Will you please turn to the letter to the Philippians? Philippians, chapter 1, verse 21:
For to me to live is Christ.
The letter to the Colossians, chapter 3. We will read from verse 1 through verse 4:
If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory.
And finally, Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
That is perfect.
Lord, we do want to thank Thee for gathering us together tonight unto Thyself. Lord, we do ask Thee to breathe afresh upon Thy Word, and make Thy Word living and operative to each one of us. Speak to us, Lord. Transform us and conform us to Thy only image, to the praise of the glory of God. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
We mentioned again that the theme of this conference is the whole counsel of God. The whole counsel of God must be glorious and all-inclusive.
In this whole counsel of God, we mentioned especially three different areas: that which concerns Christ, who is the very center of the whole counsel of God; that which concerns Christians, which is a necessary process in the counsel of God; and that which concerns the church, which is the final product, the destiny of the work of God.
Our brother’s burden is on Christ, and my responsibility is on Christians. Michael’s responsibility is on the church.
We mentioned last time that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. In the thought of Christ, there is no separation, no distinction, between believers and disciples. In other words, in the heart of our Lord Jesus, everyone who believes in Him is supposed to be a disciple of Him.
Unfortunately, we find today that we separate these two people. We can be believers: we believe in the Lord Jesus, and we receive grace and salvation from the Lord. And yet, we are able not to respond to the call of discipleship.
And yet, in the heart of God, there is no such separation. Believers are all disciples. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour, at the very same time, ought to surrender their lives to the Lord Jesus and accept Him as their Master, their Lord, their King.
It is the disciples who were first called Christians. The world looked at these disciples of the Lord Jesus. They saw the Lord Jesus in them, and they said, “These people are Christians.”
So, brothers and sisters, today we call ourselves Christians. In the beginning, the name Christian was given to those disciples of the Lord Jesus. In other words, that name was earned because they were disciples of Christ. Christ was everything to them. The world looked at them, and they saw Christ. Therefore, they were given that nickname.
Brothers and sisters, are we worthy to be called Christians? Are we willing to be fully possessed by the Lord Jesus, that He really is all to us? Are we really madly in love with Him, constrained by His love toward us? Are we willing to be fools for God?
That is the meaning of the word Christian. So, by the grace of God, may we be what we are called to be.
Now this evening, we would like to consider together before the Lord the life of the Christian.
We often hear people say, “Why should I be a Christian? I am more morally correct than you so-called Christians.” In a sense, they are right.
Their expectation of us who believe in the Lord Jesus is that we should be more moral than ordinary people. They can excuse people in this world for being immoral, though they cannot excuse those who profess to be Christians and yet are low in moral conduct. I say they are right in their expectation.
Our Lord Jesus Himself said, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Again, He said, “If ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?” The Lord expects us to be extraordinary.
“Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
In Philippians, chapter 2, verses 15 and 16, we find the Apostle Paul telling the believers, “That ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.”
So, in a very real sense, brothers and sisters, the world expects us Christians to be morally higher than people of this world. If we are not, we bring great disgrace to our Lord Jesus. How the name of our Lord Jesus is put to shame because of our low moral condition.
Yet, on the other hand, we have to say that the world does not know us. They really do not know what makes us Christians. They are totally wrong in their estimation, in their measurement, because a Christian is not basically distinguished from the world by outward appearance. A Christian is different from the world fundamentally in an inward situation.
What makes a person a Christian? It is not because he is morally higher or better than ordinary people. There are many moral people in this world. As a matter of fact, some even have a higher moral standard than many Christians, but they are not Christians.
What makes us Christians is not something outward; it is something inward. In other words, what differentiates one as a Christian from others who are non-Christian is that we have something in us which those in the world do not have.
In John, chapter 3, verse 36, it says, “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life.” What makes one a Christian is life.
Now, of course, when God created man, He took dust and formed it, shaped it into the form of man. Then He breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of that form, and the Bible says man became a living soul. In other words, man was created with a life.
