We often speak about the matter of subjective truth and objective truth. All the truths in the New Testament are divided into these two categories, and similarly all the Old Testament truths are divided into these two categories. To make this matter clear to many of you, I would first like to explain the meaning of the words objective and subjective. The literal meanings of the Chinese words for objective and subjective are “guest’s view” and “host’s view.” Being objective is viewing things from the position of a guest or an outsider, and being subjective is viewing things from one’s self as a host. Viewing things from the position of an outsider is being objective, and viewing things from within is being subjective. Whatever occurs in others is objective; whatever occurs in me is subjective. All the truths that are not in me are objective truths; all the truths that are inside of me are subjective truths. All the truths outside of me are objective truths; they are truths, even though they are outside of me. All the experiences within me are subjective and are also truths. The Bible places equal weight on both aspects of these truths. I would now like to give you some illustrations.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” John 14:16 says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter.” It is sad that many who can recite John 3:16 so well cannot recite John 14:16. Actually these two verses are of equal worth. God had two “givings.” In John 3:16 He gave His Son to us, and in John 14:16 He gave the Holy Spirit to us. God gave His Son to sinners, and He gave the Holy Spirit to the ones who believe in His Son. God gave His Son to the world that they may be saved through Him. God gave the Holy Spirit to those who believe in His Son that they may be empowered to overcome. One is the giving of the Son, and the other is the giving of the Holy Spirit. Everything accomplished in the Son is an objective truth, and everything done in us through the working of the Holy Spirit is a subjective truth. Everything that is done in Christ is objective, while everything that is done in us through the Holy Spirit is subjective. When the Lord was crucified on the cross, we were crucified there with Him. This is an objective fact. If we search within ourselves to see whether we have died, we surely will not feel that we have died. Likewise, if we preach the gospel to a sinner, telling him that he is a sinner and Christ has died for him, will he realize he has died with Christ? No matter that is in Christ is subjective. Everything in Christ is objective, and all the work done by the Holy Spirit in us is subjective. The Holy Spirit does not work in Himself; all the work of the Holy Spirit is done within us. What Christ has accomplished is in Himself, and what the Holy Spirit has accomplished is in us. As long as something or some work is done in Christ, it is objective; as long as something is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, it is subjective. Please remember this point: objective matters are in Christ, and subjective matters are within us.
In John 15:4 the Lord repeated the phrase abide in Me twice. What is it to “abide in Me”? It is just to abide in the Lord. Abiding in the Lord is objective. We must first have the objective aspect before we can have the experience of “I [abide] in you,” which is the subjective aspect. We must remember that the words “I [abide] in you” are preceded by the words “Abide in Me.” Every subjective experience is based on an objective fact. No one could ever be saved if there was just the working of the Holy Spirit without the accomplishment of Christ. Neither could people be saved by only having the accomplishment of Christ without the working of the Holy Spirit. As I have said before, a man must have two feet to stand firm and two eyes to see clearly. Birds must have two wings to fly. Similarly, we must first be in the Lord, and then He will be in us.
John 6:47 says, “He who believes has eternal life.” Every believer knows this verse. It is true that we have believed, and it is true that he who believes has eternal life. However, no one can locate the eternal life. What does John 4:14 tell us? It says, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water gushing up into eternal life.” The water that He will give us is the water of life, and it will well up from within again and again until we sense its flavor. On the one hand, the Lord talks about the eternal life, and on the other hand, He talks about a well of living water springing up which enables us to taste the flavor of eternal life. John 6:47 speaks of the objective aspect, and John 4:14 speaks of the subjective aspect. First John 2:8 says, “...which is true in Him and in you.” Some of the truths are in Him, and some of the truths are in us. They are all truths, and we should pay attention to all of them. John 15 tells us how to bear fruit: “He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit” (v. 5). In other words, whenever the objective truth is balanced by the subjective truth, there will be much fruit-bearing. John 14:17 says, “The Spirit of reality...because He abides with you and shall be in you.” He abides with you is objective. This phrase points out the fact that the Holy Spirit through Christ was with the disciples. The phrase shall be in you is subjective. It points to the fact of Christ dwelling in the disciples through the Holy Spirit. At one time this word was objective and outside of them, but once the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in them, the objective facts became their subjective experience.
