WHERE THE CROSS IS, CHRIST IS
Once we stop all of our activities, the Spirit of God will immediately have the ground in us and the opportunity to touch us and operate in us. Thus, what is expressed through us will be God Himself. Once the cross does the killing work in us, resurrection will come. Where death is, resurrection is; where the cross is, Christ is. When there is the work of death within us, there will be resurrection, and the Spirit of Christ will be expressed. At that time, what comes out of us will be God Himself and Christ.
If we pour water on a person, even though the water flows away, his clothes are wet and mingled with water. Every time we contact the cross, Christ passes through us. Every time Christ passes through us, He constitutes us and mingles Himself with us. When we have more of this kind of experience, we will reach a stage at which Christ will not only stay in us, mingle Himself with us, and add Himself to us, but Christ will also live out through us. The cross finds a place and an outlet for Christ in man. As a result, Christ is mingled with man, and man is terminated on the cross. This is the crucified Christ.
We look to God to shine on us and give us the light to such an extent that not only will we refrain from saying any bad words by ourselves, but we will also refrain from saying any good words by ourselves. Not only will we refrain from expressing anything bad, but we also will refrain from expressing anything good. The attitude of expressing things by ourselves will be put on the cross and terminated. If in everything we do we are willing to learn the lesson of asking ourselves whether what we are doing is out of ourselves or out of Christ, then we will be blessed.
We should not take what is outwardly right or wrong, good or evil, as the standard; rather, we should take the inward Christ as the standard. We should not only ask ourselves whether we hate people or love people, but we have to ask ourselves further whether we love people out of our own love or out of Christ’s love, because we are now on the cross and have been terminated. A terminated person does not have his own love or hatred; neither does he have right or wrong. One who is terminated on the cross has only one thing—Christ living in him. Where there is the death of the cross, there is the resurrection of Christ.
When Christ is living in us, whatever He lives out from us—goodness, love, light, or anything that is profitable to others—will enable others to touch Christ. Not only so, we also will have more of the element of Christ within us. Day after day, Christ will add more of Himself to us. He will do this to the extent that we will not even need to think, but Christ in us will give us the clear feeling to know what is of Him.
What God desires today is that many people will see from the light of the cross that they have been terminated by the cross. This seeing will cause us not only to stop doing evil but also to stop doing good. This seeing will put our entire being to death. Thank the Lord that whoever has the death of the cross has the expression of the resurrected Christ. When we have such an experience, we will see that Christ is our life and that we are in the death of the cross and on the path of the cross.
(The Crucified Christ, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
