O glorious Christ, Savior mine

B292 C382* CB501 E501 F88 G501 K382* LSM131 P240 R352 S215 T501
1
O glorious Christ, Savior mine,
Thou art truly radiance divine;
God infinite, in eternity,
Yet man in time, finite to be.
 
Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great,
Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet!
God mingled with humanity
  Lives in me my all to be.
2
The fulness of God dwells in Thee;
Thou dost manifest God’s glory;
In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought;
As Spirit, oneness with me sought.
3
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.
4
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.
5
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.
6
In no other way could we be
Sanctified and share Thy vict’ry;
Thus only spiritual we’ll be
And touch the life of glory.
7
Thy Spirit will me saturate
Every part will God permeate,
Deliv’ring me from the old man,
With all saints building for His plan.

Copyright Living Stream Ministry. Used by permission.

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Feb 2 2024
Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

“Oh Glorious, Christ Savior Mine” is the adapted version for the original hymn, “I Come to the Garden Alone” written and composed by Austin Miles. He shared his memory of how the words to this hymn came to him, in the account which follows: “One day in April 1912, I was seated in a dark room, where I kept my photographic equipment, and also my organ. I drew my Bible toward me, and opened at my favorite book and chapter, John 20. I don’t know if this was by chance, or by the work of the Holy Spirit. That story of Jesus and Mary had lost none of its power and charm. It was as though I was in a trance; as I read it that day, I seemed to be part of the scene. I became a silent witness to that dramatic moment in Mary’s life when she knelt before her Lord and cried, ‘Rabboni’. I rested my hands on the open Bible, as I stared at the light blue wall. As the light faded, I seemed to be standing at the entrance of a garden, looking down a gently winding path, shaded by olive branches. A woman in white, with head bowed, hand clasping her throat as if to choke back her sobs, walked slowly into the shadows, it was Mary. As she came to the tomb, upon which she placed her hand, she bent over to look in and ran away. Then came Peter, who entered the tomb, followed by John. As they departed, Mary reappeared leaning her head on her arm at the tomb, and she wept. Turning, she saw Jesus standing there; so did I. I knew it was He. She knelt before Him, with arms, outstretched, and looking into His face and cried, ‘ Rabboni’. I awakened in sunlight, gripping my Bible, and wrote as quickly as the words could be formed, the lyrics exactly as it is sung today. That same evening, I wrote the tune. It is sung today as it was written in 1912. ” Miles hoped to capture in his words the closest Mary might have felt to her Savior at that moment. He thought, “This is not an experience limited to a happening almost 2000 years ago, but it is the daily companionship with the Savior that makes up the Christian’s daily walk. “

A Chinese pastor also shared his experience in relation to this same hymn. He had been incarcerated in a detention camp during the Cultural Revolution. Each day he was lowered into a pit filled with human waste in order to start shoveling. He was able to endure this horrific indignity by singing over and over again the words to “I Come to the Garden Alone. ” He refused to allow his captors to define his reality; rather, he chose to see himself as enjoying the presence of his Savior.

C. Austin Miles lived from 1868 to 1946. He trained and worked as a pharmacist, but also began to write gospel songs when he was 24 years old. His song was published by the Hall-Mac company, and then Miles gave up his pharmacy work to serve Hall-Mac as an editor and manager for nearly 40 years. He once said, “It is as a writer of gospel songs that I am proud to be known, in that way, I may be of the most use to my Master, whom I serve willingly, although not as efficiently as I desire. ”

Lewis Codington

Dec 24 2023
Sanjay Maisi

Delhi, India

Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great,

Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet!

God mingled with humanity

Lives in me my all to be. Amen

Oct 1 2023
Nate

Placentia, CA, United States

LIVES IN ME, MY ALL TO BE!

We love you Lord Jesus. ❤️

Jun 25 2023
Cheryl

Rapid City, South Dakota, United States

Praise Him that we can eat and drink together with Him at the Lord’s Table. Amen.

