Amazing Grace (5 page)

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“Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but
alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

Yesterday we came to understand the fact that God has already
crucified our old man. What must we do, now that our old man has been crucified?
The Bible tells us that we should reckon ourselves as being dead in Christ
Jesus and our also being alive in Christ Jesus. Towards sin we reckon ourselves
as being dead but towards God as being alive in Christ Jesus.

What does reckoning mean? We know that in the world our
speech is often inaccurate and even our writings may be incorrect. We dare not
say that what is recorded in history and in historical narratives are one
hundred percent factual or even almost factual. What, then, is the one undertaking
in the world which is most accurate? Is it not that of accounting? For example,
two plus two is four. This accounting or reckoning is certain, for no one can declare
that two plus two is three and be believed. No, the mathematical equation, two
plus two equals four, can never be said to be less or more. For those in kindergarten
the reckoning of two plus two being four is true just as it is for the college
students in the world.
 
Not because a
person has a doctor’s degree can that one credibly say that two plus two is
five. Hence, accounting or reckoning is one of the most exact activities in the
world.

Here God has accounted us as having died, for we were
already dead. Just as you cannot say four is the answer to two plus two unless the
answer is truly four, so you cannot reckon yourselves as dead unless you are
truly dead. Suppose you are an accountant in a store. What can you do if the
account shows a loss of twenty thousand dollars? You can only report such an
amount as a loss. You cannot enter such an amount into the account book as being
an
earning
of twenty thousand dollars.
Whatever is recorded in the account ledger must be exactly whatever has been
the loss or gain. Hence, when God reckons us to be dead, it means precisely
that—that we have really died. Only real death can be reckoned as being dead.
You cannot reckon yourselves as being dead if you have not yet died.

The call in the Bible for us to reckon is a call for us
to experience faith. How do we reckon? We reckon by faith. We now know that
when the Lord was crucified, He had brought our old man with Him to be
crucified as well. This hopeless, sinful and defiled you
was
crucified with Him too. If you still consider yourselves as alive and not dead,
let me tell you, this is because you have no faith.

I often sense that what believers lack most is faith. We
know the truth, but we lack experience. This is due to our lack of faith
(Hebrews 4:2b). If there is living faith, all will be real. Without faith,
truth remains truth and you remain you but there is no connection between the
two. Yet with the exercise of faith, all the Biblical truths will become your
experience. God has declared you are dead in Christ Jesus, you believe that
declaration of fact, and so you are really truly dead.

Two years ago a foreign missionary came to see me. She
was a sister in the Lord and had a few children. She said to me: “Mr. Nee, I am
really at my wits’ end. If one of my children cries I can bear it, but when
another also cries, I lose my patience. My patience can only endure one, not
two of them, crying. I lose my temper, Mr. Nee, so what can I do? I continue to
see myself as really still alive, I not having died. This is the reason for my failures.
Had I truly died, everything would be fine. Is that not so?” I answered her with
a smile, saying: “Where in Scripture does God tell you that you died in yourself?
God has never said that. What He
has
said
is that you died
in
Christ
. If your eyes only see yourself,
you shall see that you are indeed very much alive. But if you see Christ, you
will see that you truly did die.”

Many Christians know the truth of co-death, but they
still look at themselves and therefore feel themselves to be alive. God has
never said that upon your hearing the truth of co-death and looking at yourself
that you will therefore see yourself as dead. Such would be according to
feeling, not according to faith. Faith is looking to Christ and not at oneself.
Faith is seeing oneself in Christ, not seeing oneself in himself. Believers should
never look at themselves; they should always view themselves as being in
Christ.

Satan will continually tempt you by telling you that you
are alive. How do you know you are alive? You know it in yourself. Satan therefore
tempts you to look at yourself. He deceives you by saying to you that God has indeed
said you died, but where, adds Satan, did you die? For being thus tempted by
the enemy, you look at yourself and, alas, you see you have
not
died. What do you really believe? Do
you believe God’s word or believe your feeling? God says that I died in Christ.
But Satan says I have not died; and when I look at myself, I see myself as not
dead. After all is said and done, do I believe God’s word or believe my feeling?

Such points up the difference between
living faith and dead faith.
You know you have said that you died. Do
you believe the word of God or believe your feeling? Which is true—God’s word
or your experience? You should believe God’s word, for that is what faith is.
If you have living faith, you may look at yourself as alive but you are able to
declare that though you feel alive you do not believe you are.

