Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life:
no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not:
but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish:
in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;
pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed;
always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak;
knowing that He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you.
For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God.
Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Dear Lord Jesus, as we gather here together this morning, we know that Thou art here with us. We treasure Thy presence more than anything else.
We only pray that Thou wilt remove any veil that may be upon our hearts, that we may behold Thy glory, that we may behold Thy lovely face, and that we may be transformed and conformed to Thy glorious image.
We pray that Thou wilt separate us completely for Thyself. Bring our whole being within the veil, and let us hear Thee speaking to our hearts.
We pray, Lord, that Thou wilt truly prepare us for Thy imminent return, and that, by Thy mercy, we may fulfil the mission that Thou hast committed to us.
May all glory and praise and worship be unto Thee. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for bringing us to this point. We have been fellowshipping together on the theme of Christ-centred service.
But we cannot talk about service without first talking about life. It is the declaration of the Apostle Paul that we find in Acts 27:23: “The God, Whose I am, and Whom I serve.”
Actually, this declaration is the basis of all true service. Unless we know to Whom we belong—whose we are—there is no possibility for us to serve our God.
It is a mighty declaration of the Apostle Paul. He declared it out of his own experience.
I believe, brothers and sisters, we all know the background of the Apostle Paul. He himself shared with us in Philippians 3 that he was a Jew—a real Jew. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, and from his youth he learned the law of God.
He was even sent to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel, because Gamaliel was the master at that time.
He was a marvellous young man. Most young men love the world and seek for the things of the world, but this young man was different from other young people. Even though he was young, he sought heavenly things.
He studied the law. He became a Pharisee. He kept all the letter of the law. He was a very godly young man.
Not only that, but he had a real heart to serve God. We all remember how he began to serve God: he served God by persecuting those believers of Jesus Christ.
According to the Jewish tradition and the tradition of the fathers, they considered Jesus an impostor of Judaism. Therefore, they felt that Jesus had to be crucified. They cried, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!”
They did not only do this to our Lord Jesus; they did the same to all who followed the Way.
This young man, Saul, was zealous above every other young person. He persecuted Christians not only in Jerusalem but in other Jewish cities, even in foreign cities.
He told us himself that when God’s servant Stephen was stoned, he was there guarding the clothes of those who threw the stones. He gave his vote that all believers must die.
Yet this man was a moral young man and a religious young man. When he noticed how Stephen died, how Stephen’s face was like the face of an angel, and how Stephen saw heaven opened and the Son of Man standing there—as if the Lord Himself were welcoming him home—his conscience was touched.
Before Stephen died, he prayed, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Then he passed away.
Can you imagine? Could the conscience of such a moral, religious person remain undisturbed? No. But Saul tried to press down the voice of his conscience, and he doubled his effort in persecuting believers.
He went to homes and seized men, women, and even children. He persecuted them and sentenced them to death. Yet all the time he thought he was serving God.
He did not know God Himself. He knew much about God, but he had no personal relationship with the living God. He acted according to the tradition of the fathers. He had no light from above.
He thought he was serving God, but he did God a great disservice. He was sincerely wrong.
Saul received letters from the high priest to go to foreign cities, seize believers in Christ, bring them to Jerusalem, and sentence them. He was zealous above all the other young people.
But while he was on the way to Damascus, almost approaching that city, God allowed him to go as far as he could go. Then, as he approached Damascus, a light brighter than the midday sun shone upon him.
That light was so powerful that he fell to the ground. Those who went with him were all smitten by that light, but they did not hear the voice.
This young man heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”
He did not know the voice, so he said, “Lord, Who art Thou?” He knew that the One who spoke to him must be Lord, because He was more powerful than he was. “You know me,” he might have said, “but I do not know You.”
Yet the Lord knew him. The Lord called him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” It was not a severe, harsh voice; it was not a voice of judgment. It was a voice of love and sympathy.
