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In the first chapter we saw that Paul was a young man in God’s plan. Paul became the very instrument, the very vessel, God used to carry out what was on His heart. As Christians, we also need to be persons in God’s plan, so we first need to see what God’s plan is.
Acts 9:1 tells us that Saul was “breathing threatening and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” The Holy Spirit uses the word breathing to express what was in this young man. He did not merely threaten the disciples outwardly, but his persecution of the Christians was something from within him. His entire being was in it. When you do something and your entire being is in it, that very thing becomes your breathing. Acts 9:1 does not say that Saul was breathing threatening and murder against Jesus Christ but against the disciples of the Lord, against the Christians. Saul “went to the high priest” (v. 1) to get the authority to persecute the disciples even more. While he was on the way to Damascus, the Lord intervened and revealed Himself to this young man.
“As he went, he drew near to Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And he fell on the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? And he said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (vv. 3-5). Although Saul was a young, strong man, the light from heaven caused him to fall to the ground. The Lord also told Saul, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (26:14). A goad is something that pricks, like a pointed rod used to urge on an animal. By this word the Lord let Saul know that He was the Master and that Saul was in His hand and under His yoke. When an ox is not obedient, his master will use a goad to urge him on. Many times the ox will kick against this goad. The Lord let Saul know that he was persecuting his Lord, his Master, the very One who controlled him.
The voice did not say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting My disciples, My followers, My believers?” But the voice said, “Why are you persecuting Me?” In Saul’s realization he was persecuting the followers of Christ, the disciples. He never thought that he was doing something against Christ Himself, that he was persecuting Jesus. No doubt, Saul was puzzled by the question—“Why are you persecuting Me?” Thus, he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” (9:5). Saul called Him Lord because the voice had its source in the heavens. Lord here equals the word Jehovah in Hebrew. He recognized that this was the Lord who is in heaven, yet he must have wondered how he could persecute someone in the heavens, when he actually persecuted persons on this earth. The Lord answered Saul’s question by saying, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (v. 5).
On the very day that the Lord Jesus met this young man, He gave Saul a clear vision that He is one with all His believers, that all His believers are one with Him. When you touch the believers, you touch Jesus. When you persecute them, you persecute Christ because they are one with Christ and they are Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). If the disciples, the followers, the believers, of Christ, are not united with Christ as one, and they are not Christ Himself, how could Christ ask Saul, “Why are you persecuting Me?” It was as if the Lord were saying to Saul, “You have to realize that I, Jesus Christ, am one with My disciples. I am the Head; they are the Body. I and they are one person, one man.” To Saul this was a unique revelation in the entire universe! By this he began to see that the Lord Jesus and His believers are one great person—the wonderful “Me.” This must have impressed and affected him for his future ministry concerning Christ and the church as the great mystery of God (Eph. 5:32) and laid a solid foundation for his unique ministry.
Galatians 1:15-16a says, “When it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me.” These verses show us that God did not separate us from our school or from our job but from our mother’s womb. This means that the Lord had separated Saul even before his birth. We also were separated before our birth and called one day through His grace. Perhaps after we had done many foolish things, after we had done much kicking against the goads, the Lord called us by His grace to reveal His Son in us. It is a marvelous fact that “it pleased God...to reveal His Son in me.” Saul was greatly involved with the Jewish religion, yet God revealed Christ in him. He was busy with many outward things, yet God revealed Christ inwardly to him.
God’s revealing of His Son to us is in us, not outwardly but inwardly, not by an outward vision but by an inward seeing. This is not an objective revelation but a subjective one. Christ revealed in us is the center of God’s plan. God’s plan is not to have a religion nor to have many religious works accomplished. God’s plan is to reveal Christ into you, to make Christ your life and your everything, to regenerate and transform you to be a part of Christ, a member of Christ.
At one time Saul was fully occupied and zealous for the Jewish religion. The Jewish religion was the best religion because it was ordained and set up by God Himself. But that was not God’s eternal plan. This young man Saul was zealous for that religion. His very life was for that religion, and we saw that he was breathing out something for that religion. But suddenly the Lord intervened to reveal His Son, Christ, into this active young man. He was busy with outward religious matters, yet God revealed His Son inwardly into him.
In Philippians 3 Paul mentions all of his attainments in the flesh in the Jewish religion (vv. 4-6). He was a Hebrew born of Hebrews, and he was zealous for the law of Moses and the Jewish religion, but in 3:7 he says, “What things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ.” All the different gains were counted as one loss by Paul because they all issued in one thing, that is, the loss of Christ, as indicated by on account of Christ. All the things which were once gains to Paul hindered him and held him back from participating in and enjoying Christ. Hence, on account of Christ all the gains were a loss to him.
Paul continued to say, “But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ” (v. 8). Paul counted as loss on account of Christ not only the things of his former religion listed in verses 5 and 6 but all other things as well. The word refuse in this verse refers to dregs, rubbish, filth, that which is thrown to the dogs; hence, dog food, dung. There is no comparison between such things and Christ. After Paul began to know Christ and after he began to pursue Christ, he viewed all other things as something rotten, dirty, and corrupted, as something thrown to the dogs. The real food and the pure food for us is Christ Himself. All things other than Christ are dung, are rotten, corrupted, dirty, and are only good for the dogs.