Oct 2 2022
Christopher Burk

Seattle, Washington, United States

Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet!

Amen!

Aug 28 2022
Hailey Santos

NYC, New York, United States

Praise the Lord!

Jul 7 2022
Ray Stump

Waco, TX, United States

How many times in 42 years have I sung this hymn? And this morning, as I linger in stanza one, I enjoyed sweet fresh fellowship with Him. Praying over this hymn led to several verses rising up to the praise of the glory of His grace. Oh, how I long to linger with the saints over this in a table meeting, gloriously declaring with all the saints fifty-seven plus verses. Inexhaustible rich and sweet!

Jun 5 2022
Jackie Dunkel

Lubbock, TX, United States

Someone sent a photo of this hymn with accompanying Scripture references to me. I wish I could share that photo with you all! The verses and chorus of this song allude to at least 57 Scripture verses! Many do not realize how rich this hymn is.

Apr 3 2022
Erik Kunkel

Round Rock, Texas, United States

oh Christ!!! we love you, praise the Lord!!!!

Sep 5 2021
Ivy

Auckland, New Zealand

The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Today He is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit!

In order to do the translation work well, you must be able to write well. Translating can be compared to writing poetry. Writing poetry requires hard work. Similarly, translation requires hard work in order for it to be done wel1. This work can also be compared to building a house in a sloppy or a careful way. In order to build carefully, one must take care of many fine details. Such details include polishing everything and even doing fine engravings. The hymns that I wrote, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (Hymns, #501) and "Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live" (#841), are good examples. I spent much time and effort on these hymns, considering and revising where to place certain words. The translation of the Recovery Version into Chinese requires even more consideration and time. The serving ones must set aside the time and come to the Book Room to work during normal office hours as if they were in the army. They must come to work in the morning and depart in the afternoon. In order to be in the church life or to serve in the churches, the serving ones in the Book Room must use their spare time after work for this in the same way as other working saints. Eight hours of the day must be spent on the work of the Book Room, and the serving ones must coordinate in a good way. Even if the church has a conference, they cannot miss work to attend the conference. This is the only way for us to get the work done. If we do not do this, we will not know when we will be able to publish something, nor will we have the assurance that the work will be done well. Everything depends on time. We cannot have an attitude of doing things carelessly or finishing in a hasty way. We cannot make many mistakes, because it is hard to make corrections after a book has been sent to the printer.

I wrote some of the hymns in our Chinese hymnal in 1961, and I composed them by walking while intoning. It would be difficult to improve Hymns, #501, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine," because the rhythm and rhyme are very good, the parallel structures are proper, and the composition is excellent. However, I did not spend the same amount of time on the other hymns that I translated from English; therefore, the rhythm and meter of some hymns can still be improved. In order to write a good composition, we must spend an adequate amount of time, especially to study poems and songs. The text of the Bible is a classic work; therefore, our translation must have a certain elegance. In translating the New Testament we must pay attention to the meaning of the Greek text, but we cannot neglect the writing style. For this reason we should not depart from the writing style of the Chinese Union Version unless it is absolutely necessary.

The fifth "gold bar" is in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, which says, "Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit," This shows that we all are members of the Body of Christ and have the same life and element as Christ; thus, all the members joined together constitute the Body of Christ.

Verse 13 says that in one Spirit all the believers were baptized into one Body. This Spirit is the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit may be compared to a large pool of water. Thousands upon thousands of believers have been baptized in it into one Body. Not only so, we also drink of this one Spirit. Thus, we not only have the Spirit as our sphere outwardly but also are filled and saturated with the Spirit inwardly. The Spirit that we drink will ultimately saturate and permeate us. Drinking the Spirit may sound a little wild, but 10:4 also says that the Israelites "drank the same spiritual drink"; thus, we certainly see the concept of drinking in this book. Christ is the portion of us all; the way to enjoy Him is to be baptized into the Spirit and to drink the Spirit until we are wholly saturated by the Spirit, and our whole being is full of the Spirit. At that time our condition will be like the condition described in Hymns, #501: "Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate." The way to be saturated and permeated is by drinking the Spirit.

