Good morning.
I’ll just have you turn to one verse in Galatians. I think this is a verse all of us know—or at least, by the end of this day, I hope all of us know.
Galatians 2:20. Paul, in his testimony to the Galatian church, said this:
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.
Bear with me as I read it one more time. “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul speaking of himself, “and it is no longer I that live.” You would think that would be the natural consequence of crucifixion. “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.”
And let’s just take a moment and pray.
Lord, once again, we’re here in Your presence. We thank You that we were stirred up this morning to remember the Lord Jesus. Thank You. You called us back to this blessed time to be in Your presence, to remember all that You’ve done, and to remember, at the end of it, You are the sum of all things. You’re the sum of all the sacrifices, the perfect Lamb of God.
Now, Lord, You know, as we come to Your Word, our desire. We want, above everything else, for the Holy Spirit to take Your Word and make it alive this morning. No man can do that. We remember once again how Peter, when he came to You at that moment when so many were offended in John 6, said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”
Meet us. Meet us, blessed Holy Spirit. Meet us, precious Lord. Speak to us. Unfold to us what this verse that Paul gave to the Galatian church really means. And we believe when the Lord reveals, when the Lord speaks, we see something that’s living and real. So we ask You to do that once again.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I want—I actually am backtracking for quite a while. This recent burden I shared had come to my heart, but this is an old burden. So I’m going backwards, if you don’t mind.
I don’t know how many of you remember when I shared on John 3: “Ye must be born again.” Well, it was during that time that this burden really became alive to me and really became fresh to me.
And I remember since then sticking notes in my Bible. I always carry note cards. By the way, I’ll give you a little idea, maybe a little practical help. Some people don’t think I’m that practical. Keep some note cards, and when the Lord speaks to you, write things down to remember. It’s very helpful.
As a matter of fact, brethren, keep a notebook beside your bed. Just maybe the Holy Spirit will wake you up in the middle of the night and speak to you. Write it down. Seal that word.
So I kept sticking notes in my Bible and was testing this before the Lord, and it never seemed to go away. So I’m convinced that now, after some period of time, it seems the Lord wants me to share it here on Sunday.
It’s basically this burden: What is life? You know, that’s a big question. That’s the question that has occupied men and philosophers and great thinkers—and even small minds, if you will—for generations and ages. What is life?
Now, as Christians, we ought to be able to answer that question: What is life?
I’ll tell you a story. Now, in case some of you think I’m picking on him, I don’t even know if he’s here—my son Justin. I’ve cleared this with my son. Believe me, I’ve learned my lesson.
But Justin—not that he’s not now; I have to put in all kinds of qualifiers—as a young man, Justin, are you here? You’re not going to run out of there? He told me he didn’t know if he’d be here.
But Justin, as a young man, was a pretty deep thinker. I was always amazed. He was so serious. Now, I’m not implying by that—don’t take this where I don’t mean it—that he’s not now. I’m not implying that whatsoever. But as a young man, he was so serious.
I remember he wouldn’t even think of things that were foolish or look at things. One time we were at an award ceremony, and he was doing this. He wouldn’t look at anything else. He was just dead serious.
And in one of those moments of him being dead serious, we—I don’t know what we were talking about. I don’t even remember so well, but it was something to do with life—and Justin came out with this profound wisdom. He said to me, dead serious, “You know, life is life.”
I thought, “How can that wisdom—out of the mouths of babes and sucklings—life is life?” I remembered it. It became sort of our saying around the Pittman household. Whenever we couldn’t figure anything out, when things were too puzzling, when nothing seemed to make any sense whatsoever, we always said, “Life is life.”
And I went on, and I shared this with my partners one day. We were in a mess at work, and I said, “Well, you remember, I just want to share with you some Justinian wisdom. When we’re in a mess, all we have to remember is, ‘Life is life.’”
What words of wisdom. I’ll never forget it. Actually, when I recently told him, he didn’t remember. We forget so easily.
So this is the puzzle. This is the burden. This is the thought: What is life? What is the Christian life? What are we all about?
