If a Christian wants to grow in life, two things are essential: He must confess his sins thoroughly to the Lord and deal with his sins. A third thing which is equally important is consecration; he must consecrate himself absolutely to the Lord. As a basic requirement, every Christian should consecrate himself to the Lord. After a person is saved, if he desires to grow in life, he must confess and deal with his sins. The confession of sins focuses on what is on the inside while dealing with sins focuses on what is on the outside. To confess sins is to tell God the condition of one’s heart and to confess to God all the sins that one feels inwardly. To deal with sins is something related to outward behavior; it involves thoroughly dealing with everything in one’s living, surroundings, and home that is not pleasing to God. This is a dealing that is not only before God but also before men. The inward confession of sins plus the outward dealing with sins—the two combined together—are a complete experience.
However, after a person is saved, if he merely confesses his sins before God and deals with his sins before men but does not consecrate himself to God, he has not yet started to walk on the path of life. We have to know that after a person’s salvation, the first step always includes confession of sins, dealing with sins, and consecration to the Lord. In our experience, these three things may be in a different sequence. Some may confess their sins first and then consecrate themselves to the Lord; some may consecrate themselves to the Lord first and then deal with their sins. The order does not matter. After a person is saved, the first step always includes these three things: a thorough confession of his sins before God, a careful dealing with his sins before men, and the consecration of himself to the Lord. These three things combined together are a complete experience.
This can be likened to our breakfast. A complete Chinese breakfast is composed of bread, porridge, and some small dishes of food. It does not matter whether we eat the porridge, the bread, or the small dishes of food first. In the same way, after a person’s salvation, his first experience should include confession of sins to God from within, a thorough dealing with sins before men, and an absolute consecration to the Lord. All these three things are equally necessary, but their sequence is not that important. It does not matter whether or not others encourage you to do these three things, because all those who are saved and desire to take the Lord’s way cannot avoid them. Anyone who has not experienced these few matters has never taken a step before the Lord. Even if some have experienced only the first matter, only the second matter, or both matters, if they have not experienced the third matter, they still have not yet taken a complete step before the Lord.
We have to ask the Lord to show us where we really are. Regardless of whether we have a definite heart to take the Lord’s way or we have just a little determination, we must realize that there is no short cut in the spiritual path. When we leave the house, we have to first pass through the front door before we get to the gate. In the same way, there are certain sections in the Lord’s way, and we cannot skip any step. We may listen to messages and read the Bible, but if we do not have a heart to take the Lord’s way, messages will not help us, and reading the Bible will not be beneficial to us. Messages should render much help to people, and reading the Bible should supply them with life, but if we merely understand the Lord’s way and do not have a heart, then nothing will be profitable to us. We should not be those who merely understand the Lord’s way; we should be those who also have a heart. Not only so, we should not merely have a heart, we also should begin to walk on the way. If so, every single message we hear will be profitable to us, and every verse of the Bible that we read will be a supply to us. I hope that every one of us would be one who has a heart and walks on the way.
Thus, we can see that in addition to confessing and dealing with our sins, consecrating ourselves to the Lord is of great importance. There are two crucial points in the entire Bible. First, God requires man to believe in Him, and second, God requires man to love Him. None of the leaders of the world require man to believe in them or to love them. Neither Mohammed nor Confucius ever asked anyone to believe in him or to love him. Only Jesus Christ wants man to believe in Him and to love Him.
Since man’s fall, God’s demand on man has been first, faith and second, love. Do you know what it means to be saved? To be saved is to turn to God, that is, to believe in God and to have a relationship with God. When a person does not have God, he is alienated from God; regardless of whether this alienation is great or small, he is alienated and severed from God. How are we united to God and joined to God? This happens through faith. The more we believe, the more we are joined to God; the more we believe, the more we are united with God and the stronger our contact with God is. Many people say that there is no God, because they use the wrong organ to try to contact God. For instance, if we use our ears to try to hear colors, we surely will not be able to hear anything; if we use our eyes to see smell, we surely will not be able to see anything. The more we believe in God, the more we realize His existence; and the more we believe in Him, the more we sense His presence. The relationship that man has with God is one of faith.
Second, the relationship that man has with God is characterized by love. It is wonderful that after man believes in Him, what He requires of man is love. Every saved one, everyone who believes in God, has the feeling within him that the Lord is lovely. If we ask someone who worships Buddha whether Buddha is lovely or not, he will say that he has never thought about this. If we ask someone who believes in the Lord, regardless of how much love he has, he at least has some feeling that he loves the Lord; he at least has some heart to do something for the Lord. Hence, as long as a person is saved, without anyone teaching him, he spontaneously has a feeling within him that the Lord is lovely and that he wants to love the Lord.