O glorious Christ, Savior mine

After we bade farewell to Brother Nee, we came to Taiwan. When we first came to this island, we practiced to strictly follow the leading that we had received in the past in mainland China. We did not want to deviate from this leading in any way. We brought this way overseas. By the Lord's mercy we have not departed from this way, and by His gracious supply we have helped the saints to enter into this way and to walk on this way. Although much trouble was caused by a recent turmoil among us, the co-workers and many saints have been led to stand firmly and properly in this way. After 1958, because of the turmoil among us, I began to feel that we needed a deeper seeing. What we had seen was not sufficient to meet the need. The messages that were given at that time did not meet the need. The turmoil among us was caused by the messages given by Brother Austin-Sparks when he visited the churches in Taiwan. Those messages were very high. Later, however, I realized that if we merely have these messages, not only will we not have a testimony in the Lord's work, but we also will be unable to see the cross or resurrection in the living of those who follow our ministry. Therefore, I began to question the use of these messages. The more I considered this, the more I recalled that Brother Nee eventually emphasized two points: the Holy Spirit and the believers' human spirit. Although I did not purposely search the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:45 began to shine in me afresh: "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." Before I went overseas in 1961, I had not quoted this verse in my messages. This verse shined in me when I was speaking in the United States, strengthening my feeling and messages. Then I emphatically pointed out that the last Adam became the life-giving Sprit. In the hymns that I wrote in 1961, I used the expressions such as Christ in the Spirit and the Son in the Spirit. 2071 However, after I went to the United States to release messages concerning the Spirit, I gradually saw that the New Testament does not say that Christ is in the Spirit. The revelation of the New Testament is not that the Son is in the Spirit but that through resurrection the Son became the Spirit. This thought is clearly and plainly stated in two verses in the New Testament. First Corinthians 15:45 says, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit," and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "The Lord is the Spirit." To this day, however, most of traditional Christianity cannot fully explain these two verses. Although many in organized Christianity oppose me for declaring that Christ is the Spirit, most of them have not dared to speak concerning these verses. Recently, I have been coordinating with some brothers in the United States to write a very powerful message challenging the opposers and asking them to reply. Instead of arguing with those who oppose me for declaring that Christ is the Spirit, I would like to ask them whether the life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45b refers to the Holy Spirit and whether the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:17 refers to the Lord Jesus. The Bible is extensive in its scope. Even the truth concerning justification by faith is not easy to understand. The book of James says that it is not sufficient to have only faith; one must also have works. However, all the believers need to acknowledge the truth concerning justification by faith. This truth cannot be denied. Similarly, in an attempt to argue against the truth concerning Christ being the Spirit, some

Among those hymns related to Christ, the ones I like the best are hymn #501, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine"; hymn #499, "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!"; and hymn #539, "O Lord, Thou art in me as life and everything to me!" After singing these hymns, I am full of enjoyment, touching the Spirit and receiving the life supply. Where can you find this kind of hymn among Christians today?

Calling on the Lord will also cause us to be rooted and grounded in love and to taste the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ (vv. 17, 19). We will be submerged in the ocean of His love. His infinite love will completely inundate us, and we will be rooted and grounded in this love. At this juncture, we will be filled with all that God is and has. We experience all these things not through good behavior, self-cultivation, or self-improvement but by loving the Lord Jesus and allowing Him to completely possess us within so that our whole being is filled unto all the fullness of God. The last stanza of Hymns, #501 matches this thought. The first two lines of this stanza say, "Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate."

The divine transmission of the Divine Trinity to the believers is revealed in John 16:13-15. This transmission is just like the transmission of electrical current. When the electricity is switched on, there is a current of electricity, a moving of electricity, and that moving is the transmission. First, all that the Father has is the Son's (v. 15). This means that what the Father has is transmitted into the Son. Second, all that the Son has is received by the Spirit (v. 14b). This is a further step of this transmission. The Father transmits to the Son, and then there is a transmitting from the Son to the Spirit. Third, all that the Spirit has received of the Son is disclosed to the believers (vv. 13, 15b). Eventually, all that the Trinity is and has is ours.

Verse 3 of hymn #501 in Hymns talks about this transmission. This verse says:

All things of the Father are Thine;
All Thou art in Spirit is mine;
The Spirit makes Thee real to me,
That Thou experienced might be.

By Thy Word to transfer to me.
Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received,
Thy life in me is thus conceived.
In spirit while gazing on Thee,
As a glass reflecting Thy glory,
Like to Thyself transformed I'll be,
That Thou might be expressed thru me.
Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate,
Deliv'ring me from the old man,
With all saints building for His plan.
Hymns, #501

In just these few verses, then, we have the tripartite man—spirit, soul, and body—and the Triune God. It is only in these last few years, even since we did the Life-study of Romans, that I have seen the Triune God and the tripartite man in Romans 8. For Him to become our life, He first enters our spirit, making it life. Then our soul is made life by the mind being set on the spirit. Lastly, our mortal bodies are made life. The divine life thus saturates our whole being.

SATURATED WITH GOD
Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate.
Hymns, #501

Our relationship with God should reach to this extent. Our whole being must be saturated with Him. We should not be content with outwardly worshipping Him, loving Him, fearing Him, and doing things to please Him. This mysterious God has passed through a process: creation, incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Now He has returned as the Spirit to enter all who believe in Him. Such is our God and our Savior.

[Editor's note: The hymns referred to in the following letter are Hymns, #837, 608, 501, and 499, respectively.]

I became interested in preaching the gospel from my youth, after I received salvation. I did not know what a tract was, much less where to obtain one. Nevertheless, I wrote a tract, printed it with large Chinese characters, like a production of the countryside, and went by myself to the people in the countryside. The subject of the tract was "The best way for a soul to be saved" or "The wonderful way for a soul to be saved." That was my first experience in writing concerning spiritual things. Even though today I laugh at my composition of that time, I eventually reached the standard of being able to compose Hymns, #501: "O glorious Christ, Savior mine,/ Thou art truly radiance divine; / God infinite, in eternity, / Yet man in time, finite to be." This illustrates that if we labor by practicing every day, we can find out the secrets to laboring in the gospel. Every task has some secrets that cannot be discovered if the task is not attempted. However, as soon as one carries out a task, he gains an entrance into discovering its secrets. Thus, we need to practice preaching the gospel.

In addition, the Lord's recovery has a hymnal. Hymns and spiritual songs are not ordinary compositions. A person's ability to compose determines his ability to write good hymns. You must therefore pursue the knowledge of the Bible so that what you know can be composed into a hymn. For example, based on an accumulation of sixty years of Bible study and on my knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, I wrote Hymns, #501. This hymn does not only contain knowledge, but it is knowledge that produced this hymn.

Verse 4 of Hymns, #501 says, "The Spirit of life causes Thee / By Thy Word to transfer to me. / Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received, / Thy life in me is thus conceived." By the word and by the Spirit, Christ's life is conceived within us. Therefore, we need to daily spend time in the Word. When we spend time in the Word, we need to exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit within by prayer. We need to not only read but also pray by exercising our spirit. In this way we will have the two "wires" for the spiritual transmission of Christ with His death and resurrection into our being. Then we will daily experience the killing and the nourishing that we need. This is the way to grow spiritually, and this is the way to abide in Christ. This is not a mere doctrine; we all need to put this into practice every day. Until the Lord comes back, we all need to daily contact Him by taking in the word and by touching the Spirit in order to receive Christ with His killing and nourishing elements. Then the spiritual metabolism within will cause us to grow.