Christ or the Law

A good writer or speaker will always write or speak according to a simple outline. First, he will tell you what he is going to tell you. Then he will tell you. Then, finally, he will tell you what he told you. Our God is the best writer of all. Therefore, His writing of the Bible is according to this formula. In Genesis one and two He tells us what He is going to tell us. Between Genesis Three and Revelation twenty He tells us, and in Revelation twenty one and twenty two He tells us what He told us. In these chapters, God is giving us the key to understand the bible.If you can see God's intention in these four chapters, you will be able to open the door of understanding in the rest of the Bible.

The first two chapters of Genesis portray the foundational principles of the Bible. In chapter one, God reveals His way which is His diving life. In Chapter two you have a man before two trees. It also reveals the need that Christ has for a counter-part and the way God bought His bride into being. The implications that are revealed through this picture are far reaching. If we can see why God began His revelation with this simple picture, we will be able to unlock many passages in the Bible and to be enabled to live the Christian life according to the New Testament revelation.

In the center of the garden were the trees of life and the knowledge of good and evil. The picture of the tree of life must be a type of Christ as life for us to receive. The New Testament reveals that Christ is life. (John 14:6, Col. 3:4) Jesus says in John 6 that if we "eat" Him we will have eternal life. It is clear from Gen. 2 that God wanted Adam and Eve to eat the tree of life and live forever. No wonder that we all hate to die. We were created to live forever but lost that long life through the original couple's fall.

On the other hand, there is the tree of knowledge of good and evil which we must avoid or die. It is also true in the New Testament that we are warned again and again against the attempt to keep the law, which is to live by right or wrong. (see Galatians and Romans 7-8) So, the tree of knowledge must refer to the law.

Have you ever heard that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a picture of the law? Please think about it. What does the law do? It teaches us the difference between good and evil according the God’s standard. For example, according to the first commandment, it teaches us and commands us to love God and to have nothing to do with idols. To love God is good. To worship an idol is evil. The fifth commandment commands us to honor our father and our mother. To honor them is good and to dishonor them is evil. Every other point of the law is the same. By it you know what is good and what is evil. Then you attempt to do what is right and avoid what is wrong by your own effort. So the tree of knowledge of good and evil a picture of the law, which we must obey to be righteous before God.

The law of God teaches that if you live by the law, everything you do will be good and on the other hand the law demands that you must not do anything unrighteous or evil. Only this kind of living will please God under His law. However, if you keep the law you will have to do it by your own strength. God will not help you do it. This means that you will be your own little god, living by your own effort to work out good and abstain from the evil. Because you now know what is good and what is evil you don't need God to lead you. You have become independent from God.

We are all under a deep deception. Our heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it. (Jer.17:9) The heart deceives us causing us to think that we can perfect ourselves by self-effort. Every human being except the Lord Jesus Christ is under this dilusion. Paul, the apostle, was the same. In Romans chapter 7 he poured out his hearts despair in his attempt to live a righteous life before God. But despite all he effort he failed. We are all the same. Not one can be righteous up to the standart of God's righteousness. In ourselves we are a hopeless case. When we attempt to live by the law of God or by any self-made law, we will be automatically brought under the dominion of sin. The indwelling sin is stronger than the good nature with which we were born and we will be captured by sin and death.

The tree of life is a picture of Christ as our life. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil are opposed to each other in the garden of Eden. Since this is the case, it is obvious that Christ our life is verses law-keeping. Not only Genesis two reveals this but the rest of the Bible unveils that if a man or a nation attempts to please God by keeping the law the result will be failure resulting in sin and death.

This is the history of the nation of Israel and the history of the church. The minute any form of law keeping enters into a man’s thinking, he will enter the way of failure in living the Christian life. Let’s think about it. Was there ever, even one, among the best of kings of Israel, who did not fail? David? No he fell into adultery and murder. Solomon? No, he was seduced by too many women and their idols. How about Josiah? He was excellent yet in the end he died by fighting a battle that was not of God. How about Moses? Also no. Even he was prohibited from entering into the good land due to his failure. Why did all of them fail? They were attempting to keep God's law and by doing this were brought into sin and death.

