The Christian life is a life of faith, a life of believing; faith is the infusing of the preciousness of Christ into us to cause us to believe into Him and be organically joined to Him and be one spirit with Him. Hallelujah!
God’s economy and everything related to God are initiated and developed in the sphere of faith, and it is only by faith that we can be pleasing to God.
If we come forward to God and want to know God, we need to believe; this believing ability, however, is not of us but of the infusing of the precious Christ into us.
Before we became a believer, we may have wondered how come these people believe into Jesus whom they have not seen or heard or touched.
But once we hear the gospel and see this precious One, once we see the Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospels and are infused with what He is, there’s something rising up in us causing us to believe.
When we see a vision of the contents of God’s economy, when we see a picture of who Christ is and what He has done for us, we cannot but believe, for faith rises up in us.
Faith is our reaction to the Lord’s heavenly attraction; He is like an immense magnet drawing all people to Himself.
The reason people do not believe is that they did not hear the gospel and they didn’t have the Lord’s appearing.
Even such a great persecutor as Saul, who sought to put in jail all the Jewish people who believed into Jesus and called on His name, when he met Jesus, could not but believe.
Jesus is not a condemning God; He is love itself, and when we meet Him, though we may expect that He would condemn us and judge us, He simply loves us and gives us peace, joy, rest, and satisfaction.
On our side, when we see the Lord, we realize how sinful we are and we simply repent and confess; we simply open to Him and ask for His cleansing and forgiveness.
This is not a once-for-all experience; this is our experience day by day.
As we have the Lord’s appearing day by day, we are being infused with Him more and more, and faith grows in us.
We need our faith to develop and grow; as our faith increases and develops, we can see, realize, and enter into more of the realm of God’s economy for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
Day by day we need to place ourselves under the hearing of the faith, being in the Word of God with much prayer and prayerful musing so that we may be strengthened in our organic union with the Lord.
If you feel that you lack faith, simply come to the Lord in His word and pray; pray over His word and come to the meetings of the church where we are under a rich infusion of Christ.
As we open to the Lord in this way, again and again, faith is being developed in us, and we can cooperate with Him for the fulfilment of His economy.
Our Christian Life is a Life of Faith, for we walk by Faith and Not by Sight
As believers in Christ, we do not walk according to what we see but according to what we believe. Our Christian life is a life of faith, a life of believing (Gal. 3:2, 14).
2 Cor. 5:7 further says that we believers do not walk by sight, by appearance, by what we see, but by faith.
We do not base our daily living and walk on what we see outwardly but on what we believe inwardly, for our Christian life is a life of faith.
What we see brings us a lot of things, but faith annuls all things. When we live by sight, we see material things, but when faith comes in, all these physical things disappear.
For example, the Lord may burden us to serve Him full time, but we may wonder how can we be supported.
If we think in this way, if we base our living on what we see, what we can get, and what the situation outwardly can bring you, this is walking by sight and not by faith.
If the Lord burdens us to serve Him full time, our trust should be in Him, and we should cooperate with Him for what He wants to do in us and through us.
We need to learn to walk by faith and not by sight; we need to realize day by day that our Christian life is a life of faith.
Faith is not just something we experience in our time with the Lord in prayer and in the meetings of the church; faith is something that affects our daily living.
Because we have God and He is real and practical to us in our experience, we do not walk by what we see but by what we believe. We walk by our unseen God whom we believe and love.
Our faith links us to God and keeps us in an intimate, organic union with Him; we live not by sight but by faith.
The people in the world who do not believe into Christ do not have God; they only have the things they can see, so they live by sight, not by faith.
They worry about this and that, they do this and that based on what they see, and their reaction to things and their living is based on what they see with their eyes and feel with their heart.
But praise the Lord, we believers have a sixth sense that is developing, our spirit of faith, and we live by faith and in faith, the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Gal. 2:20).
In a sense, we don’t see God, we cannot touch God with our hands, and we cannot feel God with our physical senses, but we love Him and we intimately know Him as we fellowship with Him and are infused with Him. We are linked to God by faith.
In John 20:25-29, after the Lord resurrected and appeared to most of the disciples, Thomas did not believe that He was raised, and he said that he needs to touch Him to believe.
