal life — is not granted to sinners. Sinners are at a lower level than God's basic requirement for humanity. There is a basic standard upon which God can freely dispense life. But a sinner is below that standard. Hence, before anything could be realized, God had to forgive and deal with our sins. The death of Christ paid the ransom for sin. Now we need no longer be sinners.
But receiving the forgiveness of sins merely recovers us back to the state before Adam's fall. He was just a man, and his life was merely a human life at the proper level. But God intends to give His only begotten Son to us so that we may receive eternal life. This is the summit of God's salvation. God is not only recovering what we lost in Adam; He is bestowing what Adam never received. Adam did not eat of the tree of life. Had he not sinned at all, he would still be merely human. He had no relationship with the life of God. But we have inherited something far more excellent in Christ. In addition to a human life, we have a new life, a life from God, which is the very Son of God Himself. This is eternal life.
What is the meaning of eternal life? It simply means a life of eternity. Man's life is transient; it will not survive in eternity. Only the life of the Son of God can exist there. If I put my own life in eternity, it would shrivel up immediately. It would not last! It would perish as a fish in air or a bird in water. Man's life can only carry him through a temporary existence on this earth. It will not make it through eternity. Only an eternal life can survive in eternity.
First John 5:11-12 says, "And this is the testimony, that God gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." Here we are told that this life of eternity is in the Son. It is found in no other place. Whoever does not have this life in the Son is merely a human; he can only exist on earth, but not survive in eternity. He does not have that life which qualifies him for eternity.
After the Son of God passed through death and resurrection and became the Holy Spirit, He is no longer limited by time and space. We can now receive Him anytime and anywhere. Hitherto, whoever received the Son of God received God. In the same way, whoever receives the Holy Spirit receives the Son. First Corinthians 15:45b says, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." This enables all those who have received Christ to obtain a new life. Not only are their sins forgiven, but they inherit an eternal life from God as well.
John 3:7 says, "You must be born anew." This new life is a basic necessity. It is the essence of our Christian faith. This is the difference between a false Christian and a genuine one. First John 5:12 says, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." Verse 13 continues, "I have written these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life, to you who believe into the name of the Son of God." This is not a matter of doctrines, works, or moral behavior; rather, it is a matter of having or not having the Son of God.
God's solution to the human life is not correction, but crucifixion. God has nailed our old man with Christ onto the cross; he is terminated. Now we are alive together with Christ; Christ has become our new life. We are a new man; we have a new beginning, and we can conduct a new way of living. All these are accomplished works of God in Christ.
Man can do nothing here. All he can do is believe and accept. Only common religion asks man to improve, work, and mortify himself. But Christ is here to be our life.
The first time I preached in the southern part of Fukien province, I held meetings with approximately fifteen hundred people. After three meetings the pastors of the whole city became worried. They invited me to them and said, "Mr. Nee, when we asked you to come to preach, we expected you to exhort our congregation to be zealous, to work hard, and to serve the Lord more earnestly. But you are saying that we do not need to do anything; all we need is to receive Christ. They are already lazy. After your preaching they will probably be even more reluctant to work! You are here only for a visit; after this you are free to go. But we are here permanently! What are we going to do after you have left?"
I said, "This is only the second day of the conference. There are sixteen more days. Would you all be a little more patient and wait to see what will come out at the end? The inward work of Christ can far exceed man's own outward labor! I believe that if a man takes the gospel that I preach, there will be a definite change in him."
They did not quite believe my words then. But since they had invited me, they could not stop me. Although I said that I took full responsibility for the outcome, they still shook their heads, saying, "This is too dangerous!" But after about a week, many pastors came and apologized to me, saying, "To accept the inward work of the Son of God is indeed much better than our own efforts."
John 3:16 should be read with 1:12 of the same book. John 3:16 tells us that God gave His only begotten Son to man, and 1:12 says, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name." How do we obtain this life? It is very simple. God gave and we receive; that is all. Just receive and accept without doubt or fear what God has given. The simpler we are, the better.
