CHAPTER ONE
THE RECOVERY OF CHRIST
AS EVERYTHING TO US
Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 4; 14:6; 15:5; Gal. 1:14-16; 2:20; 4:19; Col. 1:12, 15, 18-19, 27; 2:2-3, 8-9, 16-17; 3:4, 10-11; Phil. 1:21; 3:8-9; Acts 1:8
SIX CRUCIAL ITEMS REVEALED
IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
We need to see what the Lord’s recovery is according to the Word of God. The Lord desires to recover certain things that existed in the beginning but were lost. Therefore, in order to see the Lord’s recovery, we need to see what there was in the beginning. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the beginning there was God as the Word. Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” These words are simple, but they signify profound things. God is profound, the Word is difficult to define, and life is mysterious. Furthermore, we cannot logically comprehend how life can be light. We need to see the significance of the Word, God, the life, and the light.
In John 14:6 Christ, who is the incarnate Word, said, “I am the way and the reality and the life.” We first experience Christ as our life; then He becomes the reality to us. If we do not have Christ as our life, we do not have anything real. Eventually, this reality becomes our way.
CHRIST REVEALED IN GALATIANS
In order to understand these matters in John, we need to go to Galatians. To see something clearly, a background is necessary to provide a contrast. Thus, to know Christ, who is the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way, we need to enter into Galatians, which presents a distinct background. The background in Galatians is religion. In 1:14 Paul says, “I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers.” As a young man, Paul was a leading religionist. While he was on the way to Damascus to persecute the believers, the Lord appeared to him. Paul saw not a doctrine or a teaching from man but a vision from the Lord.
Paul says, “It pleased God…to reveal His Son in me” (vv. 15-16). A person was revealed into Paul’s being. Even after being saved for years, many Christians do not have a definite realization that a person has come into them. They often think that they have received only salvation. We need to see that Christ is living as a person in us. To have food in our stomach or money in our pocket is pleasant and easy. However, to have a person who has thoughts, feelings, and activities living in us is not simple. Christ is the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way. This all-inclusive person has been revealed into every believer. He has nothing to do with religion and is even versus religion. Religion serves as a negative background in Galatians to help us see Christ.
Paul goes on to say, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith” (2:20). Christ’s coming into us crucifies us. After Christ comes into us, He is not passive. He never gives in. When He comes in, we have to go out. To have Christ living in us means that we are crucified with Him and that it is Christ who lives in us.
Paul also wrote to the Galatians, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you” (4:19). The book of Galatians reveals that Christ is everything in the Christian life. Christ is revealed into the believers, Christ lives in them, and Christ is formed in them. This Christ is the One who is revealed in the Gospel of John as the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way. He is the One who was in the beginning.
CHRIST REVEALED IN COLOSSIANS
In revealing Christ, Galatians is a continuation of John, and Colossians is a continuation of Galatians. In order to adequately know the New Testament and see a new vision of Christ, we need to put these three books together.
Colossians 1:12 reveals that Christ is the portion of the saints. God has allotted Christ to us as a portion. Our portion is a wonderful person who is the Word, God, the life, the light, the reality, and the way. Upon believing into Christ, we receive Him as our portion. He is revealed into us, He lives in us, and He is formed in us. As saints, we are partakers of the all-inclusive Christ, our God-allotted portion.
Verse 15 tells us that Christ is the image of the invisible God. The image is the expression. Although God is invisible, He has an expression, an image. This image is our portion; day by day we enjoy the image of God. Verse 18 reveals that Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, and the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead. As the Head, the beginning, and the first item in the new creation, Christ has the first place, the preeminence, in all things. Verse 19 says, “In Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” Then 2:2 reveals that Christ is the mystery of God. A person who is the mystery of God lives in us.
Because philosophy had crept into the church, Paul writes in verse 8, “Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.” The word philosophy in this verse refers to Gnostic teaching, which included elements of Greek philosophy.
In verse 3 Paul says that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. Before we were saved, we were not wise. However, once we are saved, we can experience Christ as our wisdom. All believers should be wise. This is practical. We need to experience Christ as our wisdom in how we spend our time and our money. Christ is real wisdom. When we live by Christ, He is our wisdom. We are not wise when we do not live by Christ or when Christ is unable to live in us. Christ is always in us, but we often do not allow Him to live in us. When Christ lives in us, He becomes our wisdom.
Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Verses 16 through 17 say, “Let no one therefore judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.” These verses reveal that Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe, such as life, light, air, water, and food. The physical food we eat is not the real food but only a shadow. Christ is the real food. Christ is the reality. He is the real feast, the real new moon, and the real Sabbath.
Colossians 3:10-11 says, “The new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” The new man mentioned in verse 10 is not an individual man, for verse 11 indicates that there are many persons in the new man. The new man is a corporate man—the church. In the new man there is no nationality, race, culture, or status, but Christ is all and in all. All here refers to all persons. Christ is all the members of the new man. This means that as members of the new man, we are Christ. For this reason Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). In the church there is nothing natural but only Christ. Therefore, like Paul, we should seek to gain Christ and be found in Him (3:8-9). We need to be saved from being found in ourselves.
Because the church is purely Christ, the recovery of the church is simply the recovery of Christ as all in the church. In the beginning of the church there was Christ and only Christ, but this was lost. Therefore, the Lord has to come in to recover what has been lost. The Lord’s recovery is to recover Christ.
The Christ who is the many items revealed in Colossians is also our life (3:4). In this age Christ is our life, and in the coming age He will be our glory. Thus, Christ is our life for today and our hope of glory for the future (1:27).
MANY THINGS CREEPING IN
TO REPLACE CHRIST IN THE CHURCH
In the latter part of the first century, while the apostles were still on the earth, two main things crept into the church to replace Christ—Judaism and Greek philosophy. Galatians was written to deal with Judaism, and Colossians was written to deal with Greek philosophy. Since the first century many other things have crept into the church to replace Christ. First, different doctrines came in to replace Christ. Many doctrines, including scriptural doctrines, have replaced Christ. Second, various practices, such as foot-washing, leg-lengthening, and different forms of baptism, have come in to replace Christ. Many Pentecostals may care for speaking in tongues rather than Christ. Thus, speaking in tongues has also replaced Christ. The subtlest thing that has crept in among Christians is opinions. There are endless opinions about what musical instruments to use in meetings and many other such things. Besides doctrines, practices, and opinions, there are various kinds of activities and movements that have also come in to replace Christ. Another item that has replaced Christ is organizations. Every denomination is an organization. Some denominations are organized according to certain practices or doctrines; others are organized according to a nation, such as the Church of England. These organizations replace Christ. Even Judaism and philosophy are still replacing Christ. The robes of the Catholic clergy were designed according to the Old Testament priests’ robes. This indicates a mixture with Judaism. Those in so-called modern Christianity believe in their philosophy rather than the Bible. Philosophy has replaced Christ among these groups. Judaism, philosophy, doctrines, practices, opinions, activities, movements, and organizations have altogether replaced Christ among countless believers today.
THE LORD’S RECOVERY BEING
TO RECOVER CHRIST AS EVERYTHING TO US
Because many things have replaced Christ, the Lord’s recovery is to recover Christ in a full way, to recover Christ as everything to us. In the Lord’s recovery we should not care for doctrines, practices, opinions, activities, movements, or organizations but only for Christ.
For example, our way to preach the gospel should be Christ. In John 15:5 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” The proper way for the branches to bear fruit is simply to live the vine, to grow the vine, and to produce the vine. There is no need for gimmicks or worldly activities to contact people for the gospel. The Lord also said, “I am the way” (14:6). The way to preach the gospel is Christ. As branches in the vine, we need only to love the Lord, live Him, grow Him, and produce Him in our daily life. If we do, we will be a living testimony to our relatives, neighbors, colleagues, and classmates. When one of them becomes sick, loses his job, or experiences some other difficult situation, he may remember us and ask us to visit him. After we speak only a few words of the gospel, he may be willing to pray to receive the Lord. In this way we live the gospel by living Christ. We do not need movements, activities, or gimmicks to try to bring people to the Lord. The proper way to preach the gospel is by living Christ. This is the original way that needs to be recovered today.
In Acts 1:8 the Lord charged us to be His witnesses. Our commission is not merely to preach but to be witnesses. We need to be witnesses of Christ by daily living Christ. To be a witness by living Christ is to take Christ as the way to preach the gospel. We will see a wonderful result if we are a living testimony. Our relatives and acquaintances may outwardly criticize and even despise us, but their conscience will inwardly testify on our behalf. When the time comes according to the Lord’s arrangement, one by one they will gradually turn to Him.
Christ is everything in the Lord’s recovery. We do not care for doctrines, practices, opinions, activities, movements, or organizations. We care for Christ and Christ alone. He is our life, our reality, and our way in everything. This is the Lord’s recovery.