I believe that for many Christians, a big question that has been troubling them is: Why have I been believing for so long, but I cannot live the beautiful life of Jesus Christ? They even feel as if their faith is going downhill, losing the purity and enthusiasm they had when they believed in the beginning, and as their faith grows, they don't seem to gain anything except learning more knowledge about their faith.
Recently, the Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper, interviewed Pastor L, a senior pastor somewhere in Eastern China, who shared his latest thoughts and observations about it.
Some time ago, Pastor L. found a problem that shocked him. "We are right to believe in the cross, but just believing in the cross is not enough."
He explained that although the cross forgives us of our sins and anyone who believes in Jesus Christ is clothed with the power of the cross, this is not enough, we need to have a life. Nor does this life come to us by ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit and the help of Christ. The Holy Spirit enters and dwells in the church and will enter into everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.
"So, the main content of the gospel is not only the cross but Jesus Christ Himself and what He has done," he added.
Pastor L said that he found that many pastors, elders, and believers have been saved and born again. They do have the experience of being saved, the transition from unbelief to belief, and himself is a typical example. But many people would question, "Why can't we live the righteous and good life that the Bible says?"
We can't practice God's righteousness and goodness, but the Bible commands us to live like Jesus Christ. Living like Jesus Christ is called sanctification. Many people say, "Can you be sanctified? You can't be sanctified." But whether it is from doctrine or from Bible, it teaches that sanctification is a process, not a result. But some people make it absolute, they say that sanctification is a state of completely holy, which of course is impossible, and it is impossible for us until we die.
"God's command tells us to love our enemies, but we do not even love our brothers and sisters enough, let alone our enemies; I do not even love my wife enough, let alone my brothers and sisters. We say in the church that I love you, brothers and sisters, and that I love you in the name of the Lord Jesus, but are all of these really true? We have heard God's words, and we know that God's will is in them, but I am striving to love my brothers and sisters in my own way, and this is what we are doing as Pharisees. Because when I use my flesh body and flesh heart, my human disposition to struggle to obey the word of God, I become a Pharisee."
The pastor continued that we cannot live like Jesus Christ, but because God commands that we should live this way, many people follow it and live it in a superficial way. "Therefore, in fact, many Christians only live like religious people, not like Christians. This is terrible."
Compared with other religions, the external religious rituals and religious appearances of our Protestant Christianity are far inferior to them. But the difference between us and them is that we have life, and they have no life. But the problem is that we have life, but we cannot live like that. Not grasping the gospel's essence is the reason. "The saved people should have a new lifestyle of being saved, unfortunately, we cannot live like that."
The Holy Spirit enters us, not only to give us life but to give abundant life. We cannot provide an answer to where our abundant life is, so people describe external things as signs of abundant life. For example, a person who has made money after believing in the Lord, or who has been healed of a disease or something else, or who used to be indifferent to the church, but is now very enthusiastic about it. In order to measure whether his faith is good or bad or whether it is growing, we can only look at superficial phenomena."
"It is not wrong that this external thing is a manifestation of faith, but the question is whether this external manifestation of a person is revealed from life? This is not necessarily the case. We cannot say that a person's faith is good because he has made a lot of money after his conversion. Otherwise, it would end up that a person's piety of faith is determined by how much money he makes - the more money he makes, the more pious his faith is. We can't say that," he urged.
"We have life, but we often put it aside and continue to rely on ourselves. Life is Jesus Christ Himself, and we put Jesus Christ aside, still striving to build our faith deeper with our own efforts, trying to enter into the fullness of life by ourselves, and just separate from the essence again. We want to justify our faith through this external life of a religious person. Man cannot go ahead of God, but must let God go first, and then we follow."
Pastor L said that we always want to do many great things as if that's how our faith grows well. "God doesn't care how big or small what we do is. The Lord said, 'I only value you, and I only care about you, let me live in you and give you an abundant life.' This is the gospel. The resurrected Lord lives in me, lives in you, and lives in every Christian. This is the essence of the gospel."
"Let us live like Jesus, not live only according to my preaching, my learning, my knowledge. 'Knowing only Jesus Christ and Him crucified'. Only then can we truly live the beautiful life of Jesus Christ," he concluded.