You must see clearly what the Lord is recovering today. First, this is the recovery of Christ. Christianity preaches merely that the Lord Jesus was crucified to save you from your sins so that you would not go to hell but would go to heaven. This is too low and shallow; this is a low gospel. According to the revelation in the Bible, we see Christ. Stanza 1 and the chorus of Hymns, #501 say, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine; / God infinite, in eternity, / Yet man in time, finite to be. / Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, / Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet! / God mingled with humanity/ Lives in me my all to be." This is the Christ whom we know today in the Lord's recovery. The subject of the recent summer training was "The Conclusion of the New Testament." In this training we presented over four hundred aspects of the riches of Christ. We should know and experience all these riches.

...

In the Lord's recovery we see a rich Christ who is unlimited and immeasurable. This Christ is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This is a great recovery, and this recovered truth has been published in our various publications, but unfortunately, many among you have not gotten into them. Therefore, I want to solemnly fellowship that the first thing you should know in the Lord's recovery is this all-inclusive rich Christ. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Today He is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit. Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 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." This is absolutely a word of truth as well as a word of experience and a word of life. We must know Christ to such an extent.

...

You must first exercise the part in you where Christ is. This part is your spirit. Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 says, "The Spirit makes Thee real to me." The Spirit is Christ as the Spirit, who enters into your spirit. This Spirit is not in your mind, emotion, or will. If you think about what you should speak or utter as you come to a meeting, you are exercising your mind. If you feel happy and want to say something, you are exercising your emotion, and if you decide not to speak in the meeting, you are exercising your will. All these do not involve the Spirit. You should not meet in such a way. When you come to a meeting, you must put aside your mind, emotion, and will, and exercise your innermost part, your spirit. Calling, "O Lord Jesus!" is not about calling based on your emotion, mind, or will, because Paul says that no one can say, "Jesus is Lord!" except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). All proper calling comes from your spirit.

...

It is not sufficient for us to follow the Spirit, exercise the spirit, and grow in life; we must also know the Bible. Stanza 4 of Hymns, #501 says, "The Spirit of life causes Thee / By Thy Word to transfer to me," The Spirit is the Lord Jesus. Today the Spirit is very abstract, but we also have the Bible, which is the Lord's embodiment. In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1), and this Word is the Lord. Therefore, we must study the Bible diligently in order to know the Lord.

We should realize that the Lord's recovery is to recover Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. Christ is the embodiment and expression of the Triune God; He is the all-inclusive God-man. Concerning this point, Hymns #501 has given a simple, clear, and appropriate description. The Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. The theology in Christianity has separated God into three Persons: the Father being one Person, the Son being one Person, and the Spirit being another Person. But we see from the Bible that Christ is the embodiment of God and is not separate from the Father. He Himself says, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Then, again, He says, "You, Father, are in Me and I in You" (John 17:21). The Bible also says that the Holy Spirit is the reality of the Son (John 14:17-20; 1 John 5:6). Hence, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. This Triune God has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead, and He has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Therefore, now the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). At the end of the Bible it says, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come!" (Rev. 22:17). The Spirit here is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God. Moreover, life is simply Christ, and life is also the Spirit. In John 14, Christ says, "I am the life." This Christ who is life, having passed through the processes to become the life-giving Spirit, entered into us to be the life that we enjoy.

Wherever I went, I always preached Brother Nee's teachings. Some people considered this a shame, but to me it was a glory. At the beginning of my speaking I would tell people that what I was sharing was Brother Nee's message. I even learned to follow Brother Nee's gestures, posture, and accent. It was a glory to speak what he spoke. Before I began the work in the United States, I wrote Hymns, #203, which speaks of the one grain that became many grains to be the Lord's continuation. The Lord covers me to say that this is a very deep hymn. I also wrote "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (#501) and "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" (#499). When I came to the United States, the first message of the first conference I gave in English was on the all-inclusive Christ, based on Deuteronomy 8:7-9. However, in all this I never changed. What I speak is still from Brother Nee.

