What does it mean to know Christ? I may say that knowing Christ is to know Him through matters and things. What does it mean to know Christ through matters and things? It means knowing that Christ is our matters and Christ is our things. Some people can say that they know Christ as their patience, Christ as their love, or Christ as their humility; this is knowing Christ. Once a person has this knowledge, he will have a thorough change. Once he has this change, he will say that his world does not consist of any thing anymore. I believe that some among us can say this, and some among us know what this means. In my world, my spiritual world, there are not many things. In my spiritual world, there is only Christ. I do not have any holiness; I only have Christ. But this does not mean that I am not holy; it means that Christ has become my holiness. If you have this experience, you will immediately see that Christ is the One who is. This is the focus of everything—Christ is the One who is. If you have this experience, you will be delivered from all the outward things. The only question now is whether or not you know Christ. It is not a question of prayer, exhortation, or encouragement.
I wish to see my co-workers paying more attention to this matter. It is not a matter of exhortation or encouragement. If you try to encourage someone, at the most you will stir him up to do something by himself. But the only thing that counts is God opening man’s eyes to know Christ. Even if I could repeat the things I have said a hundred times, it would still be useless. If God opens our eyes to see that Christ is the one thing we lack, everything is solved. Many people know Christ as the Lord of justification, but they still fear God and do not know that Christ is their righteousness. Many people know Christ as the Sanctifier, but they are still not sanctified. This is because they think that they lack sanctification. They think that the Lord is the One who sanctifies them, and they ask Him to give them the strength to become sanctified; they want to be sanctified. But while they are doing this, they find that they cannot make it. They cannot do it; they cannot be sanctified. Then God opens their eyes and gives them the light to see that Christ is their sanctification. God is not asking them to be sanctified; He is not giving them the strength to be sanctified. Rather, Christ becomes their sanctification. Christ in them has become their sanctification. When this happens, all problems will go away because He will be the “I am.” I can afford to lose my power. But I cannot afford to lose Christ. My sanctification is not something I do in myself. My sanctification is something He has done in me. Once I know what Christ is to me, all the problems are solved. Christ is the One who is. I have nothing else to say. I have only one thing to tell you: Christ is the One who is.
The problem is that although many of us know that Christ is our Lord, we do not know that Christ is our matters and things. All those who know Him only as the Redeemer, Justifier, Sanctifier, or any other “-er,” only know His work; they do not know what He is. But God wants us to know Him as redemption, sanctification, and righteousness.
Let me ask a question: Is the Lord Jesus you know your Savior or your salvation? Is the Lord you know your Redeemer or your redemption? Is He your Liberator or your liberation? Is He your Sanctifier or your sanctification? Is He your Justifier or your righteousness. Those who know Him as the “-er,” only know Him in a superficial way. Those who know Him as matters and things enter the second stage of their knowing of Him, and their knowing of Him is higher and deeper.
The problem among God’s children is that there are too many things. When we know the Lord as the One who is, our things will become a person, and everything will be settled. Then God’s purpose, which He intends to fulfill in eternity, will be fulfilled in us.
Whenever our holiness, redemption, regeneration, power, grace, and gift only remain as things, we are barely touching the periphery of Christianity. When we no longer see these things as things, but as the Lord Himself, we will begin to know God. Then we will begin to enter the goal of God’s eternal purpose. From that point on, we will no longer see the many things of this world. We will see the Lord alone. He will become the One upon whom all the issues hinge.
This is why I said at the beginning that many people have things that are dead. Only when they understand what we are speaking of here will their things become personified. It is Him. Our regeneration is not a thing, but a person. We have a personified One, not a thing. Everything that I have is personified, because everything that I have is the Lord. First, the Lord leads us to know Him. Then He leads us to know that He is our things. When we are led to know Him as all things, we will be delivered from our own life, and we will be delivered even from the spiritual world and spiritual things. From that day on, we will truly say that the Lord is all and in all. We will truly say that He is everything in our living. If I am patient today, I am not the one who is patient, but Christ is my patience within me. When I love today, I am not the one who is trying to love. The power of love is not within me; rather, a person loves within me. If I can forgive today, it is not because I am forbearing, it is not because I have made any effort of my own, and it is not because I am capable. If I can forgive today, it is because there is One within me who is always forgiving. He is my forgiveness. We are humble not because we have told ourselves that we are too proud and that we have to be humble. We do not become humble by suppressing our pride or by making up our mind to be humble. Rather, a person is living out humility within us; He is our humility. This is why we can be humble. This is the law of life which we have been speaking of during the past few months. The law of life is nothing other than Christ becoming our things and Christ becoming our life.
Brothers and sisters, may the Lord open our eyes. We pray that He would truly open our eyes so that we would see. All things will eventually pass away, and only He will remain. Therefore, here in this place, we should only have Him alone.