The Lord was saying, in effect, “You do not know what you are doing. It is hard for you to kick against the goad.”
In olden days, people used oxen or horses to till the ground. The animal would be attached to the plough and placed under a yoke. The farmer would guide the plough.
But the animal had its own will. When it saw something attractive at the side, it would turn aside, and the ploughing of the field would not be straight.
What did the farmer do? In his other hand he had a sharp instrument called a goad. He would use that goad to touch the foot of the animal.
Of course, the farmer did not want to hurt the animal. He only wanted the animal to know who was master: “You are not the master. You are the servant. You are doing my work, so you had better listen.”
But if the animal was wild and did not understand what the master meant, it kicked back. And when it kicked back, it hurt itself. After it had been hurt several times, it learned its lesson and knew how to obey the master and do the master’s work.
This is what our Lord Jesus in heaven spoke to that young man, Saul. Is it not true that our risen Lord uses the same word to speak to each one of us?
When God created us, He created us in His own image, according to His own likeness. Why did He do that? Because He has something for us to do.
We belong to Him. We belong to Him by creation and by birth. Everyone who is born into the world has God’s purpose behind him or her.
God wants to use us to fulfil His purpose. We do not come into this world just to live for ourselves.
But we did not know that. We thought that we were born into this world to be ourselves, that we were our own masters. We did not know that we have a Master and that we are in the Master’s service.
Because we will not obey Him, we often give God disservice instead of service. God will use His goad to touch us. He will discipline us, reminding us that we are not our own, but belong to Him and are to serve His purpose.
How often we kick back! Because we kick back, we are hurt. But this is not God’s original thought. When we are hurt, we murmur against God: “If there is a God, why does He allow this thing to happen?”
Not knowing that God means good, Saul was reminded by God that he belonged to God, that he was in God’s purpose, and that he should serve God’s purpose. Immediately, he yielded himself.
The first thing he knew was Whom he belonged to. Do you know who you are? Are you still thinking that you are your own master and engaged in your own work?
Has not God, again and again, reminded you? Something may have happened in your life that you considered painful, but actually it was God’s goodwill toward you. It was His love-goat reaching after you.
Oh, that we may really understand and really turn back to the Lord.
There and then, this young man accepted Jesus as his Lord. Unfortunately, today we preach only part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We tell people that Jesus is the Saviour of the world, that He came to save us and to seek the lost. If we believe in Him and receive Him as our Saviour, all our sins will be forgiven and we will be born again.
But at the same time, we should know that He is Lord. He is not only Saviour.
As Saviour, He is for you. As Lord, you are for Him. Yet today in Christianity we separate these two things, and that is the reason why Christians are so feeble.
According to the Word of God, the moment you believe in Jesus as your Saviour is the same moment that you yield yourself to the Lord and say, “You are my Lord also.”
This is where we should begin, dear brothers and sisters. When you were saved, did you really surrender yourself to God, acknowledging Jesus as your Lord and recognising that you were being placed in His service?
Maybe some of you know how Watchman Nee was saved. He came from a Christian family, but it was a nominal Christian family.
When he was young, he was very brilliant. Even though he attended Trinity College, which was a Christian college, his lowest mark in all his lessons was always the Bible.
In every other subject he was at the top of the class, but his Bible class was always his lowest mark. He had no desire for the Lord. He was very ambitious and had a plan for himself.
Even when he was a student, he contributed articles to magazines and newspapers to earn money.
One day his mother was saved. I knew his mother; she treated me as her own son. She was very strict in the family.
Two girls were born before Watchman. Whenever anything happened in the family—something broken or destroyed—usually Watchman would be blamed. His two sisters tried to help him avoid these punishments.
Once a precious vase was broken, and his mother thought it must have been Watchman who did it. She beat him, and from that time onward Watchman hated his mother.
But one day his mother was saved. After she was saved, she thought, “We should have a family meeting. Every day we should have family devotion.”
