by

Copyright Angus Kinnear 1961. Used by permission of Kingsway

Publications, Eastbourne, England.

Practical religion. The Christian life

Table of Contents

p. 1 The Normal Christian Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 2 Preface to the First Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 3 Preface to the British Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 4 Table of Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 5 The Blood of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 5 Our Dual Problem: Sins and Sin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 6 God's Dual Remedy: The Blood and the Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 6 The Problem Of Our Sins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 7 The Blood Is Primarily For God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 8 God Is Satisfied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 9 The Blood And The Believer's Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 11 Overcoming The Accuser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 13 The Cross of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 13 Some Further Distinctions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 15 Man's State By Nature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 16 As In Adam So In Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 17 The Divine Way of Deliverance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 18 His Death and Resurrection Representative and Inclusive. . . . . . . . . .

p. 20 The Path of Progress: Knowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 20 Our Death With Christ A Historic Fact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 22 The First Step: "Knowing This...". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 23 Divine Revelation Essential To Knowledge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 24 The Cross Goes To The Root Of Our Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 26 The Path of Progress: Reckoning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 27 The Second Step: "Even So Reckon...". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 28 The Reckoning Of Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 29 Temptation And Failure, The Challenge To Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 32 Abiding In Him. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 36 The Divide of the Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 36 Two Creations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 38 Burial Means An End. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 39 Resurrection Unto Newness Of Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 42 Presenting Ourselves to God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 42 The Third Step: "Present Yourselves...". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

iii

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

p. 43 Separated Unto The Lord. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 44 Servant Or Slave?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 46 The Eternal Purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 46 Firstborn Among Many Brethren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 47 The Grain Of Wheat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 48 The Choice That Confronted Adam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 49 Adam's Choice The Reason For The Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 50 He That Hath The Son Hath The Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 51 They Are All Of One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 52 The Holy Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 52 The Spirit Outpoured. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 55 Faith Is Again The Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 56 The Diversity Of The Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 59 The Spirit Indwelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 59 The Treasure In The Vessel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 61 The Absolute Lordship Of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 64 The Meaning and Value of Romans Seven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 64 The Flesh And Man's Breakdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 65 What The Law Teaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 67 Christ The End Of The Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 69 Our End Is God's Beginning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 71 I Thank God!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 74 The Path of Progress: Walking In The Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 74 The Flesh And The Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 76 Christ Our Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 77 The Law Of This Spirit Of Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 79 The Manifestation Of The Law Of Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 82 The Fourth Step: "Walk... After The Spirit". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 85 One Body in Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 85 A Gate And A Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 86 The Fourfold Work Of Christ In His Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 87 The Love Of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 90 One Living Sacrifice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 92 More Than Conquerors Through Him. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 94 The Cross and the Soul Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 94 The True Nature Of The Fall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 95 The Root Question: The Human Soul. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 96 Natural Energy In The Work Of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 99 The Light Of God And Knowledge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 103 The Path of Progress: Bearing the Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

iv

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

p. 103 The Basis Of All True Ministry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 105 The Subjective Working Of The Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 108 The Cross And Fruitfulness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 109 A Dark Night -- A Resurrection Morn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 112 The Goal of the Gospel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 112 Waste. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 115 Ministering To His Pleasure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 116 Anointing Him Beforehand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 117 Fragrance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 120 Indexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 120 Index of Scripture References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

v

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

vi

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

The author of these studies, Mr. Watchman Nee (Nee To-sheng) of Foochow, a true bondservant

of Jesus Christ, placed a great many of us in his debt when, on a visit to Europe in 1938 and 1939,

he set forth so lucidly in his ministry to many groups of young workers and others the foundation

principles of the Christian life and walk.

Several of the addresses forming the material from which this book has been compiled have

already been published independently and have been the means of blessing to many. Others, covering

similar but wider ground, have existed for long in manuscript or note form. It is with the conviction

that their message merits a wider circulation at the present time that I have undertaken the editing

of the available material to form this larger book.