Much of what I have spoken and written since 1963 has been concerning the eight sections of God's organic salvation. For example, regarding Christ, Hymns, #501 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." All that the Father has is the Son's, and all that the Son possesses is in the Spirit, who brings everything into us so that it becomes real to us for our experience. Hymns, #750 concerns transformation. It is brief, dear, and to the point. We have seen these things in the past but never as completely and wholly as we do now. The Lord has given us a complete picture of what He is doing.

After returning from England, I spoke on the building of the church, but I discovered that everyone's spirit was not living. How can there be the building up of the church if the spirit does not rise up? Therefore, by 1961 I began to speak on the matters of exercising the spirit, releasing the spirit, and being mingled in spirit. I even wrote new hymns, such as "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" and "O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine" (Hymns, #499, #501). These hymns caused people to become more living, but I eventually discovered that the co-workers sang them to the point that they did not like to sing them as much. The more I spoke on exercising the spirit, the less spirit there seemed to be. At the end of that year I went to America.

The troubles in Manila were provoked by the people in Taiwan, and the troubles in Taiwan were incited by the people in Manila. They joined together with one another just like Herod and Pilate. In the summer of 1961 I went to the Philippines to lead the young people's training in Baguio, a city situated on a mountain. That training was unprecedented. The young people became vitalized, and everyone was praying. During the meetings they sang from the eighty-five new hymns that I wrote, including, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine," "Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!" and "O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now" (Hymns, #501, #499, #493). The more everyone sang, the more they were released; eventually, everyone was released.

The younger saints are blessed because they can be filled with God in their youth. However, in addition to being filled with God, we also need to be saturated with God and allow Him to be expressed through us. One of our hymns says, "Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate" (Hymns, #501). I hope that the younger saints will be saturated and permeated with God until God can be seen in every part of their being, that is, until God is in their tongue, eyes, shoulders, walk, and words. Then they will be young persons who truly belong to God.

When we compiled the hymnal, we did consider this matter of the "rind" and the "flesh." Since a watermelon must have both rind and flesh, we kept the "rind" hymns. However, we must learn to eat the "flesh," because the essence and nutrients are in the flesh. We must not eat only the rind. The saints seldom call hymns on experiencing Christ as life, such as Hymns, #841 and #501, or hymns on Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, such as #450 in the Chinese hymnal and Hymns, #612. Some may not even know the tune to these hymns. We do not call these hymns, because we lack a vision of the treasure within these hymns. These hymns are on the riches of Christ who, as the all-inclusive Spirit, is in us to be our supply. Regrettably, the brothers and sisters do not know how to appreciate these hymns. They prefer to sing "rind" hymns.

We belong to Christ, and by our receiving Him daily, He fills us until we are transformed into the fullness of Christ. Then we corporately become the church, which is the Body of Christ and the fullness of Christ for His expression. The expression of the fullness is not the result of cultivating our character. It is the result of our enjoying and receiving Christ. As we daily receive and enjoy Christ, our whole being is filled, saturated, with His spiritual elements. These elements are His essence; they are what He is, His attributes, and His virtues. This is expressed in Hymns, #501: "Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate." When every part of our being is permeated with God, we become the fullness of God and of Christ.

The problem is, by what life will we live? By the first life or the second life? By the natural life or the divine life? By our self or by Christ? I say again that I have not found anyone, even one who is very much in the church life, who lives Christ day by day and hour after hour and does not live himself. Hymns #841, 499, and 501 (Hymns) speak of living Christ and not ourselves. We need to check to see if our life matches the standard expressed in these hymns. We need to realize that we were created to be like God, even to be one with God. Furthermore, we have been saved into God to be regenerated by Him that we may be His children and may be members of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ. However, we need to ask ourselves whether we live God or not. We do have a marvelous provision. God has provided us with a body and with a spirit, which are very sufficient for us to live as a man to worship God, to receive God, and to contain God that we may live God and express Him.