Mr. C.H. Spurgeon was a famous British evangelist. Once he was talking to some of his students about prayer. One of them asked how he could know if prayers are answered. He pulled out a gold watch from his pocket and put it on the table. Then he told the students that whoever wanted it might take it.
All the students began to be very excited. Some could not quite believe that such a nice watch would be given away freely. Others thought, "If I stretch out my hands to take it and he decides to pull it back, wouldn't it be embarrassing?" Another said, "What if he suddenly changes his mind?" After a while a little girl stepped up to Mr. Spurgeon and said, "I want it." Immediately he put the watch into her little hands and instructed her to take good care of it. When all the other students began to regret their hesitation, Mr. Spurgeon said, "When I said that I was going to give this away, I meant it. Why didn't you believe? What God has given us is something far more precious than the watch; He has given us His Son to be our life. When God is so willing to give, why are we yet hesitant to receive?" Simply believe and receive, and you will obtain the eternal life.
Another person greatly used by the Lord was Mr. F.B. Meyer. At one time he did not realize how Christ can be life to us in the Holy Spirit, nor did he see how to receive this life. One day he was praying on a mountain, hoping that he could obtain the Son of God as life. All of a sudden it occurred to him that all he needed to do was simply believe. He took a deep breath and prayed, "Lord, in the same way that I am breathing in this air, I am exercising my faith to take You in." After he came down from the mountain, he testified to others, saying, "Since that day when I breathed in the Son of God, my life has been totally changed." To receive the Son of God as life is a very simple matter. It is as simple as breathing the air into you.
A friend of mine told me once, "Mr. Nee, I really want to receive the Son of God into my life. I have prayed to God and told Him that I desire to have Christ in me. I was told that when Christ comes into me, I will have a burning sensation within. But when I knelt down, my heart was cold as a rock. And after I prayed, nothing seemed to have changed. How do I know if I really have received the Son of God into me as life?"
I said, "The Bible does not say that a man will feel burning or will remain cold when he receives the Son of God. All that it says is to believe. It is by faith, not by feeling. If you depend on your feeling, you are not believing God's words; you are making God a liar! When God said He has given, then it is given. It has nothing to do with your feeling."
One year I was in Chefoo. A brother told me, "I have believed in the Son of God to be my life. But I do not have a glorious sensation about it. Have I really received Him?" I told him a parable: "Three men are walking on a narrow wall. The one walking at the front represents the fact of Christ's being our life. The one in between signifies our faith. It always follows God's accomplished facts. The last person represents our feeling of glory. This feeling comes after a man has believed. It is the last of the three items.
When the three walk on the wall, the person in between can only look forward. Our faith comes into being when we look steadfastly at God's accomplished work. God has already given us His Son to be our life. When we see this fact, we have faith. The second always follows the first.
After faith comes the sense of glory. All that the third man can see is the second one; whereas if the second tries to turn around to look at the third, he will immediately fall from the wall. A faith that is not fixed on facts is a shaking faith. The minute the second man falls, the third has but to follow. All feelings of glory will then be lost. Therefore, do not look back to search for the glorious sensation. Simply follow the facts.
God has accomplished everything in Christ. He died and was resurrected, and He has been transformed into the Holy Spirit. He is now ready to come into you. All you need to do is believe. If God has not done all these works, then even if you feel radiant and glowing, it means nothing at all.
After Christ comes into us to be our life, there will be a marked change in every way. This change can never be actuated by the restriction of law, the education of morality, or the imposition of improvements and discipline. I can immediately call to mind thirty or forty extremely evil sinners who have drastically changed since they accepted Christ as life. But there are hundreds and thousands of other Christians who, since their acceptance of Christ, can testify to this marvelous change, which is initiated not by discipline and mortification, but by this wonderful, powerful life of Christ that is working in us.