That seems to be the thought that’s on my heart. If you don’t mind, I’ll share with you this introduction, as far as some experience that made an indelible impression upon me.
When I was a young believer, saved in 1972, I still remember the day. I still remember the moment. I remember the light of God breaking in and penetrating.
February 4, 1972. No other day was like it in my life. The Savior appeared to me. It was just as real as anything else. Life appeared to me. It was a change.
I remember, as a young believer, we used to hang out at a coffee shop and just share the Word, and go down into the Fan. I was a VCU student. We’d go down into the Fan District and witness about the Lord Jesus.
I remember those days, and I had this little Good News for Modern Man. I think some of you may still remember it, with the stick-sort-of figures on the front. I didn’t know anything about the Bible, but I remember reading the Word and reading the Word.
And one day, I came to John the Baptist’s testimony. You remember when John the Baptist was speaking, this friend of the Bridegroom was speaking of the Bridegroom. He said, “I am not the Christ.” The friend of the Bridegroom is what he was.
And he concluded his thoughts by saying this little phrase. I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget it:
He must increase, but I must decrease.
Brothers and sisters, I can’t tell you what that word meant to me. It may not sound like much to you, but it was an impression made upon my newly redeemed spirit. It was like acid etching metal. It made an indelible impression that I saw at once. It seemed to me this was the Christian life.
It’s not about me getting better. It’s not about me being perfected. It’s not about me growing up into this being something in the Lord. It’s all about the Lord Jesus increasing in me. And as I decrease and He increases, that’s the beginning of the understanding of the Christian life.
That phrase made an indelible impression upon my young spirit.
And then another story. This is all the introduction. I met my brother Jerry. All of y’all have put up with our reminiscing of the old days before—this wild, flaming charismatic met this young fundamentalist Baptist—and how the Lord ever chose to put us together, I’ll never figure it out. But He did, in His mercy and His wisdom.
There was a hunger for the Lord Jesus, and we began to seek the Lord together. We were both at the City of Richmond Department of Public Works, and we used to go and pray together in the park in Capitol Square and eat our lunch together.
I remember one day we went up to the vacant tenth floor of City Hall. I don’t know, Jerry, if you remember that day. And we broke bread together to remember the Lord. Sweet fellowship. Sweet fellowship.
In that experience, the Lord showed me not only was I His, but I was part of His Body. I’ve never forgotten it. I cannot live without the Lord, but I cannot live without my brothers and sisters. Can you?
To me, that was an indelible impression.
And then we began to talk about this Chinese man. I had never heard of Watchman Nee. I was young. I think I was saved four months by this time—maybe three months. I don’t remember. But we talked about this book, The Normal Christian Life, and I went and bought this book.
And I opened that first page, and right in the cover it said the subtitle: “It is no longer I, but Christ.”
Now, I can’t tell you what—you may think I’m this flaming mystic; I don’t know what you think of me—but I can’t tell you the impression that made upon my spirit. For an instant, in a moment, light flashed in my spirit, and I saw that the Christian life was not me living, but it was Christ living in me.
At four months in the Lord, I remember it even to this day. I paused, and I looked at that cover, and I looked at that book, and I read it again and again: “It is no longer I, but Christ that liveth in me.”
Now, unfortunately, I think I brought one of the new books. I brought some show and tell. I brought one of the new books because my old red pearly one wore out long ago. And unfortunately, I would like to issue a complaint to CLC: they took that subtitle out of the new book. What a shame.
You may think I’m taking a little license here, but what a shame. They begin with a preface by Angus Kinnear. This is the new version. You all should read it.
It made a deep impression, but the impression was this: Christ is our life. This was the Christian life. It wasn’t about me somehow getting better. It wasn’t me getting victory. It wasn’t me getting stronger. It wasn’t me being more sanctified—although all of those are true. Don’t get me wrong. Don’t take it where I don’t mean it.
But in the end, in the final analysis, the sum of it all was: it was Christ living in me. And that is the Christian life.
So this is the burden. This is what is on my heart: Christ our life.
And since I talked about subtitles, I’ll have my own subtitle: The Secret of the Christian Life. This is the secret.