She bought some hymnbooks and gathered the family. As she went to the piano to play the tune, the Holy Spirit convicted her: “Rise up. Confess your sin to your son.”
She could not do it. This was never done in China. Parents were always right. How could parents apologise to their children?
But the Holy Spirit deeply convicted her. She rose up, went to her son, and said, “Forgive me.”
That touched Watchman deeply. When he was invited to hear Dr. Dora Yu preach, on the first night he knew that he must receive Jesus as his Saviour. But he could not.
He realised that if he believed in Jesus, he had to accept Jesus as his Lord. But this he could not do, because he had his own plan. He was his own master, his own lord.
He struggled with this for a few days. Then one day, while he was praying in his room, he later testified, “I saw the blackness of my sin and the redness of the blood of the Lord Jesus.”
The love of Christ constrained him, and he yielded before the Lord. At that time, he received Jesus as his Saviour, and he also gave himself to Jesus as his Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, we must know whose we are. Do we still belong to ourselves after He has redeemed us, or do we realise that we belong to Him?
This is the first step. After you know who you are, then you are able to serve the One Whom you are to serve.
In the case of the Apostle Paul, after he received Jesus not only as Saviour but also as Lord, he asked the second question: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”
Formerly, he was his own lord and his own master. He knew what to do and had his own plan. But now it was all over. “I am Your bondservant. You must tell me what You want me to do.”
The Lord called him to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to bring people to the Lord, to turn them from darkness to light, and to receive the inheritance from above.
This basic principle—“Whose I am, and Whom I serve”—is the beginning of real service.
Until we are saved and have surrendered our lives to the Lord, we have not truly begun our Christian life. Christian life does not begin merely with believing in Jesus as Saviour; it begins after you have submitted yourself to Jesus as your Lord.
Brothers and sisters, we are all trying to live a Christian life. How are you going to live it? Do you find yourself successful, or do you find that you are a failure?
Listen to what Paul said: “The good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise.” Even though he had Christ in him, he still lived by his own life.
With our own life, it is impossible to live the new life. Have you come to the point where you see that you cannot live a Christian life? It is beyond you.
Some people love the Sermon on the Mount because it is Christian ethics, and they try to keep Christian ethics. If you do not try, you think you can do it. If you try, you find that it is beyond you.
Are you a nervous Christian? I often say that a nervous Christian is a good Christian. If you are not nervous, it means you do not care.
But if you really mean business, if you really want to live as Christ lived, you will find that it is impossible. The Apostle Paul cried out, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Thank God—Jesus Christ.
How can we live a Christian life? You cannot. I cannot. Who can? Christ can.
The only way to live a Christian life is by Christ. Instead of trying to do it yourself, you allow Christ to live it out. That is Christian life.
In the same way, what is Christian service? After you are saved, you try to serve God. By serving God, you mean that you want to do something for God.
Of course, that is a very good intention. You should have that kind of desire. If you are saved and have no desire to serve God, no desire to do something for God, I question whether you are really saved.
Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus has a desire to serve God. But when you are trying to do something for God, do you ask God what He wants you to do?
After Saul was saved, his first question was, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” But how do we often act? Instead of asking the Lord what He wants us to do, we simply get out and do it.
We do according to what we think God would appreciate. It is just like someone who wants to go to Mongolia but never asks whether it is God’s will for him to go.
I heard a story. There was a servant whose master was a Christian—not only a Christian, but a preacher. The servant was also a Christian.
One day the servant was sent out to buy food. When he was in the market, he felt that he should preach the gospel. So he began to speak to people and preach the gospel to them.
He forgot altogether about buying food for his master. When he returned, do you think the master said, “Good servant, you have done a good work because you preached the gospel”?
No. The master asked, “Where is the food?”
Is it not the same way that we serve God? We do not ask what He wants. We do what we like. It may be a good thing, but we work for God; we do not work with God.