On one hand, Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:30 said, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus.” On the other hand, in Colossians 1:27 Paul said, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” To be in Christ is the objective aspect, and to have Christ in us is the subjective aspect.
If we want to discover these two aspects of the truth in the Bible, we can find several hundred verses which show the subjective aspect of the truth as well as the objective aspect of the truth. If we can grasp these two aspects, we are able to grasp the tracks in the Bible. A train has two tracks on which to run. If there is only one track, the train will derail. With two tracks, the train can move ahead. Both the objective and subjective aspects of the truth need our attention. Emphasizing each aspect equally will render us the greatest help. I do not want to preach any theology here. Rather, I would like to speak a little on the practical side. For the time being, I will briefly mention the major accomplishments of Christ on the objective side as well as the work of the Holy Spirit on the subjective side.
First of all, Christ’s death on the cross for our sins and for us is the kernel of the objective truths in the Bible. When a person touches the Bible, he will see Christ’s death, Christ’s redemption, and how Christ was made a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins. Once you open the Bible, you will see these things, unless you do not read it at all. He hung on the tree to personally bear our sins. This matter was accomplished on the cross. He has borne your sins, my sins, and the sins of so many people. These are the facts.
If the Lord Jesus has borne your sins, my sins, and the sins of all the people in the world, then why are all the people not saved? Why is it that some of the ones who have believed in the Lord and who we know are saved do not have the joy of salvation? Why are they grieved over their sins? They are grieved because they always see the subjective side of how inwardly sinful, filthy, and unclean they still are. Consequently, they do not see how they can be saved. We need to know that all that Christ has accomplished is on the objective side and cannot be found on the subjective side. If a lamp is on this side, how can you find it on the other side? What the Lord accomplished at Golgotha was not accomplished in us. If we search within ourselves, we will never find it. Although I cannot find Christ’s dying for us within, can it be found on the cross? If Christ’s death for us can be found on the cross, then we can declare, “Hallelujah! Christ has borne my sins; I am saved.” Whenever our faith latches on to the objective things, the Holy Spirit will infuse power into our inner being and will cause us to have the peace of forgiveness and the joy of salvation. If we try to find the death of Christ on the subjective side, we will never be able to find it because this is not God’s way. God first gave His Son to man, and then He gave the Holy Spirit to man. The giving of the Holy Spirit follows the giving of God’s Son. Christ came first, then the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit is doing is to complete in us what the Lord has accomplished on His side.
The book of Hebrews tells us that faith is like an anchor, secure and firm, which brings us within the veil (Heb. 6:19). Suppose we are on a ship with a very large anchor. If it is always kept on the ship, what use is this anchor? The anchor should be cast into the water to keep the ship from rocking; it should not be kept on the ship. This is how faith should operate. Faith never comes from believing in ourselves; faith comes from casting our anchor in the Lord Jesus, casting from our side to His side. Whenever something on the objective side is grasped by us, the subjective side becomes secure in us. Suppose a ship with an anchor on board is rocking incessantly. Will fastening and putting more anchors on the ship cause it to steady? Even if the ship had larger anchors or was filled with anchors, it would still rock unsteadily. The ship will only become steady when the anchor is cast into the water. The more we look at ourselves, the more disappointed we will become. If we cast our faith upon the cross of the Lord Jesus, we will be at peace. We must be secure on the other side before we can be secure on our side; the order cannot be reversed. The correct way is to take the objective aspect as the starting point and then have the subjective aspect as the issue. If we only emphasize Christ’s accomplishment on the cross without caring for what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us, we will never be able to have the experience. Similarly, if we only emphasize the Holy Spirit within us without caring for Christ’s accomplishment on the cross, the result will be futile.