If you think the Christian life is you living, you’ll be full of defeats and full of disappointments until you come to this divine discovery that it’s Christ living in you. That’s liberty.
To me, I can’t tell you—maybe you think I’m making too big of a deal. Maybe you think I’m taking too much license here. I don’t know. But these two experiences with phrases from the Word of God brought light into my spirit, and I saw.
I remember going to a dear old brother—and I mean no disrespect for him—and I went to him and I said, “Brother, look at this. Look at this.” He must have thought I was crazy. I said, “Look at this phrase. It’s Christ living.”
He said, “Well, yes, brother, you are getting to things that are very important.”
And I said, “No, brother, it’s more than important. Look at this. It’s the Christian life. It’s all it is.”
So that was my early impression as a believer.
Now today, since y’all would like me to move on, I’m sure, I would like for us to consider just three things. You could look at this in many different ways, and I think our brother Jerry is going to correct all this next week, is what I’m being told. So he’s going to speak on, I think, the exchanged life, and he’ll straighten out all the omissions I made. So pray for Jerry, if you will.
Three things:
We have to see what the source of life is. If you don’t go to the source, how you miss it all.
Second, I think we need to think, for a moment at least, about what is the strength of life. Where does our strength come from?
And thirdly, in considering life, we’ll borrow this phrase—at least this phrase—from Romans 8: the Spirit of life. Do you know there’s a Spirit to life? And unless we understand that principle of the Spirit of life, then we won’t see our life in Christ.
So let’s begin. We’ll begin with the source of life.
I remember, and I think probably you do as well, Lance shared a number of times with us and used that phrase: “Source determines destiny.” I think all of you who heard that probably remember that. I don’t know if that’s a phrase from Brother Sparks or not, but it is a phrase that, to me, again made one of those indelible impressions.
Source determines destiny.
So if we’ve got the wrong source, if we begin with the wrong source, if we don’t know the right source, then we’ll never end up in the right place. That’s as simple as that means.
We need to understand first of all: What is the source of life?
Now turn with me, and I’ll show you where this burden originated some months ago. Turn with me to John’s Gospel, John 3.
You remember this story about Nicodemus. Well, look at verse 3. Nicodemus came to the Lord in the night, and the Lord Jesus said this—just verse 3 is what I want us to look at:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now, I know we have different versions here. Yours might say “born again.” Some of your versions might say “born from above.” But essentially they mean the same thing. Unless—except—you are born anew, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now, this word anew—this is what really got me. I was reading and meditating on this last time I shared. Brother Darby’s footnote really opened this thing to me, to see it in a fresh way.
And let me read to you that footnote, and maybe you’ll begin to understand. He says this word anew not only means again, but entirely afresh.
Don’t stop there: as from a new source of life. That’s what it is.
It’s not just some experience. It’s not just conversion. It’s not just somehow we believe in the Lord Jesus. But there’s a new beginning, a fresh start, and that fresh start is from a new source of life.
And that life is none other than the Lord Jesus. Or, a new point of departure, he went on to say, translated in Luke 1:3, “from the origin.”
Listen to this: It is a new source and beginning of life.
I don’t know if that means to you what it means to me, but that began to open volumes. I began to say, “Lord, it’s not just an experience. It’s not just believing on You. It’s beginning—it’s beginning to understand that we now have come into us, by the Holy Spirit, the very source of life.”
Now, I don’t know what excites you. There are many things that excite me that you would be alarmed at, but that ought to excite you. The very source of life, the beginning of life—what was translated in Luke 1, the origin of life—comes into our being when we are born anew. And that is the beginning of the Christian life.
It’s all about the source.
Listen to Colossians 1:27. I won’t have you turn to all these:
To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now, I’ll tell you about another experience of mine, because these phrases were life-changing. When I was a young believer and began reading the New Testament, I began to see this phrase, in Christ, and it was marvelous to me. I began to see this is the Christian life. The whole thing is in Christ. That’s not some meaningless preposition followed by a magnificent word. That’s God’s design.
