We have pointed out in previous messages that, according to the experience of life, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are three parts of one complete person and that we should not consider them as three separate individuals. If we know the life in the book of Genesis, we shall see that, in the eyes of God, these three persons are one complete unit in the experience of life.
In this message we come to the second aspect of the experience of the called — the experience of Isaac (Gen. 21; Gen. 22; Gen. 23; Gen. 24; Gen. 25; Gen. 26; Gen. 27; Gen. 28:1-9; Gen. 35:28-29). It is not easy for Christians to understand the experience of Isaac. It is quite easy, on the contrary, to understand the three main aspects of Abraham's experience: being called by God, living by faith in God, and living in fellowship with God. But what shall we say about Isaac? As we read the record of his life in chapters twenty-one through twenty-eight, what do we see of the experience of life? We do not see that he was called, lived by faith in God, or lived in fellowship with God. According to Genesis, we see how Isaac was born, was married, and begat two sons. But it is difficult to say what experience of life we find in the record of Isaac.
In the record of Isaac's life the experience of grace is implied. What Isaac experienced was the inheriting of God's grace. The grace of God was not as fully revealed in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament, because grace actually came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). After Christ came, there is a full and thorough revelation of grace, and in the New Testament the word grace is used again and again. The New Testament even closes with the mention of grace: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen" (Rev. 22:21). The Bible begins in the Old Testament with the word, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and it ends in the New Testament with the word, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints." Although the record in Genesis concerning Isaac does not have the term grace, nevertheless such a thing is implied there. This is the reason that it is quite difficult for many to understand the Bible. In the Bible, there may be a certain thing but not the term to describe it. Although Isaac's experience is recorded in Genesis, it is difficult to designate the experience he had as the experience of grace.
According to the New Testament revelation, as far as the experience of life is concerned, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should not be considered as three separate individuals, but as aspects of one complete person's experience of life. Abraham represents the aspect of being called, of living by faith in God, and of living in fellowship with God. Isaac represents the aspect of inheriting grace and enjoying the inheritance of grace. Jacob represents the aspect of being chosen, being dealt with by the Lord, and being transformed into a prince of God. In the experience of life, there is the aspect of enjoyment, the enjoyment of grace. Most of us have heard messages saying that the Christian life should be a suffering life, a life of bearing the cross and groaning in prayer. Have you not heard messages telling you that today is not the time of enjoyment but the time of suffering and of bearing the cross, and that our enjoyment will begin at the time of the Lord's coming back? I do not say that this is wrong, but I do say that it is only one aspect of the Christian life. There is another aspect — the aspect of enjoyment.
In the biblical and experiential sense, grace means enjoyment. Grace is the enjoyment in our Christian life. Our Christian life has three aspects: the aspect of Abraham, the aspect of Isaac, and the aspect of Jacob. In the aspect of Abraham we cannot see much enjoyment. Although Abraham was blessed and was enlarged, he did not have very much enjoyment. He lost his father, and Lot became a grief to him. Eliezer, in whom he trusted, was rejected, and Ishmael, the son he begat by his own endeavor with his concubine, was cast out. After Isaac was born, God required that Abraham offer him up as a burnt offering. Not too long after Isaac was returned, Abraham lost his dear wife. Throughout his whole life we can see the aspect of loss. Although the Bible does not show that Abraham suffered very much, he lost almost everything. Is this all the Christian life is? If it is, then the Christian life is only a life of losses. The matter of loss is just one aspect of the Christian life. Romans 5:2 does not say, "We have access into this loss in which we stand." No, it says, "We have the access by faith into this grace in which we stand." God has no intention of keeping us in loss. His intention is to bring us into grace, into the enjoyment.