Such service is unacceptable.
You remember Matthew 7. The Lord Jesus said that one day people will come to Him and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many mighty works?”
The Lord will say, “I never knew you.” That is, “I do not approve of you, because you do not do My will. You do your own will.”
How do we serve? We pray about it. We wait upon the Lord for it. We look for power from above. We do not presume that we have enough power or wisdom and simply act in our own strength according to our own will.
Do you think this is Christian service?
I hope everyone will remember this: we cannot live a Christian life by ourselves. In the same way, we cannot do Christian service by ourselves.
As Christ is the only One Who can live a Christian life, in the same way only Christ can do Christian service.
The Apostle Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ.” In the same way, for us to serve, it must be Christ. Only Christ in us is able to serve.
I am afraid that we do not accept this, just as we cannot accept that our own righteousness cannot save us. We try to accumulate merit.
This is our natural thinking. When our conscience bothers us, we try to do something good in order to quiet our conscience. But the Bible says that all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment. They cannot cover our nakedness.
Just like Adam and Eve: when they had sinned, they knew that they were naked. They used fig leaves to make an apron to cover themselves. But when the weather became cold and the wind blew, could those clothes cover them? They could not.
It takes time for us to realise that we cannot save ourselves by our own righteousness. Our merit means nothing in the sight of God.
Even today, many so-called Christians are trying to save themselves by their merit. Because they feel that their merit has not accumulated enough, they look to others who supposedly have more merit to give them.
How foolish we are! Yet we are all like that. Unless we come to our own end, we will not accept Jesus.
This is the same way with spiritual service. Yes, we must serve God—but how do we serve God? By our own wisdom and our own power?
Whatever comes out of ourselves, whether the world considers it good or bad, is trash in the sight of God. It is wood, hay, and stubble, and at the judgment seat of Christ it will all be burned up.
We must build with gold, silver, and precious stones. That means that we have to serve with what is of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, it may sound hard, but this is true. The truth is very simple. I often feel that we make truth complicated, but the truth is simple.
The truth in serving God is just this: I cannot serve God, and you cannot serve God.
I may put my whole self into it—my intellectual power, even my physical power. I may work day and night without ceasing. I may work myself to death. I may use the uttermost of my intelligence.
But, my brothers and sisters, all that comes from ourselves—from our soul-life, from the old Adam, from the self-life—will all be burned up.
The only service that God will accept must be Christ. Christ-centred service is not merely teaching Christ; it is living by Christ and serving by Christ.
This is the wonder of the gospel. The Bible tells us of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This is true not only for your life but also for your service.
How can Christ as life be released in our service as power? This is God’s purpose.
When God created man, He wanted every person to serve His purpose. That is the original thought of God. But man has failed, and because we have failed, we are not able to fulfil God’s purpose.
What became of us? We became flesh. What is flesh? Flesh means that you have a soul and a body without the spirit. From that point, you live by the self-life in your soul, and your body becomes the body of sin and death.
But thank God: when you believe in the Lord Jesus, your dead spirit is quickened into life. The life of Christ comes into you, and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your new spirit.
This is God’s provision, not only for your life but also for your service.
You remember 2 Peter 1:3. God has already given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Godliness means to be like God.
In other words, God has already given us a new life, and this new life is Christ in us. He has not only given us a new life; He has given us His Holy Spirit.
What is the mission of the Holy Spirit? It is to see that this life grows into maturity—that Christ within us may grow into maturity.
This is Christian life. When that life is maturing, and when that life is released, it becomes our Christian service.
Whether it is life or service, it is Christ. It is Christ. I hope we all remember this. I would say that this is the most basic of the basic things.
There was only one Man on earth Who lived a perfect life and Who served God perfectly. While He was on earth, heaven opened three times, and there was a voice from above: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
“I am pleased with Him. I am satisfied with Him. I am glorified in Him.” We know Who this person was: Christ.
