CHRIST LIVING IN RESURRECTION AND IN US
Christ lives in resurrection, and He lives within us. This is clearly indicated in John 14:19 and Galatians 2:20. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Oh, Christ lives in us! He sits on the throne as the Lord, but He lives in our hearts as the Spirit. In John 14:19, the Lord Jesus said that because He lives, that is, in resurrection, we shall live also in Him. As the vine lives in the branches, the branches also live. We all need to be deeply impressed that Christ lives in us and we live in Him. How wonderful this is!
CHRIST BEING OUR LIFE,
AND WE LIVING BY HIM THROUGH ENJOYING HIM
Christ is our life, and we live by Him through enjoying Him. In Colossians 3:4 we are told that Christ is our life, and in John 6:57, that if we eat Him, we shall live because of Him. Christ is not only our life, but also our life supply. He is the bread of life (John 6:48). Bread is something for us to eat. We live by what we eat. If we did not eat, how could we live? We live by eating. At times I become tired, but always after eating a good meal, I am nourished. I live by what I eat. In a spiritual sense, we live by eating Jesus. Just as a car runs by the gasoline it "eats," we "run" by eating Jesus. Jesus is our food and Jesus is our "gasoline." We live by Him through enjoying Him. For this reason, every day we need some time to contact the Lord. We should not say that we are too busy to eat. If we refrain from eating, after a certain period of time we will die. We can never graduate from eating. The more we eat Jesus, the better. We eat Jesus, and we live by Him.
HAVING DIED TO THE LAW
THAT WE MIGHT LIVE TO GOD
In Galatians 2:19 Paul says that we have died to the law that we might live to God. Although this verse is in the Bible, we may be unaware of it. When we read the law, the Ten Commandments in the Bible, and realize that it is good, we may determine to keep it. However, Paul says that we Christians have died to the law. The law is good, but it is not for us to keep. We have died to the law that we might live to God. This means that we are not responsible to the law, but we are responsible to Christ. We are responsible to our God, who is Christ.
Let me illustrate in this way. Suppose you read in the Bible, "Honor thy father and thy mother" (Exo. 20:12). You may say to yourself, "I am a child of my parents, but I do not honor them all the time. Through reading the Bible I have learned that I should honor my parents." Immediately you may make a strong decision to honor your parents. You may tell the Lord, "Lord, You know that I am weak. I have the desire to honor my parents, but I cannot do it. Lord, help me to honor my parents." I prayed this kind of prayer many times. I can testify to you that this kind of prayer was never answered. The more you pray that the Lord will help you to honor your parents, the more you may lose your temper with your parents. When you read such a verse, you need to say, "Satan, let me tell you that I have died to the law, and I am not responsible to the law. I am living to God; I am living to Christ. I do not care for the Ten Commandments. I only care for Christ. He is within me. He lives within me and I live with Him. I am responsible only to Him. Morning and evening, day and night, every minute and every second, I am responsible to Christ. I live to Christ, I live by Christ, I live in Christ, I live with Christ, and I live Christ (Phil. 1:21a). I am one with Christ." Spontaneously, Christ in you will live to honor your parents. Now your honoring of your parents is not you, but Christ. It is not you who honor your parents; it is Christ in you who honors them. We all need to see this.
Many of God’s people use the Bible in a wrong way. For example, many Christian husbands and wives misuse Ephesians 5:22 and 25. These verses say that wives should submit to their husbands, and that husbands should love their wives. However, each may read these verses for the other, not for himself. The husbands may read verse 22, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord," while neglecting verse 25; and the wives may read verse 25, "Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church," while overlooking verse 22.
In the early years of my ministry a number of cases between husbands and wives were brought to me. Both the husband and the wife came to me to present their case. The husband complained that his wife was not submissive, and the wife, that her husband was not loving. In this way the Bible became the law for a lawsuit. But we need to see that we have died to the law. We no longer live to the law and are not responsible to the law. We live to Christ and are responsible to Him. We should no longer care about the law; we should only care for Christ. Our need is simply to pray, "Lord Jesus, I love You. Thank You, Lord, that You are one with me. You live in me and I live in You. Lord Jesus, it is not I, but You. I desire to live You every minute and every second." A wife who prays in this way will gradually find that she can easily submit herself to her husband. She will do it unconsciously, willingly, and unintentionally. It is the same with the husbands. There will be no need for the husbands to determine to love their wives; they will love their wives spontaneously. We have died to the law that we may live to Christ. This is to live Christ.
(The Secret of Experiencing Christ, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