Eventually, there were only four who overcame. Joshua, Caleb, Joseph and Daniel. I believe that these men learned the secret and did not live by the tree of knowledge. It was their hearts desire for God Himself and their determination to stay with Him that saved them.

Joshua was a man who only cared for God and His purpose. He even lived in the Tent of Meeting in the presence of God while all of the children of Israel had fallen away. Caleb had the testimony of the Word that he had another spirit to only follow God. Joseph was a man of vision and even wore a many colored robe which implied that his expression was Christ. And Daniel also was so given to the Lord Himself that he refused to defile himself with the world's food and kept himself with God by prayer three times a day even when that practice would get him murdered. These four lived lives without recorded sin because they did not honor the law above their Lord. They all lived in the presence of God and were one with His purpose.

When Jesus came, who were the main ones who opposed Him at every opportunity? Was it not religion? Study the book of Matthew carefully and you will see that time after time it was religion that attempted to frustrate Him from carrying our His ministry. It was not only the Pharisees, the priests and the scribes who opposed Him but His own disciples who were of such a legal mind that they could not see who He was and what His goal and purpose were.

A; perfect example of this is Peter. Several times he resisted the Lord's word due to his religious mind. But he was not alone. All the disciples had been brought up in the Jewish religion, as we have in the Christian religion, and couldn't grasp what He was doing and saying. Are we not the same? The word clearly tells us that our old man has been crucified and that we have the life of Christ in us so that we can boldly believe and say that, "for me to live is Christ." The Word says that sin has been taken away by our Lord Jesus on the cross and that we were regenerated two thousand years ago so that sin is over for us. Yet how many of us live in that reality. Are we not religious many times attempting to improve ourselves and striving to avoid sin? Is not that law keeping?

Temptation

God planted in Genesis all the seed-truths that gradually were developed little by little throughout the Bible by many writers, and harvested in the book of Revelation. Since Matthew could be considered the genesis of the New Testament, it also should also have seeds that grow and also become harvested in the book of Revelation. Since the Old Testament depicts in picture form all the spiritual realities and the New unveils the realities themselves, it can be said that Matthew contains the development of some of the things that are depicted in Genesis.

For example, in Gen. 1:26 we are told that God determined to make man in His image with His dominion to rule over the earth and all that was created in it. In Matthew we are introduced to a Man who is actually in the image of God and who does rule over all the spiritual rulers and authorities and the things on the earth. Whatever He said and did expressed, explained and defined God. He had rule over every demon He encountered. He ruled over the storm that the evil spiritual forces used to try to kill Him at sea. And He ruled over the devil while He was being tempted.

It would seem to follow then, that the devil's temptation of the Lord Jesus would be the same kind of temptation that the enemy used to defeat Eve since Jesus was the second Adam who had come to defeat the enemy. The first man, Adam, was defeated when he ate the tree of knowledge of good and evil and became separated from God. The devil's goal was to defeat the Lord using the same tactic. If we can see how Satan came to Eve and to Jesus, we will see how he comes to us with the same temptations.

Eve was tempted in three steps. First she was tempted to do something without looking to God as her source. Second, she was tempted to be like God and third, by eating the tree of knowledge, she worshiped the devil since the reality of worship is to drink or eat spiritually. (John 4:10,24; 1 Cor. 12:13) Today, to eat the tree of life is to "eat" Jesus. (John 6:57, 63) What we eat is what we worship!

After the Lord Jesus was baptized and entered into His ministry, He was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He was tempted with the same three things that Eve was tempted with. Satan tempted Him to do something apart from His Father, to leap off the temple in order to demonstrate that He was God and to worship the devil so as to rule the world.

