In Chapter 4 of Normal Christian Life Watchman Nee moves from knowing to reckoning. Reckoning being an older term and closely related to it's modern term of reconciliation. To reckon is to account, in an almost mathematical way, for the truth with its application. In examples Nee shows us how the word of God, how knowledge, is reckoned with reality. It goes without saying that the spiritual can only be reckoned with the natural by faith, but let's take a look deeper into the chapter.
As we learn that we were crucified with Christ, that we are already dead, the every real presence of sin creates a conflict between reality and spirituality. If we are dead to Sin then surely being dead with Christ in His crucifixion would manifest in a cleaner life. "Yes there is an outworking of the death which we are going to see presently - but this, first of all, its basis: I have been crucified; in Christ it has been done."
"What then is the secret of reckoning? To put it in one word, it is revelation. We need revelation from God Himself (Matt. 16:17, Eph. 1:17-18). We need to have our eyes opened to the fact of our union with Christ, and that is something more than knowing it as a doctrine."
God says "we are to reckon ourselves dead. Because we are dead." When someone reckons or reconciles a checkbook a $10 deposit is $10 and not fifteen. A $5 check is $5 and not $4. The balance of the checkbook is indisputable once reckoned, or reconciled. Therefore if God says we are dead, then we are dead. If we do not see that, then it is because of a lack of revelation or sight. Nee poses the question, "Are we going to believe the tangible facts of the natural realm which are clearly before our eyes, or the intangible facts of the spiritual realm which are neither seen nor scientifically proved?"
Better yet, where do tangible facts intersect intangible facts. Nee demonstrates that when it comes to Sin (as a nature of man) is dealt with by God indirectly as opposed to the sins which are directly covered by the blood of Christ. Nee says, "(God) does not remove the sin, but the sinner. Our old man was crucified with Him, and because of this the body, which before had been a vehicle of sin is unemployed (Rom. 6:6). Sin, the old master, is still about, but the slave who served him has been put to death, and so is out of reach and his members are unemployed... The expressions 'freed from sin' and 'dead unto sin' in Romans 6:7 ans 11 imply deliverance from a power that is still very present and very real - not from something that no longer exists."
So we are saved and sins are forgiven. We are declared to be dead to sin and yet we stumble and bumble through life, falling to sin if not daily, regularly. We now know that this is because the death was to us, terminating the "slavery" to sin. The death was not to Sin itself. The death was to the Sinner, while sins are covered, and Sin continues to exists. So how to we use this knowledge to not only understand, but to truly overcome Sin to a greater degree, and overcome guilt to the degree we cannot overcome Sin? This applied knowledge is done by faith. "Faith make the real things to become real in my experience." Faith is the assurance God's word is true. And it is this assurance that Satan is constantly attacking.
"The Enemy asked, "Where is God's promise? Where is your faith? What about your prayers? So I was tempted to thrash the whole matter our in prayer again, but was rebuked...
So I declared to the Enemy, "This sleeplessness is a lie, this headache is a lie, this fever is a lie, this high pulse is a lie. In view of what God has said to me, all these symptoms of sickness are just your lies, and God's word is truth.'"
Nee correctly observes, "that (Satan's) attack is always upon our assurance. If he can get us to doubt God's Word, then his object is secured, and he has us in his power... All temptation is primarily to look within, to take our eyes off the Lord and to take account of appearances. Faith is always meeting a mountain, a mountain of evidence that seems to contradict God's Word, a mountain of apparent contradiction in the realm of tangible fact - of failures in deed, as well as in the realm of feeling and suggestion. Either faith or the mountain has to go; they cannot both stand."
So we gain some knowledge... God call's us dead with Christ. We, by faith, begin to reject the lies of Sin and its attempt to re-enslave. Step by step we begin to walk in the truth. Those steps in faith will lead to the experience of "entering into His history and His experience." Crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are not events or things. They are "related to a Person... Every true spiritual experience means that we have discovered a certain fact in Christ (shared experience) and have entered into that...
So God's basic principle in leading us on experimentally is not to give us something. It is not to bring us through something, and as a result to put something into us which we can call 'our experience.'" But it is not our experience at all. It is really a sharing in an experience that Christ has already had that we might know Him more. "The history of Christ becomes our experience and our spiritual history; we do not have a separate history from His. The entire work with respect to us is not done in us here, but in Christ."
So it comes to learning (knowing) after being salted with faith which leads to the experience. This knowing and application of faith is Jesus' command to, "Abide in me..." The experience is Jesus in return fulfilling "...and I in you." Nee cautions, "We need to guard against being over-anxious about the subjective side of things, and so becoming turned in upon ourselves. We need to dwell upon the objective - 'abide in Me' - and let God take care of the subjective... We do not try to produce fruit or concentrate upon the fruit produced. Our business is to look away to Him. As we do so He undertakes to fulfill His Word in us...
How do we abide? 'Of God are ye in Christ Jesus.' It was the work of God to put you there, and He has done it. Now stay there! Do not be moved back on to your own ground. Never look at yourself as though you were not in Christ. Look at Christ, and see yourself in Him. Abide in Him. Rest in the fact that God has put you in His Son, and live in the expectation that He will complete His work in you."
No comments:
Post a Comment