For example, in the matter of being crucified with Christ, is it we who crucify ourselves? No. Romans 6:6 tells us, “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.” We do not do the crucifying; our old man was crucified with Christ when He was crucified on the cross. This is an objective truth. Our eyes must be on the Lord. It would be terrible if we were to crucify ourselves. Even though we see our wretchedness, we are not able to crucify it. The biggest mistake believers make is to say, “Even though the Bible says I have died with Christ, when I look at myself, I realize that I am still so hard-hearted. It is very easy for me to lose my temper; I am still so bad and not good.” We are crucified with Him, but the more we try, the less we die. We are wrong because we are starting from our end. We should remember that Christ is the real beginning to everything. The real death is not seeing ourselves dead; when Christ died, we also died with Him. Only when the anchor is cast is it effectual. Faith is efficacious only when it is cast in Christ. If our eyes are always on ourselves, we cannot be crucified. Our pretense to be dead is a fake death, and we have no way to put ourselves to death. We have already died with Christ on the cross; this was accomplished by Christ. On the objective side Christ has died, and we have also died.
Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” This verse runs parallel to Romans 6:6, which speaks of being crucified with Christ; this verse speaks of putting to death the practices of the body by the Spirit. Crucifixion was accomplished by Christ, whereas the putting to death is done by the Spirit. I believe that I have been crucified with Christ. For this I can say, “Hallelujah!” When Christ died, my old man was crucified with Him. Today, on the subjective side, the Spirit will bring up a matter and tell you that this matter has been crucified on the cross. Will you follow the speaking of the Spirit? If you say you are willing, the matter will be dealt with. Then the next day the Spirit will bring up another matter and tell you that it has been crucified on the cross. Are you willing to go along with His speaking? If you agree, another matter will be dealt with. The Spirit will say, “Your temper has been crucified on the cross. You do not need to lose your temper.” If you say, “I am willing not to lose my temper,” then the Spirit will give you the power not to lose your temper. The Spirit will then say that your pride has been crucified and that you can be freed from your pride. If you agree with not being proud, the Spirit will give you the power not to be proud. If you are willing to go along with the Spirit in one matter after another, the Spirit will fulfill His work in you. If you only depend on yourself to suppress your anger, you will find that even gritting your teeth will not work. You must first see the accomplishment of Christ’s death on the objective side before the Spirit will carry out that death in you.
In the first two centuries, believers greeted each other by saying, “The Lord is coming soon,” or, “In Christ.” Indeed, once we see that we are in Christ, everything is sweet and precious. At the same time, the Spirit within us will put to death the deeds of the body. Today Christians pay too much attention to either the objective truth or the subjective truth. When one pays too much attention to the subjective truth, he suppresses himself. This is like an anchor that is not cast into the water; it is useless. Then there are others who think that because Christ has died, they do not need to care for anything. This is also wrong. Christ has indeed died on the cross; but if you do not believe this, you will still perish. However, if you believe that Christ has died on the cross and are willing to believe in Him, you will be saved. Likewise, when the Spirit says to you that your temper, pride, and jealousy have been crucified, if you are willing and have the desire, the Spirit will give you the power to overcome. When you believe the objective truth, the Spirit will simultaneously make the objective truth your subjective experience. The Spirit will fulfill the outward truth you believe in you. The Spirit will fulfill what you believe has been accomplished on the cross in you.
This is not only the case with the truth of our death with Christ, but it also applies to the truth of resurrection. Ephesians 2:6 says, “And raised us up together...in Christ Jesus.” How are we resurrected? We are resurrected with Him. This is of Christ and is an objective truth. Resurrection is not only spoken of in Ephesians; Peter also said, “God...has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). In other words, the time when a Christian is regenerated is the time when he is resurrected together with Christ. Actually, every regenerated Christian has been resurrected with the Lord, and every Christian who has been resurrected with the Lord has been regenerated. We have been resurrected with Him, and He has raised us up.
