The Law of Life

So how do we touch Jesus directly? "He who comes to Me." Can it really be this easy? A better question is, why should it be difficult? I can come to Him whether I am driving down the street, walking down the sidewalk, or sitting in my chair. I can come to Him whether it is Sunday morning or Tuesday night or Friday afternoon. I can come to Him in a large group, or with two or three, or all by myself. I can come to Him in the desert, in the garden, in the church building, or in the prison camp. I am prevented from doing many things due to circumstance, location, state of mind, or resources. But one thing I cannot be prevented from doing is coming to the Lord.

Must I stand, or bow down, or lay on my face? Am I supposed to whisper, shout, or say nothing at all? Should I sing, or pray, or recite the Scriptures, or be still? What difference does it make? None at all, so long as I come to the Lord. He does not tell us what to do, what to say, or what to expect. He just says, "Come to Me, and you will not be hungry or thirsty." Religion would like to teach us a method and a formula for everything, but Christ is no religion. There are no ceremonies, rituals, rites of initiation or barriers to entry as in the Old Testament. Nor do we have to spend hours and days praying, fasting, or meditating. This is a New Way, and this Way is open. All we have to do is present ourselves to Christ.

Many of us are still prone to asking a lot of questions about how to have this kind of relationship with Christ. But if we will trust in the Life, then the Life will lead us. By comparison, I am not concerned with the Law of Gravity. I do not worry about floating away into space, and I do not have to keep reminding myself to walk according to the Law of Gravity. I just go along as usual and never give it a thought, confident that gravity will keep me where I am supposed to be. Even if I do not know there is such a thing as gravity I am nevertheless held firmly to the earth. If we would have that same faith in the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus then all our questions would be answered. This Law of Life will operate whether we understand it or know about it (of course, we do want to know how it operates so we can cooperate with it, but it works in spite of our ignorance).

The branch who abides in the Vine does not have to know how it abides. So long as it abides, it shares in the Life of the Vine. It does not have to ask how it works, and it does not have to be concerned with producing the fruit. It does nothing but abide, and the Life of the Vine keeps it. The Vine and the Branches is a reality; it is not a parable. Jesus did not say, "The Kingdom of God is like the Vine and the Branches." That would have been a parable. Instead, Jesus says, "I am the Vine, and you are the Branches." This is no simile or metaphor, it is reality. What does it mean? That we are one, and we share in a common Life. Everything happens according to the Law of Life in Christ. But since it is easy to become philosophical and ethereal concerning this, let us quickly bring it down to a practical application and discover how we may cooperate with it......

The Law of Gravity brings objects to the ground. It does not matter to Gravity how large or small the object is. It works the same with acorns as it does with airplanes. Likewise, I know today that it does not matter if I am called upon to wash dishes, mow the lawn, write an article, preach a message, cast out a demon, love my neighbor, forgive my enemy, or lay down my life. It makes no difference to the Life. It is not I, but Christ, who does these things. The principle is the same, and the Life cannot fail. If I give up my life, if I give up my self-effort, then He begins to do what I cannot do. This is Christianity.
The Law of Life means that I do not try to be or do anything in my own strength. Instead, the Life leads me, the Life instructs me, and the Life gives me the words and the actions. I am not a Christian because I believe in the Bible, follow the teachings of Jesus, and live a good life. I am a Christian because Christ is my Life. Since Christ is my Life, I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me. I do nothing to achieve this, it just is. Because He lives, I live. In Him I live; in Him I move; in Him I have my being (Acts 17:28a).

Again, let us make this practical. Does a fish become a fish by swimming under the water, or does it swim under the water because it is a fish? Does it say to itself, "I am a fish, therefore, I must learn to act like a fish. I must remember to breathe through my gills and move my body back and forth." Absolutely not. Or what about a bird? Does a bird become a bird once it learns to fly through the air? Or does it fly through the air because it is a bird? Which is it? Of course, the bird is a bird, and therefore it flies. It does not have to be instructed per se, but when it is pushed out of the nest it flaps its wings. It is its nature to do so. So doing does not create being, doing flows out of being.

Now the Law of Life in Christ does not try to make us into something we are not. The very presence of the Life in us demonstrates that Christ already indwells us. We are not trying to be like Christ, and we are not trying to live like a Christian. Since we ARE in Him, we WALK in Him. Our works come from what we are, not what we are trying to be. We do not receive His Life so that we can work very hard to be like Jesus. That is like the fish having to remind itself that since it is a fish therefore it must swim. Or, like a bird having to keep telling itself through positive confession that it must remember to fly. Yet Christians keep reminding themselves, "Now that I am a Christian, I must remember to read the Bible, pray, and live a holy life. I must not forget to love my neighbor and smile no matter what happens." Can you see the problem here? With this mentality we cannot cooperate with the Life, because we would be depending on our life instead of His.

