THE ACCUSATION AND ARGUMENT AGAINST JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH – HUDSON TAYLOR’S SPIRITUAL SECRET (Part 7)
CHRIST LIVETH IN ME!
Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see;
But in God’s Word the light I found,
Now Christ liveth in me.
Christ liveth in me (2x)
Oh, what a salvation this,
That Christ liveth in me.
As rays of light from yonder sun
The flowers of earth set free,
So life and light and love came forth
From Christ living in me.
As lives the flower within the seed,
As in the cone the tree,
So, praise the God of truth and grace,
His Spirit dwelleth in me.
With longing all my heart is filled,
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell,
That Christ liveth in me.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)
TRIGGERS THAT RELEASE CHRIST’S POWER IN US
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us . . . . .” “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Eph. 2:20; Phil. 4:13).
QUESTION: Like a time capsule pill, what are some “triggers” that release Christ’s power in our lives? To produce patience, self-control?
Trigger # 1: God’s will
Trigger # 2: Ask in faith
Trigger # 3: Broken, crushed, feel a true sense of need
Trigger # 4: That only God would be glorified
I. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
1832 Born in England on May 21.
1849 Conversion to Christ, followed by call to service (pgs 16-17)
1850 Medical training for China
(1) Giving to poor family, God’s provision (pgs 33-38)
(2) Not asking for wages (38-42)
1853 Sailed for China, with the Chinese Evangelization Society
1858 Married Miss Maria J. Dyer
1860 First furlough
1866 Sailed to China with the first party (16) of CIM.
1867 Death of his oldest daughter, Gracie
1869 “God has made me a new man” experience, Age 37.
1870 Death of Maria
1900 Hands over leadership of mission – 750 workers
1900 Boxer Outbreak in China
1905 Died in Hunan, China
1932 Missionaries number 1285
1932 First publication of “Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret”
II. SPIRITUAL DEFEAT AND DESPAIR
I cannot tell you how I am buffeted sometimes by temptation. I never knew how bad a heart I have. Yet I do know that I love God and love His work, and desire to serve Him only and in all things. And I value above all else that precious Savior in whom alone I can be accepted. Often I am tempted to think that one so full of sin cannot be a child of God at all. But I try to throw it back, and rejoice all the more in the preciousness of Jesus and in the riches of the grace that has made us “accepted in the beloved.” …. But oh, how short I fall here again! May God help me to love Him more and serve Him better. Do pray for me. Pray that the Lord will keep me from sin, will sanctify me wholly, will use me more largely in His service (pg. 153).
“I have continually to mourn that I follow at such a distance and learn so slowly to imitate my precious Master.”
Letter to his sister, Mrs. Broomhall: I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for meditation – but all without avail. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not. I would begin the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye off Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, and constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, caused me to forget Him. Then one’s nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control. Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed “present with me,” but how to perform I found not. Then came the question, is there no rescue? Must it be thus to the end – constant conflict, and too often defeat? How could I preach with sincerity that, to those who receive Jesus, “to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (i.e, Godlike) when it was not in my own experience? Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin; and no wonder, for faith and even hope were getting low. I hated myself, I hated my sin, yet gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God. His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, “Abba, Father.” But to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless. …. There was nothing I so much desired as holiness, nothing I so much needed; but far from in any measure attaining it, the more I strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp, until hope itself almost died out, and I began to think that – perhaps to make heaven sweeter – God would not give it down here. I do not think I was striving to attain it in my own strength. I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord so, and asked Him to give me help and strength. Sometimes I almost believed that He would keep and uphold me; but on looking back in the evening – alas! There was but sin and failure to confess and mourn before God. ….. I realized that faith was the key …. But faith would not come. I tried to exercise it, but in vain. My guilt and helplessness seemed to increase …. Unbelief was I felt the damning sin of the world; yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do? (Pages 158-161)
III. GOD HAS MADE ME A NEW MAN!!
He visited his fellow missionary, Mr. Judd, in Yangchow, China and scarcely waiting for greetings, Mr. Taylor plunged into his story. In characteristic fashion – his hands behind his back – he walked up and down the room exclaiming, “Oh, Mr. Judd, God has made me a new man! God has made me a new man!” Wonderful was the experience that had come in answer to prayer, yet so simple as almost to baffle description. It was just as it was long ago, “Whereas I was blind, now I see!” …. “….when I saw — oh, how the joy flowed!”