What is the meaning of resurrection? The Lord Jesus died in His body; all the blood in His body was shed; He suffered numerous wounds on His head from the crown of thorns; He had wounds on His hands and feet and a gash on His side from a spear. This is the power of death that took hold of His body. When God’s life came into His body, He became alive. This is the meaning of resurrection. This life overcame all the effects of death in His body; it healed all the wounds and did away with all the pain. This is resurrection. Formerly, the eyes could not see, the ears could not hear, and the hands could not move; now they are all able to function. To be dead, according to the Bible, is to be absolutely powerless and utterly weak. Death is spiritual inability and impossibility. Formerly, the Lord was bound by numerous burial cloths. But what happened at the time of resurrection? The resurrection of the Lord was vastly different from that of Lazarus. When Lazarus came out of the tomb, his hands and feet were bound with cloth, and his face was bound with a handkerchief. He needed someone else to set him free. On the contrary, regarding the Lord’s resurrection, the Bible says, “He beheld the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief which had been over His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in one place apart” (John 20:6-7). The Lord did not slowly cut His cloths loose. God’s power and life entered in and loosened every lawful or unlawful bondage. What was a corpse became a moving and liberated being. This was the resurrection of the Lord.
I remember, when I first began to work for the Lord, I would ask the Lord to resurrect me together with Him. I thought that if the Lord would resurrect me together with Him, then I would have the power to do God’s will. I was wrong in praying that way because it was something initiated by me. The Bible says I have been resurrected together with Christ. This is an accomplished fact. Please remember that the more we turn to ourselves, the worse we will be. It is not that we should not have subjective experiences, but we should first believe the objective truth. I can now say, “Lord, I thank You; You have resurrected, and I have been resurrected together with You.” We must first believe the fact that we have been resurrected. How were we resurrected? Do we feel like we have resurrected? No, it is Christ who resurrected us. We can ask how we were saved. While we were yet sinners, we heard the gospel that the Lord Jesus died for us and cleansed us from our sins with His blood. We believed and were immediately saved. We did not look at ourselves to see whether we were qualified, but we looked away to what the Lord accomplished on the cross. Once we lay hold of this fact, we will be at peace.
However, if we only pay attention to the objective truth and not to the subjective truth, we are like one-winged birds trying to fly. We should not emphasize one half and neglect the other. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that we have been raised up together with Christ Jesus. On the other hand, Ephesians 1:19-20 says, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ.” Although the believers in Ephesus were resurrected with Christ, the apostle Paul still wanted them to know the exceeding greatness of His power. Verse 19 tells us the greatness of this power; verse 20 tells us that this power is the resurrection power. In other words, although we have been resurrected, we still need to know the greatness of this power. On the objective side we have resurrection; on the subjective side we still need to know the power of resurrection. One cannot say, “My temper has been crucified, but I still can lose my temper.” On the objective side his temper has been crucified, but on the subjective side he should still put his temper to death by the Spirit. On the subjective side he still needs to be empowered by the Spirit to deny the world and obey God’s will. With the reality of the objective aspect, one still needs to have the subjective experiences. One very bad phenomenon is that some people do not believe the objective facts but only focus their efforts on subjective experiences. Other people only believe the objective facts and ignore the subjective experiences. According to the Bible, if one lacks faith, he will never experience spiritual deliverance, and if he lacks obedience, he will also not experience spiritual deliverance. Faith is toward what Christ has accomplished, while obedience is specifically toward what the Spirit will accomplish. Faith is toward Christ, and obedience is toward the Spirit. Therefore, it is very crucial to believe and obey.
Philippians 3:10 says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection.” Paul said that the goal of his counting all things loss was to know the power of resurrection. He did not say he wanted to know resurrection, because once a person has believed, he has resurrection. But on the subjective side he still needed to count all things loss in order to know the power of His resurrection.