Even after being saved by God, we may not live Him. We may be gentlemen, men who are right, but we may not be able to say, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20a). We may not be able to apply this holy word to ourselves. We need to realize the organic union between us and God. We need to behave ourselves, to walk, to live, to do everything, in this organic union. It should not be I but Christ; it should not be I by myself, but I with God, united, mingled, and blended to be one person, a God-man.

The first stanza of Hymns, #501 says, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine,/Thou art truly radiance divine;/God infinite, in eternity,/Yet man in time, finite to be." This God infinite in eternity came to be a man finite in time. Where is He being a finite man? He is in us as a finite man. Have we experienced these two lines? The Lord, who is the embodiment of the great God, was the infinite God in eternity, yet today He came into us, human beings who are so small, to be a finite man. Praise the Lord that for us to live is He who is the infinite God, the God in eternity. Although we are finite men in time, He is living within us today. We should learn to apply the truth in this way. Otherwise, even though we have a very good Bible and hymnal, we cannot apply them to us.

The chorus of this hymn says, "Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great,/Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet!/God mingled with humanity/Lives in me my all to be." We need to learn to apply these words to our daily life.

Stanza 2 says, "The fulness of God dwells in Thee;/Thou dost manifest God's glory;/In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought;/As Spirit, oneness with me sought." These lines are really good, but we should not simply remain in the appreciation of them. We need to ask ourselves whether this is the life we live. God's glory was manifested in Him, but is He manifested in us today? Furthermore, is the Spirit one with me today? Husbands, when you talk to your wife, is Christ one with you? Perhaps in experience you can only say, "In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought," but you cannot say, "As Spirit, oneness with me sought." Hence, although we sing this hymn, we do not have its reality.

Stanza 3 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." This is an excellent stanza. All that the Father has, was received by the Son, and all that the Son is, was given to the Spirit. This Spirit comes into our spirit to become our reality so that the all-inclusive Christ may be our experience. Have these words become our experience? Do we have this reality in our living? If we check our condition, we have to say that we are short of such experience.

In a previous chapter we saw that the degradation of the church is due to our not enjoying the Christ who is in our spirit. Second Timothy 4:22 says, "The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you." To overcome today's degraded Christianity, we need to enjoy Christ in our spirit as our portion to be the abounding grace to us. Brothers, we need to bow our heads and confess that we are short of this. Among us, we have the light in the books and the hymns, but we have neglected the practical experience in our living.

Although we may sing a hymn of high quality, the husbands and wives still quarrel. We do not allow the Spirit to make the Lord real to us that the Lord may be experienced by us. Our experience is not "the Spirit makes Thee real to me." Rather, we make our temper and our disposition real to us. When we sing such a hymn, we should sing it with tears, saying to the Lord, "Lord, 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. Forgive me, Lord, I am not like this. I need Your Spirit to make You real to me that You may become my experience." We need to weep while singing. This is what we should have, even daily. Christianity is poor; the light we have is rich. However, we rarely apply these riches to our daily life. As a result, very little of the riches of Christ are manifested in our living. This is why the burden upon me today is very heavy. I am very happy to have such a meeting. A great number of elders and co-workers in the Lord's recovery around the globe are here. I like to grasp this opportunity to speak a word of love. Brothers, awake! We have the messages and the hymns, but we are short of the practical living.

Stanza 4 of this hymn 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." In our daily life, do we allow the Spirit to cause the Lord to be realized in us through His living word? Do we, moment by moment, touch the Spirit and receive the Lord's word that we may receive the Lord as our supply?

