WE CHRISTIANS LIVING IN RESURRECTION,
NOT BY OURSELVES BUT BY CHRIST REPLACING US
We live in resurrection, not by ourselves but by Christ replacing us. We have been "fired," that is, we have been removed from our former post and replaced by Christ. We are in the transit of Christ’s death and resurrection. We are always in transit from death to resurrection; we are living to die. To live to die is to go through death. To die to live is to remain in resurrection. Then while remaining in resurrection, we live to die. The secret to this experience of living to die and dying to live is the cross.
God’s economy according to the divine revelation in the holy Word is to get the new creation out of the old creation. The way God gains the new creation is to first put the old creation to death, that is, to terminate the old creation. Then God injects Himself into this terminated old creation in order to gain the new creation. Without the injection of the divine element into God’s creation, God has no way to get the new creation out of the old creation. As Christians, we are God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). On one side of the cross, we were the old creation, but on the other side of the cross, we are the new creation. On one side of the cross, the old creation was terminated. On the other side of the cross, the divine element has come in to enliven the old creation, making it the new creation. The old creation, after being terminated and injected with the divine element, came out of death into resurrection as the new creation with the divine element within it. The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, the believers born again of God, does (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). The new creation is in a new condition with the divine element within it.
The point of transit is the cross of Christ. Christ’s death together with His resurrection is a big place of transit. Today we are still in the transit of Christ’s death and resurrection. All day long we are dying to live and living to die. The cross is the center of our daily life. Every day, every moment, we have to go to the cross and remain on the cross. Often we leave the place of transit, but we have to come back again and again. We are living to die and dying to live. Living to die is to enter into death, and dying to live is to leave death to enter into resurrection.
As a part of God’s old creation, we have been crucified. Now as Christians we are in the transit of Christ’s death. Thus, we live to die in Christ’s death. But Christ’s death does not leave us in death; His death brings us into resurrection. Hence, we die to live. We are brought into a cycle of living to die and of dying to live. In Christ’s death we live to die, and in His resurrection we die to live. Christ Himself was born to die. Then He came forth from death in resurrection. He died in order to live. As Christians we follow the same course. We were regenerated to die, and this death brings us into resurrection. Thus, we live to die and we die to live.
(The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee)
