The most mysterious matter in the Bible, something which we could never imagine or dream up, is that the Lord Jesus personally told His disciples that He wanted them to abide in Him and that He also wanted to abide in them. Since we have become accustomed to reading such a word, we are not amazed by it. However, if you were there on that day hearing this word, would you not have been astonished? You would wonder, “Is the Lord speaking something true? Is this an allegory, or is it only an illustration? What does this word really mean? How can we abide in the Lord? And how can the Lord abide in us? This is truly difficult to understand.”
When the Lord Jesus spoke this word, He had already been living on earth for over thirty years. Formerly He had been a carpenter at home, but when He became thirty years of age He came out to speak for God to do the work of preaching. After doing this work for nearly three and a half years, one day He told the disciples that He would be leaving them. They had been with Him for three and a half years, and no one could help but love Him and be attracted to Him because He was such a marvelous, real, great, yet meek God-man. Every one of them liked Him. Therefore, in John 12, when the Lord came to the home of one of the disciples, the atmosphere of loving, appreciating, admiring, and adoring Him reached such a high peak that a sister poured ointment upon Him from her most treasured alabaster flask. The people’s adoration for the Lord had reached the ultimate. He was very lovable. Moreover, His believers and followers anointed Him not only once. According to the record in the four Gospels, they anointed Him twice. In Luke 7 there was the other occasion when He was anointed. He was truly lovable and attractive.
Nevertheless, one day all of a sudden He told those who loved Him that He would be leaving them. When the disciples heard this, they became sorrowful. While they were in sorrow, He said to them, “Do not let your heart be troubled” (John 14:1, 27b). He also told them that He would go away and would come again (v. 28). Today there are Bible interpreters in Christianity who say that His going was His ascension, and His coming again will be His second coming at the end of the age. They say that the wait has been almost two thousand years, yet He has not come. However, this is not the meaning of the word the Lord Jesus spoke at that time. What He meant by His going was that He was going to the cross to die and that after His death He would be resurrected. His going was His death; His coming would be His resurrection. What the Lord meant by His word was: “Do not let your heart be troubled. My going is for your benefit, because if I do not go, I can only be among you. You love Me, and I also love you. However, my intention is not only to be among you but also to enter into you. I want to be not only among you as your gain, your enjoyment, and your Lord. More than this I want to enter into you to be your life. If I remain outside of you, I cannot be your life. For me to be your life, I must enter into you.”
If food does not enter into us, it has nothing to do with our life. For food to become our life, it must enter into us. Furthermore, it must not only enter into us but also become part of us. In this way the food that we eat becomes our life and life supply. Therefore, in John 6 the Lord Jesus said that He is our bread of life, that He who comes to Him shall by no means hunger, and that He who eats Him shall live because of Him (vv. 35, 57b). It is a pity that at that time the disciples did not understand the Lord’s word because what He told them was new; this was a new utterance, a new concept. This word had never been uttered since the creation of the world. If someone today were to say that he is our food and that we must eat him, we would find this word hard to accept. We would definitely say that this man is crazy, that he is sick in his mind, and that he ought to be sent to the mental hospital. However, in John 6 the Lord repeatedly said that He is the bread of life. Those who eat Him shall live because of Him. Although the Lord said this repeatedly, not one of His disciples could receive His word. At the end of John 6, many of the disciples, after hearing this word, said, “This word is hard; who can hear it?” (v. 60). Then they went back and no longer walked with the Lord. Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” Simon Peter answered Him, saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (vv. 67-68). Although this was the reply at this time, they were all confused again in chapter fourteen.
In John 14, the Lord told the disciples that He was going, but He also said that after going He would come again. It was not that He would be gone for two thousand years and still not return. What the Lord meant in 14:19 was that in a little while He would return. The Lord went to die and to be buried. Shortly afterward He returned. Furthermore, the Lord assured His disciples that He would not leave them orphans and that after going He would come again. However, when the Lord came back, He would be another Comforter. He would come back as the Spirit of reality. John 14:16-20 describes this matter in a very clear way. The Lord Jesus was originally in the flesh and could be only among the disciples. Then this Lord in the flesh, who was the last Adam, went through death and resurrection and was transfigured to be the life-giving Spirit. This is just like a grain of wheat; after being put into the ground it grows into a different shape. Originally it was just a grain; but when it grows, it is a vibrant, lively, tender green sprout that is entirely different from its original shape. This tender green sprout continues to dispense life, gradually grows up to bring forth the stem, branches, and leaves, and eventually blossoms and bears fruit. This is altogether a matter of the dispensing of life.
People in Christianity today have not seen this matter clearly. They see the Lord Jesus only as the Almighty Lord, who could rise from the dead even though He was killed. Furthermore, after resurrection, He ascended into the heavens to be seated on the throne where no one could touch Him. This is the great Christ that they know. On the one hand, the Bible tells us that He truly is great—He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. On the other hand, however, the Bible tells us that Christ wants to be our life. The aspect of Christ being great can easily be seen. Everyone who reads the Bible can see it. However, the aspect of Christ being life is rarely seen. Almost everybody in Christianity is in darkness with respect to this matter of God being man’s life; there is no one who speaks about this. I was born into Christianity, grew up in Christianity, was educated in Christianity, and was nurtured in Christianity. I do not know how many sermons I heard, yet I never heard the matter of Christ being man’s life.