If we compare the poetic words in this hymn with our living, we will find that there is quite a discrepancy. We have such a hymn, but we have very little of the reality of what it speaks. How poor our living is when we compare it with the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul said that he announced to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel (Eph. 3:8). If we desire to announce to people the unsearchable riches of Christ, we need to experience Him richly in our living. The riches of Christ are unsearchable, but how much reality do we have in us? Therefore, this is a warning; this is something we need to beware of.

The way to be transformed is first by fellowshipping with the Lord without any barrier, that is, with an unveiled face beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glorious image of the Lord (3:18a). Stanza 5 of Hymns, #501 reads, "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." We must be this way every day. There is a distinct difference between one who reads the Word for ten minutes and prays for five minutes in the morning and one who neither reads the Word nor prays. Every morning we must have fellowship with the Lord in this way, even if we are very busy. Moreover, during the day we also must find time to draw near to Him, to be face to face with Him. Then we will be like a mirror beholding Him and reflecting His glory. Thus, the Lord will transfuse into us the elements of what He is and what He has done. By the power of His life and with His life elements we shall gradually be metabolically transformed to have His life shape. What is most important is that through the renewing of our mind we shall gradually be transformed into His image.

The way to worship in the New Testament is for all of us to use our spirit. Before we attend a meeting, we are a worshipper of God already. Every morning we have a revival, and every day, in our daily living, we are constantly renewed and overcoming and are in constant touch and fellowship with the Lord. In addition, our lives are filled with hymns. Hymns, #501 and #1068 or a more simple one such as #1024 are hymns that I like to sing. They are all very good songs. We can learn to sing them often in our daily lives.

Today among Christians there exists an erroneous traditional saying that Christ is in the Holy Spirit, that is, that the Son is in the Spirit. We must be careful; otherwise, we will make the same mistake. For example, the last two lines of the second stanza of Hymns, #501 says, "In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought; / As Spirit, oneness with me sought." The line cannot be written as: "In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought; / In Spirit, oneness with me sought." We must discern the difference between the two. I do not mean to say that it is definitely wrong to say that "the Son is in the Spirit." Such a statement, however, is certainly not in the Bible. What the Bible says is that "the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit" and that "the Lord is the Spirit." Bible expositors are puzzled about the matter of the Son's being the Spirit. Many of them do not dare to say that Christ is the Spirit. To avoid being troubled or condemned, they have coined the term "the pneumatic Christ." Nevertheless, is not the pneumatic Christ simply the Spirit?

Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 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." This stanza, which is written exactly according to John 16:15, says that all that the Father has is given to and received by the Son; all that the Son has received and all that He has is in the Spirit; the Spirit makes the Son real to us by entering into us; and as a result, this reality may become our experience. This means that if we listen to many messages concerning Christ, the Son, but do not have the Spirit of reality coming into us, none of the messages will be reality. When the Spirit comes into our spirit, this is the coming of the reality of the Son, and the result is that this reality becomes our experience. This may be considered the best explanation of John 16:15.

Hymn 501 can be considered a masterpiece in our hymnal. It extracts the focus of the Bible from the New Testament and describes it fully. Verse one of this hymn says:

O glorious Christ, Savior mine,

Thou art truly radiance divine;

God infinite, in eternity,

Yet man in time, finite to be.

Then verse two says:

The fulness of God dwells in Thee;

Thou dost manifest God's glory;

In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought;

As Spirit, oneness with me sought.

This hymn does not speak of the love of God or of the grace of God. It does not talk about God's mercy or lovingkindess. Rather, it speaks of the fulness of God and the glory of God.

The phrase "As Spirit, oneness with me sought" speaks of the focus of the Bible. This focus is the Triune God, the Creator of the universe, the eternal God, who came one day to the earth to become a finite man. He accomplished redemption in the flesh, and on the cross He terminated sin, the world, darkness, the self, the flesh, and everything of the old creation. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. When we believe in Him, He enters into us to have an organic union with us. In this way this life-giving Spirit becomes one with us.