But then I began to see another phrase, and brothers and sisters, this phrase I could hardly take in. It was: Christ in you.
Now, can you imagine? In this finite mind, I may be able to begin to take in me in Christ, but I can hardly imagine the glory of the source of Christ coming into me.
That’s the Christian life.
Boy, that made me think on things I had never thought about. Pauline phrases—in Christ—but it seems to be even more spectacular: Christ in you, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
What is your hope of glory? Think about it. It’s simply this: that the Source has come and taken up residence in your very being by the Holy Spirit. And now Christ lives in us. That’s the Christian life.
Listen to Colossians 1:16, the Source coming to us:
For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things have been created through Him, and unto Him.
Now, that is the Source. Whether thrones, whether lordships, whether dominions, all things have been created by Him. And, as a matter of fact, if you read on in the Book of Colossians, you’ll see all things subsist by Him, or are held together by Him.
But this, dear friends, is the secret of the Christian life: that the Source comes into us.
This is what it means in 1 Corinthians 3: “Ye are the temple of God.” Now, what did you think that meant? You’re not brick and stone. You are the temple of God.
The Source came into you. He found His abode in you. And now, because of that, for the first time there is the possibility of living the Christian life.
You’ve heard me say it before. I hope you don’t get tired of it. I never tire of saying it. We often think of the Christian life, and when we go through living and find certain difficulties and toils and temptations, and we’re trying to live the Christian life, we say, “The Christian life is so difficult.”
Brothers and sisters, I want to tell you that the Christian life isn’t difficult. It’s impossible.
If you think for one minute you can live the Christian life, just continue to walk with the Lord. You’ll discover you can’t.
But you also, if you seek Him with all of your heart, discover this divine principle: that He put within your very being the Source of life, and out from that Source we can live the Christian life. No other way. No other possibility. It’s the only way.
So I hope, when we talk about life and we get beyond Justinian wisdom—“Life is life”—we begin to come to a realization that Christ is our life.
Now, these are fundamental. Some of you may be disappointed in this message. You may think this is way too elementary. We’re way beyond that. But brothers and sisters, this is the essential aspect of the Christian life that we never get beyond. We never mature from it.
And the very fact that so many of us struggle, so many of us are overcome, so many of us are burdened, is because we haven’t seen, with the eyes of our heart, that the Christian life is the Lord Jesus.
I don’t know what our brother Jerry’s going to really share on other than the phrase. You may have a lot of work ahead of you, brother.
But I do another show and tell, if you will. Not a little book—made a huge impact. I don’t know if we still have this. It’s called They Found the Secret. This is an excellent book. I doubt it’s out there still.
I don’t remember how many years ago I got it, but Brother V. Raymond Edman compiled twenty lives—lives you’ll recognize, by the way: Charles Finney, Dwight Moody, Oswald Chambers, Frances Ridley Havergal, Andrew Murray. You could go on and on, many of the dear ones that we know and who have made such an impression.
But in this book, he looks at one phrase that he seems to have captured over and over, and he says these ones have discovered the life that is Christ.
That’s the difference. They didn’t just mature as Christians. They didn’t just serve. They didn’t just come into experience after experience. But they went beyond that, and they came into the discovery of God’s secret: the life that is Christ.
He says it over and over.
Now, I’ll just point out one to you and encourage you, if you can, to read the book. If you promise to return mine, you can borrow mine, but you must leave me your MasterCard or something—something I can really hold you to. I’m only kidding. I shouldn’t be so flippant.
They Found the Secret. And he first speaks of Hudson Taylor.
Now, many of us have heard about Hudson Taylor, but not many of us know about Hudson Taylor’s struggle. Many of us know how God greatly used this man in the China Inland Mission, and how he went and gave his life for the Chinese people, and the Lord anointed him and used him.
But it talks about, in these short summaries, how Hudson Taylor struggled greatly as a Christian. He went through agony as a Christian. He wondered, with all the responsibility and all the work that was on him, could he ever live the Christian life?
And he wrote—and when you read this, it’s so precious—a dear letter to his mother, saying how difficult things were.
