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 Love is a Man

Love is a man
(based on the teachings of Watchman Nee)

What is Love? The Bible states that God is Love. God is the only true source of Love that exists. Love will not lie nor repent. Indeed, Love is a person. A thing is not a person, and a matter is not a person, but Love is a person. Love is not a thing or an experience. It is not a matter; it is a person. We all know who this person is; He is Christ! Love is not something from us. It is not our experience; it is a person! Love is not a matter of what we are, but a matter of Christ living on our behalf. This is why the Love we have will not lie nor repent. Thank and praise the Lord that Love is a living person!

I have heard some say that Love is a choice but a person can make many "good and moral choices" without any Love whatsoever. True Christianity is more that making 'Good" choices, it is having Christ's very Life.

1 John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
This is also true "He that hath the Son hath Love; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Love."

THE MEANING OF THIS LIFE - AN EXCHANGED LIFE, NOT A CHANGED LIFE

Having God's Love has to do with an exchanged life, not a changed life. Having God's Love and expressing it does not mean that one is changed, but rather that one is exchanged. We are very familiar with Galatians 2:20, which says, "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 in the Son of God." What does this verse mean? It means that our life is exchanged. Our life is no longer in the realm of "I"; it has nothing to do with us anymore. It is not an evil "I" being changed into a good "I," or a filthy "I" being changed into a clean "I." It is to be "no longer I." The greatest mistake we make today is to think that Love involves progress or choices. Many think that the lack of Love means they must make greater efforts or sacrifices to somehow get this Love. This is why we think that everything will be well if we do not lose our temper or if we have an intimate fellowship with God. We think that if we have these things, we will have and show Love to others. But we have to remember that God's Love has nothing to do with us. We play no part in this Love.

Many Christians think they do not have this Love and they do not Love God with all their heart soul, and strength. Some even say. “I know that I do not Love God the way I should." The truth is that you cannot Love God correctly and there is nothing that you can do about it. "God has no intention for you to Love Him in yourself. It is not His intention that your lack of Love be changed to a grater Love. His way is to make an exchange of your life. It has nothing to do with you." Thank and praise the Lord that Love is Christ, Himself; it has nothing to do with us.

Have you ever tried to Love God and totally failed? Do you examine all you failures that you have made? Have you been defeated over and over again? Are you hopeless? Have you found it impossible to ever Love God correctly? Then Lord Jesus has another ideal patient for Himself today. Are you filled with your own sins, like pride, lust, and bad temper? If you know this is your case then here is Good News, having His Love is not a change but an exchange. If it were up to you, you could not make it. Don't you not know that it is totally impossible for you to Love correctly!!! If it is up to Christ, He can make it because He is Love. He is the only true source of Love that is required. The question is whether it is you or Christ who Loves. If Christ Loves, it would not matter even if you were ten times worse than you are now.

What is Love? Love is not you loving by yourself. It is Christ loving for you. The kind of Love in the Bible is seen in Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." Thank and praise Him that we are not changed but exchanged! Stop trying to change!!

What is the difference between a change and an exchange? If I had an old bible and want the Bible to change, we have to give it another cover and add glue to the spine. Perhaps we can put new gold foil on the cover. If letters are missing from the pages, we have to make them up. If places have become blurred, we have to trace in the original words. After so much work and so many days, we still cannot be sure whether we have changed it the right way. But if we exchange it for a new one, we can do it within a second. All you have to do is give the bad one to me, and I will give a good one to you. Then everything is done. God has given us His Son. There is no need for us to strive for anything. Once we make the exchange, everything is done!