Being deprived of personal contact or communication with the author, I have myself to take

full responsibility for the work of editing. This has involved the bringing together of matter from

a number of sources to form a logical sequence within the framework provided by two of the original

series of studies. Due to the wide variety of this material, including verbatim records of spoken

English addresses, private notes of Bible readings and personal conversations, and a few translations

from the Chinese, liberties, perforce, have had to be taken with the literary arrangement—not, of

course, with the doctrine—making the hand of the editor more evident that I would have wished.

But the privilege of close personal contact with Mr. Nee during 1938, and the help and criticism

of others who enjoyed his ministry or who have worked with him, and who knew him better than

I, have combined, in the few places where interpretation was necessary, to make faithfulness to his

thought the more certain.

Work on this book has been a searching experience. It goes out now wiht the prayer that its

strong emphasis upon the greatness of Christ and upon the finality and sufficiency of His work

may be used of God to bring His children to a place of greater spiritual effectiveness and thus of

increasing value to Him.

Angus I. Kinnear

Bangalore, India

1957

2

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

A new edition has made possible further revision and occasional slight expansion of the text

with the aid of fresh source material. An index is now provided.

The reader is again reminded that the author’s message in this collected form had its origin as

spoken ministry. It is therefore not wholly systematic. On none of the subjects dealt with is it to be

regarded as exhaustive. It should be approached prayerfully—not as a treatise, but as a living

message to the heart.

Angus I. Kinnear

1958

3

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

Chapter 1: The Blood of Christ

Chapter 2: The Cross of Christ

Chapter 3: The Path of Progress: Knowing

Chapter 4: The Path of Progress: Reckoning

Chapter 5: The Divide of the Cross

Chapter 6: The Path of Progress: Presenting Ourselves to God

Chapter 7: The Eternal Purpose

Chapter 8: The Holy Spirit

Chapter 9: The Meaning and Value of Romans Seven

Chapter 10: The Path of Progress: Walking in the Spirit

Chapter 11: One Body in Christ

Chapter 12: The Cross and the Soul Life

Chapter 13: The Path of Progress: Bearing the Cross

Chapter 14: The Goal of the Gospel

Scripture quotations are from the Revised Version unless otherwise indicated.

4

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

What is the normal Christian life? We do well at the outset to ponder this question. The object

of these studies is to show that it is something very different from the life of the average Christian.

Indeed a consideration of the written Word of God—of the Sermon on the Mount for

only by the Son of God Himself. But in that last saving clause lies immediately the answer to our

question.

The Apostle Paul gives us his own definition of the Christian life in Galations 2:20. It is "no

longer I, but Christ". Here he is not stating something special or peculiar—a high level of

Christianity. He is, we believe, presenting God’s normal for a Christian, which can be summarized

in the words: I live no longer, but Christ lives His life in me.

God makes it quite clear in His Word that He has only one answer to every human need—His

Christ in our place. The Son of God died instead of us for our forgiveness: He lives instead of us

for our deliverance. So we can speak of two substitutions—a Substitute on the Cross who secures

our forgiveness and a Substitute within who secures our victory. It will help us greatly, and save

us from much confusion, if we keep constantly before us this fact, that God will answer all our

questions in one way only, namely, by showing us more of His Son.

We shall take now as a starting-point for our study of the normal Christian life that great

exposition of it which we find in the first eight chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, and we shall

approach our subject from a practical and experimental point of view. It will be helpful first of all

to point out a natural division of this section of Romans into two, and to note certain striking

differences in the subject-matter of its two parts.

The first eight chapters of Romans form a self-contained unit. The four-and-a-half chapters

from 1:1 to 5:11 form the first half of this unit and the three-and-a-half chapters from 5:12 to 8:39

the second half. A careful reading will show us that the subject-matter of the two halves is not the

same. For example, in the argument of the first section we find the plural word ‘sins’ given

prominence. In the second section, however, this changed, for while the word ‘sins’ hardly occurs

once, the singular word ‘sin’ is used again and again and is the subject mainly dealt with. Why is

this?