He wanted to see and touch the marks on his hands and feet, and put his hands on the Lord’s side; this is a physical scene with no faith.
![The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord! But he said to them, Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails and put my finger into the mark of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will by no means believe. And after eight days, His disciples were again within, and Thomas [was] with them. Jesus came, though the doors were shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be to you. Then He said to Thomas, Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put [it] into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God! Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. John 20:25-29](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/The-other-disciples-therefore-said-to-him-We-have-seen-the-Lord.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord! But he said to them, Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails and put my finger into the mark of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will by no means believe. And after eight days, His disciples were again within, and Thomas [was] with them. Jesus came, though the doors were shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be to you. Then He said to Thomas, Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put [it] into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God! Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. John 20:25-29")
So the Lord came and appeared to him again at a later time when he was with the disciples, and Thomas believed and said, My Lord and my God.
The Lord is merciful and kind, and He will appear to us, but He also wants us to believe even though we may not see.
It is more blessed to believe than to see; blessed are those who do not see yet believe. We are the most blessed people on earth, for our Christian life is a life by faith into someone we have not seen but we believe.
Having not seen Him, yet we love Him; having not touched Him, yet we believe into Him and rejoice with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. He is so real to us.
We can tell Him, Good morning, dear Lord Jesus! when we wake up in the morning, for He is there with us.
As we go through things, we can open to Him and pray, telling Him what’s bothering us and how we can’t do it, we can’t be it, and we can’t make it or work it.
We are not governed by physical, material, or outward things; we are governed by what we believe, for we are believers in Christ who live in the organic union with Him, living a Christian life by faith.
May we all realize that our Christian life is a life of faith, a life of believing, and our walk is by faith and not by sight.
Hallelujah, our Christian life is a life of faith, a life of believing! Thank You, dear Lord, for infusing Yourself as faith into us to cause us to just believe! Amen, Lord, though we have never seen You, yet we love You! Though we have not touched You, we believe into You and we rejoice with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory! We open to You, dear Lord, and we want to live one spirit with You. May our Christian life today be a life of faith and may our daily walk be by faith. Save us from looking at the outward things to base our confidence in them; save us from walking by the things we see. Lord, our confidence is in You and in what You are doing in us by faith. We want to walk by faith and live by faith, walking and living in the organic union with you!
We are Justified through Faith in Jesus Christ, the Faith of Jesus Christ, the Christ infused into us to be our Faith
The unique requirement for us to contact God in His economy is faith. The unique way for us to carry out God’s economy is faith.
Gal. 2:16 says that we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ, which literally means, the faith of Jesus Christ.
Faith is not of ourselves; we don’t “conjure up” faith, and nor can we manufacture faith. Faith is Jesus Christ with His preciousness being infused into us.
Faith is related to our appreciation of the person of the Son of God as the most precious One (1 Pet. 2:7).
When we see Jesus, when we behold Him in our time with Him and when we’re under the hearing of faith, we spontaneously believe into Him.
Christ is infusing Himself into us to be the faith in us. He becomes in us the faith by which we believe and the capacity for us to believe through our appreciation of Him.
We are declared righteous in the sight of God through faith in Jesus Christ; it is not merely by believing in Jesus that we are justified, but by the faith which is Christ Himself infused into us.
God the Father wants us to appreciate His beloved Son, so He reveals Christ to us.
The more we see Jesus, the more all other things fade away, and we simply appreciate Him and love Him.
He is so precious and wonderful, and we just treasure Him and love Him. When we see His dying love, we appreciate the price He paid for us.
Like Paul said in Gal. 2:20, Christ loved me and gave Himself up for me; when we see His dying love, we are filled with faith and love.
He didn’t die just for us all but for ME, for YOU, for each one of us, and He comes to each one of us to infuse Himself into us to be our faith.
The more we hear about Jesus, the more we read about Him, the more we are infused with Him, and He in us becomes our faith. It is through this faith in Jesus Christ that we are justified by God.
A subjective and experiential definition of faith is that faith is the preciousness of Jesus infused into us; through such an infusion, we spontaneously have faith in the Lord Jesus.