And that life which was created in him enables him to be alive, animated, active. At the very beginning, when God created man, not only did He give man a body formed from the dust, and not only did He breathe into that man and give him a soul-life, an animated life; at the same time, we know God gave him a spirit.
Some people say that when God breathed the breath of life into man, the word life there is plural: not only the life of the soul, but at the same time God gave man a spirit. And with that spirit, man was given the ability to communicate with God. With the soul, he is able to communicate with himself; and with the body, he communicates with the physical world.
So you find that when Adam and Eve were created and put in the garden, they were able to communicate with God. God came to the garden and communed with them.
But unfortunately, we all know that thing happened. Man failed. The Lord told them, “Of all the trees in the garden thou mayest freely eat; but there is one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat; because in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
In the midst of the garden there was the tree of life, and by the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By forbidding them to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God, in a sense, suggested to them to take the tree of life. They already had a life, the life of the soul, which made them living and active; but God’s intention was that they might receive a higher life, a life of the spirit—God’s own life.
But unfortunately, man was deceived, content to live a lower life, trying to develop his soul-life, to be independent of God, to make a god out of himself, instead of living a dependent life and living by the life of God.
So the result was that on the day they ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they died. Now, of course, when you read Genesis, you find Adam and Eve continued to live on. As a matter of fact, they lived to almost a thousand years old, and they begat sons and daughters, many of them.
But the Word says, “On the day that you eat, you shall surely die.” So we know death happened on that very day they sinned against God. They were dead in sins and transgressions. In other words, their spirit was dead toward God. Their spirit lost communication with Him, and man became natural, with soul and body active, but without a living spirit.
So, brothers and sisters, you find in a natural man that he has no communication with God. He cannot hear Him. He cannot see Him. He cannot taste Him—taste the goodness of the Lord. He cannot smell Him—smell the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He cannot touch Him, because he is so distant from God.
In other words, you find in the natural man, so far as his relationship with God is concerned, he is dead. He is a natural man. No matter how brilliant he is, no matter how he is able to think nobly of God, no matter how moral he is, in the sight of God he is a dead man—no life, no meaning to his existence.
Why should people live? A hundred years is really too much. A thousand years? There is no meaning to life. Just live, and then die; and after death, judgment. No purpose, no meaning. That is the natural man.
But, brothers and sisters, one day something happened to you and me. When we believed in the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, we were given a new life—a life that we never had before. It is a divine life, uncreated life. It is the life of God. It is eternal life, and that life was given to us.
In John, chapter 1, verse 12, it says:
But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name:
Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
That makes one a Christian. You cannot make one a Christian by natural blood. Many people say, “Well, are you a Christian?” “Yes, I am.” “Why?” “Because my grandfather was a Christian. My father was a Christian. I was born in a Christian family. By blood, I am a Christian.” Not by blood.
Nor of the will of man. I believe Christian parents would like very much for their children to be Christians. But can they make them Christians? They can send them to Christian schools. They can send them to Sunday schools. But can they make them Christians? They cannot.
Nor of the will of the flesh. Can you will yourself to be a Christian? By your strong will: “I am determined to be a Christian. I will imitate Christ. I will keep the Sermon on the Mount.” Does that make you a Christian?
In a sense, that will make you a better man than an ordinary man, or that will make you a nervous person. But that does not make you a Christian. No education, no family relationship—nobody, not even yourself, can make you a Christian.
What makes you a Christian is a life. You have something that nobody in this world has. They may boast of their education, family background, position, or anything in this world—well, whatever you please. But there is one thing they do not have, and you have. What you have is better than anything that the world can ever offer: a new life. That is all.
You know, one day we were talking about eternal life. What is eternal life? Well, eternal life is to live on and on and on and on, unendingly—not only a millennium, but millennium after millennium.
So when we were talking about that, I said, “Oh, if that is eternal life—only that is eternal life—I hope I do not have that life, because living in this world for eighty years is enough. Eight hundred years, eight thousand years—I cannot imagine how you can live.”
