Amazing Grace (13 page)

Someone told me that he always contemplated to overcome
and wanted to do so very much; but, he asked me,
How
can
I overcome? I answered him bluntly that if a person like him could overcome,
then the whole world could overcome but that I entertained no hope for him to
do so. He became angry and asked why he could never overcome. I replied as
follows: “You, like everyone else, are utterly corrupted. Yet this is not what
I say; it is God who has declared it. And because of such corruption, you are
totally helpless. And that is why I frankly told you that no matter how, you
will never overcome.” He instantly shot back: “But I
want
to overcome!” So I said to him, “Although
you
may want to overcome, you never will.” At that point he began
to discern that he in and of himself could never overcome. I further said to him:
“God is not expecting you to overcome for you are too corrupted. He knows that
you could only be defeated. Therefore, God at Calvary set you aside. No one in
the world can overcome. There is One alone who can, and He is Jesus Christ. Apart
from Him, there is none who is able to overcome.” Upon my saying this he now
fully understood that victory only belongs to Christ, that victory is Christ.

Once a Christian brother came to me and told me he could
not be patient. Yet this was not the first believer to tell me this. In fact, I
cannot count how many times I have heard this same word. Can it be that there
are so many bad-tempered Christians that one must conclude that all believers easily
lose their temper? I asked this brother: “Are you in lack of patience?” He
replied: “Yes, and I always pray, asking God to make me more
patient
.
Perhaps my prayer is not earnest enough, because thus far God has not answered
my prayer.” He continued: “Mr. Nee, am I right in praying this way?” I answered
with these words: “No, for God only engages in wholesale and not retail
transactions.” “What do you mean?” he asked, obviously puzzled. I explained as
follows: “When such a person as you lacks patience today, he goes to God and
asks for patience. After a few days he has exhausted himself in seeking for it,
yet he still goes to God to ask for patience even more. Perhaps a few days
later he recognizes himself as also being proud. So he now approaches God to ask
for a little humility. A few days more pass and he sees that he additionally is
lacking in love and has been critical of others. Once again he petitions God to
help him overcome in these additional failings in his Christian life. But God does
not conduct himself in such piecemeal manner, and hence his prayers are never answered.”
God only engages in wholesale business.

To anyone who comes to Him in faith, God will give all of
Christ to that person. And this whole Christ in you will be your gentleness, your
humility, your patience, love, and so on. God will not give Christ in bits and pieces.
All which He gives is in Christ. With the whole Christ in you, you have all you
need. Christ in you will live for you in every circumstance of life. No matter
how difficult, how great, and how varied are the challenges to overcoming which
you may encounter, He is more than their match from one situation to another.
What is victory? Victory is nothing less than the whole Christ. And it is
Christ in His totality who overcomes for you in every circumstance.

May God open our eyes to see that we by ourselves cannot
overcome.
We must give up all hope in ourselves and continually
maintain a hopeless attitude. There cannot be a single sight of such hope. Victory
is not change but exchange. If it is only a matter of seeking for nothing more
than a personal change in ourselves, then let me observe that after three or
five years you will find that you shall have remained the same. If, however, it
is
a recognition
and an acceptance by faith that our
Christian life is an exchanged life, you will experience Christ’s victory immediately.
It is not an experience which comes gradually since all such experience comes
from God. If you are clear on what is the complete salvation of God—namely,
that our life in Christ is nothing less than an exchanged life—then victory for
you will be instantaneous in every challenging circumstance of your
life.
But if any part of God’s salvation has its basis in yourself,
then you shall remain in the same defeatist state in your Christian walk even
after thirty or fifty years.

During the past two years hundreds of brothers and
sisters in Christ throughout China have crossed over this threshold of a victory
in this instantaneous way just as their being saved initially was instantaneous.
As we believe, so is victory. Believe and overcome. Prior to two years ago many
in China were seeking for victory in their lives, but they were not able to
experience anything in the way of victory by themselves. Only when God revealed
to them what the exchanged life was did they cross over. If the victorious life
be based upon ourselves, the result will be that we shall remain the same even after
a hundred years. But if the overcoming life comes from God through Christ, such
victorious living is realized at once in every specific life situation. Victory
is not man’s work; it is a miracle of God’s grace.