In the first temptation, the devil tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread and eat since the Lord was very hungry after His 40 days of fasting. But the Lord said that man does not live on bread alone but on ever word that proceeds out of God's mouth. The Lord was saying that our Father must be the source and initiate everything we do. Father is the proper source of all we do and say. When we eat the words that come out of the mouth of God and are “partakers of the divine nature,” (2 Pet. 1:4) we will abide in Christ. Out of that abiding we will actually be in the will of God but not by our own effort. "It is God who works in us both the willing and the doing." (Phil. 2:13)

The devil suggested to Eve that she could become like God by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. In religion many want to do something to be like God, to be a great speaker, a successful evangelist, or to do many works of power, healing the sick and even raising the dead. Jesus was tempted in the same way. The devil took Him to the pinnacle of temple and told Him to jump off. The temple was the gathering place of the Jewish people in Jerusalem. To and to jump off and float down in front of them all would have demonstrated that He was indeed "like God" and He would have been great in their eyes.

But Jesus said that man should not tempt God. Father does not want us to be great in religion. He wants us to be nothing. Man always wants to be greater than others. In principle this is to want to become God by your own effort and ability. It is an insult to God. In effect you become your own idol. It is an abomination to our Father. Jesus said that if you want to be great, be the least and serve others. (Matt. 23) The only one who is great is Jesus Himself and even He became the least, dying the death of a slave on the cross. (Phil. 2:5-8)

The continual argument among the Lord's disciples was, "Who is the greatest among us?" The Lord attempted many times to help their concept telling them that the greatest would be as a little child. (Matt. 18:1-3). He told them not to call anyone teacher, master or father. (Matt.23) Although Paul was an apostle who had been called by God, he considered himself a bond slave to God and to the churches. The religious concept is that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers are all above the other saints. This is up-side-down. If anyone is this kind of gift to the body of Christ, then that one should realize the he is a slave to the Lord and to the church. To realize that you are a slave of out Lord Jesus Christ is to have a spirit of humility and meekness and not to assume that you know more and are superior to any brother or sister. Oh, the subtlety of the self. We reek with pride and superior feelings. Even we may feel that we are superior to others because we are so humble! How deceived we are without the Lord's light.

Eve was deceived to think that she would fulfill God's purpose and be in His image and have dominion over the earth by eating this tree's fruit and therefore knowing what was right and what was wrong. Then she would always be able to make the right decisions and express the righteous God. I felt the same way many years ago when the church-life was so glorious and prevailing, and the taste of the Spirit was so sweet and enjoyable. How my subtle self deceived by the devil, took the credit for the Lord's presence and through my pride offended the Lord and I lost it all. I was as Eve, deceived. Then I fell to attempting to please God by self-effort, doing what I thought would please God and not once realizing that I was living by the tree of knowledge and not by the life of my Lord Jesus.

Eve, by eating the tree of knowledge, received the life of that tree which is sin. Rather than being free to really express God, she became enslaved to sin. Sins reality is to simply be independent from the life of God. This inevitably leads to the expression of the very life of Satan. Jesus said in John 4:24 that our Father is seeking true worshipers who worship in spirit and truth. Eating and drinking the Spirit is the reality of worship. If we "eat" anything that is not the flesh and blood of Jesus, we are worshiping something other than the true God. There are those who have discovered that they are able to live in their spirit and experience Christ. They have found the reality of having their soul divided from their spirit. (Heb. 4:12) They are those who have learned to drink the Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:13)

When we see what Jesus' reaction to the world was, should realize what ours should be. Any ambition for a position, whether it be in religion or any other worldly organization is an abomination to our God. His intention for is not to go up, but rather to go down, to be nothing, and allow Him to be our all. He is the leader, the Father, the teacher and the Lord. The church does not have leaders. She has brothers who are older in the Lord who are the real bond-slaves, who "equip the saints unto the work of the ministry and unto the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12) God's intention is that all the members of the body function to carry out the Lord's goal on earth.

Almost all the Christians have succumbed to one if not all of these temptations. The entire Christian world is ripe with doing all kinds of things, "ministries", and projects that have been initiated out from themselves because they had a good idea for God. How much is done here in this country by the power of the Spirit? Everywhere you look you see big mega-churches that operate solely on the principles of the world. On top of this, haven't many of us become our own little gods? How much of our living is sourced from the spirit. Are you daily partaking of His divine nature so that you experience the growth that is described in 2 Pet. 1:1-12?