I trust in God’s word, not in my feeling. God has said I died,
hence I am dead. What therefore is living faith? It is taking hold of the word
of God. Only His word is true. My feeling and experience may change, but I
believe what God’s word has made clear—that all the works which God has done in
Christ have been accomplished.

Today’s problem lies precisely here: we only see our
being alive and let the word of God slip away from us: we hold onto our feeling
within and cast away God’s word without. Whenever our feeling and God’s word
are opposed to each other, we should believe God’s word instead of believing
our feeling. Then we are delivered. Countless believers have heard the truth of
our co-death and co-resurrection with Christ, but most only know the truth without
exercising living faith; and thus all becomes vain for them.

In this particular regard, how useless is our brain. For
when temptation comes, our brain will commence thinking what we should do in
order to die. Let me tell you that such action shows the lack of faith. The
issue here is whether we can believe that we have already died in Christ. It is
not a matter of us
going
to die;
rather, it is a matter of believing we have
already
died: not what we can do, but accepting and believing that all
has
already been done: not how we can resist temptation but
how we can believe God’s word.

As was said earlier, if the store has earned money, the
ledger will naturally reckon it as an earning. How, then, should I reckon if
God has said I died? I should obviously reckon myself to be dead. Many believers
acknowledge that all would be fine if only they had truly died. Well, the fact
is that they
have
died, for in Christ
all problems have indeed been solved. God never says I am going to die; rather,
He declares that I have already died.

Unless I am truly dead, how can God instruct me to reckon
myself as dead? On the other hand, if I have in fact not died, how, again, can
God instruct me to count myself dead? If the store has lost money, how can the
owner instruct the accountant to put it down in the ledger as an earning?
Because I have truly died, God can cause me to reckon myself dead. God will
never instruct me to make a false account. Thank God, I have truly died in
Christ. It does not matter whether I have experienced it or not, the fact is
that my old man has already died, for the work of Christ has been fully
accomplished.

You must reckon yourself as dead, and with faith you
shall experience it, but without faith you will not have any experience of it. If
temptation comes and you are stirred to feel you are not dead, then at that
moment you will either believe your inward feeling or believe the word of God. Whether
you believe God or believe feeling will be demonstrated at that very moment. We
must have faith in God, not look for proof. If only we believe in what God has
said, there will be no need of proof.

A trustworthy person need not provide any proof. Suppose
I lend money to the country’s president; do I need any guarantee? But if I lend
to a rickshaw driver, I will for sure need a guarantee of some kind should he
flee
away later. Simply by His word God need not provide a guarantee.
What He says is final; but why?
Because He is the most
honorable Person in the universe.
What He says as having been done is
done indeed (cf. Hebrews 6:18a). My feeling tells me that I have not died and
am still sinning. At that moment, what do you believe? Do you believe you died
in Christ or believe you are alive on the basis of your feeling? All who
believe they are dead in Christ are blessed, for all their problems are
eternally solved.

Living faith
is believing
God’s
word. It is not a believing some doctrine, for doctrine in mind has no power.
Believe the word of
God,
resist all which belongs to
self, and simply trust that God has already done all which is necessary. So
that when temptation comes and your heart is stirred up for you to be proud or
unclean, to worry or be jealous, what should you do? Let me tell you that a man
of faith is able to praise God and declare that even though he may worry, he is
dead; that though he may lose his temper, he still is dead. Even if your feeling
should be contradictory to God’s word, you will still praise God for all which
He has done in Christ. If you believe yourself to be in Christ, if you believe
that you are truly joined to Him, then you will certainly leap and shout,
“Thank God I am dead!”

The problem today lies in
your
seeing
the truth but not seeing God’s finished work; in your seeing the truth but not
seeing what is the content of the truth. It is like studying geography but you have
never been to the places you have read about. You need God’s
revelation,
you need His light to shine on you. Then you will see your position in Christ.
Since you have not seen, there is no way to believe. On the other hand, let us
say that I go into a room and hide there; you can easily believe that I am in
the room because you saw me going in. Today you cannot see you are dead; on the
contrary, you see yourself as alive and your old man is still alive. But thank
God, though you cannot see, yet you believe, for you have seen that you are
united with Christ in one. Therefore, when He died, you died also.

Suppose there is a cold drink in this bottle I have here
in my hand. And suppose I bring this bottle to the pier and throw it into the
sea. We cannot say on the one hand that the bottle is in the sea but that on
the other hand the cold drink is still back in the Y.M.C.A. or in
brother
Wong’s home. Not so, for where the bottle is, there
is the cold drink. Even so, God has put us in Christ; and since Christ has died,
we who are in Him have died as well.

