The Christian Life - 2

Message Title: A Grafte Life

we have been joined to the Lord, and this is our Christian life, not emphasizing on our behavior or conduct, but that we should live a grafted life. Christ has entered into us and now is living in us, who is the righteousness of God, who is becoming our righteousness also both objective and subjective. since we are now living a grafted life, we need to turn to the Lord and ask the Lord to show us the meaning of a grafte life. 

I. the Bible reveals that the relationship God desires to have with man is that He and man become one

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

God desires that the divine life and the human life be joined together to become one life. the concept of the divine life and the human life being grafted into one is mysterious, beyond the natural concept, and foreign to human thought. since this is beyond our concept, we rather simply enjoy this fact, that we have been grafted into God to be one with God. 

II. in grafting, two similiar lives are joined and then grow together. 

Revelation 14:18 And another angel came out of the altar, he who has authority over fire, and he cried with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Send forth your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripened.

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. 

in Revelation, it shows the wine of the earth; while in John 15, the Lord says that He is the vine and we are the branches. so as human beings, we only have two options. but the Lord has rescued us from the vine of the earth and grafted into Himself as the true vine. in order to be able to graft us later, at creation, God created man with a human life which resembles the divine life; therefore the divine life and the human life can be grated together and then grow together organically. 

III. In order for us to be grafted into God, He had to pass through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection

God is the One who dwells in the unapproachable light, so there is no way for us to be grafted into God if He remains as the God dwelling in unapproachable light. thus, Christ became flesh to be the seed of David, the branch of David, the Shoot, so that we might be grafted together with Him; He became the same as we are so that He and we could be gfrated together. Isaiah 53 tells us that He was a man with sorrow and acquanted with grief. Hebrews 4 tells us that He is the High Priest who can be touched with our weaknesses, because He has been tempted in all respects like us, which causes Him able to sympathize with us in all our situations. 

Grafting requires cutting; two branches cannot be grafted together unless both are cut. so Christ was cut when he died on the cross, and we were cut when we repented and received the Lord. After Christ was cut on the cross, He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. by becoming such a Spirit, Christ was ready for grafting. once we repent and receive the Lord, He as the life-giving Spirit enters into our spirit, bringing the divine life into us, and we are grafted together with Christ. 

IV. As regenerated ones, we should live a grafted life - a life in which two parties are joined to grow organically 

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

after we have been grafted into Christ, we should no longer live by ourselves; rather we should allow the pneumatic Christ to live in us. 

V. the grafted life is not an exchanged life but the mingling of the human life with the divine life

it is easy for us to have the concept that this is an exchanged life, that the divine life of Christ replaced our human life. but it is not the divine concept of God. the divine word shows us that we are living a grafted life, the mingling of the human life with the divine life. the human life is still here, but enjoying the benefit of the divine life. the focus here is the dispensing and infusing of the Lord with all His unsearchable riches. in our life, Christ must be all and in all, be everything to us. but we are so full of so many other things. the Lord has to strip off all these things, like what He did to Job in the Old Testament. we have to go through this stripping process, to cause us to lean on the Lord only, not anytying we have or obtained in our life, to cause us to only rely and depend on the Lord, and only to be filled with Christ, not anything else. 

VI. In the grafted life the human life is not eliminated but is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life

by being grafted into a better life, our human life is uplifted and transformed. 

in the grafted life the divine life works within us to 

1. discharge the negative elements. the divine life works in a gradual way to eliminate whatever is natural. the negative elements in our disposition is killed, and then instead of casting away our disposition, the Lord uplifts it and uses it. 

2. resurrect God's orignal creation. we were created for God's purpose. but Satan got into us and runined us. however, instead of giving up His creation, God will reclaim it. God intends to bring all the aspects of our being into resurrection. 

3. supply the riches of Christ to our inward parts. through such a supply we are renewed in our mind, emotion, and will. 

4. saturate our whole being. we are being saturated, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ. 

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

in living such a grafted life, it is not a matter of our effort or striving, or self improving, but a matter of beholding the Lord. in this beholding, we are  enjoying the benefits of the grafted life. through this grafte life, the Lord has the ground to transform us. the more we live this grafted life, the more the Lord will have ground in us, and the more we will be able to discern inward things. 

MOW - 05,06,2024

The way to experience the cross in a practical way is to exercise our spirit to put off the self, to deny the self, and to turn our inner being to agree with the Spirit and to go along with the Spirit. If we do this, we will sense the presence and even the smile of Christ. By putting off the old man and putting on the new man, we will experience Christ as our life and everything, and Christ will possess, occupy, and saturate us. We will become people who are full of Christ and who are mingled with Christ as one. 

- "God's Intention Concerning Christ and the Church" P67