We are not on earth to gain the world. 1 John 2:15 tells us that the world is composed of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. This is the same temptation with which the devil tempted Eve and the same with which he came to the Lord. It is the same with us. He always comes with the same temptations.

The lust of the flesh is to do something out of the self, out of your own source, for God. The lust of the eyes is to look good in the eyes of others and the pride of life is to gain position in the world-system. Not only is this true in the secular world but even true in the religious world. When a young person is saved and shows signs of ability, are they not all encouraged to become a leader of some kind, to go to a Bible training facility and become a minister or missionary? How many are helped to become nothing and learn to know Christ in their inner being so that He would be the source of their Christian life and work?

In speaking of the lust of the flesh, John is not mainly talking about the sinful works of the flesh that are described in Galatians chapter five. Here he says the lust of the flesh not the works of the flesh. The word translated "lust" in our versions, simply means "desire" in the Greek. The desire of the flesh is to improve itself, to work for God, and to please God by its own effort. This is more fully explained in Romans 8. There, Paul says that the mind-set of the flesh is death and the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. In the context of Romans 6-8 the flesh is attempting to keep the law to please God and cannot do it. The answer is that Christ has done it and is doing it in us if we don’t fall for the devil’s temptation to do something by our own effort.

The world’s way is that through education, hard work and self-improvement so that you can get rich and have whatever you want. This is called the American Dream. In the Christian world it is the same. It seems that the American Dream has been brought into the churches. Most of the churches today have this purpose driven philosophy. By using the ways of corporate America they become mega-churches with large congregations, huge physical facilities and a great deal of money.

In contrast, the Lord in Matt. 13:31-32 describes the kingdom of the heavens as a mustard seed which grows into a big tree. In nature the mustard seed is very small and will grow into a small bush. In the Lord’s story it mutates and grows into a big tree in which the birds of the air make their nests. The birds of the air represent the demons and evil spirits. (Rev. 18:2) The Lord’s church was supposed to be "small" but a living organism to produce food for people just like the mustard bush. However, today, in the western world, the church has become a great tree full of evil “birds.” These birds deceive people especially with worldly thoughts of doing something to please God. This kind of worldliness is legalism and will end up in death. This is why so many Christians, unknown to themselves, are so wretched, miserable, blind and naked.

The desire of the eyes is to be popular, to be appreciated by others and draw others eyes to you. Just like the Lord Jesus' temptation to jump off the temple which would draw every eye to Him and make Him popular and even worshiped, so we have this desire in our genes. Who isn't tempted to have others love and admire them? But this is to tempt the Lord our God. Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees gave long public prayers to be admired by men. He said to go into your closet and pray to our Father who will reward you secretly. Why? Because we are so prone to this kind of temptation. In the kingdom of the heavens there is only one who is popular. It is Jesus Christ! Every eye should be looking to Him not to any leader, not to any man. He is the Lord, our master and our God.

The pride of life is to be ambitious for position, to gain the rule over others, to be a little king in your own little kingdom, whether it is in a worldly business, sports or a church or some other Christian organization. The world is in our fallen nature and is manifested all around us. The Lord's disciples constantly debated among themselves as to who was the greatest among them. Jesus addressed this temptation several times. Once He said that the greatest was as a little child. (Matt.18) Another time that the greatest would be the slave of all. Jesus Himself ran away when the crowd attempted to make Him a king. (John 6)

His kingdom is one of life not of outward rule. This is the reason that John in 1 John 3:23 says that His commandments are to abide in Him and love your brother. If anyone abides in Him he will, by the life of Christ, love his brother. To hate your brother is the proof that you are not abiding in Him. To want to be a leader who is above and a ruler of others is a thought of the world and is not love. Love builds up others. It does not desire to rule and manipulate others. Jesus desire was to be food and drink to people not to be their king in the worldly sense. We Christians are to be the same, to minister and feed one another Christ as their life supply.

Our attitude should be clear. Beware of eating anything but Jesus so that you do nothing out of your own effort. Avoid any attempt to be popular and run from ruling others. Remember, only the life of Christ spontaneously lives this way. Be careful that you don't make these principals laws for yourself or they also will become part of the tree of knowledge and kill you. Our salvation is to eat and drink Jesus and daily submit to His will through His life.

