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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20a; 4:19; Eph. 3:16-17a, 19b
Among us, everyone knows this truth: “Christ lives in me.” Although we all know this truth, we may not have the adequate experience. This is because to this day we are not accustomed to letting Christ live in us. Since the day we were born, we have been living by ourselves. We do everything by ourselves. Whatever we want to say or do, we do so by ourselves. If there is any difficulty, we handle it by ourselves. If there is any weakness, we deal with it also by ourselves. If there is any sin that entangles us, we try to overcome it by ourselves. It is rare that we do not live by ourselves. We know that Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” We speak this and sing this, but in reality it is still “I” who live. No matter how many times we have spoken, sung, shouted, or prayed, “It is no longer I who live,” when it comes to our practical living, it is still “I” who live.
Not the younger ones here, but the older brothers and sisters can remember that since this work of the Lord in Taiwan began in August 1948, the central message preached by us has been, “Christ living in me.” I still remember that our message in the first conference was on “Christ and the cross.” If you read The Ministry of the Word from twenty years ago, you will see that the first of a complete series of messages was on “Christ and the cross.” Therefore, the truth concerning “Christ living in me” is not a new one. Today, twenty-eight years later, I come back to this. On the one hand, I am full of joy because I see growth in the young people. On the other hand, I am full of mixed feelings when I see the older brothers and sisters whom I have known for over twenty years.
From 1948 the church in Taipei began to have gospel marches. Particularly in 1949 we started going to New Park every Lord’s Day afternoon to preach the gospel. Each time we were able to get two to three thousand to hear the gospel and three to four hundred to give us their names. Many were saved there. Once saved, they came into our meetings and heard this central truth: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” However, after hearing this for a long period of time, the taste is gone. Even though in the meetings we can say, “It is no longer I who live,” once we go back home, it is still we who live. This is because the teaching has become empty, having no effect.
Tonight before I came to the meeting, the Lord told me to speak on this familiar message—“Christ living in me.” However, the Lord also told me that I must not just speak a doctrine, but I must “negotiate” with you. I would like to ask you, after being saved for so many years, have you been living by Christ every day? This subject is my burden tonight.
I am afraid that among us there are still many who are not accustomed to living by Christ. For example, here is a brother. Let me ask you, “Suppose your wife who has always been nagging you does it again today. What will you do?” This brother may answer, “As one who is from Hunan, I cannot take it, so at first I will rebuke her a little. Then, when I sense that I should not be so strong, I will stop being so strong.” I would say that this is altogether not Christ but he himself. Even the subsequent inner rebuking within him may not have been altogether of Christ, because not only a Christian but even every Chinese would behave this way. You see that the result of twenty years of listening to messages is: “It is no longer Christ who lives in me, but it is I, a Hunanese, who live.”
The difficulty is here: Although we have Christ, we are not accustomed to living by Him. Nevertheless, we should not be discouraged. We can begin to practice anew. How do we practice? If your wife nags you again today, do not consider who you are. Instead, you should pray, “Lord, You are in me, and I live by You. Lord, now my wife is nagging me again; what would You do?” I am convinced that if you are willing to ask the Lord in this way, immediately the Lord will say, “Let her nag some more. Isn’t her nagging just like music? While she is nagging, I am in you and will lead you to dance.” In this way it is no longer you. It is no more your anger, your patience, or your self-cultivation. Instead, it is Christ within you leading you to dance. This is “no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”
I know many sisters wish that they did not have a temper because anger destroys the good impression one makes on others. Thus, you all hate losing your temper and would rather be one who is gentle to gain others’ praise. But what happens? On the one hand, you often lose your temper; on the other hand, you do not know what to do about it. You have tried every possible way to not lose your temper. Now you know that this does not correspond with the light you have received from the truth. The light is, “I have been crucified with Christ. Regardless of whether or not I lose my temper, I am one who has already been crucified. It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Do not care for your temper; just care for Christ. Do not deal with your temper; only deal with Christ. However, very few can ignore their temper to only care for Christ. This is not an easy matter.
