Search
God’s intention is to mingle Himself with us so that we may be one with Him to become His expression. In this chapter we will begin to consider the way that God mingles with man, that is, how He accomplishes this matter. Although it is correct to say that He accomplishes this mingling through the Spirit and by Christ’s death on the cross, the main thing we must stress is that God’s way to mingle Himself with us is by life. Life is a great subject in the Scriptures. God became life to us so that He could mingle Himself with us.
We may illustrate this by the physical food that we eat. In order for an apple to be mingled with us, it must be life to us. We need to eat and digest it and allow it to become a life element to us. Then the apple will enter into our blood and will become one with us. This is the genuine mingling. We may say that we are mingled with many cows, chickens, fish, eggs, apples, peaches, etc. For us to be mingled with a chicken does not require both the chicken and us to be chopped up and then mixed together. This would not be a mingling but a killing. In order for us to be mingled with something, we need to take that thing as our life so that it becomes our content.
The matter of mingling has been lost in Christianity. Many Christians today speak in different ways about Christ and God, but they neglect the fact that God in Christ is life to us. Even though some may say that Christ is life, many times they do not understand what they are saying. Actually, the matter of life is difficult to speak about. To speak concerning our physical body is easy, but it is difficult to speak about our physical life because life is abstract and mysterious. We all know that we have a physical life, but it is difficult to define our physical life. Because it is difficult to define and explain the matter of Christ and God being life to us, this matter has been lost in Christianity.
In the Scriptures the primary matter is that God is life to us. After God created man, the first picture revealed to us concerning God is that God is life to man. In the record of Genesis chapters one and two, God created man in His own image (1:26), using the dust of the ground to form man’s body and God’s breath of life to form man’s spirit, with the result that man became a living soul (2:7). It is significant that after creating man, God did not tell man to worship and serve Him or to do good things to please Him. Instead, God told man to take care of his eating, implying that God wanted man to eat the tree of life, which signifies God as life to created man (vv. 8-9, 16-17). God intended that created man would take God into him as life.
We must be clear that God has no intention to ask us to serve Him. Even though some may argue that there are passages in the Scriptures that tell us to serve God, this is not what is in God’s mind or heart. God intends that we come to Him to receive Him and take Him as life. The more we take Him as life, the more we please Him. Mankind always thinks that he must do something for God, that he must work, serve, and worship God (cf. Luke 15:17-24). We simply do not understand God’s heart, mind, or desire. God’s heart and desire are that He would be life to us, that we would receive Him and take Him as life.
For example, in John chapter six, when the Lord Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, the Jewish people considered this to be a great matter. They thought that Jesus was a great prophet, and they wanted to force Him to be King (v. 15). But the Lord indicated that, instead of coming as a great prophet or a great king, He came to be small pieces of bread to be eaten by them (vv. 32-35, 48-51, 57). The Lord does not want to be enthroned by us in an outward way; rather, He desires to be eaten by us.
Today many in Christianity praise Christ for His greatness. However, whatever we take in as food must be small, certainly smaller than we are. Thus, the human concept is absolutely different from the divine thought. The human concept is that God is great and that we must serve and worship Him. The divine thought is that God desires to come into us as life. In order to be life to us, God became small, as small as a piece of bread or fruit (Rev. 22:2), for us to take and eat. Although God’s being life to us in Christ through the Spirit is unsearchably rich, the picture in John chapter six shows that this matter also involves smallness. The one who contributed the five loaves and two fish was not a great man but a little boy (v. 9), indicating something small yet rich. There were only five loaves and two small fish, but five thousand men with women and children were all filled, and still there were twelve baskets left over (vv. 10-13). This is the way in which Christ is life to us.
The Bible is a book of life. The Bible begins with the tree of life and also ends with the tree of life, proving that it is a book of life. Throughout the Scriptures there is a line of life. After man was created, he was put in front of a tree of life, which is the symbol of God in Christ as the Spirit being life to us (Gen. 2:9; John 15:1; 14:6). When Christ came, He told us that He came that we may have life and have it abundantly (10:10) and that He is the life (14:6). John 1:4 also tells us that life is in Christ. Therefore, Christ came that we may have life, the life is in Christ, and Christ is the life. This gospel tells us to believe in Him so that we may have life, the eternal life (3:15-16). If we have the Son of God, we have life, and if we do not have the Son of God, we do not have life (1 John 5:12). The apostle Paul tells us that Christ is our life (Col. 3:4) and even that it is Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). Finally, at the end of the Scriptures there is the tree of life again, with the flow of the living water (Rev. 22:1-2).
Let us consider how we can experience Christ as life in a practical way. It is not adequate to say that Christ changes our life or that He gives us a new life. In China many people’s lives are changed by the teachings of Confucius and Buddhism. Some Chinese people were gamblers, and others were drunkards or thieves, but one day their lives were changed by the teachings of Buddhism. They also claim to experience a new life. Therefore, we may have the terminology that Christ is our life without knowing the reality or the way to experience Him as life.
John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,” and 8:12 says that anyone who follows the Lord Jesus shall have the light of life. Then in John 6:35 the Lord said, “I am the bread of life.” Here, once again, life is mentioned, but this time it is mentioned in connection with the bread of life. In Romans 8:2 there are the Spirit of life and also the law of the Spirit of life. That same chapter says that the mind set on the spirit is life and peace (v. 6). Finally, in 1 John 1:1-6 there is the fellowship that comes from life. Therefore, in the above verses six things are mentioned in the Scriptures concerning life: the light of life, the bread of life, the Spirit of life, the law of life, the peace with life related to the mind set on the spirit, and the fellowship of life. In order to know how to experience Christ as life, we must understand these six things.
