In the biblical and experiential sense, grace means enjoyment. Grace is the enjoyment in our Christian life. Our Christian life has three aspects: the aspect of Abraham, the aspect of Isaac, and the aspect of Jacob. In the aspect of Abraham we cannot see much enjoyment. Although Abraham was blessed and was enlarged, he did not have very much enjoyment. He lost his father, and Lot became a grief to him. Eliezer, in whom he trusted, was rejected, and Ishmael, the son he begat by his own endeavor with his concubine, was cast out. After Isaac was born, God required that Abraham offer him up as a burnt offering. Not too long after Isaac was returned, Abraham lost his dear wife. Throughout his whole life we can see the aspect of loss. Although the Bible does not show that Abraham suffered very much, he lost almost everything. Is this all the Christian life is? If it is, then the Christian life is only a life of losses. The matter of loss is just one aspect of the Christian life. Romans 5:2 does not say, "We have access into this loss in which we stand." No, it says, "We have the access by faith into this grace in which we stand." God has no intention of keeping us in loss. His intention is to bring us into grace, into the enjoyment.

God wants to bring us into the enjoyment of grace, but there is a frustration to this grace—the self. We ourselves are the frustration. Although Christ has come and grace has come with Him, and although we have been brought into the grace in which we stand, the greatest frustration to this grace is you and I. Hence, before we can have the experience of Isaac, we need Abraham who represents the first aspect of the experience of life. Abraham's life reveals that if we would enjoy God's grace and have the full enjoyment of God's riches, we must be dealt with, circumcised, and cut off. If Abraham had not been circumcised, Isaac would never have been born. Isaac came after Abraham's circumcision. After Abraham was circumcised in Genesis 17, God told him that Isaac would be born (17:19). Eventually, in chapter twenty-one, Isaac was born. Isaac came with God's visitation. He was born by God's visitation. God's visitation equals the birth of Isaac. God visited Sarah and that visitation became the birth of Isaac. This is grace.

God has come to be enjoyed by His called ones. But if we would have this enjoyment, the self must go. Once the self has gone, Isaac comes. This means that grace comes. It is not easy to lose the self. In order for the self to go, we must suffer loss. Are you willing to lose yourself? I do not believe that anyone is willing to lose himself. Nevertheless, we must lose ourselves before grace can come. To lose the self is to lose our face. When we keep our face we lose grace. If we want to receive grace, we must lose our face. Brothers, as you deal with your wife in your daily living, you must be prepared to lose yourself. If you do this, grace will come. After Abraham was circumcised, Isaac came. This is the principle. With us, the self must go and then grace will come. We must firstly be Abraham and then we become Isaac.

It was not easy for Abraham to lose himself. In a good sense, God forced him to lose himself. When God called Abraham, He did not say, "Abraham, you must lose yourself and then I will come in to be your grace and enjoyment." No, when God called him, He promised to bless him. The blessing in the Old Testament somewhat equals the grace in the New Testament. What is the difference between blessing and grace? When God gives us something free, that is a blessing. But when this blessing is wrought into our being, it becomes grace. God promised Abraham that He would bless him. When the blessing was wrought into Abraham, it became grace. Abraham's self and natural man were the strongest frustration to God's blessing and forced God to deal with him.

The same is true in our experience. We all have been called, and God has given us the blessings in Christ (Eph. 1:3). However, after being called, we are still in ourselves and exercise our self-effort to obtain God's blessing. When I was young, I realized that my flesh was not good. When I was told that the flesh had been crucified on the cross, I was very happy. Then I began to exercise my own effort to put the flesh on the cross. But in exercising my own effort, I frustrated God's grace. The crossing out of the flesh had already been accomplished; it did not need the exercise of my effort. Yet I, the self, was trying to put my flesh on the cross. That self was the greatest frustration to God's grace. It separated me from grace. If we consider our past experience, we shall see that after hearing the good news, we tried many times by ourselves to obtain the things we heard in the good news. Our self-effort has been a frustration to God's grace. Because of this, God has been forced to deal with us.