I have seen some young people who in their age of “metamorphosis” were haughty and arrogant, but by unceasingly calling “O Lord Jesus” day after day, they have become dignified and mature. Previously, they always liked to “put up their fists,” but now there is Someone in them—the Lord Jesus—who draws their fists back. We all have experiences like this. Sometimes we are about to lose our temper, and sometimes our temper has even reached the tip of our tongue, but the Lord Jesus gives us a pull, and we turn and go into our room to call, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” Then our temper is extinguished.
Everyone who believes in Jesus has a wonderful fountain, a “fire hydrant,” within. Once we call “O Lord Jesus,” the fire hydrant is turned on, and it flows out water to quench our anger. Previously when we went shopping, if the sales person gave us more change than we were owed, we would be happy that we had gained some advantage. But now instead of feeling excited about it, we return the extra change. The Lord Jesus has turned many naughty students into “saints.” This is the operation of His salvation in them to make them people who are true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of, people who are full of virtues. This is not through outward teaching, nor is it through outward correction, but it is through the metabolism carried out in man by the Lord Jesus as his life. This is God’s salvation.
Do not ever think that Christians are those who belong to a charitable organization with the purpose of doing good deeds. We are not drawing people to join a religion and then teaching them to change their outward behavior. The first lines of the chorus of Hymns, #538 read, “It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be wrought in me.” When a person receives God’s salvation by believing in the Lord Jesus, he does not receive some teaching outwardly for the correction of his behavior. Rather, he receives the living Christ into him to be his life.
I hope that each brother and sister who has been saved can clearly see this matter. Do not ever exercise your will to do good, for doing so often has the opposite effect. God does not require us to exercise our will to do good. Instead, He wants us to call on the name of Jesus. The Bible says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). When we were giving messages in America on calling on the name of the Lord, some people thought that we were teaching another philosophy, and some considered calling on the Lord a kind of mental exercise. Instead of debating with them, we simply asked them to call on other names such as Washington and Socrates to see if they would sense anything different. Those who tried it did not get any feeling. We have to know that calling “Lord Jesus” is a tremendous matter.
When we call, He comes into us. As the resurrected One, He comes into us with God’s life to save us. If you feel unhappy or uncomfortable, you can open to Him individually, calling, “O Lord Jesus.” If you call this way several times, you will feel at ease within. The Lord Jesus is our Savior, who saves us not only from perdition but also from our temper, anger, lies, and jealousy. He is our way of salvation, and He is our salvation.
First, God created us according to His image of love, light, holiness, and righteousness so that we have the predisposition toward what is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of. Yet all these are just outward forms and frames; there is no reality within. Therefore, in His salvation God caused Christ to become the Spirit so that Christ as the embodiment of love, light, holiness, and righteousness can enter into us. This One who comes into us corresponds with our image which was originally created by God. Therefore, once He enters into us, He fills the outer shell created by God so that we can be full of reality. This is the same as a glove. Although the glove is designed according to the image of the hand, it is floppy and empty without the hand. But when the glove contains the hand, it has reality. Only then can it fully express the image of the hand, and the hand can also move freely.
The Lord Jesus in whom we believe is the One who is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Through us He is expressed as our virtues: as truthfulness, dignity, righteousness, purity, loveliness, and the quality of being well spoken of. Consequently, the intrinsic nature of the living we manifest before man is virtue, yet for others it becomes something worthy of praise. Once the Lord Jesus enters into man, He makes the God-created man full of the inward reality that he may express the God who is love, light, holiness, and righteousness and become true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of. Once the Lord enters into us, all our problems spontaneously are solved. Once He enters into us, all our inward needs are fully supplied. Thus, we are those who have obtained Christ, who live Christ, and who express Christ.
(A message given on April 19, 1987 at the Lord’s table meeting in Taipei.)