We need to see that Christ today is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit in our spirit and that our Christian life is simply to live this Christ. Every morning, before we do anything else, we need to ask the Lord to keep us in Him. If we pray like this, we will live Christ—we will live by Him as our life. This is the experience of life, and it will be manifested in some situations as kindness, in other situations as humility, and in others as love or wisdom. We first have the experience of life. The experience of life then becomes lived-out virtues, the reality of which is Christ Himself. Our experiences of Christ as life become the reality. The reality of love, humility, kindness, wisdom, and every virtue is simply Christ experienced by us as our life. Thus, the experience of Christ as life becomes our experience of reality. This reality is the way.
A group of saints recently asked me about the proper way to preach the gospel, and I answered that we do not need any way. A way is wrong, because any way is a replacement for Christ. We preach Christ not by any way; we preach Christ by Christ Himself as the unique way. We may think that to preach the gospel we must work hard and find the best way. It is possible to have many ways to preach the gospel yet not have Christ.
In some local churches a misleading word has been spoken that we must “get our hands dirty” in order to “catch fish.” Some have taught that, according to this principle, we should go to various worldly places in order to gain new ones. Such ways are altogether not Christ. Christ should be our way of gospel preaching. In the Lord’s recovery we do not care for any other way. Rather, we depend on Christ as our daily living. As branches in the vine, we live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ. If we continually live Christ, our relatives, neighbors, friends, schoolmates, and colleagues will see what kind of person we are. Then, according to the Lord’s leading, the time will come to speak something to them. We will not need to endeavor, strive, or use any gimmicks to bring them to the Lord. We will be able to simply say a brief word concerning the Lord Jesus.
Of all our acquaintances who see our way of living, the Lord may work on one each year. Perhaps one year one of our cousins will become seriously ill. From within he will be reminded of us because he has seen for many years the kind of life we have lived. As a result, he may ask us to come visit him. When we go to see him, we do not need to work hard. If we simply say, “Let us pray to the Lord Jesus,” he will pray with us. By praying a short prayer, he will receive Christ and be saved. Perhaps the next year a colleague who formerly mocked us for being a believer will be in a serious car accident and remember us because of the kind of life we live. He may recognize that we have hope and that he has none, and he may decide to ask us for help. When we speak to such a one, we do not need to say very much. We can simply say, “Yes, my hope is the Lord Jesus. You need Him. Would you pray with me?” Our colleague may pray with tears of repentance and be saved. This is to take Christ as the way to preach the gospel.
If we use gimmicks to attract people, most of them will not be remaining fruit. However, if we bring people to the Lord simply by living Christ and speaking a simple word as the Lord leads, our fruit will remain. This is the most prevailing way to preach the gospel. Apparently we are not preaching the gospel, but we are living the gospel. Because we live Christ, Christ is our preaching. Christ is the way we preach the gospel.
Instead of merely preaching the gospel, we should live the gospel as the Lord’s living witnesses. In Acts 1:8 the Lord said to the disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” As witnesses, our living is a testimony of Jesus, and this testimony will gradually bring others to the Lord. This is what it means for Christ to be the way to preach the gospel.
This does not mean that the church should not have special times of gospel preaching. We need such special times. The church may announce that a particular meeting will be dedicated to gospel preaching. Then we should each pray concerning which of our acquaintances the Lord would lead us to bring. This is the proper preaching of the gospel by taking Christ as the way. In God’s economy and in the church there is no way but Christ. Christ is the unique way in everything. He said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). We do not have any other way.
Christianity is a composition of mainly four things: concepts, ways, activities, and organization. The doctrines of a denomination are its concepts. Every denomination is built upon a certain doctrine. For instance, the Baptist Church is built upon the doctrine of baptism by immersion. This doctrine is its concept. The Presbyterian Church is built upon the concept, or doctrine, of the presbytery. According to a group’s concept, it finds a way to practice its kind of Christianity. In order to practice this way, the group will have certain activities. Finally, it will need to organize to carry out its activities. If concepts, ways, activities, and organization are removed from today’s Christianity, there will be nothing left. We should never rely on these things in the Lord’s recovery. We do not care for doctrines, ways, activities, or organization. We care only for Christ.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we should know only Christ. Christ is our method, our speaking, our way, and our living. We live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ. The Lord’s recovery is to fully recover the Christ missed by today’s Christianity. In the Lord’s recovery we are for nothing but Christ Himself. He is our life, our reality, and our way in doing everything. Even our way to pray is Christ. Christ is our unique way.