Christ | Hi, I'm Jonathan 'J5' Harris.

Christ as life can meet your need

We want to see again from the gospel of John how Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case. No matter what your case is, Christ as life can meet your need. There are 9 cases in John chapters 3-11 which unveil this in a full way. In John chapters 3-7, what we’ve seen is that Christ want to be man’s life and life supply. In John 3, Christ as life regenerates man. In John 4, Christ as life satisfies man and heals man from all the sickness of sin. In John 5, Christ as life enlivens man. In John 6, Christ as life feeds man with Himself as man’s spiritual food to be man’s spiritual sustenance. And in John 7, Christ as life quenches the thirst of man to be man’s satisfaction.

Now we come to another section…John chapters 8-11. What we see in this particular section is that Christ as life delivers us from three negative things. When Christ as life comes into us, He delivers us from sin, blindness and death. In this particular chapter (John 8) what we want to see is that Christ as life sets us free from the bondage of sin.

Let us see how the Lord as life to us has dealt with our first negative thing…that is sin. To see this, the first point we have to take care of is religion as represented by the temple of law. Of law keeping. Of good work doing. Such a religion is versus the Great I AM. This chapter mainly takes away the veil to show us right there on this earth among the human kind are two things. One is a religion. The other is a living Person.

The religion was one that was so good…so high…so super. Not a kind of hidden religion. Not a kind of religion of superstition. No, but a typical genuine super religion on the top helping people to worship God…helping people to know God in the outward way of letters and helping people to try the best to keep the law of God to please God and also helping people to behave themselves to make themselves perfect.

This is the top invention in human culture. But God’s elect…God’s chosen people…they got the wrong concept. They didn’t pay the full attention to the focus. That is God Himself in the person of the Son. And also as the person of the Spirit. To get into man as man’s life and as man’s everything. They missed this mark. They try their best to collect all the regulations and laws…good points…and put them together to make a religion. So by that time in chapter 8, two things were on the earth. Religion existing there…a living person standing there.

This is the portrait. The religion of law…not of superstition…not of nonsense talk…like buddhism. But such a wonderful, typical, genuine, top religion of the law. In every aspect it is good. But only in one aspect is very very poor. That is it is versus the Great I AM. Religion is good but it cannot give you life. Religion is on the top, but it cannot help you a bit because you are a dead person.

A dead person needs not something good…but something as life. Only life can help a dead person. Now the Lord Jesus is here. Who is He? He is the I AM. He is the very Jehovah. God…Elohim…is the title for His creation in chapter 1 of Genesis. After the creation…right in chapter 2…when God was trying to get into relationship with man, God’s other name…Jehovah…was brought in. Jehovah was the name of God in relation with mankind. And this very Jehovah that day was there…standing there in the form of a little man.

The religionist in that day, they missed the mark just because they despised this little Jesus. So they missed the mark yet He was the great I AM. This great I AM who is God Himself in relation with man became the Son of Man. This is quite meaningful. Yes, to become the Son of Man is to humble Himself…to bring Him down to a lower standard. But this is more than needed. Because all the negative problems are now just in man. Sin is in man. The serpent is in man.

Now man is the vey focus of all the problems. So if He is going to solve all the basic problems of man…surely He has to become a man. Satan was not afraid that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God. Satan was not afraid of that. Satan was afraid of the Lord Jesus being a man…being the Son of Man.

Man is the focus of every problem in the universe. When man fell, Satan as sin entered into man to corrupt man…to pollute man. So in Romans 7 what we see is that sin dwells in man in a personified way. Sin lords it over man. Sin forces man to do things that he doesn’t want to do. Because the element of Satan as sin is in man, what the devil fears the most is God becoming a man.

God became a man to destroy the devil. In 1 John 4, what we see is that the evil spirits they will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, because they know that when God becomes a man, they are defeated. God became a man and He went to the cross and He took away the sin of the world which was in man and He destroyed the devil on the cross…who had come into man as the element of sin to spoil and corrupt man.

On the positive side, what we need to see is why God became a man. Why did He become a man? It was so that He could accomplish His eternal intention and His heart’s desire. The Bible unveils to us that God’s hearts desire is that He wants to be united with man, mingled with man and incorporated with man so that He can live in man and that man can live in Him…so that man can be His eternal expression in this universe.

full of grace and reality

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

The gospel of John chapter 1 is worthy of a lifetime of study and consideration. It is perhaps one of the most marvelous portions in all of Scripture. Marvelous because it unveils Christ to us in so many aspects. Verse 1 shows Him as the Word…the very Son of God in eternity past. And at the end of the chapter (verse 51) we see Him revealed not just as the Son of God…but as the Son of Man for God’s building…for God’s habitation in eternity future.

And in between these two book ends, we see Him in glory as the only-begotten Son full of grace and reality…even as the very fullness of God declaring Him and making Him known in a wonderful and experiential way.