God wants to bring us into the enjoyment of grace, but there is a frustration to this grace — the self. We ourselves are the frustration. Although Christ has come and grace has come with Him, and although we have been brought into the grace in which we stand, the greatest frustration to this grace is you and I. Hence, before we can have the experience of Isaac, we need Abraham who represents the first aspect of the experience of life. Abraham's life reveals that if we would enjoy God's grace and have the full enjoyment of God's riches, we must be dealt with, circumcised, and cut off. If Abraham had not been circumcised, Isaac would never have been born. Isaac came after Abraham's circumcision. After Abraham was circumcised in Genesis 17, God told him that Isaac would be born (17:19). Eventually, in chapter twenty-one, Isaac was born. Isaac came with God's visitation. He was born by God's visitation. God's visitation equals the birth of Isaac. God visited Sarah and that visitation became the birth of Isaac. This is grace.
God has come to be enjoyed by His called ones. But if we would have this enjoyment, the self must go. Once the self has gone, Isaac comes. This means that grace comes. It is not easy to lose the self. In order for the self to go, we must suffer loss. Are you willing to lose yourself? I do not believe that anyone is willing to lose himself. Nevertheless, we must lose ourselves before grace can come. To lose the self is to lose our face. When we keep our face we lose grace. If we want to receive grace, we must lose our face. Brothers, as you deal with your wife in your daily living, you must be prepared to lose yourself. If you do this, grace will come. After Abraham was circumcised, Isaac came. This is the principle. With us, the self must go and then grace will come. We must firstly be Abraham and then we become Isaac.
It was not easy for Abraham to lose himself. In a good sense, God forced him to lose himself. When God called Abraham, He did not say, "Abraham, you must lose yourself and then I will come in to be your grace and enjoyment." No, when God called him, He promised to bless him. The blessing in the Old Testament somewhat equals the grace in the New Testament. What is the difference between blessing and grace? When God gives us something free, that is a blessing. But when this blessing is wrought into our being, it becomes grace. God promised Abraham that He would bless him. When the blessing was wrought into Abraham, it became grace. Abraham's self and natural man were the strongest frustration to God's blessing and forced God to deal with him.
The same is true in our experience. We all have been called, and God has given us the blessings in Christ (Eph. 1:3). However, after being called, we are still in ourselves and exercise our self-effort to obtain God's blessing. When I was young, I realized that my flesh was not good. When I was told that the flesh had been crucified on the cross, I was very happy. Then I began to exercise my own effort to put the flesh on the cross. But in exercising my own effort, I frustrated God's grace. The crossing out of the flesh had already been accomplished; it did not need the exercise of my effort. Yet I, the self, was trying to put my flesh on the cross. That self was the greatest frustration to God's grace. It separated me from grace. If we consider our past experience, we shall see that after hearing the good news, we tried many times by ourselves to obtain the things we heard in the good news. Our self-effort has been a frustration to God's grace. Because of this, God has been forced to deal with us.
Being called by God, living by faith in God, and living in fellowship with God are all for the enjoyment of God. We have been called to the enjoyment of God, we must learn to live by faith in God that we may have the enjoyment of God, and we need to live in fellowship with God that we may participate in all His riches. All this is for one thing — the enjoyment of God. But we do not see this enjoyment with Abraham; we see it with Isaac. We all have had at least some experience of being called by God, living by faith in God, living in fellowship with God, and suffering loss. We are real Abrahams today. But we can also testify that, much to our surprise, in the midst of our loss there has been some enjoyment. While we were suffering a loss, unconsciously we were enjoying something. Whenever we suffered a dealing from God, we simultaneously had some enjoyment. While we were the suffering Abraham, we were also the enjoying Isaac. For this reason, the record of Isaac does not immediately follow the record of Abraham. Rather, it is mingled with the record of Abraham's life. While Abraham was still there, Isaac came in, for they were not two separate individuals in the experience of life, but two aspects of the experience of a complete person. We need the experiences of both Abraham and Isaac. Perhaps even today you had a certain experience and said, "I don't know why this has happened to me." But deep within you do know. In the midst of your loss, you gain and enjoy Christ. This is the experience of Isaac.
