The Normal Christian Life
January 6th, 2010 | By Rich Shipe | Posted in Blog, From Rich
Bill Wilcox recommended a book to me by the great Chinese pastor Watchman Nee called The Normal Christian Life. So far it is excellent! I want to share quotes from books I’m reading here and in the case of this book it is hard to narrow it down to what to share. This is becoming one of those books where there is less text that is highlighted than not highlighted. :)
Here is a short excerpt from the first page:
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 for 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: God will answer all our questions in one way and one way only, namely, by showing us more of His Son.
And isn’t that truth confirmed through the experience of the mature Christian? We are constantly struggling with simply telling God, “I know that Christ and his work on the cross is the answer, but I don’t like that answer, God.” “I know that Christ is sufficient for me, but that isn’t what I want.”
Nee’s point is also made by Paul in a different way in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
And this also echos what Jack said in his sermon last Sunday. We aren’t content in what we have because we don’t want what God is offering. We want something else. And isn’t that the height of foolishness? The all powerful God wants to give us all of himself and we say “no thanks, I’d rather have this measly temporal thing.”
But are we truly content with our “weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities”?
One Response to “The Normal Christian Life”
By Bill Wilcox on Jan 6, 2010
Rich,
Thank you for your excellent analysis of Watchman Nee’s quote from the “The Normal Christian Life”. Your words reminded me of John the Baptist’s words about Christ in the Gospel of John chapter 3. Before he was arrested, some his men asked John the Baptist why so many were turning to Jesus. He gave them a wonderful response concerning Christ that can be summed up in the words of John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” And mustn’t that become true in all of our lives – He must increase and we must decrease.