- Translated by Richard Zhou
相信对很多基督徒来说，一个一直困扰自己的很大的问题就是：为什么我信仰了这么长时间了，可是却活不出耶稣基督那美好的生命呢？甚至会感觉，好像自己的信仰在走下坡路一样，失去了初信之时的单纯和火热，随着信仰时间的增长，除了学会了更多的信仰知识以外，好像并没有什么收获？
近日，基督时报采访了华东某地一名资深牧者L牧师，他分享了最近他在这个方面的思考和看见。
前段时间，L牧师发现了一个让他很震惊的问题——“我们相信十字架当然是没错的，但是仅仅相信十字架还不够。”（==当summary）
他解释道，虽然十字架把我们的罪赦了，耶稣基督的十字架的功效就披戴在所有信的人身上，但是这还不够，我们还需要有生命。
并且，这个生命也不是凭着我们自己有的，而是借着圣灵和基督的帮助。圣灵进住到教会的里面，也要进入到每一个相信耶稣基督的人里面。
“所以福音的核心不仅是十字架，更是耶稣基督他本身和他所做的事情。”
L牧师说他发现很多牧师也好，长老也好，信徒也好，都已经重生得救了。他们确实有过得救的经历，从不信到信的转变，L牧师自己就是一个典型的实例。但是有一个问题，那就是为什么我们活不出圣经上所说的公义良善的生活？
我们行不出来，但是圣经却俨然命令我们叫我们活出耶稣基督的样式来。耶稣基督的样式就是所谓的成圣。很多人说 ”能成圣吗？成圣不了。“ 但是无论是教义也好，或者是圣经也好，教训的都是成圣是一个过程，而不是结果。但是有些人却把它绝对化了，他们把成圣说成是已经全然圣洁的那种地步，直到死我们都不可能。
“上帝的命令叫我们爱我们的仇敌，可是别说爱仇敌了，我们连爱我们弟兄姊妹的心都不够；别说爱弟兄姊妹的心，我连爱我妻子的心都不够。那我们在教会里面说弟兄姊妹我爱你，奉主耶稣的名爱你，这些岂不都是假的吗？我们听了上帝的话，在这件事情上我们有了上帝的旨意，所以我用自己的方法去拼命的爱弟兄姊妹了，这就是我们在做法律赛人。因为我们用肉身和肉心，我的人的这种性情和我的肉体去努力去遵循上帝话语的时候，我就成了一个法利赛人。”
我们活不出耶稣基督的那样的生活。但是因为上帝命令我们应当这样生活，很多人就跟着去做了，就那么表面的去生活了，所以其实很多基督徒活出来的基本都是宗教徒的生活，而不是基督徒的生活，非常可怕。
跟其他宗教相比，我们基督教新教的外在的宗教的仪式、宗教的外表都是远远不如它们的。可是我们跟它们不同的一点，就是我们有生命，它们没有生命。可是问题在于我们有了生命却不能活出生命，这就是没有掌握到福音本质的问题。得救归得救了，得救的人应该有一个崭新的得救的活法，可是我们却痛苦地发现我们根本活不出来。
圣灵进入到我们里面，不仅仅是赐给我们生命，而且得的更丰盛。我们无法回答丰盛的生命在哪里，于是，人们就把外表的东西描述成丰盛的生命的标志。比如说一个人他信了主以后赚钱了，又或者疾病得到医治或者其他什么事情，又比如他以前对教会漠不关心，但是现在对教会大发热心了……我们只能看到表面的现象来衡量他的信仰的好与坏或者信仰的成长与否。
外在的这个东西是信仰的表现，这是没有错的，可是问题是一个人外在的表现这是由生命流露出来的吗？这就未必了。我们不能说一个人信主以后，赚了很多的钱，我们就说他的信仰很好。否则最后就会变成根据一个人赚钱的多少来决定他的信仰虔诚度了——赚的钱越多，说明他的信仰越虔诚。我们不能这么说。
我们有了生命，可是我们却常常把生命放在一边，继续的依靠自己。生命是耶稣基督他自己，我们把耶稣基督放在一边，还是拼命用我自己的努力想要让我们的信仰变得更深，想要靠着自己进入到丰盛的生命里面，就这样又从本质脱离了。我们想通过宗教徒的这种外在的生活，来证明我的信仰的正确性。人不能够行到上帝的前面去，一定要让上帝先行，然后我们顺服。
L牧师说，我们总想要做很多很大的事情，仿佛如此才能我们的信仰很好。可是，无论我们所作的事情有多大或者所作的事情有多小，神关心的其实并不是这些事情。主说，“我只看重你，我只对你有关心，叫我能在你的里面活出来。”这就是福音。复活的主借着我活出来，借着你活出来，借着每一个基督徒活出来，这才是福音的最终本质。
让耶稣活出来，而不是我的教义、我的学识、我的知识活出来。“只知道耶稣基督，并他钉十字架”。唯有如此，我们才能真正活出耶稣基督的美好的生命。
https://christiantimes.cn/news/37623/%E5%8F%8D%E6%80%9D%7C%E6%88%91%E4%BB%AC%E4%B8%BA%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E6%B4%BB%E4%B8%8D%E5%87%BA%E6%9D%A5%E8%80%B6%E7%A8%A3%E5%9F%BA%E7%9D%A3%E7%9A%84%E7%BE%8E%E5%A5%BD%E7%9A%84%E7%94%9F%E5%91%BD%EF%BC%9F
反思|我们为什么活不出来耶稣基督的美好的生命？
I believe that for many Christians, a big question that has been troubling them is: Why have I been believing for so long, but I cannot live the beautiful life of Jesus Christ? They even feel as if their faith is going downhill, losing the purity and enthusiasm they had when they believed in the beginning, and as their faith grows, they don't seem to gain anything except learning more knowledge about their faith.
