Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:10; Gal. 2:20
Romans 5:10 is a key verse, for it concludes one section and opens another. This verse covers both the reconciling death of Christ and the saving life of Christ. Reconciliation includes redemption and justification. Christ died on the cross for our redemption; through redemption we have been justified by God and reconciled to Him. Now there is nothing between us and God. However, we still have a number of subjective problems. For this reason, even after we have been reconciled to God, we still need to be saved in Christ’s life. Because reconciliation through the death of Christ is an accomplished fact, in 5:10 Paul used the past tense with respect to reconciliation. But because we are still in the process of being saved in life, Paul used the future tense when speaking about being saved in the life of Christ. In this message we shall consider the matter of being saved in life from individualism.
In the book of Romans Paul dealt with seven negative things from which we need to be saved. As we have seen, the first item is the law of sin. Within our flesh, our fallen body, the law of sin works spontaneously and automatically. This law of sin is the power of evil that operates spontaneously within us.
The second negative item is worldliness. We were born into a worldly environment and then raised to be worldly. Worldliness is in our very being; hence, it also is a subjective matter, a matter of our constitution. There is no need to teach a child to love the world, for there is something in his nature that causes him to love it. The love of the world is an element of our fallen constitution.
The third item is naturalness. We all have a natural life and a natural disposition. Our very constitution is natural. All these natural elements are enemies to God. God has nothing to do with our natural being, our natural life, our natural strength, our natural disposition, or our natural power. These natural elements are deep within our being, much deeper than the law of sin. The law of sin is related mainly to our flesh, but our natural being is our self. For the sake of God’s purpose, we need to be saved in the life of Christ from our naturalness.
We also need to be saved from our individualism, that is, from being individualistic. Because we all have the tendency to be individualistic, none of us naturally like to be one with others. Our married life exposes how individualistic we are. Because we are individualistic, a wife does not like to be dependent on her husband, and a husband does not like to be dependent on his wife. God’s intention is not to have a group of individualistic believers. On the contrary, it is to build up the Body for the fulfillment of His purpose. In order for this purpose to be carried out, we need to be saved from individualism.
The life of Christ also saves us from divisiveness. Although we talk a great deal about oneness, we actually do not like to be one. To be one is to be restricted, bound, and eventually put to death. Where is the oneness in today’s Christianity? Throughout the centuries, there has been a shortage of oneness among Christians. Instead of oneness, there has been division upon division. All divisions come from the element of divisiveness in our fallen nature.
The sixth negative item from which we need to be saved is self-likeness. By self-likeness we mean the appearance and expression of the natural self. We need to be saved from self-likeness by being conformed to the image of the Son of God. In so many respects we do not yet have the likeness of Christ. Instead, we bear the likeness of the self. Therefore, we need to be saved in life from self-likeness and conformed to the likeness of the glorious Christ.
Finally, we need to be saved from our natural body. Eventually, in God’s full salvation, our body will be glorified. The day is coming when our physical body will be transfigured.
As a complete sketch of the Christian life and the church life, the book of Romans firstly reveals the matter of justification. Because justification issues in life, the section after the section on justification deals with life. Life leads to the building, which is covered in the last part of Romans. Therefore, the book of Romans may be summarized in three words: justification, life, and building.
Neither justification nor life is God’s goal. God’s goal is the building up of the church as the Body for Christ’s expression and as the house for God’s dwelling. For this reason, the book of Romans begins with justification, goes on to life, and concludes with the building. As those who have been saved, redeemed, justified, and reconciled, we are not idly waiting for the Lord to come back. We are being built up in the church life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Beginning with justification, we must go on to the experience of life in order to reach the goal of the building. Unless we experience life and have the building, the Lord Jesus does not have a way to come back.
Do you realize that we ourselves are the greatest hindrance to the building? This is the reason Paul does not speak of the Body until chapter twelve, after he has covered redemption, justification, sanctification, and transformation. The building up of the Body comes after all this. Justification is in chapters one through four; sanctification, in chapters five through eight; and transformation, in chapter twelve. Then, beginning with 12:4, Paul begins to deal with the building up of the Body. Those who are still worldly or natural cannot be built up with others. In order to be built up together, we need to be justified, sanctified, and transformed.
We all have problems with our mind, emotion, and will. If we remain in our natural mind, emotion, and will, we cannot be one. The peculiar thoughts, concepts, and imaginations we have in our minds keep us from being built up together. Our emotion is even more difficult to control, and our stubborn will causes many difficulties. Due to these problems, the church has not yet been built up, although it has been in existence for more than nineteen hundred years.
The Lord Jesus has not come back because He does not yet have the building. Revelation 19 indicates that the Lord will come back for the Bride, a corporate entity. Eventually, the Lord will have the building and Bride. If we do not cooperate with Him in this matter, He will find others who will cooperate with Him. Through my many years of experience in the church life, I know the difficulties, even the human impossibility, in having the building up of the Body. Nevertheless, I have the full assurance that the Lord is able to get the building. One day, the Lord will have the building He desires. I believe that many of us are willing to allow the Lord to complete His work of building the church. Our burden is not to do a great deal of work; it is to see the genuine building up of the saints for the Lord’s coming back.
In order to afford the Lord the opportunity to have the building, we should not try to do anything. Instead, we should simply open to the Lord and say, “Lord, we realize that in ourselves we are hopeless. Our mind, emotion, and will are great problems. But, Lord, we believe that You are able. You call things not being as being. Therefore, we open ourselves to You, and we are willing to go along with You. Lord, by Your mercy, we lay ourselves on Your altar. Do whatever You desire with us. Do whatever is necessary to deal with our mind, emotion, and will.”