But then, though it is true that eternal life, so far as time is concerned, goes on and on and on—in other words, it is timeless—that is true. But eternal life has a quality. It is a quality of life that makes it so glorious. And when you have that life, of course you expect it to go on and on and on without ending. How miserable it would be if it were only for ten years.
It is not a created life that just keeps you living. It is an uncreated life. It is a divine life. It is the life of God. Can you imagine what the life of God is?
Well, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, you receive eternal life. But what is eternal life? To a number of people, eternal life is something that God gives to us when we believe in the Lord Jesus.
In other words, when you come to the Lord Jesus, you ask for the forgiveness of sins. You are burdened with your sins. You come to the Lord and ask for forgiveness.
Oh, brothers and sisters, if you can recall the day when you came to the Lord Jesus—I could never forget the time I came to the Lord Jesus. I was brought up in a Christian family. My father was a pastor. He loved the Lord.
In my family, we had family worship every day. Before we had our supper, our father would gather all of us children—we had seven brothers and sisters. The whole family would be together in the sitting room, and he would read from a big Bible. After he read it, we all knelt down and he led us in prayer.
I was brought up in that environment from my childhood. I went to a mission school. I was in Sunday school when I was a child. I knew the Bible. I was made a member of the Methodist Church. I was active in Christian service. I preached. I led prayer meetings. I was not saved.
All these things did not make me a Christian. People looked at me and thought that I would succeed my father, a little preacher. But, brothers and sisters, when the Spirit of God convicted me of my sins, I wept. I knew I was a sinner.
I sought the Lord earnestly. I knew the gospel, but somehow it evaded me. For a whole year I sought salvation. I was in high school at that time. When there was a great preacher coming to Shanghai—and Shanghai, you know, was a big city, and world-famous teachers all came to Shanghai—many of them preached in my father’s church.
Paul Rader and all these big preachers came. When they came to preach, I often went to hear them. But when I came home, nothing happened. A whole year, the burden of sin was so heavy upon me.
When I saw a coffin, I turned my head away. I was afraid. I knew I would go to it.
But, brothers and sisters, one day, when the Lord met me, the first thing I noticed was that burden was gone. That load was gone. I could fly. My sins were forgiven. Thank God for that.
And, brothers and sisters, you know, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Lord is so gracious. He says, “Okay, I give you a package called forgiveness of sins. You take it, and your sins are forgiven.”
And then, more than that, He says, “I give you another package called eternal life. You take it and carefully deposit it in the safety box, because one day you will need it. One day, when you go to heaven, that is the passport you need. So you take that package and deposit it in the safety box, waiting for the day that you die so you can go to heaven.”
What is eternal life? Is eternal life something that comes from God, but not God Himself—a part of God? Eternal life is the gift of God, but what is the gift?
Eternal life is not an it. It is He, that Person. Do you realize, brothers and sisters, when you believe in the Lord Jesus and receive eternal life, a new life has come into you? That life is a Person.
And that Person is none other than God Himself: Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit. He Himself comes and dwells within you. That is eternal life.
So Brother T. Austin-Sparks put it this way: “God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit is now your life.”
We often think of eternal life, divine life, as something other than God Himself. And because of this, we do not know eternal life as we should. But, brothers and sisters, when we come to the Lord and receive Him as our Saviour, He Himself as life comes into us, and by His Spirit He takes His abode, His residence, in you and me.
Now that makes us Christians. So what makes us Christians? What differentiates us from the people in this world is this: they do not have Christ, but we have Christ. They do not have God, but we have God. They do not have the Holy Spirit, but we have the Holy Spirit. We have a divine Person dwelling in our spirit. Now that makes us Christians.
I think this is very, very important. It is very elementary, but it is very important, because most Christians do not know that eternal life is a divine Person.
Eternal life has the characteristics of God. What God is characterizes eternal life. It is righteous. It is holy. It is pure. It is love. It is glorious. It is endless. It is heavenly. Eternal life has all the characteristics of God.
And this is the reason why, because we have eternal life in us, it separates us from the world. The separation of Christians from the world is supernatural and natural. If a Christian is not separated from the world, it is unnatural.