“Of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus” (I Corinthians
1:30a). In other words, for you to be in Christ is the will and work of God. I may
be a weak person, for my hands cannot lift eighty pounds; but I can pour water
into a bottle. God is omnipotent. For Him to put me in Christ is easier than
for me to pour water into a bottle. You being in Christ Jesus is God’s will and
by God’s work. Hence, God’s word declares that when Christ died, at that very
moment you also died.

Two years ago I was conducting meetings in Kaifeng. As I
was speaking of the believer being in Christ, one of those in attendance asked
me: “How can I be in Christ? How is it that when Christ died, I too died?
that
when Christ lives, I too live?” I replied as follows:
“For me to be in Christ is God’s work. It is God who puts us in Christ, so, the
experience of Christ becomes our experience. All God’s works are done in
Christ, not in us. This is the difference between Christianity and other
religions. In all other religions, all works are done in man. Only in
Christianity are works not done in man. In the Christian faith all are in
Christ alone; so that if you are related to Christ, all Christ’s experiences
become yours. Without such relationship with Christ you remain as you are and
the work of Christ has no effect on you.”

I went on to explain to this inquirer at the Kaifeng
meeting the following. Do you know how the electric bulb gives light? It gives
light through the electric wire which is connected with the power plant. The
power of light-giving is not in the bulb; rather, it is back in the power plant.
Because the bulb is in touch with the power plant, it lights up. Remove the
bulb from its contact with the power plant and it itself has no light, because it
is the power plant which produces electricity, not the bulb. Similarly is the
work of God. God conducts no work in man: all His works are done in Christ: death
is in Christ and resurrection is also in Christ: all are accomplished in Him. So
that by having living faith which is in touch with Christ all God’s works will
be effective in you. Without that contact with Christ by exercising faith which
is living you will remain your usual self. Therefore, the issue lies in whether
or not you have faith. By faith you are able to be related to Christ. So you
must believe in what God has done in Christ.

I continued explaining to this same inquirer as follows. By
carefully reading the Bible you will come to realize that you can never change yourself;
God has not said that He will change you. You will remain the same forever.
Imagine a light bulb one day saying to
itself
: “I have
been here for a long time; I shine forth light every day. I am sure I have
light within me.” But, then, suppose the bulb disconnects itself to see if
there is still light shining forth. Naturally, there will no longer be any light
coming forth, because whenever the bulb is disconnected from its source of
electricity, it cannot give light anymore. In like manner, unless you are in contact
with Christ, you will remain the same as you always have been. If there is no contact
with Christ, you shall be like someone studying a book of geography without that
person ever having visited the places he had been reading about. You may know
the truth of co-death, but to experience being really dead is another matter.
Without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, doctrine is useless and has no
effect.

Even though I had responded to my inquirer this way, he
still could not be convinced. So I continued by asking him the following: “Who
is the ancestor of the Chinese?” “We Chinese,” he replied, “are the descendants
of Yellow Emperor.” So I next asked: “Do you remember that on one occasion Yellow
Emperor went forth to fight against Tsuyu?” “Yes, I remember,” answered the
inquirer. “Suppose Tsuyu had killed Yellow Emperor at that battle,” I further
said, “could we still be said to exist?” He answered me by saying: “If Yellow
Emperor had died at that moment, with us not yet having been born, there would be
none of us today.” So I said to him in conclusion: “Exactly! Thus by your
answer I see that you realize that the descendants of Yellow Emperor were in
Yellow Emperor and that when he did eventually die, all his descendants died
with him. Similarly, God has put us in Christ, and thus we are united with
Christ. So that when Christ died, we died with Him; and when He arose, we too were
raised up. We cannot say that, Christ having died on the cross, we are still
alive. That is impossible. We are in Christ, so His experience is our
experience.”

Mere mental understanding of the doctrine of co-death
with Christ and co-resurrection with Him is futile. May God give us light and
revelation so that we may see and experience the fact that we are united with
Christ in His death and in His resurrection: it
is not only understanding
the death mentally, it is also experiencing the fact of it, we realizing how we
are united with Christ in one. Have we all therefore seen our place in Christ?

Nowadays, God’s children pay much attention to doctrine
but do not see what the context of a given doctrine is. Let us therefore not be
content in merely knowing the various Christian doctrines. Let us additionally
acknowledge that we only have an initial understanding, that we must seek for
the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit so that we may know inwardly the reality
of these doctrines—especially that of our being united with Christ. He who
believes possesses it, he who reckons experiences it. God has said it and we
possess it. May He grant us light that we may see that we are truly in
Christ.