A few years ago, I bought a clock. The company that sold the clock put a two-year warranty on the clock. But the days that the clock was in the shop were more than the days it was in my home. Every few days the clock would break down, and I had to send it back to the shop for repair. This happened repeatedly. I went to the shop once, twice, even ten or more times. Eventually, I was exhausted. The clock was repaired over and over again, but it was never quite fixed. I asked the company if I could exchange it for another clock. The company said that it could not offer an exchange; it could only repair the clock, but it was never fixed. I became so exhausted that eventually I said, "You can have the clock. I do not want it anymore." The human way is the way of constant repair. During the two years that I owned the clock, it was constantly under repair. With the human way, there is no exchange; there is only the way of repair.

Even in the Old Testament, we see that God's way was not to repair or to change, but to replace. Isaiah 61:3 says, "To grant to those who mourn in Zion, / To give to them a headdress instead of ashes, / The oil of gladness instead of mourning, / The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness; / That they may be called the trees of righteousness, / The planting of Jehovah, that He may be glorified." God's way is the way of replacement. God does not change the ashes. Rather, He replaces the ashes with a headdress. He does not change the mourning. Rather, He replaces the mourning with gladness. God's way is never to change, but to exchange.

Thank and praise the Lord. We have not been able to change ourselves for all these years. Now God is making an exchange. This is the meaning of holiness. This is the meaning of perfection. This is the meaning of Love. This is the life of the Son of God! Hallelujah! From now on Christ's meekness becomes my meekness. His holiness becomes my holiness. From now on His prayer life becomes my prayer life. His fellowship with God becomes my fellowship with God. From now on there is no sin too great for me to overcome. There is no temptation too great for me to withstand. Love is Christ; it is no longer I! Is there any sin too great for Christ to overcome? Is there any temptation too great for Christ to surmount? Thank and praise the Lord! I am not afraid anymore! From now on, it is no longer I but Christ.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THIS LIFE - A GIFT, NOT A REWARD

Please remember that Love is a gift; it is not a reward. What is a gift? A gift is a present; it is something freely given. What we receive as a result of work is a reward. But what we freely receive without doing any work is a gift. The latter is given to us freely; it has nothing to do with what we have done, and we do not have to exert any effort to get it. The former requires our work; we must strive for it before we can have it. The Love which we speak of does not require our own effort. Christ's Love comes to us free of charge; we do not have to earn it by our own effort.

Do not make the great mistake is to think that salvation comes to us freely, while Love comes to us as a result of our own effort. We know we cannot trust in any merit or any work of our own for salvation. We simply need to come to the cross and receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior. This is the gospel. While we think that salvation does not require our works, we also think that we should have good works after we are saved. Even though we do not try to be saved through works, we try to overcome through works. But just as one cannot be saved through good works, one cannot Love through good works. God says that we cannot have any good works at all. Christ has died for us on the cross, and He is living for us within us. What is of the flesh will always be of the flesh, and God wants nothing that is of the flesh. We think that salvation is through the Lord Jesus' death for us on the cross, but that after salvation, we should try our best to do good and hope for the best. But let me ask, "Though you have been saved for years, are you good yet?" Thank and praise the Lord. We cannot do good. We cannot produce any amount of good. Hallelujah! We cannot do any good. Thank and praise Him that Love is a gift from Him; it is something freely given to us!

Perhaps you are trying to work out a way to overcome temptation. Perhaps you are trying to work out a way to overcome your temper. Perhaps you are trying to work out a way to overcome your pride or jealousy. You may have spent a considerable time to do what you want to do, but you are disappointed every time. I have a gospel for you. The meekness of the Lord Jesus is yours for free. The holiness of the Lord Jesus is yours for free. The Love of God is yours for free. Everything of the Lord is yours for free. As soon as you receive the Lord Jesus, all that is the Lord's becomes yours. Hallelujah! If this is not the gospel, what is it then? You may think that you have to strive in order to pray unceasingly. You may think that you have to strive for uninterrupted fellowship with God. You may think that you have to strive in order to deal with all the negative things and stop sinning. You may think that you have to strive in order to control your temper. You can confess your sins, but you cannot stop from committing these sins. You lie often, and in spite of your great effort to kick this habit, you continue to lie.

