Normal Christian

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 "But thanks to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other and aroma from life to life."

Watchman Nee in his book The Normal Christian Life (available to the right on this  page) concludes with the following description... a definition of what should be a normal Christian.

"Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered -- someone who has gone through experiences with the Lord that have brought limitation, and who, instead of trying to break free in order to be "used," has been willing to be imprisoned by Him and has thus learned to find satisfaction in the Lord and NOWHERE else -- then immediately you become aware of something. Immediately your spiritual senses detect a sweet savor of Christ. Something has been crushed, something has been broken in that life, and so you smell the odor...

We are speaking here of what we are; not of what we do or what we preach. Perhaps you may have been asking the Lord for a long time that He will be pleased to us you in such a way as to impart impressions of Himself to others. That prayer is not exactly for the gift of preaching or teaching. It is rather, that you might be able, in your touch with others, to impart God, the presence of God, the sense of God. Let me tell you, dear friends, you cannot produce such impressions of God upon others without the breaking of EVERYTHING, even your most precious possessions, at the feet of the Lord Jesus.

But if once that point is reached, you may or may not seem to be much used in an outward way, but God will begin to use you to create a hunger in others. People will scent Christ in you. The most unlikely people will detect that. They will sense that here is one who has gone with the Lord, one who has suffered, one who has not moved freely, independently, but who has know what it is to subject EVERYTHING to Him. That kind of life creates impressions; and impressions create hunger, and hunger provokes men to go seeking until they are brought by divine revelation into fullness of life with Christ.

God does not set us here first of all to preach or to do work for Him. The first thing for which He sets us here it to create in others a hunger for Himself..."

What an incredible definition of a Christian. Someone, who without saying a word, oozes Christ. Someone who without a single act is noticed by others to be in Christ. Someone, who just is, and because of just being causes others to hunger for more of the Lord. Like fresh baked bread, a normal Christian has a fragrance that creates hunger... hunger for more of God.

Sounds impossible, sounds like Jesus. But over the next several post we are going to look at what Watchmen Nee describes as this process of surrender. Where everything in us, about us, and through us is subject to Him.

Warning... to continue in understanding will require change. It will require surrender.

Sins v. Sin

Romans 6:11, "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

I don't like to repeat what someone else has obtained by revelation, but this lesson in the difference between sins and sin is really too crucial to pass up.

I first came across the topic reading T Austin-Sparks, but the reading was a little lengthy and very heavy so I didn't spend a lot of time meditating on it. But then I picked up Watchman Nee's book "The Normal Christian Life." Nee wrote this after spending 8 months with Austin-Sparks.

Using Romans Nee and Austin-Sparks show this different between Sins - the acts or omissions of being disobedient to God v. Sin - the character trait within us that causes us to sin. The DNA of the soul that makes us all of the species Sinner. The sins, and the sin, create a dual problem for us that is solved by Christ on the cross.

Nee says, "...He only has one answer for every human need; His Son, Jesus Christ. In all His dealings with us, He works by taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place. The Son of God died instead of us for our forgiveness; He lives instead of us for our deliverance. So we speak of two substitutions: a substitution on the cross who secures our forgiveness and a Substitute WITHIN who secures our victory." To summarize Christ died so we would be forgiven by the blood. He lives so that we can be delivered by the cross.

When talking about the cross, it is not there for crucifixion. We are not crucified again to make reparations for ourselves. That was done. We were crucified, rather "our" cross is that place of utter weakness where we depend on no one other than God and His Son Jesus. It is here "sin" is defeated. It is here the DNA of our soul is changed from SIN to Christ. Nee says, "If we are preoccupied with the power of sin and with our inability to meet it, then we naturally conclude that to gain the victory over sin we must have more power. 'If only I were stronger,' we say, 'I could overcome my violent outbursts of temper.' and so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise more self-control... But this is altogether fallacy; it is not Christianity. God's means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker... God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man, but by crucifying him; not by helping him do anything, buy by removing him from the scene of the action."

The explanation of dying to self, of ego crucifixion, can be articulate no clearer. Or at least the necessity of it. In dying to self, we are delivered from Sin (Noun), we look more like Christ, and we become effective for the gospel. It is the place where we can truthfully say, it is no longer I that lives, but Christ. Perhaps most importantly, it is the place of being poor in spirit, it is the place where the kingdom of God becomes visible, it is the place where love becomes unconditional.