Christ lived His life on earth, and that life was perfect. It pleased the Father completely.
While He was in the flesh, He did many things and said many words. As the Apostle John says in his Gospel, if all that our Lord Jesus did and said were recorded, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.
Think of that. He lived only thirty-three and a half years, and He worked only three and a half years. Yet whatever He said or did would fill the whole earth.
He was the Man Whom God had in His mind. His life and His service satisfied God’s heart.
At the end, when our Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify Thou Me,” He had Calvary in view. The Father said, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
He is the only One Who lived and served God completely. Thank God, He is in you and He is in me.
He will relive His life in and through you. He will continue to do His work in serving God in you and in me. This is the secret.
How can we serve God? We serve God not by ourselves, but by the Christ Who is in us. He will do the same things as He did while He was on earth.
Only what comes out of Him satisfies the Father’s heart.
Let us return to 2 Corinthians 4. We know that 2 Corinthians is a letter that shows us Paul’s ministry, just as Philippians shows us his life.
The whole of 2 Corinthians speaks of ministry. Of course, Paul’s ministry was apostolic ministry, but in the principle of service it is the same for all of us. We are all called to this ministry, to this service.
What is this service? If you read 2 Corinthians 3, you find that it is the service of the new covenant.
It is not of letter, but of life. We are not in the service of the old covenant. It is not a service of condemnation.
We are all engaged in the service of the new covenant. It is no longer in letter, no longer in outward things; it is in spirit and in life.
That is the nature of our service. Our service is based upon life. Our service is done by that life.
As we serve, life is released and flows out. Life begets life. Life touches life. This is the nature of our service.
Listen to what Paul says concerning how he carried out this service: “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not.”
Dear brothers and sisters, if you realise what our service is, we all would faint. People today, when they are still in service, often have much assurance in themselves. They have confidence in themselves and boldness in themselves.
This shows that they do not know what they are doing. If you are really engaged in Christian service—if you are serving God—you will ask, “How can I do it? It is beyond me.”
The more I try, the more I fail. The more I do, the more I do disservice to God. Why did Paul not faint? He said, “There is the mercy of God.”
Only by the mercy of God do we dare to serve, realising the seriousness of that service. It is a life-giving service.
What should be done on our side? Paul says:
We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
What work has to be done in our life? Realising the holiness of Christian service, we must deal with hidden things within us.
We may know that there is something wrong in our life, yet keep it hidden within us. Or we may walk in deceit. We have to be true.
Neither may we falsify the Word of God. We try to fit the Word of God to ourselves; then we lower the standard of God’s Word. We compromise God’s Word. No, we cannot do that.
We must present ourselves to every conscience. In other words, this ministry, this service, requires purity without mixture, so that the radiance of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ may shine forth.
In order to have Christ released as the power of service, there is a process through which we must go. The Apostle Paul uses a parable.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7, he says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” The earthen vessel represents ourselves. As you read on, it represents the outward man.
The outward man is primarily the soul, though it includes the body as well. Brothers and sisters, we are made of earth. We are earthen vessels.
So far as our nature is concerned, we are like dust. We are cheap, fragile, and dark. We have no glory in ourselves. That is what we are.
So far as our independent soul and body are concerned—our flesh, our old man, our self-life—we are like the earthen vessel.
But thank God: God puts a treasure in the earthen vessel.
If you have a treasure, where would you put it? Would you put it in an earthen vessel? No. You would probably put it in a gold box or a safety box in a bank.
But that is the wonder of the gospel. God does a wonderful thing: He puts the treasure in the earthen vessel.
There is no treasure more precious than this treasure. What is the treasure? It is Christ. It is His life.
He put Christ in us as life. What is God’s expectation? What is His purpose? It is that the radiance of the light of the treasure may shine forth.
But unfortunately, it is hidden in the earthen vessel. Do you know, dear brothers and sisters? You are the problem. You are the problem.
