Unfortunately, Adam failed and became fallen in this respect. For this reason, God humbled Himself to become a man. He took the form of fallen man, but without the corrupted nature of fallen man. This God who became flesh was called Jesus. First, He was conceived in a virgin’s womb; then after nine months He was born out of the womb in accordance with the law of the human life. He lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. He was a proper and perfect man. From man’s point of view, He was merely the son of a carpenter and a little Nazarene. But those around Him marveled at His works and words. Who was He? He was indeed the most wonderful person in history. According to the revelation of the Bible, this Jesus is the God-man, the One in whom there is both divinity and humanity. He accomplished an all-inclusive death on the cross, and He solved the problem of man’s sin before God.
Then He resurrected from the dead. In resurrection, He uplifted humanity and brought this uplifted humanity into divinity. Through death and resurrection, He brought the man with whom God desires to have a union back to God, that God and man can be joined as one. Furthermore, in resurrection He changed His form. The first time He changed His form was when He became flesh; He changed from that of the infinite God to that of a visible man. After thirty-three and a half years of human living, He entered resurrection through death. In resurrection, He changed again to another form; now He has changed from a human form to the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit comes from the Spirit of God, that is, from the nature and essence of God. This Spirit is Jesus Christ today. In Romans 8:2, He is also called the Spirit of life. He is our God and our Savior, and He also is the Holy Spirit. This is the One we believe in and preach about. This is also the One we look unto and call upon. What a wonderful One is He!
Such a wonderful One has now entered into us, not only as our Savior, but as our life. This life within us is the way that we should take. Every day, we have ways that we must take; they are varied and winding. Parents have their ways to take; children have also their ways to take. Unmarried ones have their ways to take, and married ones also have their ways to take. Men have to work, and women have to care for the family. Everyone has his own way that he has to take. Those who are not married have their problems; those who are married also have theirs. Men have their problems, and women also have their problems. It is difficult to be a human being! Everywhere and on all sides, there are problems. Sometimes things are so difficult that there is no longer any way to escape. The only way is Jesus. Jesus is the way to be a husband; Jesus is the way to be a wife. He is the way to be a parent and the way to be a child. Hence, everyone needs Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no way. Without Him, nothing can be done smoothly or satisfactorily. Hence, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the way’’ (John 14:6). Do you want to be a proper man? You need Jesus. Only Jesus can be our life within us. Only He is our way in everything.
How then can we enjoy this Jesus as our life? He is God, and He has been processed to become the life-giving Spirit. When we repent, confess our sins, believe in Him, and call upon His name, this Spirit of life, who is the processed Triune God, comes into us to be our life (John 3:16). This is not a vain doctrine, but a divine reality. Now, this Spirit of life is in our spirit. The two spirits fellowship and mingle with one another, and they have become one spirit. In this way, He has become our life, with the result that we become His living. This is the salvation of God.
Romans 5:10 says, “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.’’ We are not only reconciled to God through the Lord’s death, but we enjoy God’s salvation through taking Him as our life. In our human life, we often encounter difficulties. Whether in our study or in our work, in the family life or in the church life, the more relationships we build up, the more problems we have. In all these circumstances, it is difficult to be a proper man. For this, we need to be saved every day from worries, temper, disposition, and many other kinds of problems. We need to be saved not only once from God’s eternal judgment and punishment, but continually through the Lord’s life.
Hence, God’s salvation causes us to receive Christ as our life, and Christ as our life becomes our way to enjoy more of God’s salvation. The Lord’s life is the way for us to live the human life. It is also the way for us to live the church life. How then can we enjoy this salvation? The simplest way is by calling on the Lord. We should touch Him all the time and call on Him all the time. We can never be wrong or suffer loss by calling on His name. Whenever difficulties arise, we should not initiate anything. When our heart feels ill at ease, we should not lose our temper right away; that will only make matters worse. Simply call a few times, “O Lord Jesus,’’ and the Lord will operate within us and be our life within. The result will be that temper is gone, and wisdom is here. What could have gone wrong becomes right, and what was improper becomes proper.
This wisdom that we receive from the Lord becomes our method, and the method becomes the way. I have often heard people say that there is no way. This means that there is nothing that can be done. To have a way is to be able to do something. This way is the wisdom. First Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’’ The wisdom here is the method, or the way. This way causes us to be justified in the past, to be sanctified in the present, and to be redeemed in the future. This way that meets our past, present, and future needs is Christ. Hence, the Christian living is one that allows Christ to be our life continually, with the result that we enjoy His salvation unceasingly. In this living, Christ becomes our way in everything.
At the end of the Bible we see a picture, which is the New Jerusalem. In this holy city, the New Jerusalem, there is one street, in the midst of which flows the river of the water of life from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). This means that the street of the holy city has the flow of life as the way. In other words, the flow of life is the street of the holy city. This typifies the flow of the divine life as the unique way for God’s people to live their daily life. Wherever there is the flow of the divine life, there is the way by which the people of God walk. We know that the church life today is a miniature of the coming New Jerusalem, and the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the church life. The principles found in the two are the same. The condition of the holy city then should be the condition of the church life today; that is, the flow of life from the throne of God, as God’s flowing forth, should become our supply. This flow of life becomes the way for us to enjoy God’s life in eternity.
In the church life today, we walk in this way of life. In order to maintain a proper relationship among the saints and to continue in the Lord’s fellowship, all of us need to be in God’s way of life. The church is not a human organization, nor is it a social community. The church is the Body of Christ. This Body is organic, and it is not organizational. It is an organic building produced from all of us taking Christ as our life, and living in this life. This is like my body today: all the members are not organized together; rather, they are constituted as one body through the organic union of the inner life within them. Today, through living by Christ and taking His life as the way for our walk, we can have a church life free from problems and filled continually with the enjoyment of God’s salvation. By this, we can be joined together and built up together. This kind of church life will be the New Jerusalem to be manifested in the future. In it, God’s life will be our flow, our nourishment, and our supply. This life also will become the way for us to enjoy God in eternity.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Anaheim, California, on January 26, 1990)
(God's Way in Life, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)