And then a dear brother, a fellow missionary, wrote to him about the resources that were in Christ Jesus. He just wrote a letter, and in that letter it turned the man upside down.
He began to see the riches there in Christ Jesus. He began to see it wasn’t Hudson Taylor serving. It wasn’t Hudson Taylor living. It wasn’t Hudson Taylor laboring for the Chinese. It wasn’t Hudson Taylor laying down his life. It was Christ living through Hudson Taylor.
Brothers and sisters, that is a great discovery.
And it’s that phrase that I think, in our brother’s heart, was coined from Hudson Taylor: the exchanged life. You see, this is the way God works.
We often talk about our life being changed. Now, that’s important. If we don’t see any change in people, we begin to wonder. But it’s more than change. What God is after in the end is to exchange the source for you.
This is what it means in John 10:10:
I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Do you think for a moment the Lord Jesus was speaking about our life when He said, “I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly”? He didn’t have it in mind at all. It was Source-life that He had in mind.
So this, I hope, helps you to begin to see this burden. What we need to do to understand Christ our life is to see the Source of life.
Another book—I know I’m hitting you with my whole library today, but it’s not finished—Not I, but Christ, Brother Nee. The truths in here, I sometimes wonder if we really appreciate the truths that we’ve received. I wonder if we really appreciate the wealth that’s been given to us in tape and in book and in ministry, and if we treasure those things.
I just remember when I had that little Normal Christian Life, I wore it out. You couldn’t have given me a greater possession.
I wonder. This book, Not I, but Christ, Brother Nee comes to the conclusion that this is not a changed life; it’s an exchanged life.
He goes on to say, it’s not a suppressed life. Now, that hits us all right where we live. We sort of think that, on sins, we’ll just sit on them and suppress them. We’ll suppress our temper, suppress our anger, suppress our envy. We’ll suppress all these bad traits. And when we’re in the meeting, we’ll put on the holy smile, and everyone will believe we’re sanctified.
It’s called suppressed life.
Brother Nee said, “It’s not suppressed life; it’s expressed life.” Christ expressed through me. There’s hope.
And he went on to say, “It’s not attained life.” How often we think the Christian life is attaining more stuff. You know, more holiness. “If I just had more love.” I can’t tell you the number of times I prayed for more patience. And everybody remembers the verse in James: well, if you want patience, He’ll give you tribulation.
More things. More things. More Christian things. It’s not that at all. It’s not the attained life. It’s the obtained life.
Do you see the difference? I don’t know if you’re still with me. Everybody at least nod your head and let me know you understand the burden that’s on my heart.
Oh, we need to see the Source of life. It’ll make such a difference.
Second thing: the strength of life.
You know, when it comes down to it, you need strength to live this life. I don’t know about you, but I’ve begun to discover that, as I get older, my strength is not what it used to be. I don’t know if any of you have made that discovery. Fontaine, I’m not looking at you on purpose.
But as you tend to get older, you tend to lose that human strength. I remember when I was a teenager, I thought I could do anything and was stupid enough to try it.
I remember the little kids—I was in such good shape. I thought little kids—I was really kind of corny because I didn’t do the big guys my age, but all the little guys—I used to do so many sit-ups, I used to let the little guys punch me in the stomach as hard as they could because I was in good shape.
How stupid. I remember this.
As we grow up, as we age, we don’t have that strength we used to have. Natural ability. Natural strength. Natural tenacity. You lose it.
What did Isaiah say in Isaiah 40? “Even the young men shall faint and grow tired, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Where is your strength?
I believe this is the secret of the Christian life. Let me share with you just a few verses from Psalms—David’s secret.
David said this in Psalm 27. This is beautiful to me. Psalm 27:1:
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
He didn’t just say—I want you to read this very carefully—he didn’t just say, “The Lord gives strength to my life.” He said something far more profound. He said, “The Lord is the strength of my life.”
You begin to see somewhat of a pattern when you read. Look at the very next Psalm, Psalm 28:7. Just a few of these, because there are numerous examples in David’s life:
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart hath trusted in Him, and I am helped:
Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth;
And with my song will I praise Him.