I am thinking of 2 Corinthians, chapter 6. Here you find, starting from verse 14:
Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?
Now, brothers and sisters, we who believe in the Lord Jesus, we who are Christians, are not only justified. In other words, the righteousness of God comes upon us. When we come to the Lord Jesus, we are clothed with Christ as our righteousness. So God looks upon us as righteous; or, to put it another way, God looks upon us and says, “You are all right.”
Why? Because we are clothed with Christ. We are sons of righteousness. What differentiates us from the world is that we practise righteousness. God is righteous, and he that practises righteousness is born of God. Not only are we called righteous, but we have that righteous nature living in us. It is the nature of eternal life, the nature of the life of God.
But the people in this world are lawless. That is the character of the life of the natural man. The natural man does not appreciate the law of God. The natural man cannot do the will of God. Lawlessness, rebellion, is in him. But, brothers and sisters, what is in you is righteousness.
And here you find again: “What fellowship hath light with darkness?” Once we were in darkness. Our eyes were blinded by the god of this world. We grew up in darkness. But now we are in the light.
The Lord Jesus says, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” His life has the characteristic of being light. So you find, brothers and sisters, God is light. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sin. There is no participation between light and darkness.
There is a life in you, and that life is the light of men. “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” We have Christ in us. He is our Lord, our Master. What do we have to do with Belial? That word means worthlessness, recklessness, wickedness.
So you find wicked people are called sons of Belial. The Antichrist is called Belial. Satan is Belial. In other words, you find in this world Satan is the god of this world; but so far as we are concerned, Christ is our Lord. He has translated us out of the power of darkness and put us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
“What agreement hath a temple of God with idols?” Brothers and sisters, we are the temple of God. When eternal life comes into us, God comes into us. We become the temple of God. What have we to do with idols?
So what separates us from the world is this life. God Himself in us separates us from the world.
But what is life for? I think this is so simple. Life is for living. The only reason God gives us eternal life is that life may live.
What is that life for? Christ is in you. Why is He in you? What is He there for?
I remember a number of years ago, I was in Peru, South America. A dear friend of mine invited me to go there because they knew a couple of missionaries who had served the Lord faithfully for many years in Peru, in the jungles and on the mountains.
A Chinese family, and one member of their family is here tonight, moved to Peru. They were Christians. So when this missionary couple heard that at a certain place in Peru there was a Christian family, they came to visit them.
At that time, you know, they spent half a year on a truck, visiting people in the mountains; and half the year they lived on a boat, sailing the Amazon River and visiting villages. So they came to visit that family.
And when they were talking, this brother from China began to share with this missionary couple about eternal life. He shared with them that eternal life is for now, not just for the future.
Now, to this missionary couple, it was eye-opening. Why? Because they had been preaching for many years. They brought many to the Lord, and they told them, “If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you have eternal life. But that eternal life is not for today; it is for tomorrow. When you die, then it begins to be effective. It is an insurance policy.”
So when this brother began to share with them and say, “No, eternal life is for now. Christ lives in you that you may live,” by that conversation their lives were transformed.
When this Chinese brother asked them, “Where do you live?” they said, “On the truck.” So he said, “No, come and live with us.” That brother invited me to visit this couple. I was with them for over a month, travelling on the Amazon River and in the high mountains, visiting different Christian families. It was such a sweet time.
And do you know what they said? They told the brother, “We will go back and preach the gospel.”
Brothers and sisters, what is it? Eternal life is not some precious deposit that you put in the safety box, to be effective in your last will and testament when death happens.
Now, how do you live as a Christian during all these days? If you do not live by eternal life, if you do not live by the Christ-life in you, how do you live your Christian life?
Of course, you have been living the Christian life for years, probably. After you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are a Christian, and now you have to live like a Christian. People will tell you, “You are a Christian. You shall keep this rule and that regulation.”
You go to church on Sunday. Whether you bring your Bible or not, it does not matter; the church will provide it. You do not go to this place. You do not do this thing. You do exactly this. And try to keep the commandments, especially the Sermon on the Mount.