Teaching is one thing, while experience is another. It is especially true with this particular teaching. Why is this? It is because this teaching is concerned with Christ coming into us to be our disposition, our life, and our person. This is not simple. You have your disposition, your life, and your person, yet today within you there is another One who wants to be your disposition, your life, and your person. You must put aside your disposition, life, and person and take Him completely to be your disposition, life, and person. This is not easy. It is easy to listen to the teaching and understand it, but it is not easy to apply it in your daily life. No matter what you do, there is still too much of yourself. It is one thing to speak the teaching but quite another to live it out.
The Lord must have mercy upon us. The measure of the reality, weight, height, and glory of our church life is determined by the extent to which we live by Christ and live out Christ. Thus, my burden is to fellowship with you on this point. When you have the light, you will focus your eyes on Christ. If you have a problem with your husband, forget your husband; if you have a problem with your wife, forget your wife; if you have a problem with your temper, forget your temper; if you have a problem with your circumstance, forget your circumstance. Just do not forget this One—Christ.
You do not need to deal with your circumstance or with yourself, because there is no way to deal with yourself. The more you deal with the self, the more difficult it becomes to be dealt with; the more you deal with it, the more it needs to be dealt with. This is our experience. No matter what, the real subjective truth today is to not deal with yourself but to contact Christ. Do not deal with your temper, your weakness, your shortcoming, or your circumstance. Do not focus your eyes on yourself or on any person, matter, or thing. You just need to gaze on Christ, contact Christ, and let Christ live Himself out of you.
A certain brother often came to me and asked, “Brother Lee, what do you think about the way I did this thing? Was it good or bad?” Or he would ask, “Brother Lee, what do you think about my haircut? Is it good or bad?” When he questioned me this way, I never told him that the thing he did was good or bad or that his haircut was good or bad. I would always tell him, “For your haircut, you need to get in touch with the Lord, contact the Lord. Instead of paying attention to your hair, contact the Lord. When you encounter a certain matter, whether great or small, you must first put the matter aside and contact the Lord.” Some sisters also asked me, “Brother Lee, do you approve of our clothing?” I would always tell them, “You should not care about your clothing; instead, care for Christ. You need to contact the Lord about what to wear. You should ask the Lord, ‘Lord, it is You who live in me. What do You want to wear?’”
Not only did I speak concerning this truth twenty-eight years ago at the meeting hall on Jen Ai Road here in Taipei, but when I came back in 1967, I solemnly spoke again on Christ as our person. However, now I wish to ask you, “Today, this very day, how much have you allowed Christ practically to be your person?” Not much. The truth remains the truth—in actuality, we pay too much attention to people, matters, and things, dealing with them all day long. Daily we are concerned with, “What shall I do with my temper?” “I am a quick person, so what shall I do?” “I am a slow person, so what shall I do?” “I cannot coordinate with the brothers and sisters in my home meeting, so what shall I do?” “I cannot get along with my husband and my in-laws, so what shall I do?” Brothers and sisters, we must see that these are all Satan’s deceptions, Satan’s distracting schemes, to draw our heart away from Christ. You and I must see that we ought to be like Peter and John on the Mount of Transfiguration: “They saw no one except Jesus Himself alone” (Matt. 17:8). At home, it should be that you do not see your temper, your impatience, your wife, your husband, your children, your in-laws, and not even yourself; you must see Jesus only. This is to see no one except Jesus Himself alone. I do not care about my temper; I only care to contact the Lord. The Lord is my life, my disposition, and even my person. Brothers and sisters, if the Lord is to have a strong revival in the church today, a revival that is up to the standard, there must be among us many who live by Christ in this way.