Do not blame other people. Think of yourself. The treasure is in you, and when the light of the treasure shines forth, it gives life to people.
How will God release the life of Christ within us? You find the wonder of God’s way.
The passage says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.”
What can the earthen vessel do? It can only darken the light. But it is the light within that can shine forth.
For that light to come out, there is one necessity: the earthen vessel has to break. The vessel has to be broken; then the light will come out.
The problem with us is that we are so strong and so hard. We do not allow Christ to come forth. When people contact us, they contact the earthen vessel; they cannot contact the light within.
For this reason, God is going to break the outward man. That is, God is going to break you. He breaks you for one reason: that He may be released.
How does He do it? This is what we call the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit Who dwells in us gives us light and revelation. But great revelation is rare. We may receive it once or twice in our whole life.
Small revelations should come every day. For instance, when we are reading the Word of God, light may shine upon the Word and make the Word living to us.
But major revelation may come only once or twice in our life. God shows us His purpose and the glory of Christ, that we may be uplifted.
In our daily life, however, the Holy Spirit disciplines us. Do not be afraid of the word discipline, because it simply means child-training. God is educating us so that we may grow up.
How does He do it? He arranges our daily circumstances: whom we meet, who is with us, what our environment is for the day, and what happens to us.
Remember this: to a believer, nothing is accidental. God arranges everything for our life.
Even the hairs of our head are numbered—not merely counted, but numbered. When you comb your hair in the morning and hairs fall down, think of the love of God. His tender care is so delicate.
He knows exactly how to break your outward man. Therefore, do not murmur. Submit yourself to the mighty hand of God and learn the lesson.
Here you find the way it works in 2 Corinthians 4:8: “Pressed on every side, yet not straitened.”
I like J. B. Phillips’s translation because it is very effective: “Shut in, but not shut out.”
Is it not true that often you feel that you are shut in, surrounded, with no way out? Yet you are not shut out, because there is a way up.
Then Paul says, “Perplexed, yet not unto despair.” Phillips translates it, “At your wit’s end, but not at your life’s end.”
So far as your wit is concerned, you have come to the end. There seems to be no way out. But your life has not come to an end yet. The life of Christ is released.
“Pursued, yet not forsaken.” You may find yourself persecuted, but God has not abandoned you.
“And smitten down, yet not destroyed.” Phillips translates this, “Knocked down, but not knocked out.”
In boxing, you may be knocked down, but you can get up and fight again. But when you are knocked out, you are finished.
This is the way that God tries to break your outward man—your self, your energy, your will, and your strength. He tries to break you down so that the radiance of Christ may be manifested.
In spiritual terms, Paul says that we bear about in our body the dying of Jesus—not the death of Jesus, but the dying of Jesus.
The death of Jesus occurred two thousand years ago. By His death, He put to death sin, Satan, and Adam. It is an accomplished fact, true forever.
This is what Christ has done in Himself and what He has accomplished for us. It is outside of us, but it is the foundation of our experience.
Out of that accomplished death comes the dying of Jesus. In other words, what Christ accomplished in the past is brought to us by the Holy Spirit.
By the death of Christ, we die. It puts us to death. When the dying of Jesus is upon us, the life of Jesus is manifested—not only in us but also in others.
In you is life. When that life comes to others, it is ministry; it is service.
The death of Christ is applied to our lives to put to death everything that comes from ourselves and to release the life of Christ to others.
This is true Christian service.
Dear brothers and sisters, the question is this: Is it you, or is it Jesus Christ? Is it you who live, or Christ Who lives? Is it you who serve, or is it Christ?
It is the prayer of my heart that in these last days there will be a great change in service: that what comes from ourselves will be removed, and that service will come purely from Christ.
This is Christ-centred service.
Dear Lord, we do realise that this is hard to say. But we would be like Peter, who said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God.”
To Whom else can we go?