You may have said that you do not want to lie, but you cannot change yourself. As soon as you speak something, lies come out of your mouth. I have a gospel for you today! God has given you the holiness and Love of the Lord Jesus for free, the endurance of the Lord Jesus for free, the perfection, the Love, and the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus for free. God gives freely to all those who want these things. God gives to you the intimate fellowship that Christ enjoys with God. He gives you the holy life that Christ lived, and He gives you the beauty of the perfection of Christ. These are gifts. If you tried to overcome by yourself, you could not change even if you tried for another twenty years; your temper would not change, and your pride would still be with you. Twenty years from now, you would still be the same. But God has prepared a full salvation for you. This salvation makes Christ's endurance your endurance. It makes Christ's holiness your holiness, and Christ's fellowship with God your fellowship with God. It makes all of Christ's virtues your virtues. Hallelujah! This is the salvation that God has prepared for you! God desires to freely give them to you!

Have you ever seen a sinner trying to save himself with his works? I have met many such people. When you meet a sinner, you can tell him that he does not need to do anything because Christ has done it all. God has given him the Lord Jesus. All he has to do is receive Him. In the same way, brothers and sisters, I have a message for you today: you do not need to do anything; Christ has done it all for you. God has given Christ to you. All you have to do is receive. Once you receive, you will Love. Just as salvation does not depend on your work, because it is free grace from God, Love does not depend on your work, because it is free grace from God. Salvation does not require any of your own effort. Similarly, Love does not require any of your own effort.

I have a Bible here. Suppose I want to give it to you. The words in this Bible were not written by you; the book was not bound by you. You did not put the gold foil on the cover. Everything was done by others, but it is now a free gift to you. This is what Love is to us. It is a free gift from God. We do not work ourselves gradually into Love. We do not work ourselves gradually into holiness or perfection. If there is ever true Love in a person on earth, he must have received this Love from the Lord Jesus, Himself.

Have you spent years trying to Love God correctly? You would have only experienced defeat and failure over these years. You can do nothing about yourself. If you expect to Love by yourself, you would not make it even if you had another 100 years. If you want to be delivered from your sin, all you have to do is accept God's gift now. This is God's free gift to you. You only need to receive and it will be yours. The Lord Jesus is Love. If you receive Him as your Love, you will Love. Thank and praise the Lord! Will you receive this gift of God Now? We should realize the vanity of our work and the failure in our life. If we accept Jesus Christ, we will Love.

Romans 6:14 is a familiar verse: "For sin will not lord it over you, for you are not under the law but under grace." How can sin not lord it over us? This can happen only when we are not under the law but under grace. What is the meaning of being under the law? Being under the law is for God to demand man to do something. Being under the law means for us to do something for God. What then is the meaning of being under grace? Being under grace means that God is doing something for man. Being under grace is for God to do something for us. If we have to do something for God, the result will be sin lording it over us. The wages of our work is the lording over of sin. If God is doing something for us, sin will not be able to lord it over us. Under the law, we work. Under grace, God works. When God works, sin will not lord it over us. When God works, there will be Love. Everything that comes as a result of our own effort is not Love. Love is something that comes free.

Grace means that God does something for me; law means that I do something for God. God has certain holy and righteous demands which He places upon me: that is law. Now if law means that God requires something of me for their fulfilment, then deliverance from law means that He no longer requires that from me, but Himself does it and provides it. Law implies that God requires me to do something for Him; deliverance from law implies that He exempts me from doing it, and that in grace He does it Himself. I (where 'I' is the 'carnal' man of Romans 7:14) need do nothing for God: that is deliverance from law. The trouble in Romans 7 is that man in the flesh tried to do something for God. As soon as you try to please God in that way, then you place yourself under law, and the experience of Romans 7 begins to be yours.