Yesterday morning I said that the light in the church is a sevenfold intensified light. When you are about to lose your temper, the light will shine. Once it shines, your temper is gone. However, this is only on the negative side. What I am speaking tonight is on the positive side. It is not enough to refrain from losing your temper or to be without a temper. You need to let Christ live out of you. “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”
In pitiful Christianity there is no such thing. Some even say, “Christ is only sitting in heaven; Christ cannot be in the believers.” They also say, “Believers do not have God’s nature in them.” This truly is heresy. The New Testament clearly tells us, “Do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?” (2 Cor. 13:5). It also says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Not only so, Paul also says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). It is not just that Christ is doing things for me, helping me, and strengthening me; it is that Christ is living in me.
We must know that to let Christ live in us is not a small thing. Suppose I come to visit you in your home. I may sit there for several hours, but that does not mean that I live there. Only your family members live in your home. The Lord Jesus does not merely stay in us; He lives in us. Today many in Christianity only see the biblical record of Christ’s being taken up in ascension after His resurrection. Hence, they do not understand how Christ can be sitting in heaven and living in us at the same time. They have a one-sided truth, paying attention only to the objective side and neglecting the subjective side. On the one hand, it is true that Christ is sitting in heaven; but on the other hand, it is also true that Christ is in us and even is living in us.
Not only so, in Galatians 4:19 Paul says, “I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” Christ is in you but has not yet been fully formed. What does this mean? This word indicates that, on the one hand, the Christians in Galatia believed in Christ and had Christ within them; on the other hand, they were influenced by the Jewish religion and filled with Judaistic concepts, legalistic ideas, and Old Testament views. Therefore, they did not fully give room to Christ so that Christ might be able to spread Himself. Thus, Paul seemed to say, “I have to travail again in birth for you, that you may give all the ground within you absolutely to Christ by getting rid of all the concepts of Judaism, the ideas concerning the law, and all the things of the Old Testament that are still in you. In this way Christ will be fully formed in you.” This shows us how real and subjective it is that Christ is in us.
Then, in Ephesians 3 Paul says, “I bow my knees unto the Father...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man” (vv. 14, 16). This is to be strengthened into our spirit, into our new man, “that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith” (v. 17). We all understand the meaning of making home. After you move into a new house, you start to furnish the rooms and make them look attractive. You consider a suitable arrangement for the bed, the dining table, and the desk, and then place them accordingly. This is to make home. Probably Christ has not been formed in us, much less has He made home in us. Therefore, today we need God to grant us grace by strengthening us into our inner man so that we may let Christ make home in our heart.
Our heart is composed of several parts, including the emotion, mind, will, and more. We need to open up one part at a time to allow Christ to make His home in each and every part, just as when we first move into a new house, we settle in room by room. Suppose there are two rooms that are still not opened; that means we have not yet made home in those two rooms. Today Christ in us must be so subjective that He can make Himself at home and reside in our entire being. The result is, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (v. 19b).
All this should not be mere doctrine. Perhaps not many Christians have heard this teaching, but among us we have heard it very much. Therefore, brothers and sisters, tonight before the Lord you must solemnly consider this matter and ask, “O Lord, in my practical living day by day, are You living in me? O Lord, are You being formed in me? Have I given every bit of room within me to You? O Lord, have You made Your home in me?” This is not a doctrine.
Here a question might arise. Who is this Lord who is in us? He is the Triune God. The Lord who is in us is not only Christ but also the embodiment of God. He is the Triune God. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is the Spirit. He is not in us as a representative, and all the more He is not in us as a doctrine. He is in us today not only as our life but also as the Lord of all, a person, complete and unique. He is the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit living in us. Brothers and sisters, I want to ask you, “Is this a doctrine or an experience to you?” We must say, “O Lord, have mercy on us. If this has not yet become our experience, we pray that You will make it our experience.”