If we only had Abraham without Isaac, we would be very disappointed with Abraham's record. We would say, "What is the good of being the father of faith if it is only a matter of suffering loss?" But once we see the experience of Isaac, we shall say, "Now I understand why Abraham suffered the loss of so much. All the negative experiences of Abraham were for the positive enjoyment with Isaac." Abraham was for Isaac. Abraham acquired a great deal, having been blessed and having become enlarged, but he gave all that he had to Isaac (24:36; 25:5). Abraham suffered for Isaac's gain. The more Abraham suffered, the more Isaac gained. I would say, "Poor Abraham, you are just a suffering person. All that you have gained through your suffering is not for you but for Isaac." We all must realize that today we are not only Abrahams but also Isaacs. If you say to me, "Brother, you are a poor Abraham always suffering," I would reply, "Don't you know that I'm also an Isaac? I have suffered loss that I might gain. I lose as Abraham and I gain as Isaac. I'm not just Abraham. My name is Abraham-Isaac. On the loss side, I am Abraham; on the gain side, I am Isaac."
We are both Abraham and Isaac. As Abraham, we have been called by God, have learned to live by faith in God, and have learned to live in fellowship with God. At the same time, as Isaac, we do nothing except enjoy all we have gained from Abraham's experience. Which kind of experience do you appreciate more — Abraham's or Isaac's? Without Abraham's experience we cannot have Isaac's. God is dealing with us as He dealt with Abraham that we might have the experience of Isaac.
The matter of grace has been hidden, concealed, and veiled throughout the years. What is grace? Grace is something of God which is wrought into our being and which works in us and does things for us. It is nothing outward. Grace is God in Christ wrought into our being to live, work, and do things for us. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says, "By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." This word is quite deep. Paul did not say, "By the grace of God I have what I have. I have a good car, a good job, and a good wife by the grace of God." He did not even say, "By the grace of God I do what I do." It is not a matter of doing, having, or working; it is absolutely a matter of being. Hence, Paul says, "By the grace of God I am what I am." This means that the very grace of God had been wrought into his being, making him that kind of person. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, "No longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." If we put this verse together with 1 Corinthians 15:10, we see that grace is simply Christ living in us. It is "not I, but the grace of God," "no longer I, but Christ." Grace is not outside of us or beside us. It is a divine Person, God Himself in Christ, wrought into our being to be the constituent of our being. Because of the lack of revelation, Christians have misunderstood and misinterpreted grace, thinking of it as something outside of them. But grace is just the Triune God wrought into our being to be what we should be and to live, work, and do things for us so that we may say, "I am what I am by the grace of God. It is not I, but the grace of God."
We all have been taught to have good behavior and to love one another. As a result, we try to behave ourselves and to love others. But it does not matter whether we can love others or not, for God will never recognize our love. Abraham succeeded in bringing forth Ishmael, but God rejected him. God seemed to say, "No, Abraham, that is not what I want. I want something that has been wrought into you and worked out from you. You brought forth Ishmael without My visitation. I was in heaven and you were on earth bringing forth Ishmael. Because he was unrelated to Me and to My visitation, I will never recognize him. One day, I shall visit Sarah and My visitation will bring forth Isaac. I will recognize only him." If we love others in ourselves, God will never recognize that love, because it does not come from His visitation. God wants to visit us, get into us, live for us, and even love others for us. He will only recognize that kind of love. Your love is an Ishmael; the love by God's visitation is an Isaac. Whether you are humble or proud, crooked or straight, means nothing. God does not recognize anything which comes out of you apart from His visitation. Whatever is not of grace is not recognized, not counted, by God. We all must say, "O Lord, I will not do anything without Your visitation. Lord, if You will not visit me and work something through me and out of me, I will do nothing. I will neither hate nor love, be proud nor be humble. I want to be blank. Lord, without Your visitation, I am nothing." God's visitation is the practical grace. When I love others and am humble by God's visitation, not by my self-effort, that is the enjoyment of grace.