Noah found favor (grace) with God.(Gen. 6:8) Out of this grace/favor Noah was enabled to build the ark. He didn't build the ark in order to gain favor with God but God had already graced him. The grace was the power that enabled him to do the work which God had initiated. This was not a project that Noah had dreamed up but was something out of God Himself.

As Christians today we too have been favored by God. This favor, this grace, has come to us without any merit on our part. It is the free gift of God. We didn't deserve it but it was given based on the death of Christ on the cross. He bore all our sins and due to His obedience we were forgiven all our past, present and future sins and thus we became the righteousness of God in Christ.

It is not what we do that make us righteous before God. If that were the case then we would be righteous based on our keeping the law by which no one can be righteous. Only the righteousness of Christ dispensed in us when we received Christ and were born again can be counted by God as righteousness.

Not only the righteousness that we received initially with our new birth, but every day of our Christian life our righteousness is based solely upon God's grace/favor. I do not mix law with grace. I so not try to be good, to please God or try to improve myself in any way. This is legality. If I do, I nullify what Christ has done for me and what He will do in me. I simply stay with Christ and enjoy this Person who lives in the depth of my being.

My righteous behavior toward my wife, for example, can only be by His grace/favor in me. I am under this grace/favor and only the operating energy of that grace/favor on and in me can produce the acting righteousness to my wife or to anyone else. If I attempt to be a good husband by my own effort it is law keeping and I will experience death toward God. In other words I have just eaten the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Gen.6:9 says that Noah was a righteous man. Since at that time there was no law given to men by God, righteousness in those days, as today, only could come to man by faith in God. So Noah was a man of faith which had been given to him through grace, just as we become righteous through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

No matter what our situation or circoustanse is, we are always favored by God. He loves us more than we know. The blood of His son Jesus Christ is always cleansing us from all our sins. No matter how we have fallen or how we may fall we are still under the cleansing of His blood and are accounted righteous.

I have enjoyed the following little chorus many tines:

I am the righteousness of God in Christ
A brand new creation in Him.
I can now approach the throne of God
With no condemnation of sin
I am the righteousness of God in Christ
I am now complete in Him.
I'm a partakeer of His divine nature.
To me He will not impute sin..

Since I am under the new covenant sin is never imputed to my account. God, the Judge of the universe has judged me in Christ to be righteous now and unto all eternity. And all because of His free grace/favor in Christ!

J. Hudson Taylor: The Exchanged Life

Introduction

This slightly condensed excerpt comes from a chapter entitled: “The Exchanged Life” and is found in J. Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, a marvelous recounting of God’s work in and through him for the millions of China.

Oh, Mr. Judd, "God made me a new man! God has made me a new man!" exclaimed Hudson Taylor. Wonderful was the experience that had come in answer to prayer, yet so simple as almost to baffle description.

It had all started when Hudson Taylor had received a letter from a John McCarthy, a fellow missionary in China:

“I do wish I could have a talk with you now, about the way of holiness. At the time you were speaking to me about it, it was the subject of all others occupying my thoughts, not from anything I had read…so much as from a consciousness of failure—a constant falling short of that which I felt should be aimed at; an unrest; a perpetual striving to find some way by which one might continually enjoy that communion, that fellowship—at times so real but more often so visionary, so far off.

Do you know, I now think that this striving, longing, hoping for better days to come is not the true way to holiness, happiness or usefulness. It is better, no doubt, far better than being satisfied with poor attainments, but not the best way after all. I have been struck with a passage from a book... entitled Christ is All. It says:

"The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete.... He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It is defective faith which clogs the feet and causes many a fall."

To let my loving Savior work in me His will, my sanctification, is what I would live for by His grace. Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power;... resting in the love of an almighty Savior, in the joy of a complete salvation, ‘from all sin’—this is not new, and yet 'tis new to me. I feel as though the dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a boundless sea; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me, now, the power, the only power for service, the only ground for unchanging joy...

How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all He is for us: His life, His death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith... but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and eternity.

Writing of this experience, Taylor declared: “I looked to Jesus, and when I saw— oh, how joy flowed!”

