Prayer: Dear Lord, we are happy to give You thanks for bringing us into such a high level. Lord, here we can see something marvelous, something excellent, something that will surprise us to the uttermost. Lord, release Yourself. This is all that we need. We need only You as the great I Am. Amen.
In the previous message we pointed out Hymns, #535 by Charles Wesley. I like his hymns very much, but I had never paid much attention to this hymn until recently. There is a wonderful line in stanza 5 which says, “Let me no longer live, but Thee.” It is marvelous that such a line is in this hymn on faith. Faith is to believe that God is, and I am not. I do believe that Charles Wesley must have noticed this point. Otherwise, how could he have said in his hymn: “Let me no longer live, but Thee.” This is faith. Faith always annuls us and reveals Christ to us.
In this message we are still on the structure of the gospel of God. We all have seen clearly that this divine structure is of three parts: the righteousness of God, the life of Christ, and the faith of the believers. The structure of God’s gospel is first the judicial part. The righteousness of God is a matter of judicial standing related to the law. Then the life of Christ, which is organic, is a matter of life. The third part, the faith of the believers, is practical. This is a matter of practice. Regardless of how much the righteousness of God and the life of Christ are in this universe, without the faith of the believers, nothing can happen.
The righteousness of God is wonderful. It is judicial, fulfilling all the requirements of God’s law. The righteousness of God as a part of God’s salvation makes God happy. He is satisfied and joyful because His righteousness has judicially fulfilled all the legal requirements of the divine law. Then the life of Christ organically is the completion of God’s salvation for the producing and building up of the organic Body of Christ expressed as the local churches. But if there is no faith of the believers, nothing will happen. So it is the faith of the believers that links God’s righteousness and Christ’s life with us. At one time we were unbelieving sinners. When we heard the gospel and repented, we spontaneously called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord Jesus.” By calling on the Lord, the “linking” faith got into us that linked us, the great sinners, with the righteousness of God and with the life of Christ. Then we became altogether another person.
I still remember my conversion when I was at the end of my nineteenth year of age. I was born into, raised up, and educated in Christianity. I had heard much preaching and teaching about the Bible, though I was not saved. But one afternoon I heard the gospel, and within a few hours I was a changed person. Actually, it was the linking faith that changed me. At that time from my sincere heart, from the depths of my being, I cried to God. That was the faith which had been imparted into me as my believing element, which linked me with the marvelous God. Faith is the linking of our salvation that links God with us and links us to God. This linking makes us the God-men. I was a sinner, an enemy of God, but I became a God-man. This is because something linked into me, linked with me, and linked me to God. That was faith.