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“A certain ruler asked him, saying, Good teacher, what shall
I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
none
is good, save one, even God. Thou knowest the
commandments,
Do
not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do
not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor thy father and mother. And he said,
All these things have I observed from my youth up. And when Jesus heard it, he
said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell all that thou hast, and
distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow
me. But when he heard these things, he became exceeding sorrowful; for he was
very rich. And Jesus seeing him said,
How
hardly shall
they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a
camel to enter in through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God. And they that heard it said,
Then
who
can be saved? But he said,
The
things which are
impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:18-27).

“He entered and was passing through Jericho. And behold, a
man called by name Zacchaeus; and he was a chief publican, and he was rich. And
he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the crowd, because he was
little of stature. And he ran on before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to
see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he
looked up, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to-day
I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him
joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, He is gone into lodge
with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold,
Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted
aught of any man, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, To-day is
salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the
son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:1-10).

“And he hath said unto me,
My
grace
is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians
12:9).

During these past few evenings we have come to see how
the Lord Jesus gave His flesh to people—that is to say, He gave His life to you
and me to be our life. We do not overcome by the help of Christ nor by His
giving us strength or adding power to us. The Bible shows us that victory is
Christ himself. Victory is Christ in us to live for us and overcome for us. The
outcome of all issues of life depends on whether it is you or it is Christ.
Ordinarily we think of ourselves as being good. If it is we, then the good-tempered
ones can overcome more easily whereas the bad-tempered can barely—if at all—overcome.
We do not realize that natural temperament has nothing to do with victory; rather,
the issue is Christ. The good-tempered need Christ to be their life just as
much as do the bad-tempered. The issue is
,
does a person
have Christ as his or her life? If so, the believer is able to overcome.

This evening I would like for us to see how we can let
Christ live in us and overcome for us. If we consider these two passages in
Luke together, we shall be able to discern the way of victory clearly. In both chapters
18 and 19 we read of two contrasting rich men. In chapter 18 the rich man is
also a ruler and the rich man in chapter 19 is likewise a public official. In
chapter 18 the man is young whereas the man in chapter 19 is older. In chapter
18 we read that the rich young ruler came forth seeking out Jesus; and in
chapter 19 we read that the older man, a tax-collector, also came seeking after
Jesus. Both of them were interested in the Lord.

The rich young ruler came to the Lord seeking for eternal
life, for salvation. He asked the Lord, “Good teacher, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?” We have seen that eternal life is the everlasting uncreated
life of God. By what means can we obtain it? The Lord told him, “You know the
commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, or bear false witness, and honor
your father and mother.” By these words Jesus was showing him what he must do.
But he replied that he had kept all these commandments from his youth. Then the
Lord said: There is one thing you lack doing yet: sell everything you have and
distribute the resultant funds to the poor, and you shall have treasure in
heaven; and come, follow
Me
.

This evening all who are rich among us may experience their
hearts jumping excessively upon hearing this! To sell all and follow the Lord,
that is truly impossible. Nothing else in life matters, so to give up my money
and all my possessions—that is asking me to give up my life. Let me observe
that the problem does not rest on what the rich should do in order to obtain eternal
life. In telling this young man not to commit adultery, and so forth, the Lord was
not suggesting to him that he must do all these in order to gain eternal life,
for we know from Scripture that salvation is by grace and not works. What Jesus
wanted him to realize through His words was that he could not keep God’s commands.
The Lord was not attempting to show him how high the requirements of eternal
life were but to show him how far distant he was from eternal life—to reveal to
him his weakness, thus causing him to see that he himself had no way of his own
by which to save himself.

