Some may feel that they know all of this already, but I am afraid that it is only a kind of doctrine to them. So many, including us, have come to know this doctrine. But there are not many who day by day, hour by hour, live by Christ. We all know the doctrine, but very few live it. The Lord Jesus told us in John 6:57, “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” These are such simple words. The Lord said that He lived by the Father. The words are simple, but the effect is profound. To live by someone else’s life is not a small thing.
All Christian wives know that the Bible teaches them to submit to their husband as their head. They must learn to live by their husbands. This saying is easy. Even a first-grader can say it. But to live it out is not so easy. I believe that all the sisters who are wives really love their husbands. But how many of these sisters actually live by their husbands? To love your husband is one thing, but to live by your husband is another.
However, there walked a person on this earth who said that He did not live by Himself. He lived by someone else. He was living, but it was not Him but the Father. He was living by the Father. And He said, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” I believe that we all know this. But let me ask, in the past hour, by whom did you live? This is the problem.
We are all familiar with Matthew and John, but not many Christians have gotten into the heart of these two books in reality. These Gospels show us that God intends to get into us to be our life and be one with us. In order to do this, He first became incarnated. He mingled Himself with man. Then He went to the cross, solving all negative problems. After this He was resurrected to become something so mysterious, so profound, and yet so real. This was the life-giving Spirit, who is the very embodiment of the Triune God. The Father is in the Son, and the Son today is the wonderful Spirit. When we call on Him, He comes into us. This is the most simple thing, yet it is the most profound matter in the universe. When we call, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus,” the Triune God comes into us, mingles with us, and is one with us. Whenever we call on His name, we are in Him, and He is in us. This is not a superstition, but a fact. It is just like the air that we breathe. We are in the air, and the air is in us. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we are in Him, and He is in us.
When we read the whole New Testament, we see that God became a man. Then He went to the cross to take away our sins, crucify our old nature, and terminate all negative things. He solved everything. After being put in a tomb for three days, He was resurrected to become a wonderful being—the life-giving Spirit, the embodiment, reality, and realization of the Triune God. When we have this Spirit, we have the Son, Jesus Christ, and we have the Holy Father. The Triune God is realized by us in the life-giving Spirit. Whenever we call on Him, we are in Him and He is in us.
In Romans 10:8-9, Paul says, “But what saith it: The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shall confess with thy mouth, Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Both the Word and the Spirit are so nigh to us. They are even in our mouth and in our heart. If we will just exercise our heart and our mouth and say, “Lord Jesus,” immediately we are in Him and He is in us.
The problem is that after calling on Him, we don’t live by Him. We still go back to our own ways and our own decisions. We may even begin to talk about some of the brothers and sisters in a negative way. After we call on Him, we forget to live by the One on whom we call. This is what Christians are short of today, and this is what we are short of. We are short of living by this life-giving Spirit. We must all learn to live by Him. This must not simply be a doctrine to us; it must be our experience day by day.
Matthew tells us that we have all been baptized into the Triune God. This means that we were baptized into Christ and into the one Body. Then John tells us that this Triune God has been processed into us just as water, food, and breath. Now we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us. “Abide in me, and I in you. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:4a, 5). To abide in Him means that we have been put into Him. And to let Him abide in us means that He is now within us. In other words, it is just as the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” We have been terminated and buried in the Triune God. Now it is no more us, but Christ that lives in us. We have been put into Him, and now He is within us.