Some people may ask, “How can we apply this principle?” First, we need to realize that we have a mistaken concept. When we consider the matter of religion, for example, we spontaneously associate it with self-cultivation. If a person believes in Buddhism and is a devout Buddhist, he surely tries to cultivate and improve himself. If a person believes in Catholicism and is a devout Catholic, he also tries to cultivate himself. Regardless of whether a person is a Muslim or a Christian, as long as he is sincere and not careless, he will have a concept related to cultivation and self-improvement. This is particularly true of those who are saved in a strong way. As soon as they are saved, such ones desire to become good Christians and serve God, and they immediately begin to act according to their concept of cultivation and improvement.
For example, before he is saved, a person may have a bad temper and often lose his temper with his wife. Once he becomes a Christian, however, he feels it is improper to lose his temper with his wife. Consequently, he spontaneously has a thought of correcting and cultivating himself. Truly speaking, among all those who are saved, no one can escape from this concept of cultivation. For example, we may have good fellowship with the Lord in the morning and touch His presence. However, once we come out of our room, someone can provoke us to the point that we speak some impetuous words. As soon as these impetuous words come out of our mouth, we immediately do not feel peaceful. Then we pray and ask the Lord to forgive us, but after asking for forgiveness, we also make up our mind to correct ourselves so that we do not lose our temper again. This comes from our concept of self-cultivation and improvement.
Many saints live a life of spiritual cultivation. Nevertheless, we cannot find the word cultivation in the Bible; spiritual cultivation is not the central thought in the Bible. Christianity has deviated from the course and is short of light and grace; it uplifts self-cultivation according to man’s concept and encourages people to cultivate themselves spiritually. This is a religious concept according to man’s religious view, but it is not the revelation of the Bible or the revelation of God’s light. If someone asks what word in the New Testament should replace cultivation, we would answer death. Death is the real way to change a person’s temper. A brother who loses his temper does not need cultivation but death. Death does not sound good, but in order for a man of the old creation to be transformed, death, rather than cultivation, is required.
Therefore, whether a person is in life does not depend on whether he is fast or slow. Being fast does not necessarily mean that a person is not acting according to life, and being slow does not necessarily mean that a person is acting according to life. Whether we have life and are in life does not depend on whether we are fast or slow but on whether God has been released from us. We may even change from being fast to slow or change our temper from bad to good, but it will not be according to life if God is not manifested from us. At the most, we will express our cultivation. Life is related to God, not cultivation, and when the New Testament speaks of life, it also speaks of death. Life is not a matter of cultivation but of death.
In the entire Bible, no apostle was ever inspired by the Holy Spirit to teach people to cultivate their conduct; on the contrary, the apostle Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). By this he meant that as a person with God’s life and as a person with Christ living in him, he had been crucified with Christ on the cross. He was dead. The cross accomplished a work of death in him so that God’s life would have a way. The New Testament does not teach us to cultivate ourselves; rather, it teaches us to walk in the way of death. When we pass through death and move in death, the life of God will gain an open way in us. We need to know the way of life through death. We need to see that cultivation is not God’s will, because God does not intend that we would improve ourselves. God wants us to see that the cross of His Son comes to us through the Holy Spirit. The cross does a work of death in us so that we may pass through death in order for His life to have an open way in us.
How can the life of God live out of us? First, we need to realize that we have the life of God in us. From the day that we were saved, God’s life came into us to be our life. However, this life is surrounded by our person. The life of God wants to come out of us, but our person hinders and restricts Him. Therefore, it is difficult for Him to come out of us.
Many saints become behavior-improving Christians and take the way of self-improvement because they do not know the life of God that dwells in them or the way of life. They think that they will arrive at the standard of a Christian by improving their temper a little and doing good rather than bad things. The way they take is unrelated to life; it is merely the way of religion and self-improvement. They are Christians in name, but they are not Christians in their actual living. The actual living of a Christian is the living out of God. Our problem depends on the divine life opening up a way in us so that God can live out of us. This is what we need to seek and discover.