Unfortunately the young man did not see this. On the contrary,
he responded that he had kept all these requirements from his youth. So in
pressing the matter further the Lord told him that there was one thing he still
lacked doing—that the one thing this rich young man lacked doing was to get rid
of all his riches. The Lord is saying here that we each one of us has a lack. You
may perhaps think you have patience, humility, love or holiness, and that you
have observed them all in a positive way from your youth. Nevertheless, the
Lord would say, “There is yet one thing you lack.” Everyone’s lack is
different. Perhaps you are stubborn, boastful, or perhaps talkative. This one
thing or that one thing is not universally the same in everyone. Some people lack
one particular thing, others lack something else. Judging by our common
experience, each person has his or her particular failure. No one person could
commit all kinds of sins at the same time. Rather, each one has his or her special
sin and is unable to overcome.
Whether
 
a
Christian is able to overcome in
all
things is to be tested in relation
to that one specific sin.

Many are able not to commit adultery and not to steal,
but they are unable to give to the poor. Many can honor their fathers and
mothers and also not bear false witness, yet they still are in lack of one
thing. You may be able to overcome many sins one by one, and thus consider
yourself to be an overcomer in the matter of sin. But I would caution you to
hesitate in coming to such a conclusion so quickly. Have you truly overcome
every sin? Most likely there is still one which you cannot overcome. Everyone
has his or her specific sin, a special one in which he or she is definitely
defeated. Whether you are victorious or defeated is to be decided by whether you
are able or unable to conquer that particular sin which has bothered you throughout
your life up to this moment. Normally there will be one or two such sins that have
followed you without end. You encounter it from morning till night. Indeed, you
have a special relationship to it and it is a sin which you have committed
frequently.

The failure with this young ruler was not adultery or stealing.
His weakness and failure was his inability to give his all to the poor. What he
lacked lay in this one special area of his life. You and I may lack in some
other area. We may think we have overcome all, but in fact there is yet one
thing we lack doing. As we review the path of the Christian’s victory, we
usually begin with overcoming many and varied sins through our own effort, then
we discover over the course of many sins that there is one special sin. If we
can overcome this special sin, we are victorious, but if we cannot overcome it,
we are defeated.

Suppose you have never become aware of any one sin that
is always bothering you; that is a sure sign that you have yet to overcome. For
whoever has never sensed being troubled by a special sin indicates that he has
yet to begin experiencing this life of overcoming. It is something he has never
considered. Usually people are bothered by some common sins. It is only when
they seek after the overcoming life that they discover that though they are
able to deal with many other sins, there exists one special sin which they are
hopeless in overcoming.

In Shanghai there was a brother who had conquered many of
his sins. He had also given his all to the Lord and His work. But he could not
control his temper. As he was seeking for a victorious life, he continually
beheld this one sin he could not conquer. Indeed, this one particular sin stood
in his way to achieving the victorious life. If only he could overcome this
sin, he would be victorious; otherwise, he would remain defeated. So this issue
of overcoming is centered upon the one single dominating sin in our lives. We
all too often think we are able to overcome. Yet if we were truly able, we would
have no need for the Lord to overcome for us.

God allows in your life this one particular troublesome
temptation to sin in order to see how you will deal with it. You may have kept
all the Ten Commandments, but God says to you: “One thing you lack in
overcoming.” As was the case with the rich young ruler, God wants you to realize
you in yourself are unable to be victorious. Yet we usually think we can, that we
are able. In that case, God can do nothing for us except to leave that particular
troublesome inclination to sin in us to constantly challenge us as to whether or
not we can overcome. That rich young ruler heard this challenge from Jesus but
rationalized within himself that he could not possibly give away all he
possessed to the poor: were he to do so, he inwardly argued, how could he take
care of his future? So, he sadly left. He could not overcome. He may have been able
to live a moral and ethical life in many other areas but he was helpless to do
so when it came to the issue of money and possessions: he loved these things
too much.

