The life of God is the life of Christ, the life of Christ has come into us and become our life, and Christ is our life; because Christ is our life, we can experience Christ as life for the living of the one new man.
We as believers in Christ have become one with Christ in spirit, and because of this union we share the same life, nature, position, living, and even destiny and glory. God has raised us up together with Christ and has seated us with him in the heavenlies, and we and Christ have the same position, life, living, and destiny.
Hallelujah! When we realise that we are where Christ is and we have his life, we will live one spirit with him, for He in us will live the Christian life, and our living will be the living of the one new man.
God put us in Christ, Christ is our life, and he wants to live in us the living or the one new man in earth for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. We need to take and experience Christ as our life, our person, for the living of the new man.
The church as the one new man is what God is after, and when we have the practical living of the new man, the bride will be prepared and Christ will return to end this age.
How can we experience being one spirit with the Lord so that we may share in His position, life, living, and destiny and glory? It is by being in our mingled spirit.
When Christ came into our spirit, He came as the heavenly ladder to connect us to the heavens; now in our spirit there’s Christ linking us to the heavens, and whenever we turn to the spirit, exercise our spirit, and live in the spirit, we live in the heavens. In our spirit there’s a divine transmission taking place by means of the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit.
The very Christ who is sitting on the throne in heaven is also in us – in our spirit; when we turn to our spirit, we enjoy the divine transmission from God into us.
Whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter through the gate of heaven and touch the throne of grace through Christ as the heavenly ladder; hallelujah, our mingled spirit is the receiving end of the divine transmission, and the throne of God is the transmitting end (Heb. 4:16).
We need to come forward with boldness to the throne of grace in our mingled spirit to receive mercy and find grace for timely help! And we need to daily experience Christ as our life, our person, for the one new man, for Christ is our life and He wants to become our person and everything for the living of the new man.
The Life of Christ has become our Life – Christ is our Life to be Experienced by us
Col. 3:3-4 tells us that Christ is our life; our life is hidden with Christ in God, and Christ is our life. The life referred to in these verses is not our human life or our psychological life but Christ’s life, and this life has become our life. This is something wonderful and mysterious.
On the one hand God is life, God has life, and God’s life is the life of Christ; on the other hand, the life of Christ has become our life. This is not the natural life that we have inherited from Adam and our parents, for our natural life cannot be hidden with Christ in God; this is the divine life, God Himself as life.
The only life that can be hidden with Christ in God is the divine life, the very life of Christ; this life has become our life – Christ is our life to be enjoyed and experienced by us.
This is such a wonderful yet mysterious matter, for our life is the most subjective thing to us; for Christ to be our life means that He is subjective to us to the uttermost (John 1:4; 14:6a; 10:10b; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11).
He has come to be our life in our spirit through regeneration, He is becoming life to us in our soul through transformation, and He will swallow up any death and mortality in us through the transfiguration of our body.
It is impossible to separate a person from the life of that person, for a person’s life is the person himself; thus, to say that Christ is our life means that Christ has become us and that we have one life and living with Him (John 14:6a; Phil. 1:21a).
God’s life is the life of Christ, and the life of Christ has become our life; now Christ is our life to be experienced by us and lived by us. The Lord Jesus said that He is life (John 14:6; 11:25) and that He came for us to have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
When we receive Christ through regeneration, we have life; He who has the Son has the life (1 Cor. 5:12), and this One dwells in us as life to be enjoyed and experienced by us. Just as life is God Himself, so life is Christ, and this life has become our life; through Christ God is manifested as life, and Christ is our life.
If we see this, if we pray over this matter, and if we touch this reality, we will praise the Lord and seek to experience Christ as our life day by day in our practical living. He is our life within, and should have one life and living with Him.
Christ not only redeemed us by shedding His blood for us; He has come into us to be our life to be experienced by us. He wants to become us that we may become Him in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead. What a wonderful fact, and what a wonderful reality!
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming into us to be our life. You not only died for our sins but also became our life to be our living. Thank You, Lord, You are subjective to us to the uttermost, for You became our very life to be enjoyed and experienced by us. Cause us to realize this. May we live one spirit with You, having one life and one living with You day by day. Thank You Lord for coming into us as life to be our very life within and our living without for the living of the one new man!
The Life of Christ is a Crucified Life, a Resurrected Life, and a Life Hidden in God
When we speak of God’s life in us, many times we may think it is the expression of this life that is life.
For example, we may see a sister who is meek, kind, and gentle, so we think that she has a high measure of life; or we may see a brother who is eloquent and powerful in his speaking, so we think that these are signs of life. In both cases what we may see is the natural life, and not the life that is Christ.
We need to come to the word of God and see what is God’s life – which is Christ as life, and experience Christ as life for the living of the new man.
The divine life is different from the human life or the natural life; with Christ as our life there are three main characteristics that distinguish it from the natural life: this life is a crucified life, a resurrected life, and a life hidden in God.
Christ is our life, and this life is a crucified life (Gal. 2:20). Christ lived a crucified life from the manger to the cross; He always lived a life of denying the self and expressing the Father. If we truly experience Christ as our life, we also shall live a crucified life, a life that has been processed and thoroughly dealt with.
For example, a sister may be gentle and meek, but if others criticize her, she may be full of self-pity and even cry with tears because of this; this shows that she has not experienced the crucified life. A brother may be full of eloquence and knowledge, but if people criticize him, he may be full of anger.