To his sister: “I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul … there is nothing new or strange or wonderful — yet all is new!!!
IV. DISCOVERING HUDSON TAYLOR’S SECRET?
READING # 1
All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was – – how to get it out. He was rich truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I weak. I knew full well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question. As gradually light dawned, I saw that faith was the only requisite – was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and make it mine. But I had not this faith.
I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior, my guilt and helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared to be as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was the cause. Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world; yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?
How then to have faith increase? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all He is for us: His life, His death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith …. But a looking off to the faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and eternity.
READING # 2
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): “But how to get faith strengthened? Not but striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
As I read, I saw it all! “If we believe not, he abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw . . . that He had said, “I will never leave thee.” “Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me – never to leave me, never to fail me?” And, He never will.
READING # 3
I have been struck with a passage from a book … entitled Christ is All. It says, “The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete …” “He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It is defective faith which clogs the feet and causes many a fall.”
This last sentence, I think I now fully endorse. To let my loving Savior work in me His will, my sanctification, is what I would live for by His grace. Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power; … resting in the love of an almighty Savior, the joy of a complete salvation, “from all sin” – this is not new, and yet ‘tis new to me.
READING # 4
As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in wishing to get the sap, the fullness out of Him! I saw not only that Jesus will never leave me, but that I am a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. The vine is not the root merely, by all-root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit.
The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification brings. … And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith, how happy I have been! I wish I could tell you about it, instead of writing. I am no better than before. In a sense, I do not wish to be, nor am I striving to be. But I am dead and buried with Christ – ay, and risen too! And now Christ lives in me, and “the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” … Do not let us continue to say, in effect, “Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above).” In other words, do not let us consider Him as far off, when God has made us one with Him, members of His very body. Nor should we look upon this experience, these truths, as for the few. They are the birthright of every child of God, and no one can dispense with them without dishonoring our Lord. The only power for deliverance from sin or for true service is Christ.
READING # 5
Excerpts from Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray on the text, “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5).
The vine does not gather from the soil its fatness and its sweetness for itself – all it has is at the disposal of the branches. … All His fullness and all His riches are for thee, O believer; for the vine does not live for itself, keeps nothing for itself, but exists only for the branches. … How perfect my claim, to all His fullness! … Let me listen and believe, until my whole being cries out, “Jesus is indeed to me the True Vine, bearing me, nourishing me, supplying me, using me, and filling me to the full to make me bring forth fruit abundantly.” …if Christ says, “Think, soul, how completely I belong to thee. I have joined myself inseparably to thee; all the fullness and fatness of the Vine are thine in very deed. Now thou once are in me, be assured that all I have is wholly thine.” … Or shall I not, instead of only thinking how hard and how difficult it is to live like a branch of the True Vine, because I thought it as something I had to accomplish – shall I not believe that, I once am in Him, He Himself will keep me and enable me to abide? On my part, abiding is nothing but the acceptance of my position, the consent to be kept there, the surrender of faith to the strong Vine still to hold the feeble branch.
READING # 6
Oh my dear Sister, it is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Savior, to be a member of Christ! Think what it involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and your left poor? Or your head be well fed while your body starves?
It was the exchanged life that had come to him – – the life that is indeed “No longer I.” Six months earlier he had written, “I have continually to mourn that I follow at such a distance and learn so slowly to imitate my precious Master.” There was no thought of imitation now! It was in blessed reality “Christ liveth in me.” Instead of failure, quiet victories within; instead of fear and weakness, a restful sense of sufficiency in Another. Hudson wrote, “I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a boundless sea; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me, now, the power, the only power for service, the only ground for unchanging joy …”
QUESTION: How would you summarize Hudson Taylor’s spiritual secret?
Accepting the reality of my oneness and union with Christ and resting in that reality. Resting in Him, living in the reality of this divine union daily as His life (strength, patience, kindness, grace, mercy, goodness) flows into me and through me.
CHRIST LIVETH IN ME!
Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see;
But in God’s Word the light I found,
Now Christ liveth in me.
Christ liveth in me (2x)
Oh, what a salvation this,
That Christ liveth in me.
As rays of light from yonder sun
The flowers of earth set free,
So life and light and love came forth
From Christ living in me.
As lives the flower within the seed,
As in the cone the tree,
So, praise the God of truth and grace,
His Spirit dwelleth in me.
With longing all my heart is filled,
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell,
That Christ liveth in me.