It is not our hearing and understanding of the biblical doctrines or the Bible teachings but it is the infusing of the precious persons of the Lord Jesus into our being that becomes our faith, our ability to believe.
Faith is a reaction, a spontaneous reaction to our seeing of Jesus; when we see His preciousness, we spontaneously believe into Him, for He becomes our very faith, our capacity to believe.
In Gal. 2:16 the expression “out of faith in Christ” denotes an organic union accomplished by believing in Christ.
In Christ denotes the organic union we have with the Lord; before we believed into Him, we were separated from Him but now, through faith in Him, we are joined to Him in an organic way.
Such a union can be illustrated by the grafting of the branch of one tree into another tree; through faith in Christ, we’re grafted into Christ, and our life and His become one.
It is here, in this organic union with the Lord, in this grafted life, that we are justified by faith. Christ can be our righteousness only by our being organically joined to Him.
![The expression out of faith in Christ [in Galatians 2:16] actually denotes an organic union accomplished by believing in Christ. The term in Christ refers to this organic union. Before we believed in Christ, there was a great separation between us and Christ. We were we, and Christ was Christ. But through believing we were joined to Christ and became one with Him. Now we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. This is an organic union, a union in life. This union is illustrated by the grafting of a branch of one tree into another tree. Through faith in Christ we are grafted into Christ. Through this process of spiritual grafting, two lives are grafted and become one. Many Christians have a shallow understanding of justification by faith. How could Christ be our righteousness if we were not organically united to Him? It is by means of our organic union with Christ that God can reckon Christ as our righteousness. Because we and Christ are one, whatever belongs to Him is ours. This is the basis upon which God counts Christ as our righteousness. The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3272-3273, by Witness Lee](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/The-expression-out-of-faith-in-Christ-in-Galatians-216-actually-denotes-an-organic-union-accomplished-by-believing-in-Christ.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "The expression out of faith in Christ [in Galatians 2:16] actually denotes an organic union accomplished by believing in Christ. The term in Christ refers to this organic union. Before we believed in Christ, there was a great separation between us and Christ. We were we, and Christ was Christ. But through believing we were joined to Christ and became one with Him. Now we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. This is an organic union, a union in life. This union is illustrated by the grafting of a branch of one tree into another tree. Through faith in Christ we are grafted into Christ. Through this process of spiritual grafting, two lives are grafted and become one. Many Christians have a shallow understanding of justification by faith. How could Christ be our righteousness if we were not organically united to Him? It is by means of our organic union with Christ that God can reckon Christ as our righteousness. Because we and Christ are one, whatever belongs to Him is ours. This is the basis upon which God counts Christ as our righteousness. The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3272-3273, by Witness Lee")
It is by means of our organic union with the Lord that God can reckon Christ as our righteousness.
Christ is the source of our faith, and He brings us into an organic union with Him, so that He becomes our faith within us.
We do not know why the sovereign, almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God seems to be allowing so many negative things to happen around us and does not do outward miraculous things to manifest or vindicate Himself, but we do know that He is infusing us with Himself in our organic union with Him so that we may live a life by faith.
He is infusing us with Himself as our faith, and He is the faith within us; we overcome and conquer the enemy by living in this organic union with Him.
When we believed into Christ, we entered into Him; we believe ourselves into Christ and thereby become one spirit with Him (John 3:15; 1 Cor. 6:17).
Now our entire Christian life is a life by faith and our Christian walk is a walk by faith, a life in the organic union with the Lord.
The outward situation does not govern us; we are governed by the faith in Jesus Christ, by our organic union with Him, and only the Lord rules in us.
We do not trust our thoughts or our feelings; we come to the Lord, again and again, contact Him, and exercise our will to believe into Him, for it is out of faith in Jesus and through the faith of Jesus Christ that we are justified by God and we can live a life of faith.
Hallelujah, we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit of faith to just believe into You. We love You, Lord and we open to You. Infuse Yourself into us. Infuse us with more of Yourself as our believing ability. How we appreciate You, dear Lord Jesus! Thank You for dying for us and for being so tender and kind toward us. Here we are, Lord: we just want to be good receivers, good enjoyers of Yourself. We do not trust in our feelings or our thoughts. We trust in You. Perfect our faith. May our faith develop and grow. Keep us in the organic union with You, living a life by faith and walking by faith in all things in our daily life.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” chs. 7-11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 1, entitled, The Governing and Controlling Vision of Gods Economy in Faith.
