Now we can clearly see that the Christian life mentioned in the Bible is altogether a matter of life and death, a matter of being put to death to receive resurrection. This is altogether different from the Chinese teachings of Confucius or Mencius. The teachings of Confucius and Mencius emphasize humanity, taking kindness as the main point. They proposed that within man there is a battle between reason and lust. Only by cultivation and self-refinement can reason be maintained and lusts be removed until one arrives at the realm of “bright virtue.” The Chinese Confucians made a thorough study concerning human beings, but they did not know God’s salvation, nor had they received God’s life. Therefore, even though their teachings were good, they were merely a matter of human study and behavior. The human living revealed in the Bible emphasizes the relationship between God and man. God has come and has entered into man to have a relationship with him. By this, God’s life and man’s life can join together to become one life. Thus, man’s life should come under God’s life. It should even submit to God’s life unto death. Philippians 2 shows us that the man Jesus humbled Himself and obeyed unto death, even the death of the cross (v. 8). His death, that is, the death on the cross, was a laying aside of Himself. He did not act according to man’s will, but to God’s will (Matt. 26:39). Today our Christian life is the same. We should be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, without self-choosing, desire, inclination, or enjoyment, instead, only seeking God and His will. This kind of willingness to be put aside is the highest definition of death, and it is in this death that the life of God is manifested.
In the universe, only the death of the Lord Jesus was an utmost obedience to God. By putting Himself aside, God’s life was manifested. The life that Paul lived on earth was such a life of being put to death. He did not choose a way that was comfortable, enjoyable, self-expressing or self-justifying. Rather, for the Lord’s sake he experienced much suffering, difficulty, ridicule, and persecution. He allowed the death of Jesus to do the killing work upon him so that the life of Jesus could be expressed through him. The Christian life revealed in the New Testament is such a life of death and resurrection. It is not a life of good and evil. The Christian life does not emphasize the removal of evil and the practice of good. Rather, it emphasizes us dying and God living. For a person to do good, he does not need to die; however, for a person to live out God, he must die.
What the Bible speaks concerning human beings and human behavior is different from the ethics and morality developed by Chinese philosophical thought. What they have is merely a matter of philosophy, but what the Bible says is a matter of truth and revelation. The Bible shows us that God has an eternal plan, which is to create for Himself a group of people to be His vessels to contain Him, so that He can enter into this group of people to be their life and content. In this way, they can live out God to be God’s corporate expression. However, before God had the chance to enter into His created man, the latter became fallen and was corrupted by Satan. Satan injected himself into this man and became the sinful nature within him. Although God’s plan was frustrated and damaged, God never gave up on the man He created. He became flesh Himself to carry out salvation. Eventually, He went to the cross and was crucified in the flesh to remove man’s sins, terminating the old man and destroying Satan who dwells in man’s flesh. Following that, in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit and entered into all those who believe into Him to be their life. From then on, man needs to be one with God, taking Him as his life and person, and putting himself aside. He needs to obey unto death so that God may live out from within him.
In our Christian life, regardless of what kind of circumstances we are in, we must put our self to death. At home, in the church, or among brothers and sisters, we should voluntarily put our self to death so that the life of God can have an opportunity to live out from within us. For this reason, the Bible likens us saved ones to seeds of life (Matt. 13:38). If we do not die, we will not live. Only when the outward shell is broken can the inward life be manifested. Hence, all the work that the Lord is doing on us is to destroy our outward, natural man so that we can live out the life of God within us. This is the deepest thought in the New Testament concerning the life of a Christian. It is not a matter of self-endeavoring through refinement. It is not a removal of evil and a practice of good works. Rather, through death and resurrection, man dies and God lives.
We who have received Christ should be delivered from all kinds of philosophical thoughts. We must be free from the concept of good and evil. Humanly and morally speaking, the concept of good and evil is wonderful. But as far as experiencing God’s salvation is concerned, it is a great hindrance. God has no intention for us to do evil, nor does He have the intention for us to do good by ourselves. We should know that both good and evil belong to the same tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They belong to the same source. Only the tree of life, that is, the Christ who is God’s embodiment, is what God wants. He has become the Spirit to dwell in us as our life. Now He wants to live out from within us. We only need to know the fact of our crucifixion with the Lord and believe and receive this fact. Through daily bearing the cross, we always put ourselves to death, like a grain that has fallen into the ground and died. In this way, the life of Christ will be lived out from us.
Fourth, the resurrection of Christ is manifested through His death. Where the death of Christ is, there the resurrection of Christ is also manifested. Romans 6 talks about the matter of our baptism. When we were baptized into the Triune God, simultaneously we were baptized into the death of Christ (v. 3). Through baptism into death, we were buried with Him so that we can walk in newness of life (v. 4). When we passed through baptism and rose up from the death waters, we more or less had a sense of newness of life. However, afterwards, through distraction by our own concept of good and evil, we began to care less for the sense of the new life. We began to make up our mind to do good and to endeavor to be a God-pleasing Christian through asceticism and self-denial. Eventually, we fell into the bondage of the indwelling sin in our flesh and became entangled in a war between good and evil, as described in Romans 7. The result was death and frustration. In contrast to this, if we remain in the death Christ accomplished for us, the life of God will continually supply us and will be lived out from within us. Romans 8:13 says, “If by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” This shows us that we need to cooperate with the indwelling Spirit and should not try by our own effort to put to death all of the practices apart from the Spirit. In this way the effectiveness of the death of Christ will be applied to us, and the life of God will be lived out from within us.
Fifth, the power of Christ’s resurrection conforms us to His death. The power of Christ’s resurrection is the resurrection life which resurrected Him from among the dead. If we are to know and experience this power of Christ, we need to be joined and conformed to the death of Christ. With Christ, it was first suffering and death, then resurrection. With us, it is first the power of His resurrection and then the fellowship of His sufferings and the conformation to His death. First, we receive the power of His resurrection. Then, through this power, we fellowship in His sufferings and live a crucified life through conformation to His death, that is, through taking the death of Christ as the mold of our living. This is what Christ experienced in His human living when He continually put to death His human life so that He could live by the life of God. If our living is conformed to the shape of this mold of Christ, that is, if we die to our human life and live the life of God, we can experience and manifest the power of Christ’s resurrection.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Taipei, Taiwan on April 26 and 28, 1988)