Christ is life to us, first of all, by being light to us. To experience Christ as life, we must experience Christ as light, because the life is the light of men (John 1:4). When we experience Christ as life, we will have light within us shining all the time. Christians experience Christ as life in light. This means that when we open ourselves to the Lord and give the Spirit of Christ, who is the Spirit of life, the ground to work within us, we first sense something shining as light within us. Prior to this there might have been something foggy, dark, and vague within us, but now there is light within us that shines and enlightens, even though this light may be only a small spark.
The experience of Christ as life is not always something extraordinary. In reality, if our experience of Christ as life is genuine, we do not experience a great Christ but a small Christ. Christ is indeed great; there is none greater than He. Nevertheless, when we experience Him in reality, we experience only a little of Christ. Our concept might be that we should encounter a Christ who is like the sun shining with glory in the heavens. Of course, some may experience Christ in this way. Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus did indeed meet Christ in a marvelous way. However, for most of us, our experience of Christ is normally in a small way; we experience just a little of Christ. Perhaps in the morning there is something very small within us, shining like a little star, giving us a little light, so that we see and sense something. This is very precious. Do not look down on this, but rather honor and respect it. Although there may be just a little light within us, that light is the life of Christ; it is Christ as life to us.
The difference between the Christians’ experience of Christ as life and the Buddhists’ experience in Buddhism is that Christians experience Christ as the inner light. With us Christians, there is not merely something teaching and instructing us outwardly; there is often something shining and enlightening us within.
As an illustration, let us consider the case of a young brother who is very proud before the older brothers and sisters. In accordance with the Scriptures, we might tell him, “Brother, you need to be humble. It is wrong to be merely twenty-five years old and yet be so proud. You need to be humble. Being proud will be a damage and a loss to you, but being humble will be a profit and a blessing.” This is teaching, outward instruction. He may even be convinced by this teaching and declare, “Oh, yes, I am wrong. From today I must try to be humble.” This is certainly not the proper practice of the Christian life. Those people in China who are taught by the teachings of Confucius, and those in India who live under Buddhism, do the same thing as this brother. In this example there is no difference between Christianity and Confucianism, Hinduism, or Buddhism. The proper practice of the Christian life would be for me to pray for the brother in this way: “Lord, reveal Yourself to this young brother and bring him into the light. Shine within him so that he may see You and have the light to realize that he is proud.” If I pray for him in this way, when I visit him, I will not say much about his pride. Instead, I will stay with him for a while and speak to him a little concerning Christ. After this, we may both pray. Although nothing may happen immediately, one morning, two or three days later, there may suddenly be something within him shining, causing him to realize that he is proud. He may have some light to see that he is proud and spontaneously may say, “Lord, forgive me. I am proud.” This would be sufficient to produce a change in his life.
One practice is by an outward teaching, and the other is by the inward enlightening. The outward teaching is the religious way, whereas the inward enlightening is the spiritual way, the divine way, the way by which we experience Christ. The little light sparkling, shining, and enlightening within the young brother is nothing other than Christ as life. By such an experience of Christ, this brother’s life is changed; that is, his life is transformed, and he becomes transparent, not through outward teachings but by the inward enlightening. In contrast, Buddhist teachings can only help us to restrict, control, and suppress ourselves in order to make us humble and thus have an outward change in our life. Christ changes our life not by outward teaching as in Buddhism but by inward enlightening. The inward enlightening is the light of life. I can testify that even though as a young man I was very proud, from the time that I became a Christian, the Lord has been transforming my life. This has not been by outward teaching, for the more people taught me, the worse I became. Teaching was not effective in producing a change in me, but the inward shining and enlightening has gradually transformed me. This shining is the light of life. The more we have this light, the more we experience Christ, for this light is Christ.
Seemingly, Christians are peculiar people. For example, in the morning I may be very unhappy with a certain brother. Nevertheless, something within me is shining. By the afternoon my anger is gone, and in the evening, when I meet this brother, I am quite pleasant. Little by little the shining illuminates. This is the light of life. Just a little of this kind of shining is the proper way to experience Christ as life.
Often people may tell you that one day they prayed, and something came upon them like lightning or like electricity, giving them a certain kind of feeling and experience. Although this may not be wrong, it is not the proper experience of Christ. Rather, the proper experience of Christ as life is that day by day, in a continual way, there is just a little light shining within us, which is the light of life working within us. By going along with this little shining, we will experience Christ more and more. The more we take care of this shining and go along with it, the more it will grow and deepen.
We need to be impressed that Christ is life, and this life is the light of men. If we follow the Lord Jesus, who is life, we will have the light of life. The light of life is the Lord Jesus Himself as light within us shining all the time, not in a bold way but in a gentle way, little by little. By taking care of this inward shining, we take Christ as our life. By paying attention and going along with this little shining, we live by Christ. Learn to experience Christ as life in this way. We should not expect to have some wonderful or extraordinary experience of Christ as life. Such an experience is not normal. The normal experience is that Christ is life within us as the light of life. If we take care of Him, go along with Him, and give Him a free course, He will shine within us. This will be an indication that we are taking Christ as life and living by Christ. We need to learn to experience Christ in this normal and quiet way, by taking care of the inner shining within us.