- Hymns on this topic:
– I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, / Yet, not I, but Christ who liveth in me; / And the life I live in the flesh, / I live by the faith of the Son of God, / Who loved, and gave Himself for me. (Hymns #484)
– No more encumb’rance, true rest I enter, / No condemnation, I’m justified, / Joined to the Savior, my life forever, / I live to God now, by faith have life; / In Christ I glory, in Christ rejoicing, / I’m one with Him, as a new creation, / This is the story of my salvation, / Such wond’rous love, such wond’rous song! (Song on, The Story of Faith)
– What glory! How attractive was this light! / How we appreciated such a sight! / Our first reaction was belief in Him— / This precious God has placed Himself within. / Our first reflection of this element / Reflected Jesus back to God, Who sent / His own response to count as righteousness / Our faith in Him Who was infused in us. (Hymns #1202)
About aGodMan
We know that FAITH in the New Testament bears two denotations, an objective denotation and a subjective denotation. But I love this experiential definition of faith: the preciousness of Jesus Christ infused into us through our appreciation of Him.
Our appreciation of the excellency of Jesus becomes the faith which keeps us in the the vision of God’s NT economy. Hallelujah for our justification by faith. If our faith is in works, culture, philosophy, etc, etc, the heavenly vision will recede from our view. It’s only through believing in Christ that we can be joined to Him, and become one with Him. The more we appreciate the person of our Christ, the more we are in Him and He is in us. Because we and Christ are one, whatever belongs to Him is ours. Therefore, eventually everything we need comes to us through faith in Him whom we have not seen yet love to the uttermost…Yes, all things are trash in comparison to the excellency of the knowledge of our Christ, brother
Amen brother, praise the Lord! May we be those who continue under the hearing of the faith to maintain believe ourselves into Christ and thereby become one spirit with Him! May the person of the Son of God be our appreciation at the hearing the faith in the meetings of the church and the ministry to maintain sight of the contents of God’s economy!
The expression out of faith in Christ [in Galatians 2:16] actually denotes an organic union accomplished by believing in Christ. The term in Christ refers to this organic union. Before we believed in Christ, there was a great separation between us and Christ. We were we, and Christ was Christ. But through believing we were joined to Christ and became one with Him. Now we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. This is an organic union, a union in life. This union is illustrated by the grafting of a branch of one tree into another tree. Through faith in Christ we are grafted into Christ. Through this process of spiritual grafting, two lives are grafted and become one. Many Christians have a shallow understanding of justification by faith. How could Christ be our righteousness if we were not organically united to Him? It is by means of our organic union with Christ that God can reckon Christ as our righteousness. Because we and Christ are one, whatever belongs to Him is ours. This is the basis upon which God counts Christ as our righteousness. The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3272-3273, by Witness Lee
Our Christian life is a life of faith, a life of believing, for we do NOT live according to what we see but according to what we believe. And faith is not of us but of Him, of Jesus Christ, the precious One. The more we hear of Christ, read of Him in His word, and receive of Him in fellowship with the saints, the more we treasure Him and appreciate Him; this is faith. Lord, increase our faith. May our faith be developed and grow. Keep us in the organic union with You today!
As believers we walk by faith and not by sight. We believe in the unseen God, the Christ whom we appreciate who became faith to us as we were organically joined to Him. Such a Christ is our righteousness so that we are not justified out of the works of the law but by faith in Him. The more we appreciate such a one, the more we are infused with faith and look to Him to meet our needs in serving Him. Praise the Lord today we can live and walk by the faith of the Son of God and not by anything we can do to fulfill His economy!
Amen, Lord increase our faith further today.
Amen brother! Lord Jesus we want to live by Your faith!
Amen brother. I enjoyed that faith arises from our appreciation of the Lord, the more we see of Him, the more faith is infused into us. Yes, faith is of Him! Lord increase our faith! Thank You this faith brings us into an organic union with You! O Lord Jesus we love You!