I told this lady that losing or not losing our temper is not a matter of self-cultivation but a matter of life. She was puzzled by my words and wondered how man could have his life changed. I told her that our concept is to correct our behavior, but God’s approach and the way of God’s salvation is to change our life. Then I said to her, “Suppose you owned two apple trees, and one produced small and sour fruit, but the other produced large and sweet fruit. How would you make the tree that produces small fruit produce large fruit?” She responded quickly, “Simply cut off some branches from the apple tree with large and sweet fruit. Then break off some branches from the tree with small and sour fruit and graft in their place the branches from the tree with large fruit. The two will then be grafted together and will grow together. After some time of growth, the tree that formerly produced small fruit will produce large and sweet fruit.”
After her response, I asked her to consider whether this is an improvement of behavior or a grafting of two lives to become one. To improve our behavior is similar to getting rid of all the sour fruit on a tree that produces small and sour fruit, with the expectation that in the next season the produce from the same tree will be large and sweet fruit. We may try to improve our behavior by trying to rid ourselves of the “sour fruit” of telling lies, stealing, and despising others, but the fruit that will be produced later will remain the same. No matter how hard man tries to improve himself, the fruit borne by him will not be better than before, because the life within him remains the same. Grafting, however, is not merely to improve the behavior of one branch but to impart and join to one branch the life of another tree. With this example, the lady understood that grafting is not an improvement in behavior but two lives becoming one life. For grafting to take place, both trees have to be cut so that the branches of one may be grafted into the other. The fruit produced from such a grafting is different from the original. This is the way of God’s salvation (Rom. 11:17), that is, to graft sinners, the branches of a wild olive tree, into Christ, God’s cultivated olive tree, so that they may partake of Christ’s riches and thus bear “sweet fruit” to express the riches of God in Christ.
In John 3:3 the Lord Jesus said, “Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” To be born anew is to be born again, and to be born again is to have a change in life. Through the new birth the fallen and corrupted human life is terminated, and we receive a good life, the life of God. God desires to enter into man to become his life. Jesus Christ is the Savior of man because He can become man’s life (Col. 3:4). Christianity today has overlooked the matter of Jesus Christ coming to be life to man (John 10:10). They speak mainly of Jesus Christ being the Savior, but they do not emphasize that, even more, Christ is life to man. If He could not come into man as life, He would not be man’s Savior. Jesus Christ is able to save man because He is able to enter into man to be his life. If a man receives Jesus Christ as life, He will enter into him to become his new life.
In response to this, some may ask, “How do I receive the Lord Jesus as my life?” The answer to this question is simple: just as two trees need to be cut in order for the branches of one to be grafted into another, a person who wants to receive Jesus as his life needs to be “cut” by humbling himself and admitting that his life is corrupt, imperfect, and improper. On His side, Jesus too was “cut” when He died on the cross to bear man’s sins, to terminate man’s sinful life, and to release God’s divine life from within Him (1 Pet. 2:24; Rom. 6:6; John 19:34). A person who wants to receive Jesus needs not only to humble himself before Jesus Christ but also to confess his sins and receive Jesus Christ as his Savior and life. Then the resurrected Christ, who is the Spirit and is also life (2 Cor. 3:17; John 11:25), will enter into him.
If anyone is willing to empty his heart and humble himself, confess his corruption and sins, and open his heart and spirit to receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior, Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), will enter into him, touch his deepest part, and become his life. Thus, he will experience a wonderful and great change inwardly. This is the way of God’s salvation.