Writing of his transformation, a fellow missionary wrote,

“He was a joyous man now, a bright happy Christian. He had been toiling, burdened one before, with latterly not much rest of soul. It was resting in Jesus now, and letting Him do the work—which makes all the difference. Whenever he spoke in meetings after that, a new power seemed to flow from him, and in the practical things of life a new peace possessed him. Troubles did not worry him as before. He cast everything on God in a new way, and gave more time to prayer. Instead of working late at night, he began to go to bed earlier, rising at 5 AM to give time to Bible study and prayer (often two hours) before the work of the day began.”

It was the exchanged life that had come to him—the life that is indeed ‘No longer I’ It was a blessed reality "Christ liveth in me." And how great the difference!—instead of bondage, liberty; instead of failure, quiet victories within; instead of fear and weakness, a restful sense of sufficiency in Another. So great was the deliverance, that from that time onward Mr. Taylor could never do enough to help to make this precious secret plain to hungry hearts wherever he might be.

Hudson Taylor later wrote a letter to his sister in which he shared his struggles and the new joy he had found in resting in Christ:

“As to work—mine was never so plentiful, so responsible or so difficult, but the weight and strain are all gone. The lst month or more has been, perhaps, the happiest of my life, and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul. I do not know how far I may be able to make myself intelligible about it, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful—and yet it is all new!

Perhaps I may make myself more clear if I go back a little... My mind has been greatly exercised for six or eight months past, feeling the need personally and for our Mission of more holiness, life, power in our souls. But personal need stood first and was the greatest. I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for meditation—but all without avail. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me.

I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not. I would begin the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye off Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, and constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, caused me to forget Him. Then one's nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control. Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed "present with me," but how to perform I found not.

Then came the questions, is there no rescue? Must it be thus to the end—constant conflict, and too often defeat? How could I preach with sincerity that, to those who receive Jesus, ‘to them gave He power to become the sons of God’ when it wasn’t true in my experience? Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin; and no longer, for faith and even hope were getting low. I hated myself, I hated my sin, yet gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God. His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, ‘Abba, Father.’ But to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless.

I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace. There was nothing I so much desired as holiness, nothing I so much needed; but far from in any measure attaining it, the more I strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp, until hope itself almost died out, and I began to think that—perhaps to make heaven the sweeter—God would not give it down here. I do not think that I was striving to attain it in my own strength. I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord so, and asked Him to give me help and strength. Sometimes I almost believed that He would keep and uphold me; but on looking back in the evening—alas! there was but sin and failure to confess and mourn before God.

…And yet, never did Christ seem more precious; a Savior who could and would save such a sinner!... And sometimes there were seasons not only of peace but of joy in the Lord; but they were transitory, and at best there was a sad lack of power. Oh how good the Lord has been in bringing this conflict to an end.

All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was: how to get it out. He was rich truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I weak. I knew full well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question. As gradually light dawned, I saw that faith was the only requisite—was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and make it mine. But I had not this faith.

I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior, my guilt and helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was I felt the damning sin of the world; yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?

When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure but saw the light before I did wrote:

"But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One."

As I read, I saw it all! "If we believe not, he abideth faithful." I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed)! that He had said, "I will never leave thee."

"Ah, there is rest!" I thought. "I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me—never to leave me, never to fail me?" And, dearie, He never will.

Nor was this all He showed me, nor one half. As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in wishing to get the sap, the fullness out of Him! I saw not only that Jesus will never leave me, but that I am a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. The vine is not the root merely, but all—root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit. And Jesus is not that alone—He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding too may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.

It is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Savior, to be a member of Christ! Think what it involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and your left poor? Or your head be well fed while your body starves? Again, think of its bearing on prayer. Could a bank clerk say to a customer, ‘It was only your hand, not you that wrote that check’; or ‘I cannot pay this sum to your hand, but only to yourself’? No more can your prayers or mine be discredited if offered in the name of Jesus (i.e., not for the sake of Jesus merely, but on the ground that we are His, His members) so long as we keep within the limits of Christ's credit—a tolerably wide limit! If we ask for anything unscriptural, or not in accordance with the will of God, Christ Himself could not do that. But ‘if we ask anything according to his will…we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.’

