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Jesus points right to this beautiful life in these verses:
John 12:24-50 The Message (MSG)
24-25 “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.
26 “If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.
A most amazing experience, not utterable, heavenly, your inner soul at complete peace, anchored to the Holy of Holies, to God Himself.
How do you get there? There is only one route: trust that God is true to His promises. He promised the reality of death and resurrection to every believer. You need to trust Him, believe this most excellent of all promises, that His Spirit will take over your life and put your flesh to death. And guess what? through no power of your own, just because you believe, He does. In fact HE CANNOT WAIT to do it for you, and is expectantly looking to the moment He can through your faith. It is a most amazing experience, not utterable, heavenly, your inner soul at complete peace, anchored to the Holy of Holies, to God Himself. Then you find yourself on the sidelines, watching yourself love those you may not like, doing the things you had no energy for before, as He guides and lovingly moves you. This is walking in the spirit.
If Christ is preached to the extent that He is "appointed" as the Lord, there will not be quietness and dullness but disturbance!
Singing hymns concerning spiritual experience, such as Hymns, #482 and #333, or singing hymns concerning the assurance and joy of salvation, such as Hymns, #297 and #1003, are not fitting for the remembrance of the Lord.
The United States is the top country in Christendom. Many saints in this country love the Lord, and I have contacted a number of them. Regrettably, they have not seen much of the new culture. Dwight L. Moody was a great preacher; I read his history and some of his books. A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, had much revelation, and he wrote a number of good hymns, especially on Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, some of which we collected into our compilation (Hymns, #481, #482, #484). Mrs. Fanny Crosby also wrote many good hymns. However; these saints did not see much about the new culture.
Hymns, #482, another hymn by A. B. Simpson, is also on the subjective experience of our co-death and co-resurrection with Christ:
I am crucified with Christ,
And the cross hath set me free;
I have ris'n again with Christ,
And He lives and reigns in me.
Oh! it is so sweet to die with Christ,
To the world, and self, and sin;
We have at least ten hymns in our hymnal that were written by A. B. Simpson, such as, "I am crucified with Christ" (Hymns, #482), "Once it was the blessing, / Now it is the Lord" (Hymns, #513), and "Jesus only is our message" (Hymns, #511). Hymns, #255 speaks of breathing the Lord in stanza 7, saying, "I am breathing every moment, / Drawing all my life from Thee; / Breath by breath I live upon Thee, / Lord, Thy Spirit breathe in me." The experience of this hymn is very rich; the author was breathing continuously, drawing his life from the Lord. Although many of God's children have gone astray, there is a practical, simple, convenient, and proper way to breathe in and receive the Lord's life every moment.
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 7 in the principle of incarnation. The principle of incarnation is that God enters into man and mingles Himself with man to make man one with Himself. Thus, God is in man and man is also in God. This can be illustrated by grafting. When two trees are grafted together, both trees must be cut. The cut in the first tree is an opening to receive the other tree. The second tree must also be cut in order to be put into the first tree. Then the two cuts are put together and the two trees begin to grow together. In order for us to be grafted into Christ, Christ and we must be cut. This cut was made at the cross of Christ. Christ as the good, cultivated olive tree (Rom. 11:17-18; John 15:1) was cut through His death on the cross. We also were cut by our crucifixion with Christ on the cross (Gal. 2:20). When we believed into Christ and were baptized into Him, we were grafted into Christ, the two cuts were put together, and we began to live together with Christ. There was no exchange of lives; rather, two lives were joined together and began to grow together organically (Rom. 6:4-5).
A stanza in a hymn written by A. B. Simpson (Hymns, #482) speaks of the matter of grafting:
This the secret nature hideth,
Harvest grows from buried grain;
A poor tree with better grafted,
Richer, sweeter life doth gain.
DEALING WITH THE DISPOSITION THROUGH THE PROCESS OF SIFTING
When we love, we do not love by ourselves. We love with Christ, through Christ, and in Christ, and Christ loves through us. This kind of love does not express our human virtue alone, but our human virtue with Christ's divine attributes. His divine love becomes the very essence of our human love. This is not two loves existing together, but one love living in the other. This can be compared to a hand in a glove. The hand and the glove are not two parties merely existing together. Rather, the hand is put into the glove, making the two objects one. When we are loving others, it is Christ who is loving, but not by Himself; Christ is loving through us. He is the "hand" and we are the "glove," not as a pair, but as one in the other. The human life has the divine life within it as its content, and the divine life has the human life as its expression. If this is not clear to us, we can never understand the Christian life.
Thank the Lord that there is such a thing as grafting. Hymn #482 in Hymns was written by A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Verse three says:
This the secret nature hideth,
Harvest grows from buried grain;
A poor tree with better grafted,
Richer, sweeter life doth gain.
There is a tremendous difference between death in Adam and the death of Christ. We loathe death in Adam, but we appreciate the sweetness of Christ's death. Christ's death is dear and lovable, and we may abide restfully in it. How wonderful that a believer baptized into the all-inclusive Christ is also placed into the death of Christ! In the words of a hymn written by A. B. Simpson, "It is so sweet to die with Christ" (Hymns, #482). Rest and victory are found in Christ's death.
A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, published a number of books and wrote quite a few excellent hymns on the experience of Christ's death and resurrection (see Hymns, #481, 482, 484, and 692). One of his hymns (#692) says, "There's a little word that the Lord has giv'n/For our help in the hour of need:/Let us reckon ourselves to be dead to sin,/To be dead and dead indeed." The chorus goes on to say, "Let us reckon, reckon, reckon,/Let us reckon, rather than feel; / Let us be true to the reck'ning,/And He will make it real." I tried to "reckon, reckon, reckon" and found out that this surely does not work. When I reckoned myself dead, I became more living. Brother Nee spoke of reckoning in his earlier ministry. For example, the messages given by Brother Nee that were published as The Normal Christian Life were given before 1938. Later, he began to see the Body of Christ, and his ministry became more mature. He then said that the real experience of Christ's death is in the Spirit, as covered in Romans 8. He said that Romans 6 could be experienced only in Romans 8. Romans 6 contains the doctrine, the fact, of our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, but the experience of this fact is in Romans 8 by the Spirit. If we live, walk, and do everything according to the Spirit, we will have the experience of Christ's death and of His resurrection. It is in this way that we are identified with Christ and experience His death and resurrection.
Do you feel that it is hard to die? Here is a word that tells us it is not hard to die. To die with yourself is hard, but to die with Christ is not hard. It is not hard to die with Christ "when His risen life we know." This refers to Philippians 3:10 where Paul says, "To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death."
Hymn #482 is another excellent hymn by A. B. Simpson on being identified with Christ's death and resurrection. I especially appreciate the third stanza:
This the secret nature hideth,
Harvest grows from buried grain;
A poor tree with better grafted,
Richer, sweeter life doth gain.