As we have seen, God's intention is to work Himself into a corporate man that He might have a corporate expression. This is the basic concept of the divine revelation in the Bible. This is God's eternal purpose. God called Abraham with the purpose of working Himself into him, but Abraham had a strong self. This natural self was the strongest frustration to God's purpose. The same is true with us today. God's purpose is to work Himself into us to be our life and even to be our living, but our natural self frustrates this. Therefore, God must cut us and deal with us that He may get into us to be everything to us. God does not need us to love others and to be humble that society might be improved. If God wants a better society, He only needs to say, "Better society," and it will come into being. He calls things not being as being (Rom. 4:17) and does not need our help. God wants to work Himself into us to be our humility and our everything. He wants us to say, "Lord, I am nothing and will not do anything. I just open up to You that You might come in, make Your home in me, live in me, and do everything for me. Lord, You live and I'll enjoy Your living. Whenever You do something in me, I'll say, 'Praise You, Lord. This is wonderful! I am not the doer; I am an enjoyer, appreciating all You are doing for me.'"
God's intention today is to deal with Abraham that Isaac may come. His intention is to deal with our natural being that we may have the full experience of Himself in Christ wrought into us as our enjoyment. I have been experiencing married life for close to fifty years, experiencing much enjoyment and much suffering. Before I was married, I truly loved the Lord, and I often told Him how much I loved Him. After I was married, I went to the Lord and assured Him, saying, "Lord because I love You, I want to be the best husband." Eventually, I failed. I went to the Lord and confessed all my failures. After experiencing the anointing, I was happy and I made up my mind to try again to be the best husband. But I failed once more, and this experience of ups and downs was repeated again and again. Later, I even gave a message in which I said, "The Christian life has many nights and mornings. Never be disappointed over your failures. Just wait for several hours and you will be in the morning." For years and years I went through days and nights, nights and days. One day, I received the revelation and said, "Stupid man, who told you to do so? Christ is here waiting to be your grace. You must say, 'Lord, I am nothing and I can do nothing. Even if I could do something, it would never be recognized by You. Come, Lord, and do Your job and be the best husband for me. This is Your job, not mine. You charge me, and I return the charge to You and ask You to fulfill it. Lord, You be the best husband and I will praise You for it.'" Whenever I prayed like this, the Lord always did the best job. This is grace.
Grace is God working Himself into our being as our enjoyment. The very God today is not only God the Father, but also God the Son and God the Spirit. Moreover, God the Spirit is the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29), and this grace is the grace of life (l Pet. 3:7), which is "the varied grace" (1 Pet. 4:10), the "all grace" (1 Pet. 5:10), and the "sufficient grace" (2 Cor. 12:9). The Triune God is such a grace, and this grace is now with our spirit (Gal. 6:18). Grace is the divine Person of the Triune God as the Spirit indwelling our spirit. It is the Spirit of grace indwelling our spirit to be our enjoyment that we may enjoy God as our life and our everything, even as our living. This is why every one of Paul's Epistles ends with the words, "Grace be with you." For example, 2 Corinthians 13:14 says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." Grace is not outside of us; it is in us. Whatever we call it, the Spirit of grace or the grace of life, it is something living and divine in our spirit. We do have such a divine reality, the Triune God Himself, in our spirit as our grace and enjoyment. When He loves others through us, this love is our enjoyment. When He lives Himself out through us, this living is also our enjoyment. Day and night we may enjoy His living through us.
Why then do we suffer? Because the self, the ego, the natural man, is still here and must be dealt with. Praise Him that no dealing is in vain. Every dealing from God is a breaking of our natural man that we may enjoy more of Him as our grace. Thus, we have Abraham and Isaac; we have the suffering of the loss and the enjoyment of the gain. This gain is not the gain of outward things; it is the gain of the indwelling One, that is, the Spirit of grace and the grace of life. Again I say, whatever God gives as a gift outside of us is, at the most, a blessing. When this gift is wrought into our being, becoming the life element within us, it is grace. The blessing must become the grace. In the Old Testament, God gave many things to His people as blessings, but all those things were merely outward blessings. Before Christ came, none of those blessings had been wrought into God's people. Christ came not only to die on the cross for us, but, after His death, to become the life-giving Spirit to enter into our being. Thus, in the New Testament, we have the terms "in Christ" and "Christ in you." Now He is in us and we are in Him. Whatever God gives us in Christ has been wrought into our being and has become grace, our enjoyment. Now we are not merely under His blessing; we are in His grace and His grace is in us. What are you enjoying today — blessing or grace? The New Testament never says, "Blessing be with you." Rather, it says repeatedly, "Grace be with you."