John 1 first of all tells us that Christ as the Word (which was God Himself) came as life to us and as light shining within us for the purpose to bring forth many children of God that God may have the enlargement…that God may have a corporate expression. This is revealed in the first thirteen verses of chapter one. Now we have the second section of chapter one that is composed with verses 14 to 18.

In this section it unfolds to us that the very Christ…now He was incarnated in the flesh for us to enjoy Him. How Christ could be enjoyed by us? By being incarnated. Christ was the Word yet even He Himself as the word was mysterious. But He became flesh. He became incarnated. Now in the flesh, He became so real to us. He was intangible. He was invisible. He was not touchable. He was not seen. But by becoming flesh, He became so solid. So real…seen, visible, touchable, tangible. But just being tangible still is not good for us to enjoy Him.

But here is says when He became flesh He was full of (not doctrines, not gifts) grace and reality. Every disciple saw Him and everyone touched Him….not only touched Him…enjoyed Him. If you check with Peter…if you check with Mary…why they love Jesus that much…why they liked to be in His presence. They would say, “we cannot tell you why, but we can tell you as long as we stay with Him, there is a kind of enjoyment. No word can utter it, but we all can testify just to sit in His presence for half an hour…my oh the sweetness…oh the enjoyment…oh the reality. We don’t know how to explain. We don’t know how to define. But we do know we have enjoyed something.” What was that? That was full of grace and reality.

a daily practical salvation

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Does God only want to save us from perdition? Or does He also want to save us moment by moment and day by day? Salvation from eternal perdition is wonderful, but after we’re saved eternally, we need a daily practical salvation.

We’re going to have some practical fellowship today to help us in our christian walk every day. We’re going to focus on the pattern Christ setup for us and it’s described in Philippians by the apostle Paul (Phil 2:5-11).

This book of Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ. And in this book there is such a portion that shows us the very Christ as our pattern. If we are going to live Christ. If we are going to experience Christ, surely we must firstly see a pattern. A pattern is setup in this book right in front of us, and we all have to be impressed with this pattern.

Well, have you realized that in all the 66 books (of the Bible) there is not such a page that gives us such a wonderful picture of Christ. In a short way. Who is He? He is God. He is nothing less than God. God is He and He is God. He’s just God. But, listen…He emptied Himself. What does this mean? This simply means He didn’t consider His equality with God as something that He has to grasp.

He didn’t grasp His equality with God. Rather, He put that aside. But this doesn’t mean He became no more God. It doesn’t mean that. It means He put His equality with God aside. In other words, He put His outward expression of God…the form of God…He put that aside. You see. He put the form of God aside to become a man.

When He put away the excellent form of God, at that time He didn’t have the human nature. It was after that He got incarnated and He put on the human nature and He brought the human nature to the cross. To shed His blood for our redemption. And He accomplished that and He was buried and He was raised up and He was uplifted to the third heavens. To be brought back to the form of God in glory.

Now this is our savior, and this is the pattern of our christian life. What kind of pattern? This pattern of our christian life is a god-man savior. Self-empty, self-humbled and God exalted and God glorified. This is our Savior. And this is the pattern of our Christian life.

At the beginning of verse 13 (Phil 2) you have the word “for”. “For it is God…” And this little word “for” connects the two verses together. And it gives the reason why and how we can work out our salvation. Why? Because God is operating in you. Salvation is just the pattern; now God is the operator of the salvation. And I have to say this…salvation is the pattern and God is the operating salvation.

This salvation is just God Himself operating in you. The operating God in you is your real salvation. Nearly this is the only place in the New Testament that tells us God is working within us. But in all the other portions, always it says either Christ or the Spirit. It is only here that says it is God who operates in you.

For years, I was not clear why Paul used this type of God…not the Spirit. Now I understand. Paul rendered this way with a purpose to show us that the very Christ who is the pattern of our salvation is the very God who is operating in us. When Christ setup something there as our pattern…He is our pattern. When He comes into us…operating within…He is the operating God.

Here He is God. On the cross He is Christ. On the cross He was Christ. Within us He is God. He was Christ on the cross setting up an example…a pattern…for us. And He is God within us to carry out that pattern. How does God operate in you…how doe God work in you? God works in you by His word. God operates in you by being the Word of life. What is the Word of life? That is the operating God. And where is God? God is embodied in the Word of life. The Word of life is just the embodiment of the operating God. You can never separate God from His word. God is embodied in His word.

And the Bible is just the embodiment of God. Where is God? It’s hard for us to apprehend. God is too mysterious. But thank God He has embodied Himself in the Bible. The Bible is the embodiment the condensation of the invisible mysterious God. I can testify from my experience that whenever I open myself and come to this Word…to the Bible…I touch God. When I come to the Bible, God works within me. What is this? This is the practical salvation.

living by the principle of faith

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

In the Old Testament you had to keep the law then you can have a good fellowship with God. But today, you need to have the Faith, then you can get into the fellowship with God. Today, God’s dealing with His people is based upon the principle of faith.

