In the previous chapter we briefly covered the matter of being born to live. After our regeneration we live because of the Lord. In this chapter we will go on to see the matter of living with the Lord.
Living with the Lord is truly a mysterious matter. It is incredible that we human beings, especially sinners, can live with the Lord, who is divine and holy. This matter has been fully revealed and thoroughly explained in the Bible; moreover, it may be considered to be the center of the entire New Testament, and it is also a transparent truth. However, we do not have this concept when we come to read the Bible. On the contrary, we have many other concepts that are inaccurate, such as our natural concepts, our moral concepts, our religious concepts, and our cultural concepts. It is difficult for anyone to be freed from these four kinds of concepts. Our natural concept is that man should do good. Moreover, our religious concept is that man should do good to please God and to glorify God that he may worship God in peace. Regarding our cultural concepts, we know that whether people are from the East or from the West, they have their own culture and are very much influenced by their own culture. In addition, we have our moral concepts. People from every land are required to be moral and to keep moral standards in all human relationships. Thus, every one of us, young or old, has accumulated many old concepts. This is like wearing a pair of colored glasses; when we come to read the Bible, our natural, old concepts not only influence us but also veil us from seeing the true color, the center, and the fundamental revelations of the Bible. Instead, we see only the superficial things of the Bible.
In this chapter, we want to have an in-depth look at the Bible, and in particular we want to see the central matter in the New Testament. The central revelation in the Bible tells us that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has a move, a work, in two great steps. First, He accomplished redemption for us. We were sinners—corrupted, fallen people. As such, we deserved death and perdition, and we were utterly condemned and rejected by God. However, since God had chosen us, He could not abandon us. Therefore, the first step of His work was to accomplish redemption for us that He might rescue us, the fallen men, and solve the problem of our sins. He also justified and cleansed us completely that we might receive His redemption.
However, this is not the consummation; it is only the beginning. Therefore, God still has to carry out the second step of His work, that is, to work Himself into us. This is a mystery. God wants to work Himself into us; He does not want simply to give us something that is of Himself. He does not impart His life to us without coming into us Himself; rather, He works Himself into us to be our life. This life is God Himself. He comes into us to be our life, expecting that we will take Him as our life. We might think that God wants us to take Him as life and live by Him as life merely because He does not want our life, that He wants only His life because our life is bad, wicked, and corrupt. We cannot say that this thought is wrong, but it is not altogether accurate and it is not up to the standard. We must realize that even if our life were clean, sinless, and perfect, God still needs to and wants to come into us to be our life.
When God created man, He created man in His image and after His likeness. Then man was completely like Him, not in the inward substance but in the outward appearance. This likeness in outward appearance refers not so much to the physical appearance but to the manifestation of virtues. God is love, so He created us with a loving heart; He is light, so He created us in such a way that we like to be in the light; He is holy, so He created us with a nature that dislikes to be associated with evil elements and desires to be transcendent and uncommon; and He is righteous, so He created us with a nature that demands justice and uprightness. God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness; therefore we, who were created by Him, are the same as He is in our psychology, nature, desire, and taste.
Everyone knows that it is right to love and wrong to hate. If you love someone, you will feel happy; if you hate someone, you will feel contempt. No one likes to do the things of darkness; everyone delights to do the things of light. Therefore, whenever we do anything of darkness, we try to hide ourselves, and whenever we do anything of light, we feel free to make a display. Although we may not know what holiness is, we all like to behave properly and not improperly. We all like to be transcendent and outstanding instead of being associated with evil elements. We also have an inner desire to be fair, just, and righteous. These are human virtues. These virtues are simply images that are without content. The content of these virtues is God. Our love is only an outward form; its content is God’s love. We may use a glove as an illustration. A glove is made according to the form of a hand, but if the glove is not filled with the hand, it is empty. The glove by itself is empty; when you put your hand into the glove, the glove has its content, its inner reality.
When God created man, His intention was to put Himself into man. From the time He put Himself into us, we have had Him in us as our content. Now our love has reality, and our light has content; we are truly sanctified, and our conduct is fair, just, righteous, and upright. All these virtues are full of reality and content. Furthermore, this reality and content are altogether organic.
In the whole universe, God’s plan, God’s desire, God’s eternal purpose, God’s divine goal, is to work Himself into us. However, before He could work Himself into man, man became fallen and corrupted; therefore, God had to redeem man. This redemption was not the goal but the procedure for Him to work Himself into man. Today, in their reading of the Bible for the study of the truths, many Christians stop at this step—God’s redemption. They see only that we were fallen and corrupted, yet God became flesh to be our Savior by dying and shedding His precious blood for us on the cross. Therefore, we do not need to pay any price or do any work; to be saved we only need to repent and open ourselves to receive the salvation of the cross. We then are forgiven of our sins, cleansed from our defilement, and cleared of all charges against us. Consequently, the problems between us and God are solved; we are justified by God and reconciled to God. Now we are saved and will never go to hell, and one day we will go to heaven. This is the understanding of most Christians concerning God’s salvation.
However, the Bible does speak not only about the first step of God’s work, that God Himself became flesh to die for us. The Bible also tells us that God has a second step in His work. We have already seen that John chapter one says that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and that this God who was the Word in the beginning became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth (reality). Then it says, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (v. 29). These things are believed and received by most Christians. Many preachers also speak and preach these things as their central message. They tell people that God so loved the world that He sent His beloved Son to become flesh and be a man, that this man was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world, and that if we confess that we are sinners and if we repent and receive this Savior, our sins will be forgiven, we will be reconciled to God, and we will even have fellowship with Him in peace. This is right, but it is not God’s final goal; it is only the procedure for God to reach His goal. The goal of God is that after He has redeemed and cleansed us, He enters into us to be our life and become our nature and everything. The result is the union and mingling of God and man.