But our Lord Jesus was like a lamb before its shearers, with no struggle or resistance (Isa. 53:7).
Christ is our life, and this life is a resurrected life (John 11:25). Nothing can suppress this life, and this life always breaks through any kind of death and limitation.
For example, after the Lord preached the gospel in many cities, He was criticized by others and called “friend of sinners” and “gluttonous”; but He blessed the Father, extolling Him for this is pleasing in His sight. The resurrection life is not limited by anything.
Christ is our life, and this is a life hidden in God (Col. 3:3-4; Matt. 6:1-6, 16-18).
Our life is not for show, and the divine life in us is not a showy life for others to see; rather, as the Lord said of the righteousness of the kingdom people, our giving, praying, and fasting has to be done in secret so that the Father who sees in secret would repay us.
Christ is our life, and this kind of life is different from what we think it is, so we need to contact the Lord, experience Him, and know Him as life, so that He may be our life and living for the living of the one new man.
Lord Jesus, may we live one spirit with You today so that we may experience Your crucified and resurrected life in our spirit. May we learn to focus only on Christ as our life and let Him live in us. Grant us the experiences that we need to live a crucified and resurrected life, a life that is dealt with and that cannot be limited by anything. May we know the life of Christ which is hidden in God, and may we enjoy this life and experience this life every day for the satisfaction of the Father.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by the brothers for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 50 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Goal of the Lord’s Recovery – to Bring Forth the One New Man (2018 ICSC), week 4, Experiencing Christ as Our Life, Our Person, for the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
# There’s a Man in the glory / Whose Life is for me. / He overcame Satan; / From bondage He’s free. / In Life He is reigning; / How kingly is He! / His Life in the glory, / My life must be. (Hymns #505)
# Set your mind on the things which are above, / Not on the things which are on the earth. / For I died, for I died, / And my life is hidden / With Christ, with Christ in God. (Scripture song)
# Life is our God and life is Christ our Lord. / Life is the Spirit. Life’s the only way— / Till we’re transfigured and redeemed to God. / We’re waiting, looking forward to that day! (Hymns #1195)
About aGodMan
Amen…Thank you Father God Abba Thank you Lord Jesus!!!
Praise the Lord!! Amen!!!
Christ’s life has become our life. This gives us the ground to experience and enjoy Christ for the one new man.
Amen brother. Honestly todays morning revival is so rich. It is a continuation of last week. We have been put into the mold which is Christ. Therefore that is our dying. The life we now live is a life hidden in Christ with God! This means the Christ has become us! What a glory! We can never be separated from God!
We know that God is a mysterious God, and His ways are not our ways.
I am so glad that God is mysterious and His ways are not our ways. But he love us and become a man so that we can be Him in spirit and I nature to express Him. In the book of John He came that we may have Life, and who has Christ has Life. Christ must be our Life in a practical experiential way day by day. This Christ who is our Saviour and friend is our Life means that He is subjected to us to the uttermost.
We know also that nothing is more subjected and more intimately related to us, than our life, and our Life is actually our selves, and it is impossible to separate a person from the life of that of a person.
Amen this is what touches me and make me say Hallelujah; since Christ has become our Life means that Christ has become us. And since our Life cannot be separated from us, and Christ is our Life means that Christ cannot be separated from us.
May we be diligent with the things of God. Spending time in the word and be subjected to the subjective Righteousness of Christ.
Hymn 505
1. There’s a Man in the glory
Whose Life is for me.
He’s pure and He’s holy,
Triumphant and free.
He’s wise and He’s loving,
How tender is He!
His Life in the glory,
My life must be;
His Life in the glory,
My life must be.
What a portion this morning! My natural life is dead. His life is now our life ??. No need for me to look at my own life which is a failure. We have His life that we live by moment by moment 🙂 Amen!!! Yes lord cause to realise this. Thank You for coming into us. We love You. You’re so merciful.
Amen brother! Colossians 3:4 says “When Christ our life is manifested,..”. Christ must be our life in a practical and experiential way day by day. HE should be our life within, and we should have one life and living with Him. In this way what we do in the church will not be done in a showy way but rather be done by a life hidden in God.
We died and our life is hidden with Christ in God..
According to our experience and according to the Word, life here is Christ’s life becoming our life. If it were merely Christ’s life, it could not be called “our life.” The very fact that it is “our life” indicates that it refers to something which has become ours. However, the life here is not our natural life, the life inherited from Adam. Such a life could never be that which is hidden with Christ in God. God would never allow the natural life inherited from Adam to be hidden in Him. The only life that can be hidden with Christ in God is the divine life, the very life of Christ. It is this life which has become our life. Paul’s use of the expression “our life” indicates that we and Christ, and also God Himself, have one life. We should not think that God has one life, that Christ has another life, and that we who believe in Christ have yet another life. Rather, God, Christ, and the believers have one life. The life of God is the life of Christ, and the life of Christ has become our life.
We see a sister who is gentle, quiet, and kind, and we think that because she has such characteristics she is full of life. Seeing a brother who is an eloquent and powerful speaker, we may take his power and eloquence as signs of life. However, in both cases what we see may be the natural life, not the life that Christ has, the life hidden with Christ in God. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 520-521, by Witness Lee)