We Have Received the Necessity of a New Living (2)


	We Have Received the Necessity of a New Living (2) Introduction We have seen that being born again results in the necessity of a new living. This new living is one of enjoying Christ as a living person. We should enjoy Christ as the Lamb, as our Friend, as our older Brother, as our Shepherd, as the Builder, and as our Bridegroom. The more we enjoy Him, the more we have the reality of all these items. We will be cleansed, sustained, and strengthened, and we will have the living and subjective experience of Christ in our daily life. When we enjoy Christ, we are actually giving God the worship that He desires. The true worship to God is the enjoyment of Christ. This enjoyment takes place in our human spirit, where the Spirit of reality unveils all the riches of Christ to us. Enjoying Christ as the Supply for Our Daily Needs Now we will cover more aspects of Christ. Christ is not only a living person for us to enjoy, He is also the supply to meet our daily needs. In the Gospel of John we see that Christ is life to us. He is the bread of life, the water of life, the light of life, and the word of life. Then He is also grace, reality, satisfaction, freedom, the resurrection, and the true vine. The enjoyment of all these riches will supply us to meet all the needs in our daily life. 1. Enjoying Christ as Life Our first need is the life of Christ. If we don't enjoy Christ as our very life, then we can't have Christ as anything else in our experience. We must first enjoy Christ as life to us. Only then will we be able to experience Him as all the following items. The enjoyment of Christ as life is the foundation for all our other enjoyments. When we are short of the enjoyment of Christ as our life, then everything will be "gloomy." Nothing will be exciting to us. We will tell the Lord, "Lord, I know so many things about You, but they are not real to me. I know that You are my Lord, and that You take care of me, but I don't really feel anything. I know that You are 'all in all' and I should be joyful, but I cannot be joyful." Have we ever had this experience? Many times we know what should be true in our Christian life, but it is not real with us. We know that as Christians we should be dynamic, powerful, and energetic. We know we should be joyful, cheerful, and excited. We know all these things, but we just can't be. Why aren't we able to be what we know we're supposed to be? Because we are short of the enjoyment of Christ as life. Only Christ as life can meet our daily needs. Suppose we wake up in the morning and simply feel bad. There's no need to remain in such a state. We don't need to condemn ourselves. "Oh, I'm so poor. I'm so weak." We just need to turn to the Lord, and enjoy Christ as life. We should open the Bible and begin to call on the Lord's name a little. We can say, from our spirit, "Oh, Lord Jesus. Oh, Lord Jesus." Then we can turn to the Bible and read one verse. Then we can call on the Lord again and pray just a little. Then we can read another verse and pray again, just a little. It doesn't need to be long - maybe just 20-30 minutes. But very soon we will be filled with Christ as life. We will feel that our sleepiness is over, our bad feeling is over, our depression is over, our problems and anxieties are over, and everything negative is over. Why? Because we are enjoying Christ as our life. All of a sudden we are full of desire to love and serve the Lord and to spend more time with our brothers and sisters in the church. The more we come to the Lord in this way, the more we will find that a tide of life will rise up within us. As born-again believers, we are often overly sensitive. If anything is wrong with our spiritual condition, we know it immediately. We feel it intensely. When something is improper in our lives, such as a sin, or a love for the world, we are deeply troubled by it. The secret of the Christian life is never to abide in our problems and never to condemn ourselves. When we are aware of something negative, we should immediately turn to enjoy Christ as our life. If the world is overpowering us, we should turn to enjoy Christ as life. If we are aware of something sinful or unhealthy, then we should turn to enjoy Christ as life. The more Satan tries to do in our environment, the more we should enjoy Christ as life. Christ as our life is the answer. He is the supply to meet our needs. We should be able to say, "The life of Christ is nourishing me, strengthening me, supporting me, and enlightening me. In His life I have everything that I need." A religious person, or an ethical person, never feels the need to enjoy the life of Christ. He is satisfied with trying to improve himself and trying to behave properly. But we who are born again have received the necessity of a new living, a living in which we enjoy and even depend on the life of Christ. We should say, "I don't want a sinful life, and I also don't want an ethical life. I don't want a worldly life, and I also don't want a religious life. I only care for the life of Christ!" 2. Enjoying Christ as the Bread of Life We should not only enjoy Christ as life in a general way, we should eat Him as the very bread of life. Christ is the bread of life to be the strength of our daily living. "Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst" (John 6:35). "As the living Father has sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me" (John 6:57). It is by eating Christ as the bread of life that we are constantly made alive. When we eat the bread of life, we live because of Him. 3. Enjoying Christ as the Water of Life We also need to enjoy Christ as the water of life to quench our thirst. "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38). In our human life we need to eat, and we also need to drink. That means we need to be strengthened, and we also need to be refreshed. No matter how much we enjoy Christ as the bread of life, we still need Him as the water of life. In our Christian life it is possible to be made alive and strengthened, but still be thirsty. We need something that can refresh us. We need to drink something for our thirst to be quenched. The world has many kinds of drinks to quench our thirst, but if we drink them, as the Lord said, we will thirst again (John 4:13). When we drink Christ Himself as the water of life, we are refreshed and our thirst is truly quenched. 