Furthermore, Paul said that he counted all things as refuse that he might gain Christ and be found in Him (vv. 8-9). For God to reveal Christ into you is one aspect. The other aspect is that you will be found in Christ. Then Christ is in you, and you are in Christ. No one can exhaust the meaning of these two little phrases—Christ in me and I in Christ. This simply means that you and Christ are one. Because you are mingled, blended, with Christ as one, when people persecute you, they are persecuting Christ. Paul wanted to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith (v. 9). Our righteousness is like a soiled garment (Isa. 64:6). Paul wanted to live not in his own righteousness but in the righteousness of God, and to be found in such a transcendent condition, expressing God by living Christ, not by keeping the law. To have the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ means through the union with Christ, through the identification with Christ, through the oneness with Christ. This is “the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.” Then Paul says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). Paul had known Christ already, but here he uses the present tense—to know Him. Paul wanted to experience Christ in the full knowledge of Him. He first received the revelation of Christ, and then he sought for the experience of Christ—to know and enjoy Christ in an experiential way.
God’s plan is to have Christ as our life and to have Christ as our image, or our form. First, God put Christ into you as your life so that you may live by Him, and second, God put you into Christ. Christ is the form, the mold, and you are like a piece of dough. The dough needs to be conformed to the mold. Christ is the life within and the mold without. Now we have to be conformed to Christ. After the dough is put into the mold, it is beaten to conform it to the mold and then put into the oven. If the dough could speak, it might say that this is not something good, yet we realize that for the dough to be conformed to the image of the mold, it must pass through this process. In like manner, we have to be conformed to the death of Christ. By the fellowship of His sufferings we will be conformed to His death, and by this conformity we will be transformed into the same image as Christ; we will be made thoroughly one with Christ. This is God’s plan.
What we have been fellowshipping is the kernel of the sixty-six books of the Bible. When we eat a peanut, we do not care for the shell but for the kernel. The kernel of the Bible is that Christ has been revealed into us as life and that we live, have our being, and exist by Christ as the divine life. On the other hand, God put us into Christ with the desire that we would be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29), that we might be transformed into the image of Christ to be thoroughly one with Christ. This is the center of the Bible and this is God’s plan. This is the way that God will build us together. Christ is in us, and we are in Him. Through regeneration, sanctification, transformation, and conformation we will be built up together as a living Body to contain and express Christ for His glory and our glorification.
We have to realize that the entire universe is for God’s plan. Many philosophers and scientists have spent much time to find out the meaning of the universe, but very few of them know the real meaning of human life. The center of the universe is Christ in you and you in Christ. The real meaning of human life is Christ as your life with a view that you will be conformed to His image. The heavens and the earth with so many items are the background for the beautiful picture of God’s plan. Praise the Lord that we are in His plan! It pleased God to reveal His Son in me, and I have to know Him, His resurrection power, and the fellowship of His sufferings. I need to be conformed to His death, transformed into His image that I might be built up with others as a living Body. Thus, in the whole universe there will be a universal Christ as the Head in the heavens and as the Body on this earth.
One day I was brought to know the Lord. I do not understand why there was the inclination, the tendency, that I had to believe in Jesus. My countrymen told me that being a Christian would mean receiving a foreign religion, but I still had to receive Christ as my Savior. From that day I tried many times to “divorce” Him, but He would not let me go. Something within me, on the one hand, has been comforting me all the time yet, on the other hand, has been bothering and troubling. Many times when I wanted to do something, the Lord within me did not want to do it, so there was a struggle between us. Many things within my being were contradicting Him. By His mercy I am still here loving Him. I have been preserved not by mere teachings but by the living Christ within me.
We need to thank the Lord and praise Him that we have Christ within us. Under His sovereignty you have received Him. You cannot give Him up or divorce Him, because He is in you. You could “kick against the goads” until the end of your life, but when that day comes, you will still say with tears, “Lord, forgive me.” I have seen some cases like this. Once the Lord has visited you and has been merciful to you, you can never give Him up. You did not choose Him, but He chose you (John 15:16a). Your salvation is of Him, not of yourself. You may want to divorce Him, but He would not divorce you. The only thing that you can do is to kick against the goads, but eventually you will recognize that He is the Lord and that you belong to Him. By that time, however, it may be too late—not too late for your salvation, because you have been saved once for all for eternity, but too late for Him to work out something of His plan with you and through you.
It is better for you to make a decision today that you would go along with the Lord and allow Him to have the “freeway,” the “expressway,” to go on through you and with you. You have to offer yourself, to consecrate yourself, to give yourself to the Lord. You need to tell Him, “Lord, I am just a little creature in Your hands, and I know that You are the Lord. I thank You that You have dispensed Yourself into me as my life and that You desire to be everything to me. I want to hand myself over to You and go along with You for the carrying out of Your plan.” If you do this, you will be the most blessed person on earth. You will be a part of God’s plan to reveal Christ in you so that you might be conformed to His image to be a member of His Body with a view that in this whole universe God will have a universal man with Christ as the Head in the heavens and with His believers as the members formed together as a Body on this earth to express Christ and to glorify God. This is God’s plan with Christ as the center.