Recently, the Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper, interviewed Pastor L, a senior pastor somewhere in Eastern China, who shared his latest thoughts and observations about it.
Some time ago, Pastor L. found a problem that shocked him. "We are right to believe in the cross, but just believing in the cross is not enough."
He explained that although the cross forgives us of our sins and anyone who believes in Jesus Christ is clothed with the power of the cross, this is not enough, we need to have a life. Nor does this life come to us by ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit and the help of Christ. The Holy Spirit enters and dwells in the church and will enter into everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.
"So, the main content of the gospel is not only the cross but Jesus Christ Himself and what He has done," he added.
Pastor L said that he found that many pastors, elders, and believers have been saved and born again. They do have the experience of being saved, the transition from unbelief to belief, and himself is a typical example. But many people would question, "Why can't we live the righteous and good life that the Bible says?"
We can't practice God's righteousness and goodness, but the Bible commands us to live like Jesus Christ. Living like Jesus Christ is called sanctification. Many people say, "Can you be sanctified? You can't be sanctified." But whether it is from doctrine or from Bible, it teaches that sanctification is a process, not a result. But some people make it absolute, they say that sanctification is a state of completely holy, which of course is impossible, and it is impossible for us until we die.
"God's command tells us to love our enemies, but we do not even love our brothers and sisters enough, let alone our enemies; I do not even love my wife enough, let alone my brothers and sisters. We say in the church that I love you, brothers and sisters, and that I love you in the name of the Lord Jesus, but are all of these really true? We have heard God's words, and we know that God's will is in them, but I am striving to love my brothers and sisters in my own way, and this is what we are doing as Pharisees. Because when I use my flesh body and flesh heart, my human disposition to struggle to obey the word of God, I become a Pharisee."
The pastor continued that we cannot live like Jesus Christ, but because God commands that we should live this way, many people follow it and live it in a superficial way. "Therefore, in fact, many Christians only live like religious people, not like Christians. This is terrible."
Compared with other religions, the external religious rituals and religious appearances of our Protestant Christianity are far inferior to them. But the difference between us and them is that we have life, and they have no life. But the problem is that we have life, but we cannot live like that. Not grasping the gospel's essence is the reason. "The saved people should have a new lifestyle of being saved, unfortunately, we cannot live like that."
The Holy Spirit enters us, not only to give us life but to give abundant life. We cannot provide an answer to where our abundant life is, so people describe external things as signs of abundant life. For example, a person who has made money after believing in the Lord, or who has been healed of a disease or something else, or who used to be indifferent to the church, but is now very enthusiastic about it. In order to measure whether his faith is good or bad or whether it is growing, we can only look at superficial phenomena."
"It is not wrong that this external thing is a manifestation of faith, but the question is whether this external manifestation of a person is revealed from life? This is not necessarily the case. We cannot say that a person's faith is good because he has made a lot of money after his conversion. Otherwise, it would end up that a person's piety of faith is determined by how much money he makes - the more money he makes, the more pious his faith is. We can't say that," he urged.
"We have life, but we often put it aside and continue to rely on ourselves. Life is Jesus Christ Himself, and we put Jesus Christ aside, still striving to build our faith deeper with our own efforts, trying to enter into the fullness of life by ourselves, and just separate from the essence again. We want to justify our faith through this external life of a religious person. Man cannot go ahead of God, but must let God go first, and then we follow."
Pastor L said that we always want to do many great things as if that's how our faith grows well. "God doesn't care how big or small what we do is. The Lord said, 'I only value you, and I only care about you, let me live in you and give you an abundant life.' This is the gospel. The resurrected Lord lives in me, lives in you, and lives in every Christian. This is the essence of the gospel."
"Let us live like Jesus, not live only according to my preaching, my learning, my knowledge. 'Knowing only Jesus Christ and Him crucified'. Only then can we truly live the beautiful life of Jesus Christ," he concluded.
- Translated by Richard Zhou
Pastor Says Reason Why We Can't Live out the Life of Jesus Christ Lies in Stopping Pursuing the Lord Himself