The Lord is the strength of my life.
And now let me just read one more incident, all from David’s life: Psalm 18. Now, I hope you keep the context in mind when you read Psalm 18. This is when David was pursued by his enemies, and God delivered him out of the hand of his enemies and out of the hand of Saul.
Verses 1 through 3:
I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in Whom I take refuge;
My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
I call upon the Lord, Who is worthy to be praised:
So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
You see the difference? He made a discovery. He found the secret, and he discovered that God alone was the strength of his life.
You may have a certain amount of grit. You may be a bit British and have a stiff upper lip. But it’ll never get you through the Christian life, because in the final analysis, the strength of our life is the Lord Jesus. It’s the only way, dear ones.
Now, I don’t know what you might be going through as an individual. You might be crying out to the Lord in your agony, “Lord, give me strength.”
But I believe the Lord Jesus and the Father, in His wisdom, would say, “I have given you all My strength. It’s in the Son. It’s in the life. It’s the strength that comes from the life, and that is enough to get you through.”
I think most of you know we’re studying 2 Peter. And in the first chapter it says, “Of His divine power”—and it’s His strength—“He has given to us everything that pertains to life and godliness.” Everything.
We can say like David, “The Lord is my strength.” Or, it’s not just Old Testament—we might begin to think this is just poetic Old Testament poetry. Look at the New Testament.
Many of you know Philippians 4, but Paul was in that Roman prison. He was chained to that guard. Where did he find his strength?
Some of you might feel like you’ve got chains in your life, but I can’t imagine you can even begin to draw a close parallel. Here the apostle is chained to the guard twenty-four hours a day.
And he said in Philippians 4:13:
I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.
Do you begin to see the point? The strength is in the life. The strength to live the Christian life is in the life of Christ.
All too often we’re praying, “More power, more power.” And the Lord is saying, “In Me is all you need, all the strength.”
I remember when I was young in high school, I had this '62 Falcon. I don’t know if any of you young people know what that is. This was the most powerless thing you could ever have as a vehicle—next to Jerry’s Fiat that we went to Georgia in some years ago. Maybe they’re about the same.
But this '62 Falcon—I don’t remember, one hundred and forty-some cubic inches, a one-barrel carburetor—and I was going out to Tech to visit. I never thought I would get across Afton Mountain. Eighteen-wheelers were whooshing by, passing me by, and here I was crawling up the mountain: “More power, more power, more power.”
So I fixed that. I bought my new truck: 305 horsepower. Figured that was the key, only to hit the gas crisis. And now I’m saying, “Less power, less power.”
Sometimes we think all we need is more power.
Understand this: The power is in the life. And he who has the Son has the life.
Well, you think of Paul’s great paradox. Some of us would say, “Boy, I’d like to be like the Apostle Paul—a man of power, a man of great strength.”
But when you read his autobiography in 2 Corinthians, you see it’s just the opposite. He said, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “When I am weak, then I am powerful.”
What a great paradox. Can you imagine? I don’t think any of us would be tempted to say that in natural understanding: “When I’m weak, then I am powerful.”
Because he made a discovery. He found the secret. The power was not in the apostle; it was in the Lord Jesus. That’s the difference. May the Lord help us to see that.
The Lord Jesus gave him a thorn in the flesh. I think everybody knows this story. Because of his exceeding great revelations, he was granted a thorn in the flesh. And I know many of you have different ideas about what that thorn is, but this thorn was to weaken him so he wouldn’t think too much of himself.
And then the Lord said, “Paul, this is one lesson I want you to learn: My grace is sufficient for you.”
And do we know that lesson? Have we made that discovery?
What a remarkable thing. This great man said, “It’s not power in me; it may be weakness, that the power may be of God and not of us.”
So this is the second point.
Oh, there are many illustrations. We could go on. We could talk about all the illustrations in the Old Testament—of Sarah and Abraham. It says that she received strength to conceive seed.
We could think of Jacob at Peniel, when Jacob wrestled with God, and God touched the joint of his thigh and weakened him. And forever Jacob walked with a limp.
