[Sons to Glory!]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

Sons to Glory!,
I guess my question would be "what do you mean by 'The Christian life'?" If you mean to subjectively experience the life of God and all its various aspects, such as love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, peace, etc in our inner man, then I would agree that the Christian life is impossible without the life of Christ within us. Yet the Christian life also has an objective, observable and assessable aspect as well. As a matter of fact, according to the teachings of the Lord Jesus, and those of the scripture writing apostles, the real test of whether or not we actually have the life of Christ within us is discernible by the words that come out of our mouth, and even more by our actions. When taken to extreme, the notion that Christian life is merely "the life of Christ within us" leads to the imbibing such absurd teachings as "we don't care for right or wrong, we only care for life!". To be sure, the history of the Local Church of Witness Lee has shown us the damage that ensues when people imbibe such teachings.

A man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.
Mark 10:17-22

To put some meat on the bones of what I'm trying to say here, I have just posted the story of the rich young man who asked the Lord Jesus "what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Firstly, I would note that the Lord did not answer "eat my flesh and drink my blood", or even "believe in Me". In fact he reiterated a number of the the 10 Commandments - the law. The young man was quick to proclaim "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" The Lord Jesus did not tell this man "good job, you have done all the outward things, now you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood and believe in Me". No, the Lord went deeper and farther with the outward things: "go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." It seems to me that this parable shows us that God cares very much for our outward actions. The Christian life is not solely defined, nor assessed by our subjective realization and experience of the life of God within. No, we are no longer under the law, but we are still bound and obligated to "fulfill" the law in our words, behavior and actions. To say that "we only care for life" is an affront and offence to God and his Word.

Jesus told us to be perfect too, and love those that spitefully use us - let's try that without His indwelling! Yes, as James tells us, faith without the outward manifestation (works) is dead. Jesus also told us that apart from Him we can do how much? Exactly nothing. So we begin and finish by the Spirit. Nothing else cuts it, period.

If a man could do all the things outwardly that Jesus spoke of in the so-called Beatitudes, he would still be dead and completely in vanity without Christ's life within animating him - it would amount to zero. One little word spoken or one small action taken through the life of Christ within is much more than 10,000 good things without Him.

And, sorry, I really don't care what was preached or twisted by WL or the LC. That was then and this is now. Erroneous things were conveyed and still are, but that's life swimming in the cesspool of the world we're in (and of which He has ultimate control).