The Gospel
LESSON TEN
LIFE THROUGH FAITH
Hymn 1014
Scripture Reading:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.
DEATH RELEASING LIFE
The Lord compared Himself to a grain of wheat (John 12:24). There is life embodied in the seed. When the grain falls into the ground and dies, the life within is released, and much fruit is brought forth.
Hence, God did not stop at incarnation. He went through death in order that His life would be freed from the flesh and released into the Holy Spirit. He is no longer limited by time and space. His life can now be dispensed unreservedly to all who believe. The death of Christ on the cross was not merely for redemption of sin but also for the release of the divine life.
SUMMIT OF SALVATION—REGENERATION
Receiving the forgiveness of sins merely recovers us back to the state before Adam’s fall. He was just a man, and his life was merely a human life at the proper level. But God intends to give His only begotten Son to us so that we may receive eternal life. This is the summit of God’s salvation. Adam did not eat of the tree of life. Had he not sinned at all, he would still be merely human. He had no relationship with the life of God. But we have inherited something far more excellent in Christ. In addition to a human life, we have a new life, a life from God, which is the very Son of God Himself. This is eternal life.
God’s solution to the human life is not correction, but crucifixion. God has nailed our old man with Christ onto the cross; he is terminated. Now we are alive together with Christ; Christ has become our new life. We are a new man; we have a new beginning, and we can conduct a new way of living. All these are accomplished works of God in Christ. Man can do nothing here. All he can do is believe and accept.
JUST RECEIVING WITHOUT DOUBT
John 3:16 should be read with 1:12 of the same book. John 3:16 tells us that God gave His only begotten Son to man, and 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.” How do we obtain this life? It is very simple. God gave and we receive; that is all. Just receive and accept without doubt or fear what God has given. The simpler we are, the better.
Mr. C. H. Spurgeon was a famous British evangelist. Once he was talking to some of his students about prayer. One of them asked how he could know if prayers are answered. He pulled out a gold watch from his pocket and put it on the table. Then he told the students that whoever wanted it might take it.
All the students began to be very excited. Some could not quite believe that such a nice watch would be given away freely. Others thought, “If I stretch out my hands to take it and he decides to pull it back, wouldn’t it be embarrassing?” Another said, “What if he suddenly changes his mind?” After a while a little girl stepped up to Mr. Spurgeon and said, “I want it.” Immediately he put the watch into her little hands and instructed her to take good care of it. When all the other students began to regret their hesitation, Mr. Spurgeon said, “When I said that I was going to give this away, I meant it. Why didn’t you believe? What God has given us is something far more precious than the watch; He has given us His Son to be our life. When God is so willing to give, why are we yet hesitant to receive?” Simply believe and receive, and you will obtain the eternal life.
AS SIMPLE AS BREATHING THE AIR
Another person greatly used by the Lord was Mr. F. B. Meyer. At one time he did not realize how Christ could be life to us in the Holy Spirit, nor did he see how to receive this life. One day he was praying on a mountain, hoping that he could obtain the Son of God as life. All of a sudden it occurred to him that all he needed to do was simply believe. He took a deep breath and prayed, “Lord, in the same way that I am breathing in this air, I am exercising my faith to take You in.” After he came down from the mountain, he testified to others, saying, “Since that day when I breathed in the Son of God, my life has been totally changed.” To receive the Son of God as life is a very simple matter. It is as simple as breathing the air into you.
BY FAITH NOT BY FEELING
A friend of mine told me once, “Mr. Nee, I really want to receive the Son of God into my life. I have prayed to God and told Him that I desire to have Christ in me. I was told that when Christ comes into me, I will have a burning sensation within. But when I knelt down, my heart was cold as a rock. And after I prayed, nothing seemed to have changed. How do I know if I really have received the Son of God into me as life?”
I said, “The Bible does not say that a man will feel burning or will remain cold when he receives the Son of God. All that it says is to believe. It is by faith, not by feeling. If you depend on your feeling, you are not believing God’s words; you are making God a liar! When God said He has given, then it is given. It has nothing to do with your feeling.”
FEELING FOLLOWING FAITH
One year I was in Chefoo. A brother told me, “I have believed in the Son of God to be my life. But I do not have a glorious sensation about it. Have I really received Him?”
I told him a parable: “Three men are walking on a narrow wall. The one walking at the front represents the fact of Christ’s being our life. The one in between signifies our faith. It always follows God’s accomplished facts. The last person represents our feeling of glory. This feeling comes after a man has believed. It is the last of the three items.
When the three walk on the wall, the person in between can only look forward. Our faith comes into being when we look steadfastly at God’s accomplished work. God has already given us His Son to be our life. When we see this fact, we have faith. The second always follows the first.
After faith comes the sense of glory. All that the third man can see is the second one; whereas if the second tries to turn around to look at the third, he will immediately fall from the wall. A faith that is not fixed on facts is a shaking faith. The minute the second man falls, the third has but to follow. All feelings of glory will then be lost. Therefore, do not look back to search for the glorious sensation. Simply follow the facts.
God has accomplished everything in Christ. He died and was resurrected, and He has been transformed into the Holy Spirit. He is now ready to come into you. All you need to do is believe. If God has not done all these works, then even if you feel radiant and glowing, it means nothing at all.
After Christ comes into us to be our life, there will be a marked change in every way. This change can never be actuated by the restriction of law, the education of morality, or the imposition of improvements and discipline. I can immediately call to mind thirty or forty extremely evil sinners who have drastically changed since they accepted Christ as life. But there are hundreds and thousands of other Christians who, since their acceptance of Christ, can testify to this marvelous change, which is initiated not by discipline and mortification, but by this wonderful, powerful life of Christ that is working in us. (The Normal Christian Life, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, set 2, vol. 27, pp. 139 -145)
References: CWWN, Vol. 27, Christ and the New Life, ch. 4.