After Abraham's natural strength and self-effort were dealt with by God, Isaac was born (17:15-19; 18:10-14; 21:1-7). This implies that Isaac was born of grace, which is represented by Sarah (Gal. 4:24-28, 31). The record of Genesis says this transpired at "the time of life" (18:10, 14). Whenever the effort of the natural life ceases, that is the time of life. At the time of life something is born in grace. Grace is related to life, and life goes with grace. Hence, grace is called "the grace of life" (1 Pet. 3:7).
Isaac was grown up in grace (21:8). By his history we see that he did not do anything. He was born and he was grown up. I do not say that he grew up, but that he was grown up. Like a farmer who grows apples in his orchard, God grew Isaac like a tree in His orchard. Isaac was grown up by God in grace.
Second Peter 3:18 tells us to "grow in grace." This indicates that to grow is the feeding and watering as revealed by Peter in 1 Peter 2:2 and by Paul in 1 Cor. 3:2, 6. To grow in grace is to grow in the enjoyment of all that Christ is to us as our spiritual food and living water. All the riches of what Christ is to us are for our growth in life. The more we enjoy the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8), the more we grow in life (Eph. 4:15).
Isaac also became the heir in grace (Gen. 21:9-12). All that his father had was his, for Abraham gave all his riches to this unique heir. Likewise, we should have no enjoyment in ourselves. All the enjoyment of the inheritance must be in grace.
Isaac also obeyed in grace (22:5-10). In my reading of Genesis 22 in the past, I could not understand how Isaac, a young man, could have been so obedient. Eventually, I saw that he was obedient because he was saturated with grace. He was absolutely in grace, and his obedience was also in grace. That obedience brought in God's provision. It is the same with us today. Whenever we obey in grace, we shall meet the provision of God.
God's grace is powerful, enabling us to bear anything. Paul told Timothy to "be empowered in the grace" of Christ (2 Tim. 2:1). Grace can even reign over all things (Rom. 5:21). We should not fall from grace (Gal. 5:4) but rather be confirmed by it (Heb. 13:9). The more we bear in grace, the more provision of grace we meet and participate in.
Isaac inherited all things from his father (Gen. 24:36; 25:5). It was by grace, not by his effort, that he became the heir of the father's riches. He was not required to do anything that he might inherit the father's riches and he did not do anything for the inheritance. It was absolutely and unconditionally of grace.
In the New Testament, all the called believers are heirs of God's absolute and unconditional grace. God has called us and has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings in Christ (Eph. 1:3). In Christ He has put us into grace that we might become the heirs of grace, inheriting all the riches of the divine fullness as our enjoyment. Our Christian life must be like Isaac's, doing nothing by himself, but inheriting and enjoying all that the father has. In the inheriting of grace, we must cease from the effort of our natural life that we may keep ourselves open and available for the enjoyment of grace.
Isaac inherited not only all that his father had, but also the promise which God had given to his father concerning the good land and the unique seed, which is Christ in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 26:3-5). This promise was actually for the fulfillment of God's purpose that God might have a kingdom on the earth in which to express Himself through a corporate people. Both the good land and the seed are for the formation of a kingdom for God on the earth. In this kingdom God can be fully expressed in the seed, into which He will work Himself and which will be transformed into His image. This was a promise given to Abraham and inherited by Isaac. But it is a fulfillment with us today. Today we are enjoying the Triune God as our grace. Through our enjoyment of grace the kingdom of God will be realized and God in Christ will be fully expressed for eternity.