This is why we cannot look for a method, formula, or technique to try and teach people spirituality. It is like taking a bird and putting it in a school to teach it to fly. Just let the bird go and it will fly all by itself! Why do we not take a fish and give it a technique for swimming? You know very well that when you drop the fish into the water it will just swim away of its own accord. But we try to teach Christians three keys to spiritual growth, or four principles of Christian living, or seven ways to overcome, or a ten-step process to this thing or that thing. What we should be doing is letting these people loose and allowing them to discover how wonderful this Life in them is, how the Christ Who indwells them will teach them everything. THE LAW OF LIFE MEANS "ABIDE IN ME, AND YOU WILL PRODUCE MUCH FRUIT"
"I am the Vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit: for apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5)."

It is amazing the number of Christians who believe it is up to them to produce fruit. This teaching is, to them, like trying to force a square peg through a round hole. They become obsessed with making something happen, thinking it is all up to their effort, their willpower, their determination, to grow up into Christ. To suggest that they cease from their labor is to make light of all their hard work up until now, and this offends them! They begin in the Spirit, but look to the flesh (self-effort) to complete the work. That is not the Christ-Life! The fruit will come of its own accord, provided we abide in Him.

But look at the last part of the verse: "Apart from Me you can do nothing." It is similar to John 5:15, which says, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for whatever the Father does, the Son does." And John 14:10: "I speak nothing of Myself. It is the Father that dwells in Me, and He does the works." As the Son can do nothing apart from the Father Who dwells within Him, so we can do nothing apart from the Son who dwells within us. The question is not whether or not we will work out our salvation, but under whose power will we work it out? Is it our willpower, or is it Christ? Is it our effort, or is it the Law of Life?
Are we making a case for idle passivity? By no means. We are not suggesting that Christians cease all effort, only that Christians cease all SELF-effort. The Law of Life is more powerful and active than anything generated or maintained by self-effort. With self-effort I am always at the mercy of how I feel. If I feel spiritual then I can pray for hours at a time. But if I do not feel spiritual then I cannot even pray five minutes. This is why so many believers live their lives like a roller-coaster. They do not live according to principle, according to the Law of Life. Thinking it is up to them to become Christlike, they turn an easy yoke and a light burden into a difficult yoke and a heavy burden - difficult and heavy for themselves, and for those who must live and work around them.

The one who rests in Christ will produce more fruit than the one who strives with self-effort. This is demonstrated in Scripture and in the real-life experience of countless saints. Paul proclaimed, "I labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." There is no question that Paul worked, labored, and toiled. But the difference with Paul is he knew that he was laboring according to Christ working in him. Was Paul lazy? By contrast, he was more fruitful than ever. The end result is his statement, "I labored more abundantly than them all," quickly qualified with, "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (I Corinthians 15:10)." The "I can do all things" must always be followed with "through Christ who strengthens me." If we trust in the Life we will be anything but passive. THE LAW OF LIFE MEANS CHRIST WILL TEACH US EVERYTHING WE NEED TO KNOW
"The anointing which you received from Him remains in you. And no need are you constantly having that anyone be constantly teaching you. But even as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as He taught you, be constantly abiding in Him (I John 2:27, Wuest Expanded Translation)."

Now the Scripture says that we do not need any man to teach us, for the Anointing (Christ) Who indwells us will teach us all things. More than anything else I consider myself a teacher, so I pondered this for a long time. What use is there for me to teach anything? For that matter, why do we need teachers at all? Would it not be better for each of us to be taught of God directly, without the interference of a human teacher? Then I received insight into this Scripture. It cannot be telling us that we do not need teachers, for it was God who gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to His Church, to encourage, edify, and establish all of us deeper into Christ. Can the Holy Spirit in John contradict the Holy Spirit in Paul? By no means. What then? John was the sole survivor of the first twelve apostles, and now he is very old. Naturally he is concerned with the welfare of the Church after his death. So God comforts John, and then John comforts us, with this truth: even if we do not have access to the apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or pastor and teacher, we are still instructed inwardly. The Church that Jesus is building is not dependant upon the great men or women of God. We are grateful to the ministry gifts when we have them, but we are not dependent upon them for our Life. The Life is greater than the ministers through which it may be ministered.

Some feel they just cannot get along without consulting someone who is perceived to be a spiritual authority so they can ask them what they should do. Such dependence upon man can become a snare - both for the ones seeking advice and for the ones giving advice. At times we should seek out the advice of others, but the point is that the Life will instruct us individually, and when the Life within us responds, then we "need no man to teach us". The Life will also "amen" what others tell us, or it will voice its disagreement with what we are told. We can trust the Life completely, whereas we dare not put confidence in man, no matter how good and spiritual the counsel may be.

The problem with us is that we do not have the patience to listen for this inward instruction. We too quickly put our confidence in flesh and blood. It is easier and speedier to have someone tell us, "Yes, you should do this" or "No, you should not do that." The question is not should or should not; the question is, how is the Life instructing you? If we do not know what the Life is telling us, then we should be still and be quiet until we DO know. But all too often we know well enough what we are to do, and we are looking for a way out of it; or we are trying to get confirmation from this thing or that thing before we will obey. This is why we have a hard time hearing to begin with. How many times does God have to repeat Himself? How many times does He have to confirm something before we will obey? It sounds spiritual and humble to question and wait, but if the Life has already instructed us then any delay on our part is really disobedience.