And then we see that closing view of that great man of God, worshiping, leaning upon his staff. To me, that’s the secret. It’s not our strength.
Sometimes, and many times, the Lord has to weaken us so that His strength might be manifested in our weakness. That’s the Christian life.
Or I think of the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. It talks about those who had done great exploits, those that had overcome, and those that triumphed. And it says this wonderful phrase in Hebrews 11:
Out of weakness were made strong.
Do you see the paradox? You may be weak today. You may not feel like you have any strength to go on in the Lord. But the truth of the matter is, what the Lord wants us to see is our strength isn’t in ourselves at all.
As we stand upon the truth that is Christ Jesus, the life that is Christ Jesus, there we begin to discover real, abiding strength.
Well, I hope we see the second principle: “Lord, You are the strength of my life.”
We can think of Ephesians 6. How will you stand in the evil day? That’s a phrase from Ephesians 6:13. How will you stand in the evil day?
The Apostle Paul opens this whole section of Ephesians 6. He says, “Finally, brethren.” And then what does he say?
Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Notice he didn’t just say, “Be strong.” Sometimes, “Get it up, brother. Be strong.” That’s the way we would like this thing. But he says, “Be strong in the Lord,” and then there’s this double affirmative: “and in the strength of His might.”
That’s the secret. That’s Christian strength. If you’ve got that kind of strength, you can grow old like me and be out of shape. There is our strength.
Last point, a few moments: the Spirit of life.
I borrow this from Romans 7 and 8. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Romans 7 and 8, but you should be.
Now, a lot of people take Romans 7 out of context, and they think that is the person who is unredeemed, struggling with sins. And it’s not that at all, because the Apostle Paul gives his own testimony there. It’s the Christian struggling with sin that is within.
Now, many of you—you don’t have to raise your hand, because I don’t want to embarrass you—but at least I’ll raise my hand: how many of you are struggling with sin that you begin to discover in your members?
You wonder. You lose it. You think you’re losing the battle. This Christian life is impossible.
Paul talks about the things I want to do, I can’t do. He goes on to say, “The things I will to do, will not to do, those things I do.” This is a real agony.
Now, this isn’t just casually written over afternoon tea. This man was in real agony. He said, “I’m trying. I’m willing. I practice.” And most of us don’t bother to practice.
“What I practice, I don’t want to do. The things I would practice…” He goes on. You know, it’s agony. You have to understand this principle.
And then he concludes in Romans 7, if you read it, there is a law within our members. You begin to understand there’s a law in our members. Romans 8:2 calls it the law of sin and of death. It’s there.
Now, I like what Brother Nee says about this thing. I think it’s very helpful, because when you come to Romans 8:2, you begin to see that God brings in a higher law to overcome this law of sin and death.
And he says there—he brings that verse—“There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
Now, this word condemnation has two shades of meaning in the Greek. It can mean judicial, which most of us think: we’ve just been acquitted. But it can also have a civil meaning, and in that civil meaning, it means we have a disability. We have a handicap.
I hope this doesn’t bother you too much, of being too blunt with you, but you have a debilitating handicap. You do. Face it. Incurable.
And the only way to get delivered from sin that is within your members, that you tend to fall to, is by a higher law: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
That’s the secret. Not just life. Not just Justinian wisdom: “Life is life.” It’s the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
God never takes away a law. When the Lord Jesus came on the earth, He said, “I did not come to do away with the law. I came to fulfill the law.”
But what God does in His wisdom is He brings in a higher law, a greater law. And that thing that we tend to, that thing that we fall to, is overcome by life that’s in the Lord Jesus.
Everybody uses the illustration of gravity. Bear with me—this is my last illustration. I want to use—who’s feeling strong? Who’s fit? Jerry? Mike, would you put up with my foolishness just for a moment? Would you come here, brother?
I hate to do this to you, but he’s much stronger than I am. Now here’s a former running back for Virginia Tech. He’s gotten older too, but he looks a lot better.
Mike, I brought one of the smaller books from my library—and I want you to know this is one of the smaller books. I don’t want you to pay attention to this that says “exhaustive appendix,” okay?
