Amazing Grace by Watchman Nee Read Free Book Online Page B

guarantee of some kind should he flee away later. Simply by His word God need not provide a guarantee.
What He says is final; but why? Because He is the most
honorable Person in the universe. What He says as having been done is
done indeed (cf. Hebrews 6:18a). My feeling tells me that I have not died and
am still sinning. At that moment, what do you believe? Do you believe you died
in Christ or believe you are alive on the basis of your feeling? All who
believe they are dead in Christ are blessed, for all their problems are
eternally solved.
    Living faith is believing God’s
word. It is not a believing some doctrine, for doctrine in mind has no power.
Believe the word of God, resist all which belongs to
self, and simply trust that God has already done all which is necessary. So
that when temptation comes and your heart is stirred up for you to be proud or
unclean, to worry or be jealous, what should you do? Let me tell you that a man
of faith is able to praise God and declare that even though he may worry, he is
dead; that though he may lose his temper, he still is dead. Even if your feeling
should be contradictory to God’s word, you will still praise God for all which
He has done in Christ. If you believe yourself to be in Christ, if you believe
that you are truly joined to Him, then you will certainly leap and shout,
“Thank God I am dead!”
    The problem today lies in your seeing
the truth but not seeing God’s finished work; in your seeing the truth but not
seeing what is the content of the truth. It is like studying geography but you have
never been to the places you have read about. You need God’s revelation, you need His light to shine on you. Then you will see your position in Christ.
Since you have not seen, there is no way to believe. On the other hand, let us
say that I go into a room and hide there; you can easily believe that I am in
the room because you saw me going in. Today you cannot see you are dead; on the
contrary, you see yourself as alive and your old man is still alive. But thank
God, though you cannot see, yet you believe, for you have seen that you are
united with Christ in one. Therefore, when He died, you died also.
    Suppose there is a cold drink in this bottle I have here
in my hand. And suppose I bring this bottle to the pier and throw it into the
sea. We cannot say on the one hand that the bottle is in the sea but that on
the other hand the cold drink is still back in the Y.M.C.A. or in brother Wong’s home. Not so, for where the bottle is, there
is the cold drink. Even so, God has put us in Christ; and since Christ has died,
we who are in Him have died as well.

For
Us to Be in Christ Is God’s Will
and by
His Work
    “Of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus” (I Corinthians
1:30a). In other words, for you to be in Christ is the will and work of God. I may
be a weak person, for my hands cannot lift eighty pounds; but I can pour water
into a bottle. God is omnipotent. For Him to put me in Christ is easier than
for me to pour water into a bottle. You being in Christ Jesus is God’s will and
by God’s work. Hence, God’s word declares that when Christ died, at that very
moment you also died.
    Two years ago I was conducting meetings in Kaifeng. As I
was speaking of the believer being in Christ, one of those in attendance asked
me: “How can I be in Christ? How is it that when Christ died, I too died? that when Christ lives, I too live?” I replied as follows:
“For me to be in Christ is God’s work. It is God who puts us in Christ, so, the
experience of Christ becomes our experience. All God’s works are done in
Christ, not in us. This is the difference between Christianity and other
religions. In all other religions, all works are done in man. Only in
Christianity are works not done in man. In the Christian faith all are in
Christ alone; so that if you are related to Christ, all Christ’s experiences
become yours. Without such relationship with Christ you remain as you are and
the