This young man Saul was born into and raised in the Jewish religion (Acts 22:3; 26:4-5). Saul was a religious person not just by teaching or training but by birth. Many of us were also religious people. We were born into and raised in Christianity. We were religious by birth. You may feel that it is good to be born into and raised in religion. It seems better than being born into and raised in a sinful environment. But we have to realize that religion does not help people to fulfill, to carry out, God’s plan. Religion is even something against God’s plan; it may be good, but it is something other than Christ. It is hard for some people to really know Christ, because they are so religious. They may know the doctrines, teachings, forms, rituals, and regulations, but they do not know the living Christ Himself.
In 1933 I was invited to speak in a chapel at a university in mainland China. Most of the audience were Christians, but they did not have the assurance that they had been saved. I had the burden to raise the question, “Do you have the assurance that you have been saved?” While I was speaking, a certain pastor sitting in the back was shaking his head in disagreement with what I was saying. This pastor might have contended for salvation by grace, but if you asked him if he had been saved, he would have responded, “Who can know today whether or not he has been saved?” This pastor might have had the doctrine of salvation by grace, but he did not have Christ Himself. It is possible to be involved in Christianity and yet not have Christ. You may have the forms and the regulations and yet not have Christ.
I was born into Christianity in mainland China. Before I was born again, I would contend with the Buddhist monks whenever they said something bad about Christianity. I fought for Christianity, yet I had not repented, prayed, and accepted Christ as my Savior. I had Christianity, but I did not have Christ. I had the religious forms, but I did not have Christ. I had the doctrines, the teachings, but I did not have Christ.
We need to look at today’s situation in the light of this fellowship. Many Christians are involved in Christianity as a religion with forms, regulations, and teachings, yet they possess very little of Christ Himself. Many people are born into Christianity and have been raised in Christianity, but they do not know Christ. They need the Lord to intervene in their situation so that Christ can be revealed into them. Saul was born in Judaism, into the best religion, yet he needed a second birth. He needed to be regenerated, to be born again with the divine life.
You may say that you have already been born again, that you have already been regenerated. Praise the Lord for this! But do you realize that you have to go on to live not according to your first birth but according to your second birth? You should live not by the life from your first birth but by the life from your second birth. The Christian life is not a matter of religion, teachings, doctrines, forms, or regulations, but simply a matter of Christ Himself. You have to receive Christ as life, you have to deal with Him as the unique Lord in this universe, and you have to live in Him to be conformed to His image. You need the revelation that Saul had on the way to Damascus.
Before Saul was met by Christ on the way to Damascus, he was, no doubt, a brilliant, religious, zealous, and strong young man. But when Christ intervened, this strong man became weak. This young man was awfully strong. He was taking the lead to persecute the believers, to devastate the church, yet after he was met by the Lord, he became very weak. After Saul fell and rose from the ground, he had become blind and needed someone to lead him by the hand (Acts 9:8). This was the Lord’s dealing with Saul. Before this he would have considered himself marvelously knowledgeable, knowing all things concerning man and God. Now the Lord made him blind so that he could see nothing until the Lord opened his eyes, especially his inner eyes, and commissioned him to open the eyes of others (26:18).
After three days the Lord sent a member of the Body of Christ by the name of Ananias to come and lay hands on Saul (9:10-19). When Ananias laid hands on Saul and spoke to him, the Word tells us that “there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight” (v. 18). Then his inner eyes were opened, and he could see something of the Lord, something spiritual. This was a great transfer, a great turning point. Thus, Saul of Tarsus became a factor to turn the age. He was transformed, transferred, and turned, so he could transfer the age, so he could turn the age.
We need to look at Saul and compare ourselves with him. This picture of Saul should show us that what we need is not religion with its forms, teachings, and knowledge, but the realization of the living Christ, who is the center of God’s eternal plan. Day by day you have Him within you, yet you need more and more vision and revelation concerning Him. You have to pursue Him. You have to know Him more and more and let Him have more ground within you. Do not pay your attention to religion, to the many activities in Christianity, or to your outward doings. These are things in religion, having nothing to do with God’s plan. What you need is the inward knowledge of Christ, the inner experience of Christ. What you need is to open yourself, to offer yourself, to give yourself to the Lord and let Him have the ground to impart Himself into you day by day. Let God work Himself into you and through you to fulfill His eternal plan.
We all need to have some time with the Lord to pray, “By Your mercy, Lord, I now know the meaning of God’s plan and what the center of this plan is. Here I am, Lord, fully open to You and ready to be taken by You, to be possessed by You. Grant me Your mercy that I may know how to live by You, how to walk in You, and how to go along with You so that You might have the free way and the full ground to work Yourself into me and to work out through me.” Then you will be one of the most blessed persons in this age, and you will be one who will turn the age. You will be a person who will transfer many others into God’s eternal plan.