The sweetest part... is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient. It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash wroth of things, or the most expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me his purchases. So, if God should place me in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trials, much strength? No fear that His resources will prove unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me.

And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith, how happy I have been!... I am no better than before. In a sense, I do not wish to be, nor am I striving to be. But I am dead and buried with Christ—ay, and risen too! And now Christ lives in me, and "the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

And now I must close…. May God give you to lay hold on these blessed truths. Do not let us continue to say, in effect, ‘Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above).’ In other words, do not let us consider Him as far off, when God has made us one with Him, members of His very body. Nor should we look upon this experience, these truths, as for the few. They are the birthright of every child of God, and no one can dispense with them without dishonoring our Lord. The only power for deliverance from sin or for true service is Christ.”

Many years later Taylor was asked, "But are you always conscious of this abiding in Christ?" "While sleeping last night," he replied, "did I cease to abide in your home because I was unconscious of the fact? We should never be conscious of not abiding in Christ."

I change, He changes not;
The Christ can never die:
His truth, not mine, the resting place;
His love, not mine, the tie.

This experience stood the test of time. Never again did unsatisfied days return; never again was his needy soul separated from the fullness of Christ. Difficult trials came, but with them came the joy that flowed from the presence of the Lord Himself. He had found the secret of rest. And with that rest had come a greater surrender and abandonment to Christ.

“I am no longer anxious about anything, for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how.”

This new yieldedness, this glad unreserved handing over of self and everything to Him, was but the loyal and loving—joyful—acceptance of God’s will in all things, in the belief that these were God’s choice gifts to His own!

In another letter he wrote:

“And now I have the very passage for you, and God has so blessed it to my own soul? John 7: 37-39: ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto ME and drink.’ Who does not thirst? Who has not mind thirst, heart-thirsts, soul-thirsts or body-thirsts? Well, no matter which, or whether I have them all—“Come unto me and’ remain thirsty? Ah no! ‘Come unto me and drink.’

What, can Jesus meet my need? Yes and more than meet it. No matter how intricate my path, how difficult my service; no matter how sad my bereavement, how far away my loved ones; no matter how helpless I am, how deep are my soul-yearnings—Jesus can meet all, all, and more than meet. He not only promises me rest—ah, how welcome that would be, were it all, and what an all that one word embraces! He not only promises me drink to alleviate my thirst. No, better than that! ‘He who trusts Me in this matter (who believeth on Me, takes Me at My word) out of him shall flow….

Can it be? Can the dry and thirsty one not only be refreshed—the parched soul moistened, the arid places cooled—but the land be so saturated that springs well up and streams flow down from it? Even so! And not mere mountain-torrents, full while the rain lasts, then dry again…but, ‘from within him shall flow rivers’—rivers like the mighty Yangtze, ever deep, ever full. In times of drought brooks may fail, often do, canals may be pumped dry, often are, but the Yangtze never. Always a mighty stream, always flowing deep and irresistible.!”

Now read Henry Law's chapter on holiness from his Christ is All, that McCarthy quoted: "Holiness," Christ is All

Also read Harrient Beecher Stowe's How To Live on Christ, the booklet which Hudson Taylor sent all the China Inland Mission missionaries in 1869 after he found Jesus as an indwelling saviour

Looking

Looking away unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith. (Heb. 12:2) This verse is a summery of the Christian life. It is not an exhortation to do something, to behave a certain way or the fix up yourself. It is simply looking! By looking the very Christ you look at is infused into you. By looking at Jesus every self effort is annulled. By looking, the faith of the son of God is imparted into you without any "trying" on your part.

By looking away unto Jesus, you look away from the past, the future, your condition, your present circumstances, your health, your spouse, and everything else that bothers and distracts from your progress in the Christian race. Oh, keep on looking away to Jesus! Don't look at others and how they are living as Christians. That is just another distraction the enemy puts in front of you to keep you from lookiong at Jesus. He is the only one worth looking at. Simply keep looking at Jesus.