Ascension is the last great accomplished truth in the New Testament. The Lord’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension are some of the greatest truths in the Bible. Concerning the Lord’s ascension, you do not know how much time I spent shortly after I was saved thinking how good it would be if only I could daily sit in the heavenlies and have my sin under my feet. I was like an airplane in the sky that could not stay in the sky forever. I continually besought the Lord that one day I would be able to sit steadily in the heavenlies and break my record of ascension. Then one day I read Ephesians 2:6: “And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” I realized then that when Christians were raised up together with Christ, they were also seated together with Him in the heavenlies. This is not due to their diligence or prayers. It is because Christ brought us into the heavenlies when He ascended. Because He is in the heavenlies, I am also in the heavenlies. However, I should allow the power of the Lord’s ascension to be manifested in me.
On the other hand, Colossians 3:1-3 says, “If therefore you were raised together with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This is subjective. Ascension means that our life has been hidden with Christ in God. Because we have died, resurrected, and ascended, we ought to seek the things which are above and daily set our mind on the things which are above. Suppose a sinner hears that the Lord Jesus has died for him and thinks that since the Lord has died for him, he can go on sinning. We all know that this is not right. We have the position of ascension. However, if we continually set our mind on the things that are on the earth, even our ascended position will do us no good. If we believe in Christ’s ascension and, at the same time, continually set our minds on the things above rather than the things on earth, we will not only be in the heavenlies objectively, but we will also be in the heavenlies subjectively.
Brothers, only having objective facts without having subjective experience is too theoretical; one will not have any taste of heaven from this. It is absolutely necessary to believe all that Christ has done on the objective side. It is also absolutely necessary to obey what the Spirit wants to do on the subjective side. All spiritual experiences come first from believing what Christ has accomplished and then by obeying the Spirit’s leading. Christ’s accomplishments cause us to gain the position; the Spirit’s leading causes us to gain the experiences. The accomplishments of Christ are facts for us to believe. The leading of the Spirit is the principle for us to obey. All spiritual experiences begin from the objective side; there is no exception. Our anchor must be cast in Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension.
John 15:4-5 says, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The order in this passage is most important. Being “in Me” is first. The “Me” in this verse is the Lord. One must first be in Christ. This is the objective side. Then “I in you” follows. “I in you” is Christ abiding in us. This is the subjective side. We must first have the objective aspect, then the subjective aspect will be added. What follows thereafter is a promise that we will bear much fruit. Being in the Lord is the objective side. Once we have the objective side, then we will have the subjective side of the Lord abiding in us. When we believe in the objective fact, everything on the objective side will come into us. The issue of the objective plus the subjective is fruit-bearing. There will not be any fruit-bearing if we only have the objective side; similarly, we will not bear any fruit if we just have the subjective side. Whenever the objective and subjective sides are joined together, there will be fruit-bearing.
When the church began in Jerusalem, there were both men and women praying in the upper room. In typology, men represent the objective truth, while women represent the subjective truth. The presence of men typifies the presence of objective truth or doctrine, while the presence of women typifies the presence of subjective truth or experience. The result of this was three thousand and then five thousand souls being saved. This was the way the church began. In the future, at the time of Christ’s second coming, there will be the Lamb of God on the objective side. There will also be the bride of the Lamb, “clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints” (Rev. 19:8). This is the subjective aspect.
Whether or not the Lord is pleased with a Christian’s living depends on how balanced he is regarding these two aspects. In the church today, some preach only the subjective truth. An example of this is the so-called holiness group; they only have the female aspect. However, others only teach the objective truth. An example of this is the Brethren; they only have the male aspect. Both of these extremes suffer loss. By paying attention only to the subjective side, one not only fails to gain any experience, but he also suffers daily. On the other hand, those who pay attention solely to the objective side and live a carefree daily life, thinking that they have died, resurrected, and ascended with Christ and, therefore, need not care for anything else, will not have any experience either. God’s way is not to pay attention only to the objective side or only to the subjective side. The principle in the Bible is for us to first have the objective aspect and then the subjective aspect. We should first have the facts of Christ and then follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. The result will be much fruit-bearing. May God teach us to obey Him more and serve Him more according to His way.