Free The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

resurrection life—for us. What we see in Him objectively now operates in us subjectively—but really—to manifest Him in us in that situation. That is the mark of maturity. That is what Paul means by his words to the Galatians, “I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you” (4:19). Faith is “substantiating” God’s facts; and faith is always the “substantiating” of eternal fact—of something eternally true.
Abiding in Him
    Now although we have already spent long on this matter, there is a further thing that may help to make it clearer to us. The Scriptures declare that we are “dead indeed,” but nowhere do they say that we are dead in ourselves. We shall look in vain to find death within; that is just the place where it is not to be found. We are dead not in ourselves, but in Christ. We were crucified with Him because we were in Him.
    We are familiar with the words of the Lord Jesus, “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4). Let us consider them for a moment. First, they remind us once again that we have never to struggle to get into Christ. We are not told to get there, for we are there; but we are told to stay where we have been placed. It was God’s own act that put us in Christ, and we are to abide in Him.
    But further, this verse lays down for us a divine principle, which is that God has done the work in Christ and not in usas individuals. The all-inclusive death and the all-inclusive resurrection of God’s Son were accomplished fully and finally apart from us in the first place. It is the history of Christ which is to become the experience of the Christian, and we have no spiritual experience apart from Him. The Scriptures tell us that we were crucified “with him,” that we were quickened, raised and set by God in the heavenlies “in him,” and that we are complete “in him” (Rom. 6:6, Eph. 2:5–6, Col. 2:10). It is not just something that is still to be effected in us (though it is that, of course). It is something that has already been effected, in association with Him.
    In the Scriptures we find that no Christian experience exists as such. What God has done in His gracious purpose is to include us in Christ. In dealing with Christ God has dealt with the Christian; in dealing with the Head, He has dealt with all the members. It is altogether wrong for us to think that we can experience anything of the spiritual life in ourselves merely, and apart from him. God does not intend that we should acquire something exclusively personal in our experience, and He is not willing to effect anything like that for you and me. All the spiritual experience of the Christian is already true in Christ. It has already been experienced by Christ. What we call “our” experience is only our entering into His history and His experience.
    It would be odd if one branch of a vine tried to bear grapes with a reddish skin, and another branch tried to bear grapes with a green skin, and yet another branch grapes with a dark purple skin, each branch trying to produce something of its own without reference to the vine. It is impossible, unthinkable. The character of the branches is determined by the vine. Yet certain Christians are seeking experiences asexperiences. They think of crucifixion as something, of resurrection as something, of ascension as something, and they never stop to think that the whole is related to a Person. No, only as the Lord opens our eyes to see the Person do we have any true experience.
    Every true spiritual experience means that we have discovered a certain fact in Christ and have entered into that. Anything that is not from Him in this way is an experience that is going to evaporate very soon. “I have discovered that in Christ; then, Praise the Lord, it is mine! I possess it, Lord, because it is in Thee.” Oh it is a great thing to know the facts of Christ as the foundation for our experience!
    So God’s basic principle in leading us on experimentally is not to give us