THE SUPERNATURAL YOU IN CHRIST: THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

Beauty For Ashes
Oct 4
5 min read

The Normal Christian Life

by Watchman Nee (1903-1972)

• A Seer of the Divine Revelation

Watchman Nee, Ni Tuosheng, or Nee T'o-sheng (Chinese: 倪柝聲; pinyin: Ní Tuòshēng; November 4, 1903 – May 30, 1972), was a Chinese church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the 20th century.

Watchman Nee became a Christian in mainland China in 1920 at the age of seventeen and began writing in the same year.

Throughout the nearly thirty years of his ministry, Watchman Nee was clearly manifested as a unique gift from the Lord to His Body for His move in this age.

In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in 1972.

His words remain an abundant source of spiritual revelation and supply to Christians throughout the world.

1920

At the age of seventeen and after considerable struggle, Nee Shu-tsu was dynamically saved while in high school.

At the moment of his salvation, his plans for his future were entirely abandoned.

He testified, “From the evening I was saved, I began to live a new life, for the life of the eternal God had entered into me.”

"A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself."

"Our OLD history ENDS with the CROSS;

our NEW history BEGINS with the RESURRECTION."

Chapter 1: The BLOOD of CHRIST

What is the normal Christian life?

We do well at the outset to ponder this question.

The object of these studies is to show that IT IS something VERY DIFFERENT from the life of the AVERAGE CHRISTIAN.

Indeed a consideration of the written Word of God—of the Sermon on the Mount for example—

• should lead us to ask whether such a life has ever in fact been lived upon the

earth, save only by the Son of God Himself.

But in that last saving clause lies immediately the answer to our question.

The Apostle Paul gives us his own definition of the Christian life in Galatians 2:20.

It is “NO LONGER I, BUT CHRIST”.

GALATIANS 2:20 TPT

My OLD IDENTITY has been CO-CRUCIFIED with CHRIST and NO LONGER lives.

And now the essence of this new life is NO LONGER MINE, for the Anointed One lives HIS LIFE THROUGH ME—we live in union as one!

My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine!

Here he is not stating something special or peculiar—a high level of Christianity.

He is, we believe, presenting GOD’s NORMAL for a CHRISTIAN, which can be summarized in the words:

• I LIVE NO LONGER, but CHRIST lives HIS LIFE in me.

God makes it quite clear in His Word that He has ONLY ONE answer to EVERY human need—HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST.

In all His dealings with us He works

• by taking US

• OUT of the WAY and

• SUBSTITUTING CHRIST in OUR PLACE.

The Son of God DIED INSTEAD of US for our forgiveness:

He LIVES INSTEAD of US for our deliverance.

So we can speak of two substitutions—

• a Substitute ON THE CROSS who secures our forgiveness and

• a Substitute WITHIN who secures our victory.

It will help us greatly, and save us from much confusion, if we keep constantly before us this fact,

• that God will answer all our questions in ONE WAY ONLY, namely, by

SHOWING us MORE of HIS SON.

Our DUAL PROBLEM: SINS and SIN

We shall take now as a starting-point for our study of the normal Christian life that

great exposition of it which we find in the first eight chapters of the Epistle to the Romans,

and we shall approach our subject from a practical and experimental point of view.

It will be helpful first of all to point out a natural division of this section of Romans into two, and

to note certain striking differences in the subject-matter of its two parts.

The first eight chapters of Romans form a self-contained unit.

The four-and-a-half chapters from 1:1 to 5:11 form the first half of this unit and the three-and-a-half chapters from 5:12 to 8:39 the second half.

A careful reading will show us that the subject-matter of the

two halves is not the same.

For example, in the argument of the first section we find the PLURAL word ‘SINS’ given prominence.

In the second section, however, this changed, for while the word ‘sins’ hardly occurs once, the SINGULAR word ‘SIN’ is used again and again and is the subject mainly dealt with.

Why is this?

It is because in the first section it is a question of

• the SINS I HAVE COMMITTED before God,

which are many and can be enumerated,

whereas in the second it is a question of

• SIN as A PRINCIPLE working IN ME.

No matter how many sins I commit, it is always the ONE SIN PRINCIPLE that leads to them.

I need FORGIVENESS for my sins, but I need also DELIVERANCE from the POWER of sin.

The former touches my CONSCIENCE, the latter my LIFE.

I may receive forgiveness for all my sins, but because of my sin I have, even then, no abiding peace of mind.

When God’s light first shines into my heart my one cry is for forgiveness, for I realize I have committed sins before Him;

but when once I HAVE RECEIVED forgiveness of sins I make a new discovery, namely, the discovery of sin, and I realize NOT ONLY that I have committed sins before God but that there is something wrong WITHIN.

I discover that I have the NATURE of a SINNER.

There is an inward inclination to sin, a power within that draws to sin.

When that power breaks out I commit sins.

I may seek and receive forgiveness, but then I sin once more.

So life goes on in a vicious circle of sinning and being forgiven and then sinning again.

I appreciate the blessed fact of God’s forgiveness, but I want something more than that:

I WANT DELIVERANCE.

I need forgiveness FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE, but I need also deliverance FROM WHAT I AM.

GOD’s DUAL REMEDY:

The BLOOD and the CROSS

Thus in the first eight chapters of Romans two aspects of salvation are presented to us:

• firstly, the FORGIVENESS of our SINS, And

• secondly, our DELIVERANCE from SIN.

But now, in keeping with this fact, we must notice a further difference.

In the first part of Romans 1 to 8, we twice have reference to the Blood of the Lord Jesus, in chapter 3:25 and in chapter 5:9.

ROMANS 3:25 NKJV

whom God set forth as a propitiation by His BLOOD, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the SINS that were previously committed,

ROMANS 5:9 NKJV

Much more then, having now been JUSTIFIED by His BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

In the second, a new idea is introduced in chapter 6:6,

where we are said to have been “CRUCIDIED” with Christ.

ROMANS 6:6 NKJV

knowing this, that our old man was CRUCIFIED with Him,

• that the BODY of SIN might be DONE AWAY with,

• that we should NO LONGER be SLAVES of SIN.

The argument of the first part gathers round that aspect of the work of the Lord Jesus which is represented by

• ‘the Blood’

shed for our justification through “the remission of sins”.

This terminology is however not carried on into the second section,