Because you have believed in the Lord Jesus, because you have a new life in you, and that new life has a new nature in you, a new inclination, a new desire, you do want to imitate Christ, to be like Him. You do want to keep the law, the commandments. You try.
Because that life is in you, but you do not use it. You treat it as a deposit. So what do you use? You use your old, Adamic, soulish, natural life. Formerly, you used your natural life, your soulish life, to do things, to serve the god of this world. But now you try to use that same old life to be a Christian, to serve God, to keep His law and His commandments.
How successful are you? No, it is true: when you first believe in the Lord Jesus, there is no problem. In your first love with Christ, no problem. But gradually, you find it becomes more and more difficult to live like a Christian.
That is the reason why I often say a nervous Christian is a good Christian. Because if you are not nervous, you do not care whether you will be like Christ or not. But if you do care to live like a Christian, sooner or later you will be very nervous. Many break down. Good for you.
Why? Because you cannot live a Christian life by yourself. The reason why God gives you eternal life, the reason why Christ not only saves you but comes and lives in you, is because He wants to live for you.
There is only one Person who can live a Christian life, and that Person is Christ Himself. No second person can live a Christian life. You are destined to failure.
A life that is not lived by the eternal life in you, by Christ in you, definitely is not Christian. It is an imitation, a counterfeit, a deception.
So, of course, the Apostle Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ.”
You know, when people read this verse, they go to two extremes. One extreme is, when they read, “For to me to live is Christ,” they say, “I am Christ.” Have you heard that? “I am Christ.” You are not. There is only one Christ, and one alone. You are not Christ.
But you are the one in whom Christ lives. You allow Christ to live through you.
And then some people go to the other extreme. They say, when Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ,” it is just an expectation, a hope: hopefully, one day, it will be Christ who lives in me. It is only a desire, an expectation in the future.
That is another extreme. When Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ,” he was stating a fact: “It is Christ who lives in me.”
Brothers and sisters, this is what life is for. This is what eternal life is for. You have the secret of living a Christian life in you. If you allow Christ to live in you, then you live a Christian life that distinguishes you from any other life.
You may ask this question: “Yes, I believe in the Lord Jesus. He has given me eternal life. I know that. And I do want Him to live. Well, what is the problem? He does not live; and on the contrary, I find that I am still living.”
And the problem is that old man. You know, when Christ died on the cross, He bore in His body our sins. And that is the reason why, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, your sins are all forgiven. And we believe that.
In Galatians, chapter 1, verse 4, it says, “He gave Himself for our sins.” The Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins, and by His giving Himself for our sins, our sins are forgiven. Thank God for that.
But at the same time, when our Lord Jesus was on the cross, He not only gave Himself for our sins; He gave Himself for us. So in Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20, it says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.”
In other words, when Christ died on the cross, He not only bore your sins in His body, and when you believe your sins are forgiven, you experience the joy of forgiveness of sin. But you do not remember that when He died on the cross, He gave Himself also for you—not only your sins, but you.
He took you, that old man, to the cross and crucified him with Himself. In other words, He took you to the cross.
If He bore your sins in His body and you believe in Him, your sins are forgiven. God forgives and forgets. It has come forever under the blood. It is gone. And you know it. You experience it. You thank God for it.
But, dear brothers and sisters, why do you not believe that He gave Himself for you? He took you with Him to the cross. When He died, you died. You died in Him.
And if you were crucified, who is living now? A dead person cannot live. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live.” That old nature, old life, self-life, natural life—that “I” was crucified, taken away.
And you will say, “Well, who is living now?” If He took you away on the cross, then it is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me. That is the only possibility.
We believe He bore our sins in His body, and our sins are forgiven. Why do we not believe He took us to the cross? The old man is dead.
We now live in the flesh. So far as our body is concerned, we are still living. “I now live in the flesh.” Now, who is that “I”? It is the new “I,” and the new “I” is Christ in me. Christ in me is now living.
“I live by faith.” This is a matter of faith, not by sight. If you live by sight, by feeling, you will feel differently and see differently. But if you live by faith, that is what it is, because faith brings that eternal reality—the finished work of the cross—to you and makes it yours.