If you look into God’s dealing with Abraham, you could see God’s dealing with him was based upon God’s promise. God didn’t give Abraham any commandments. God only gave Abraham the promise. So God’s dealing with Abraham was according to God’s promise. So the promise given by God to Abraham became the principle upon which God dealt with Abraham.

Then later on Moses came and God gave the law through Moses to the children of Israel. Then that law given at Mount Sinai became the principle according to which God dealt with the children of Israel. In the New Testament, you could see that today God deals with the believers in Christ not according to the law…but according to the Faith.

So Abraham’s entire relationship with God was based on God’s promise.

If the children of Israel kept the law, then they were able to have a good relationship with God. If they broke the law, however, then they were in trouble in terms of their relationship with God. We see in the Old Testament many times the children of Israel had a big problem with God because they did not keep the law, and God had to come in and deal with them and judge them based upon the principle of the law.

Well this principle didn’t work well in the Old Testament so in the New Testament God brought in a new principle and that is the principle of Faith. So today, our relationship with God is not based upon our keeping of the law of the Old Testament, but it’s based upon our faith in Christ. Actually, this Faith is not just a kind of a mental agreement with the gospel or the teachings of the Bible. This Faith is a living Faith in a living person that joins us to that Person and that causes that Person to enter into us and to become one with us.

So now we have a relationship with God in the principle of Faith which makes us one with Christ and makes Christ one with us. God wants us to live our Christian life based upon this principle. Not on the principle of trying to keep the law by the strength and the effort of our natural life. God wants us to be joined to Christ by Faith and to live by the principle of Faith.

The standard of the kingdom of the heavens is to have no anger toward our brother and no lust. Who can keep such a standard? Actually, only one person in the entire universe is able to keep this standard and that is Christ Himself. And this is precisely the key thing here. What this shows us is that if we’re going to live in the kingdom and meet the requirements of the kingdom, we cannot rely on our own natural life. Because our life is not capable of living to such a high standard. This means that we must join ourselves to Christ every day and every moment of every day by Faith.

Christ today…He’s the life-giving Spirit, and He dwells in our spirit. If we are one with Him, then spontaneously we will live a life that keeps not only the requirement of the Old Testament law, but that also satisfies the requirement of the higher law of the kingdom of the heavens. This is a life that is just the living of Christ in us.

After we have been saved according to the principle of faith, we need to live a higher life. …You are qualified to be judged at the judgement seat of Christ. And that judgement at the judgement seat of Christ is described here three times by three (3) kinds of judgement.. All 3 levels of judgement refer to that one judgement, the judgment at the judgement seat of Christ. We Christians…we the saved ones according to the principle of faith will be judged…not at the white throne recorded in Revelation chapter 20…but will be judged at the judgement seat of Christ, and this will be 1000 years earlier than the white throne.

Yes to be saved it is absolutely by Faith through Grace…that is right. But after you have been saved, be careful. You need to live a life that is higher than what the old law requires. It not only touches the outward doing…but it touches the inward moving. Such a high standard. What should we do then? The Lord’s word warns us, if you would not be serious, you’ll be put into the fire. Don’t think this is to be lost. We have to be fearful and trembling.

I must keep myself to the resurrected Christ. I must be one with Him. I must trust in Him. I must rely upon Him. I must stay in Him. I must remain with Him because the standard of morality of the kingdom of the heavens is too high for me. And this is too serious. We have to flee your temper…flee your lust. This not a small thing to lose your temper. This serious word may force us to keep ourselves to Christ.

There’s something in us that makes us passive and weak to the things of God

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Today in Romans chapter 8, we’re going to talk about being free from sin and death.

Romans 8 is a chapter of experience, and the death here is NOT the physical death to which we are subject in the old creation. So when we talk about being freed from death, we’re not talking about some kind of miraculous cure for our mortality. Or some premature deliverance from the power of death in a physical way.

Death in Romans 8 is a terrifying and powerful spiritual source and force that has its source in Satan, the origin of death. In Hebrews 2, Paul talks about the Devil…the one who has the might of death. The death in Romans 7 and 8 is that issue of sin in the flesh which weighs upon us and weakens us and darkens us and eventually deadens us…especially as we endeavor to pursue the Lord.

Sin with its law incites us in the flesh to do things contrary to God. But death works to weaken us when we are interested or burdened in carrying out something in the Lord and for the Lord.

There’s something in us that makes us passive and weak to the things of God. We need to call it by its right name; it’s death, and God and His organic salvation has a way of deliverance from it…a way to overcome it…in Christ as our resurrection life. So we need to pay attention to this. It has a lot to do with our daily experience of Christ in Spirit.