We all say that we are for the Lord’s recovery. However, what is the Lord’s recovery? The Lord’s recovery is to recover our subjective experience of the Lord in order that the church can be realized practically. The church issues from the subjective experience. With us, how much of the church element there will be, how weighty the church will be, and how high the church life will be all depend on how much Christ is lived out from within us. We need to be burning in spirit. This is good, but this is not good enough. We must be able to say, “It is Christ who lives in me, it is Christ who is being formed in me, and it is Christ who is making home in me. My life is He, my disposition is He, and my person is He. I am His dwelling place, His habitation, and I live by Him. I do not care for the world, sin, or my circumstances, including all the people, matters, and things around me. I even do not care about my disposition or my temper. I only care for this precious Christ and live by Him. When He is happy, I am happy. When He suffers, I suffer. When He works, I work. When He stops, I stop. This is because He is my life and my person.” We must experience Christ to such an extent.
Do not be joyful because you are doing good, nor be happy because you feel that you are perfect. No! You must ask, “Am I really living out Christ? Has Christ really made home in me? Is Christ able to live freely in me? Do I indeed take Him as my life, my disposition, and my person?” These are the questions you should ask yourself.
The reason Christianity has fallen into a religion is because of the neglect of many to live Christ, paying attention instead to outward religious conduct, such as being friendly to others, loving others, being compassionate toward others, and being willing to suffer loss. I tell you, all these are religious concepts. In terms of human conduct, these are good. However, the church is not formed by these things. Then how is the church formed? The church is formed by the Christ whom we live out. What the church needs today is not the living out of good behavior but the living out of this glorious Christ. The church as the lampstand does not shine forth man’s good behavior but Christ Himself. Only when Christ is lived out of us and shines forth from us can there be the church life.
This morning, I am bold to encourage the young people to go forth to spread the testimony of the church to every place. I hope that you will not repeat the history of Christianity. Rather, I hope that no matter how many of you go to a locality, there will immediately be a living testimony. What is a living testimony? It is Christ. You must let people see that the church is not Christianity, nor a religion, nor outward conduct, but it is the glorious Christ being lived out of His members.
We must have this kind of subjective experience; even it should be so subjective that we can say, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Furthermore, it should be to such an extent that not only can we say this, but even those who observe us can testify, “I have been watching you for about half a year, and I truly sense that you are extraordinary people. What you live out is not humanly possible.” This should be the proper condition. Perhaps others can only say to you, “Your patience is tremendous. You are also quite meek. In all things you are willing to suffer loss while letting others take advantage of you. You are so good. You are a very benevolent person!” If you go to a place and receive this kind of praise from others, I tell you, your testimony is a failure because you are not testifying the church. The church is not a testimony of a benevolent person but a testimony of Christ. You need to live out a life that no one can describe, yet they would admit that it is not anything humanly possible. This is the testimony of the church. This is the recovery that the Lord wants today. This recovery is not doctrines or regulations but the living Christ being lived out from within us.
This chapter uses Scripture verses that are very familiar to you. I hope that you will pray-read them carefully and fellowship about them thoroughly until these words enter into you, and you also truly enter into these words. Thus, you can have this experience: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. Daily I give all the ground within me to Christ. Daily I allow Him to be formed in me. Daily I allow Him to make His home in me. I take Him as my life, as my disposition, and as my person. I let Him be my ‘I.’ For me, to live is He.” This is Christ and not Christianity. This is the church and not an organization.
This requires us to watch and pray. We need to be watchful in all things and not allow anything to distract us from Christ. Do not let your temper and your disposition trouble you, causing you to be distracted from Christ. You should say, “Satan, get behind me! I do not pay attention to my temper or my disposition. I only pay attention to the Christ who lives in me. I let Him live in me, I let Him be formed in me, and I let Him make home in me.” This is the condition that the Lord wants today.
If from today onward, these words can hit home in all of us, bringing us into this experience, then everything will be a success. The churches in all the localities will definitely be living and will bear a proper testimony. You need to pray and pray, pray in every way, praying until you get out of yourself and get into Christ. Pray to the extent that you neither pay attention to your circumstances nor care for your own condition. Pray until you are on the Mount of Transfiguration, where you see no one except Jesus alone. Go on to pray that the churches in all the localities will bear the testimony of a living Christ.