And, brothers and sisters, sometimes I feel that my faith is not strong enough. But thank God, what He says here is that we live by faith. Whose faith? Not your faith: the faith of the Son of God. It is His faith.
What is the faith of God? The faith of God is when He says, “Let there be light,” there is light. He is faithful to see that this becomes real in your life. Why? Because He loves you and gave Himself for you.
This is the gospel to Christians. We have a gospel to sinners: repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, and your sins will be forgiven. Now we have a gospel for believers: believe that the Lord Jesus has taken you to the cross. Therefore, you do not need to live; it is Christ who lives.
To the sinners, we say, “Because of Christ and what He has done, you need not die.” To the believers, we say, “From now on, you do not need to live, because Christ lives in you.”
But is it something automatic? Is it something passive? In other words, we say, “Okay, no longer I; it is Christ who lives in me. Okay, Christ, You come and live. That is it. I am just passive.”
Yes, it is Christ who lives in me. In other words, you are still there. It is not like two thousand years ago, when Christ lived in Himself. But now Christ lives in you, in me. The vessel is still here, but the content is changed.
So, on our part, we cannot be passive. We have to exercise our will, take His Word by faith, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit. And when we are doing that, you will find the life of Christ will begin to live out from us. And this is Christian living.
Is that kind of life easy? Theoretically, we would think that kind of life should be easy, because I do not live. You know, we try to live and find it very difficult. So now the gospel is, you do not need to live; you can be relaxed. Is that right?
Do you think that life is that easy? You will find we live in this world, and this world is full of death. Not only are we surrounded by death, but even within us there is something that is death.
The mind of the flesh is death; the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. So, in other words, the life of Christ is enough in you to live. But you will find death is all around you, even within you, and death tries to suppress life.
So far as life is concerned, there is a battle there. There is a battle for life. Look at our Lord Jesus, the very eternal life. When He was on earth, He underwent a battle for life throughout His days in the flesh.
When He was born, Herod was stirred up by the adversary of God to kill Him. All boys within two years of age in Bethlehem and its surrounding areas were killed. But God preserved that life.
After He was baptized, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and tempted by the enemy. Death tried to come to swallow up that life. If only He would do something on His own, that life would be snuffed out. But our Lord Jesus lived by that eternal life—life overcoming death.
Throughout His life He was persecuted. When He first began to preach in His native city, Nazareth, they took Him out to the cliff and tried to push Him down, that He might die. But He walked away from them.
Finally, they crucified Him. They thought, “Now that life was finished.” But that life is eternal life. Death could not hold Him. That life entered into death, robbed death of its sting, and came out of death in resurrection and ascension.
What a life it is! Brothers and sisters, this is the life that is in you. Amen.
We need to understand that life. We need to discover its worth. We need to cooperate with that life. And if we do, we will find that because of death surrounding us, and even within us, we are experiencing day by day what eternal life really is.
It overcomes things in our lives. It overcomes the world. It overcomes the flesh, self. It overcomes our circumstances and environments. It overcomes the enemy. And it is by overcoming death that we grow from glory to glory.
So, brothers and sisters, this life in us makes us Christians and enables us to live a Christian life. It is not just a deposit there. It means to live, and by living it proves its power.
May the Lord help us to see this. Whatever is not that life is not Christian. Many years we have lived, but how much, in the sight of God, can be considered as Christian living?
Many services we have done through the years, but how much, at the judgment seat of Christ, will He accept as Christian service?
Thank God, the secret of Christian living is already in you. All we need is to have our eyes opened and, by faith, let Christ live.
And no wonder, when you allow Christ to live, when people see you, they do not see you; they see Christ.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, tonight we touched upon something which is very, very elementary, very basic, very foundational. But Lord, we have to acknowledge that sometimes we aim very high, trying to be spiritual, to live like this; but we do not even know Thy way.
We pray that Thou wilt open our understanding. Let us see that what makes us different is Thyself. Enable us to live by Thyself—Christ, who lives in us.
We do worship Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.