Luke 19 tells us of another rich man. He, too, like the
young ruler, was no ordinary person but was a public official: the chief
collector of taxes in the area. He was an older person than the young ruler.
In deciding between these two men, who was more likely to have been
a money spender—the younger or the older man?
More
likely, the younger man, since he would not have experienced the world as much
as the older man, nor would he have recognized the power of money as much.
In fact, at this point in their lives the older man had lived longer and would
thus have been more acquainted with the usefulness of money. Hence, in view of
all these factors, it would not be inaccurate to observe that most misers have
tended to be older people. We can fairly well conclude, therefore, that most
likely Zacchaeus would have loved money even more than the rich young ruler of
Luke 18.

Zacchaeus wanted to see the Lord; but due to the great
multitude surrounding Jesus he was unable to see Him. So he climbed up a tree,
hoping to catch a glimpse of Him as He passed by. When the Lord looked up and saw
him, He said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must
abide in your house.” And so this social outcast made haste and climbed down,
and received the Lord joyfully into his home. Those who were there murmured,
“Ha! How sinful is this chief tax-collector, yet the Lord is going into his
house and lodge there!” Inside, Zacchaeus resolutely stood up and declared:
“Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I am going to give to the poor, and if I
have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I shall restore it fourfold.” By
doing this, all his property would be gone. Moreover, what Zacchaeus did was what
the rich young ruler could not do. Both these two were rich and had positions
of authority in their society. Nevertheless, whereas the young ruler thought he
could have eternal life but ended up not gaining it, Zacchaeus had humbly considered
himself
unfit to obtain eternal salvation and
nonetheless gained it.

King Saul of old had been a head taller in physical
stature than the other people in Israel (I Samuel 10:23), but Zacchaeus was a
head shorter than the multitude who followed Jesus. What Saul could not obtain,
Zacchaeus did. Where lay the difference between these two? I believe the answer
can be found in what the Lord had said to Zacchaeus: “Today salvation has come
to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham—the man of faith.” Salvation
comes from Jehovah, and in the day of Zacchaeus God performed a work of
salvation for that sinner’s house: Zacchaeus was touched in his heart by the
Lord, believed in Him, and was thus enabled by God to give up the money he
loved. By contrast, the other rich man could not do so because he had been depending
upon himself. Zacchaeus was saved by God for he, like others in Jesus’ day, had
become a true son of Abraham. All who believe God—all who are of faith—are the true
children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7). In the one case the rich young ruler had
been planning to gain salvation by his own efforts and had therefore asked the
Lord what he himself should do to inherit eternal life. In the case of Zacchaeus,
however, he did nothing by himself but humbly came to the Lord in the position
of a son of Abraham and simply trusted in the salvation of God.

As we have noticed earlier, formerly these two men were
similar in several respects. Both were rich, both were public officials, and
both came to Jesus. But there the similarity ended, for morally and ethically
speaking, the young man was good while Zacchaeus was bad. Natural conditions,
though, really do not matter when it comes to the issue of salvation. On the
one hand, the young man neither committed adultery nor killed nor stole, yet he
ultimately ended up a failure. On the other hand, Zacchaeus was very bad in
having defrauded many people, but he ended up a success spiritually.
 
The young man ended up a spiritual failure
because he had considered himself able to gain eternal life but found
himself
unable and departed from Jesus in extreme sorrow,
“for he was very rich.”

Upon seeing the young ruler leave, the Lord Jesus was
moved to say to His disciples: “How hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God.” It is not impossible, He said in so many words, but
it is hard. Jesus further observed: “it is easier for a camel to enter in
through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
What the Lord meant was that this rich young ruler had absolutely no way to
enter the kingdom of God by himself. When the disciples heard these words of
the Lord, they worriedly asked: “Then who can be saved?” Each and every one has
a little money in the pocket; who, then, can be saved? So the Lord said in
response: “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” In
other words, man cannot, but God can. The rich young ruler could not enter the
kingdom because he was depending on himself, whereas Zacchaeus could do so because
he believed and trusted the Lord. The one was unable to be saved and went away
sorrowfully, but the other joyfully received the Lord and His salvation.