The first issue of the Lord’s superabounding grace is faith that links us to the unsearchable riches of the Divine Trinity and which is the source of all the virtues of a believer (Eph. 3:17a). This is revealed in 2 Peter 1:5-8. Faith is the initial virtue. Then following faith come other virtues, until the issue reaches love. Faith is the first issue, and love is the last one.
At one time, we were sinners having no faith at all. But one day we heard the gospel. The sanctifying Spirit, the seeking Spirit, worked within us to show us Christ. He showed us how good and how gracious Christ is. That stirred up something within us to appreciate Christ. When we appreciated Christ a little bit, He entered into us as the superabounding grace. Then right away this Christ, the superabounding grace, issued first in faith. We wanted to believe in Him, making Him everything and putting ourselves away as nothing.
Soon after Christ came into me, I said, “Lord, from today You are everything to me. I am nothing.” This was our experience when we received Christ. From that day faith as the first issue of the superabounding grace became something so living in us in order to link us with the rich Triune God. The more we are linked, the more faith we have, and the more faith we have, the more enjoyment we have. This is the way for us to enjoy the processed and consummated Triune God’s unsearchable riches.
We may say that we enjoy Christ and enjoy the Divine Trinity, but what kind of indication can people see in us of this enjoyment? Faith is the indicator of the believers’ life in the enjoyment of the Divine Trinity (1 Thes. 1:3, 5, 7-8; Rom. 1:8). Paul wrote a letter to the saints in Thessalonica, and he said that he remembered their work of faith. Their work of faith became such a strong factor in their lives that people everywhere were talking about their faith. This means that faith became a strong indicator of the Thessalonians’ enjoyment of the Divine Trinity. Paul said that they became a pattern to all the ones who believe in Christ. Their faith became such an indicator of their life in the enjoyment of Christ that they became a pattern to all the believing ones.
Those who believe are the believing ones. We should try our best not to use the nickname Christian (see 1 Peter 4:16, note 1). Instead, we should use the name believer. I am a believer. There is a big difference between being a believer and being a mere Christian. There are millions of Christians today, but how many of these are believing ones? Quite often we may ask someone, “Are you a Christian?” The person may say that he is a Christian from a Christian family but that he is not like a Christian because he does not have faith. In his daily life, he is everything and he does everything. This is not faith. Faith is to believe that God is and I am not.
If you came to me to ask me if I am a Christian, I would say instead that I am a believer in Christ. There is a big difference between saying that you are a Christian and saying that you are a believer. There are many Christians who do not believe. But by God’s mercy today, I believe. When we believe, this means that we believe God is everything and we are nothing. Today God does everything. I am doing nothing. Today my God, my Christ, is everything to me, and I become nothing. I work, but it is not I but Christ who works in me. Faith is the indicator of the believing ones who have God in Christ and nothing else.
In Christianity faith is for performing big careers. This is not only absolutely wrong but also absolutely devilish. Faith is not for performing any career. Faith is to live God and to annul yourself. You have to be annulled. How could you carry out some career for yourself? Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 said, “If I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (v. 2). Strictly speaking, with us, the believing ones, faith is not for us to accomplish careers, to accomplish a big work.
In the early days of my ministry, I heard quite often, “You have so many people, but you don’t do anything. You don’t have a school, a hospital, or a university. What are you doing here?” Actually, in a sense, we are doing nothing. Recently, someone asked me, “Do you have some kind of plan?” I said, “Brother, we never have any plan.” Dear saints, especially the young ones, do not think that faith is for us to accomplish big things. Faith is for us to live God, to express God, and to minister God to people.
Many of the missions and denominations that came to China set up universities and hospitals. They did many works, but not many ministered Christ to others. Those in the Pentecostal movement say that if you have the faith, you can do great works. The Pentecostal movement began from the middle of the last century. But you cannot find a group of Pentecostal people who minister Christ as life to people. They promote the performance of miracles, but the apostle Paul did not do this. Paul said that he was sent to minister Christ in His unsearchable riches to people.
Right after I was saved, I was seeking to know the Bible. I met a Brethren group who knew the Bible, and I heard many of their teachings. Later, I met Brother Watchman Nee. I realized that Brother Nee’s teaching was to minister Christ as life. He was not like the Brethren who ministered teachings, types, and prophecies. I learned a lot from them because they are good Bible teachers. But I never heard them give one message on Christ as life. Then when I met Brother Nee, I found out the difference. I am sharing this to impress us that faith is not for us to perform something. That is wrong.
After we moved to Anaheim, we began to be opposed, and I met with one of the leading opposers. He asked me how many people we had among us with doctor’s degrees. I told him that we did not have many. He said that he had one hundred people with doctor’s degrees working with him. His boast meant nothing. If it took a doctor’s degree to serve the Lord in His ministry of life, then Peter, Paul, and even Jesus Himself would have been disqualified. None of them had any formal degree. Watchman Nee and I finished only the second year of a university. He studied at a school established by the British, and I studied at a school established by the American Presbyterians from Southern California. Neither of us had a degree.
Faith is not for us to perform something. Of course, in the Lord’s ministry, there is an amount of work. But we should not pay more attention to the work and less attention to life. If we do this, we are through. At Stanford all of the professors have a doctor’s degree, but that is not the church. The church is composed of groups of “fishermen.” In 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 Paul said that in the church at Corinth there were “not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many wellborn. But God has chosen the foolish things [men—the same in the following] of the world that He might shame those who are wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might shame the things that are strong, and the lowborn things of the world and the despised things God has chosen, things which are not, that He might bring to nought the things which are.” In 1943 we had a migration of seventy saints with their families from Chefoo to Inner Mongolia. Not one had even finished high school. Some of them were shoemakers. Eventually, within one winter, they turned more than forty Swedish China Inland Mission churches to the recovery. This is the operation of life.
Do not think you can do something, so you are somebody. You should say, “Lord, I don’t want to be anybody, to be anything; You be my everything. You are, but I am not.” This is faith. Within you there must be the indicator of this linking faith. When people contact you, they should see that there is a strong factor indicating that you are linked with God. Your faith must be an indicator to make you a pattern. Do not learn from anyone how to do things. That means nothing. But you have to learn of someone how to live God, how to live Christ, how to magnify Christ, and how to minister Christ to others. Dear saints, this is what we should have. Wherever we go and wherever we are, we should bear an indication that we are nothing, but God in Christ is everything to us. We should live such a life.
Faith is the indicator of the believers’ life in the enjoyment of the Divine Trinity. The faith of the Thessalonians was highly appraised by the apostle (1 Thes. 1:3). Their faith in its much assurance became an indicator of their abundant enjoyment of life in Christ (v. 5). You may perform big miracles, yet people cannot see in you any indication that you are an enjoyer of God. Both the Thessalonians’ and the Romans’ faith made them a pattern to the believing ones in Christ and became a part of the preaching of the believing ones in Christ (vv. 7-8; Rom. 1:8). In ancient times, they not only preached Christ but also preached the faith of the believing ones.