Our married life tests how much we have been built up. Are you truly one with your husband or wife? In our married life, we have the opportunity to learn what it means to be built up in the church life. A number of times the Lord has pointed out to me that if I cannot be built up with my wife, I cannot expect to be built up with others. In order to be built up with our husband or wife, or with others in the church, our mind, emotion, and will must be dealt with.
In the Lord’s recovery we are for the recovery of Christ and the church for the building up of the Body. The crucial matter with us today is the building. The building depends wholly upon the dealing with the mind, emotion, and will. The problem today is not with our hearts nor with our motives; it is with our mind, emotion, and will. In some areas of the church service, there is no harmony because certain saints differ in their concept or in their feeling. Others are very strong in the will and always want things under their control. Such a strong will is a foreign element in the Body of Christ. Our peculiar concepts and feelings are also foreign elements that damage the Body. Because we all are troubled by our mind, emotion, and will, we need the Lord’s mercy and grace to consecrate ourselves to Him that He may deal with us. Many have consecrated themselves to Christ and the church, but they still have a problem with their mind, emotion, and will. This indicates that the problem regarding the building is not outward but inward. The outward environment of the church life is a test of our inward being; it exposes what we are in our mind, emotion, and will.
Married life also exposes us in these matters. Without a wife or husband, we would not know ourselves adequately. We should thank the Lord for the exposure in our married life. Before we got married, we regarded ourselves as rather holy, as Christians who loved the Lord and who were always seeking Him. But married life exposed us. All our “holiness” was broken to pieces, and we discovered how dreadful our condition was. The church life exposes us even more than married life does because the church life is more intense. Without the church life, we may think that we have no problems and that we are for Christ and the church. However, by being offended by others in the church life, we find out that we have inward problems with our mind, emotion, and will. When we see this, we need to pray to the Lord to save us in His life.
In order to be saved in life from the negative subjective elements within us, we need much of the Lord’s grace. We should pray, “Lord, I have no confidence in myself. I look to You for Your mercy. I place myself in Your hands so that You can work in me. Lord, keep me on the altar and keep me open to You. For the sake of Your building, do whatever You desire with my mind, emotion, and will.” If we are willing to give ourselves to the Lord in this way, it will be possible for us to be built up with others. In order to be saved from individualism and to be built up in the Body, we must be willing for the Lord to deal with our mind, emotion, and will according to His desire.
If we want Christ’s life to save us, we must allow Him to live in us. Yes, we have Christ as life within us, but our mind, emotion, and will are very strong. Most of the time, we do not give Christ the liberty to live in us. This is why we need to lay ourselves on the altar, pray that the Lord will keep us open to Him, and allow Him to deal with the various parts of our being. Then He will have the opportunity to live in us.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” The “I” spoken of in this verse is in our mind, emotion, and will. The problems in married life and in the church life are caused by this “I.” We may know the doctrine that the “I” has been crucified with Christ and may proclaim this boldly, but we may still remain strong in our mind, emotion, and will. We need to be careful whenever our mind is strong, whenever our emotion is stirred up, and whenever our will is set. As long as we allow the “I” to prevail, the Lord Jesus is dethroned within us and has no opportunity to live in us. If we dethrone the Lord Jesus in this way, the matter of being saved in His life will merely be a doctrine to us. He will not be the one living in us; rather, the “I” will continue to live.
We have pointed out that married life exposes us. When there are difficulties, the husband tends to blame the wife, the wife tends to blame the husband, and both secretly tend to blame the Lord. But if we did not have the very wife or husband we have, we would not be fully exposed. When some have difficulties in their married life, they think of getting a divorce. Likewise, when some find that the church is not perfect, they consider getting a “divorce” from the church life. Many dream of an ideal church life. But after their church life “honeymoon” comes to an end, they are disappointed. When they face problems in the church, they begin to doubt whether the church really is the church.
The Lord’s ordination is never wrong. All marriages are divinely ordained for the fulfillment of His purpose. Whenever we are exposed in our married life, we should thank the Lord. This exposing is for the Lord’s saving. The Lord’s intention is to expose us in order to save us in His life from our natural being. When we are exposed, the Lord has the opportunity to live in us. Both in the married life and in the church life we are exposed so that the Lord may live in us. Therefore, do not blame your husband or wife, and do not blame the church. Furthermore, do not blame the Lord. Instead, you should say, “Lord, how I thank You for this situation. I love the church, not because it is perfect, but because it exposes me. Lord, lay me on the altar and deal with my mind, emotion, and will so that You can live in me.”
As the Lord lives in us, He saves us. His saving life works only as He has the opportunity to live in us. If He is to live within us, we need to present ourselves to Him. Such a consecration involves the practical dealing with our mind, emotion, and will.
We all need to be saved in the life of Christ. For this, there is the need of a long process of exposure, especially in the matter of our individualism. In order to be built up together, we need to be exposed with respect to our natural mind, emotion, and will. Once we have been exposed, we shall surrender our inner being to the Lord, and He will be free to live within us. Then the divine life will save us from being individualistic. As we are saved in His life, we become the Body and members one of another. May the Lord have mercy upon us that we may see our need to be saved in His life from individualism for the building up of the Body.