If there is anyone here who is tired of sinning, who is sick of sinning, who sins so much that he no longer acts like a Christian, and who feels that there is no longer any sense in becoming a Christian, I will tell him that all he has to do is receive this gift, and he will be a victorious and loving man instantly. The principle of overcoming is the principle of grace; it is not the principle of reward. Once you receive this gift, every problem will be solved.

God does not give us a thing called Love. Instead, He gives us His Son to be our Love. Christ is Love. It is not a question of going forth to war in the name of Jesus and claiming the Love in advance. May I say that Love does not depend upon whether you "claim" anything or not. Love is a Man! Overcoming is entering into Love Himself, being clothed with Love, sharing in the Life of One Who Loves. Thus, our Love is bound up in the Lord Himself. It is not a separate grace or gift which He grants to certain ones who learn some principles of spiritual warfare.

THE WAY TO RECEIVE THIS LOVE - OBTAINED, NOT ATTAINED

The Love of God is something that is obtained; it is not attained. This matter can only be obtained; it can never be attained. What does it mean to obtain something? To obtain is to acquire something. What does it mean to attain? To attain is to go through a long journey. One has to advance gradually, and there is no assurance of when he will arrive. Hallelujah, Christian Love is not attained by a gradual process. We can receive Him and His Love instantly without any waiting. Love is something obtained; it is not something attained. Everything related to the Holy Spirit is received, and everything related to love is received.

Romans 5:17 says, "For if by the offense of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." According to this verse, victory is a gift and we only have to receive. Victory is not something that is attained through a gradual process. Victory is a gift that is placed in our hand; no effort is required. If I give this Bible to someone, how much effort does he have to exert to get it? All he has to do is stretch out his hand and he will have it that very second. When I give the Bible to you, it is a gift. Do you have to go home and fast for it? Do you have to kneel down toward Jerusalem three times a day to pray for it? Do you have to make up your mind not to lose your temper? You do not have to do any of these things. Once you receive, everything is yours. What steps do you have to go through to receive this Bible? You do not have to go through any steps. As soon as you stretch out your hand, it is yours. Love is a gift. You cannot attain it; you can only obtain it.

First Corinthians 1:30 is a very familiar verse to us. I can recite it to you: "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Wisdom is the general subject, and we can set it aside for the time being. This verse says that God has made Christ three things to us: (1) righteousness, (2) sanctification, and (3) redemption. When did God make Christ our righteousness? God made Christ our righteousness when Christ died on the cross. We received the Lord Jesus as our righteousness at that time. Did we have to cry for three days before we received it? Did we receive it only after we apologized to God enough? Thank and praise the Lord! The Son of God has died for us. As soon as we believe, we receive. Unfortunately, in the matter of receiving the Lord Jesus as our sanctification, many of us are going around in circles; we are wasting our time and labor. Receiving the Lord as our righteousness was instantaneous. In the same way, receiving the Lord as our sanctification is also instantaneous. If we try to advance slowly, expecting that we will arrive one day at sanctification, we will never attain it. Those who try to establish their own righteousness will never be saved. In the same way, those who try to establish their own sanctification will never overcome.

What is the difference between obtaining and attaining? The only difference between the two things lies in the time. One is instantaneous, while the other is gradual. There is a story about a man who stole chickens. Originally, he stole seven chickens a week. Later, he resolved to behave better, intending to steal one chicken less each week, hoping that by the end of the sixth week he would cease his stealing altogether. He hoped that his stealing would gradually decrease until he stole no more. Stealing no more in this way is a slow attainment; it does not come instantaneously. Yet the Love that is from the Lord is obtained instantaneously.

If you would take the Lord as your Love, you would immediately have His Love. Thank and praise the Lord, accept His word, and you can have this Love This is obtaining. If this were a matter of attainment, you could never attain His Love. Thank and praise the Lord, Love is obtained, not attained. While you are reading this, you can obtain it as soon as you say that you want it.

 2010/1/17 14:44





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