If you will just stand here, brother, and I’ll just preach on. You just stand there. Stick out one arm. See? Much stronger than I am. Aren’t you impressed? Now, Mike, hold this book.
Okay, and you just—I’ll preach, you hold.
God’s way is to bring in a greater law. Sooner or later—you may not believe it; I would have been on the floor two seconds ago—but Mike, because now you can’t—you can’t straighten your arm, brother. You’re not doing this right.
Gee, my lovely and talented assistant is falling down on the job.
Now, he’s getting blue in the face, first thing. But you see, in Romans 7, you can only will so long. You can only determine. Oh, no, not two hands, brother. You cannot do that.
But you see, sooner or later, that law—it’s a law. It’s always there—it begins to overcome you, and you cannot. You doing okay, Mike? Okay.
But guess what? I could have found a bigger book if you would like. But the point is this: there is sin in our members, a law, and God in His will—
You doing okay, Mike? I got your point. You got my point.
You have a greater respect for gravity, I suppose. I know Mike does. Mike, massage—you know, a little—It’ll help, you know. Icy Hot, something like that.
This is the point: that sin law can only be overcome by a higher law. God never takes it away.
People wonder, “Why can Christians be in such a mess?” It’s because sin is in their members. That’s what Paul said: “I know that I don’t want to do it, so therefore I know it is sin. It’s not me; it’s sin in my members,” overcoming him, defeating him.
And then the cry of the defeated. Every one of us needs the cry of the defeated:
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
And then it says in Romans 8:2—we already have said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ”:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
You see, the only thing that can overcome gravity is this higher law.
I don’t know how to illustrate it to you, but at least I’ll try. I think a former friend—years ago, Linda, don’t get that worried, former years ago—her father was a glider pilot.
You know what a glider is? Y’all have seen gliders? Fantastic, these gliders—what you can do with them. I never would go up. I like something that has a little power.
But the glider has no power in itself. As a matter of fact, it has to be hauled into the heavens by a plane with power, and then it has to be released into the heavens.
And then this thing that has no power in and of itself—none—can stay aloft forever. As long as you get tired, do you know, it can stay aloft for days because there’s a higher law.
And that law of lift—now, boy, I know you’ll really get bored if I get into the science kick, but there is a law of lift. It is the higher law.
An aeronautical aerospace engineer—he’s used this illustration before—but have you ever noticed a wing has a certain shape to it? Be thankful for that.
And as that air flows over that wing, and its top of the wing has a farther distance to go, it has greater velocity, if you will. The air has to go the same speed. The air doesn’t change its speed from bottom to top. But it goes over the wing at a higher velocity than it goes under the wing.
And for all of you that love physics the way I do, when you have that higher velocity, you have lower pressure. You get it? And when you go under the wing: slower speed, higher pressure. Now, what do you get? You get lift.
So that’s the law. This thing that should drop like a rock—no power, no engine, no ability—stays aloft because there’s a greater law than the law of gravity.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. This is God’s way. This is the Christian life. This is the secret of Christianity.
Have you discovered—I’ll borrow that brother’s phrase—the life that is in Christ? Have you seen Him as your Source of life?
Do you know Him as your strength of life?
Have you discovered the higher law? Not in you, but in Him: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that alone can set you free from the law of sin and of death.
This is Christ our life.
We sung that song, and that phrase for me: “Be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live.”
Lord, we just come back to You with thanksgiving that You have made every provision—that You are the provision, that You are the very life. And he who has the Son has life.
We praise You. And You are the strength of our life. Oh, so often we fail. We confess it. We’re like that glider with no power, no real power to stay aloft.
But You have lifted us up to the heavenly places by Your own divine power. And because of that law of life in Christ Jesus, we can soar with the eagle.
Lord, we thank You. We pray that things that need to be made clearer will be made clearer. We pray that in the days ahead, we will make this discovery of the life that is in Christ.
Those of us—so many of us—that are struggling still will see God’s divine way and be free.
For we ask this together in the name of Jesus. Amen.