4. Enjoying Christ as the Light of Life We also need to enjoy Christ as the light of life. "Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). When we enjoy Christ this way, we know how to walk rightly. We are no longer in darkness. We realize what is right and what is wrong. Christ as the light of life shines within us for our daily walk. 5. Enjoying Christ as the Word of Life We also have Christ as the word of life. The Lord Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40). Then later He added, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:63). This means that the Bible itself should be the word of life for us to enjoy. It is not just a book called "the Bible" - that is too objective. When we say that the Bible is the word of life for us, that means it is very subjective. It is a shame that so many Christians take the Bible as an ethical book, and not a book of life. They don't know the riches of Christ that are in the word. The Bible is not a book of ethical teachings; the Bible is a book of life! Every word in the Bible is a word of life! If we only search the Bible for ethical teachings, we are in the wrong place. The Bible is for us to enjoy Christ Himself as the word of life. This enjoyment energizes us to follow Him. However it is that we enjoy the Lord - praying, praising, singing a song, reading the word, or any other way - what we receive is life. The life we enjoy has several aspects: the bread of life to make us alive and strengthen us, the water of life to quench our thirst and refresh us, the light of life to shine for our daily walk, and the word of life to energize us. This is wonderful! Praise Him that we can enjoy Him as life with all of these riches for our daily needs! 6. Enjoying Christ as Grace We should also experience Christ as grace. "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality" (John 1:14). Christians often pray, "Lord, may Your grace be with us." But what does this mean? What is grace? We have spoken of our need to enjoy Christ. This is actually the definition of grace. Grace is the enjoyment of Christ Himself. We often misunderstand the Lord and assume He is always angry at us. We may even tell the Lord, "Lord, I did something wrong again. Please don't punish me too much." But we should realize that the Lord is not out to get us. He doesn't have a harsh face towards us. The Lord's face is pleasant towards us. The Lord is full of grace! Grace means the rich enjoyment of Christ Himself. We should not just enjoy blessings from Christ. Many Christians develop a taste for blessings and gifts from the Lord, but they never want the Giver Himself. They don't really want Christ, but they want all kinds of gifts from Christ. That is why their Christian lives are so poor. We must enjoy Christ Himself as grace to us! The Lord loves us and is full of grace to us. 7. Enjoying Christ as Reality John 1:14 says that Christ is "full of grace and reality." When we enjoy Christ as grace, then we also have Him as reality. Without Christ as reality, our life is empty. But when we have Christ as reality, then we don't want anything else. We realize that everything else is false, and everything else is vain. The only reality in this universe is Christ Himself. We must enjoy, experience, and substantiate this Christ. When Christ is genuinely experienced by us, then that is reality. The more we have Christ as grace, the more we have Him as reality. 8. Enjoying Christ as Satisfaction After experiencing Christ as grace and reality, we have Him as our satisfaction. There is a well-known description of the Lord changing water into wine at a wedding feast. The wine there signifies Christ as satisfaction. After the Lord changed water into wine, the master of the wedding feast told the bridegroom, "Every man sets out the good wine first, and when they have drunk freely, then that which is worse; you have kept the good wine until now" (John 2:10). The Lord, who is the "good wine," is better than all the wine, or satisfaction, that the world can offer. Christ Himself is the highest satisfaction. Nothing else in the world compares to Him. 9. Enjoying Christ as Freedom Christ is also the true freedom. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32). "If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). How can the truth make us free? This truth is not a matter of knowing things doctrinally. A doctrinal knowledge can never set us free. It is when we enjoy Christ as grace, reality, and satisfaction that we are set free. When we have Christ as our freedom, nothing can bind us. Neither sin, nor the world, nor anything negative can bind us. When we enjoy Christ, we can say, "I have the truth! I have the Son! I'm free!" 10. Enjoying Christ as the Resurrection We should also enjoy Christ as the resurrection. "Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live" (John 11:25). Christ said, "I am the resurrection." Those who enjoy Christ as life are also in resurrection. When we enjoy Christ, we are above everything. We are above the small things, like our concerns for how we look. We are above the big things, like all our concerns for the future. We are above all our problems, anxieties, and situations. When we are in resurrection, we don't care for anything else. We need to be in resurrection so that our Christian life will be high and transcendent. 11. Enjoying Christ as the True Vine Finally, we should enjoy Christ as the true vine. "I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman" (John 15:1). This is a famous verse, but very few people understand it. Christ is not only the vine tree itself, He is also the very life of the vine. There is a true union between us, who are the branches, and Christ, who is the life of the vine. "I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). As the branches, we receive the life of the vine and express all the riches of the vine tree. When we were born again, we received the life of the vine and became part of the vine tree. Now we are one with Christ as the branches in the true vine. This is crucial for us to realize, because the vine is a corporate matter. We were not just born again as individuals. In the vine, there are many branches. We were born again into the Body of Christ, into a corporate expression of all His riches. We have received the necessity of a new living, the enjoyment of Christ. The more we enjoy Christ in all His riches for our daily life, the more we become part of the corporate expression of the Body of Christ. This is to enjoy Christ as the true vine. We will cover this matter more thoroughly in the next message. To purchase the book Born Again