This union is not a union like one hand holding another hand. It is a union comparable to the grafting of a branch into a tree. Romans 11:24 says that we are the wild olive branches that have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree. The cultivated olive tree is Christ, and the wild olive branches are we the sinners. Without passing through the redeeming death of Christ, we and Christ can never be grafted together. It is through the death and resurrection of Christ that He became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us and to have an organic union with us.

Verse three of hymn 501 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.

All that the Father has is the Son's, and all that the Son is, is in the Spirit (John 16:13-15). This Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. The Bible explains in detail how all that belongs to the Father is inherited by the Son, and how all that the Son is, is in the Spirit. Hence the Spirit becomes the reality of the Son, and the Son is the expression of the Father. In this way, the Son is the manifestation of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Today this Spirit has entered into our spirit to become our reality. The result is that our spirit is organically joined to His Spirit, and His story becomes our history.

As descendants of the Chinese race we are spread today throughout the whole world. In the early days our ancestors crossed a vast span of land. When they did this, we also crossed over together with them. Hence their story is our history. In the same way, all that the Lord Jesus has passed through—His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—has become our experience by His being joined to us.

Verse four continues:

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.

Today this Spirit enters into our spirit to make His history our experience. But that is not all. By the word of the Bible He is making Himself real to us. Whenever we come to read the Lord's Word, we touch this Spirit, and He becomes our supply.

Verse five says:

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.

Every time we come to the Lord, it is a matter of the spirit. We must forget about our culture and forget about teachings. We must drop our religion and philosophy, and we must drop our ethics, our morality, and all our customs and habits. Of course, this does not mean that we can indulge ourselves in whatever we desire. It means that we should forget all these things and turn to our spirit. In spirit we should worship and behold the Lord, as a mirror reflecting the Lord's glory.

I was born in northern China, but when I went to Shanghai, I did not reflect the North, and when I came to the West, I did not reflect the East. What I reflected was Christ. On the one hand Christ is in the heavens; on the other hand He is in our spirit. As long as we will turn to our spirit, we can contact Him and enjoy Him, as a mirror reflecting His glory. The result is that we are transformed into His image, and He is expressed through us.

Verse six continues:

In no other way could we be

Sanctified and share Thy vict'ry;

Thus only spiritual we'll be

And touch the life of glory.

Today we have only one way—the way of the spirit. The Triune God, the Creator of the universe, who was incarnated, died on the cross, and rose from the dead, is now the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. He is also the consummation of the Triune God. He has entered into the spirit of us who have believed and is now being mingled with us as one spirit. Now we should walk according to this mingled spirit and live a daily life that is inseparably attached to this spirit.

Unfortunately, many people read the Bible as if they are wearing a pair of colored eyeglasses. They read into the Bible many things of culture, teachings, ethics, morality, religion, philosophy, customs, and traditions. As a result, they do not receive any light from the Bible. Even many seminary students are coming to the Word in this way. They come with their colored eyeglasses. I hope that the Lord will be merciful to us all, so that we may all remove our colored glasses to read the Word of God solely with our God-created spirit.

The last verse of hymn 501 says:

Thy Spirit will me saturate,

Every part will God permeate,

Deliv'ring me from the old man,

With all saints building for His plan.

This mingled spirit is in you saturating and permeating your whole spirit, soul, and body. The result is that your whole being will be filled with the Triune God, so that in every part of your being you will see God. In this way, every part of your being will be saturated with God, and you will be delivered from the natural self and be built together with all the saints to become God's habitation.

Ephesians 2:22 says, "In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit." Only when we are all living in spirit, worshipping in spirit, beholding and reflecting His glory in spirit, and being transformed in spirit will it be possible for God to have a way. And only then will it be possible for us to be built together in spirit to become the dwelling of God.

Piano Hymns

Details

Experience of Christ
As Life
Witness Lee (1905-1997)
Charles Austin Miles (1868-1946)
G Major
6/8
8.8.8.8. with chorus.
55345123211121615

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