It is because in the first section it is a question of the sins I have committed before God, which

are many and can be enumerated, whereas in the second it is a question of sin as a principle working

in me. No matter how many sins I commit, it is always the one sin principle that leads to them. I

need forgiveness for my sins, but I need also deliverance from the power of sin. The former touches

my conscience, the latter my life. I may receive forgiveness for all my sins, but because of my sin

I have, even then, no abiding peace of mind.

When God’s light first shines into my heart my one cry is for forgiveness, for I realize I have

committed sins before Him; but when once I have received forgiveness of sins I make a new

discovery, namely, the discovery of sin, and I realize not only that I have committed sins before

5

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

God but that there is something wrong within. I discover that I have the nature of a sinner. There

is an inward inclination to sin, a power within that draws to sin. When that power breaks out I

commit sins. I may seek and receive forgiveness, but then I sin once more. So life goes on in a

vicious circle of sinning and being forgiven and then sinning again. I appreciate the blessed fact of

God’s forgiveness, but I want something more than that: I want deliverance. I need forgiveness for

what I have done, but I need also deliverance from what I am.

Thus in the first eight chapters of Romans two aspects of salvation are presented to us: firstly,

the forgiveness of our sins, and secondly, our deliverance from sin. But now, in keeping with this

fact, we must notice a further difference.

In the first part of Romans 1 to 8, we twice have reference to the Blood of the Lord Jesus, in

chapter 3:25 and in chapter 5:9. In the second, a new idea is introduced in chapter 6:6, where we

are said to have been "crucified" with Christ. The argument of the first part gathers round that

aspect of the work of the Lord Jesus which is represented by ‘the Blood’ shed for our justification

through "the remission of sins". This terminology is however not carried on into the second section,

where the argument centers now in the aspect of His work represented by ‘the Cross’, that is to

say, by our union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. This distinction is a valuable

one. We shall see that the Blood deals with what we have done, whereas the Cross deals with what

we are. The Blood disposes of our sins, while the Cross strikes at the root of our capacity for sin.

The latter aspect will be the subject of our consideration in later chapters.

We begin, then, with the precious Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and its value to us in dealing

with our sins and justifying us in the sight of God. This is set forth for us in the following passages:

"All have sinned" (Romans 3:23). "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while

we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall

we be saved from the wrath of God through him" (Romans 5:8,9). "Being justified freely by his

grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through

faith, by his blood, to shew his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins one aforetime,

in the forbearance of God; for the shewing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that

he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:24-26).

We shall have reason at a later stage in our study to look closely at the real nature of the fall

and the way of recovery. At this point we will just remind ourselves that when sin came in it found

expression in an act of disobedience to God (Romans 5:19). Now we must remember that whenever

this occurs the thing that immediately follows is guilt.

6

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

Sin enters as disobedience, to create first of all a separation between God and man whereby

man is put away from God. God can no longer have fellowship with him, for there is something

now which hinders, and it is that which is known throughout Scripture as ‘sin’. Thus it is first of

all God who says, "They are all under sin" (Romans 3:9). Then, secondly, that sin in man, which

henceforth constitutes a barrier to his fellowship with God, gives rise in him to a sense of guilt—of

estrangement from God. Here it is man himself who, with the help of his awakened conscience,

says, "I have sinned" (Luke 15:18). Nor is this all, for sin also provides Satan with his ground of

accusation before God, while our sense of guilt gives him his ground of accusation in our hearts;

so that, thirdly, it is ‘the accuser of the brethren’ (Rev. 12:10) who now says, ‘You have sinned’.

To redeem us, therefore, and to bring us back to the purpose of God, the Lord Jesus had to do

something about these three questions of sin and of guilt and of Satan’s charge against us. Our sins

had first to be dealt with, and this was effected by the precious Blood of Christ. Our guilt has to be

dealt with and our guilty conscience set at rest by showing us the value of that Blood. And finally

the attack of the enemy has to be met and his accusations answered. In the Scriptures the Blood of

Christ is shown to operate effectually in these three ways, Godward, manward and Satanward.

There is thus an absolute need for us to appropriate these values of the Blood if we are to go

on. This is a first essential. We must have a basic knowledge of the fact of the death of the Lord

Jesus as our Substitute upon the Cross, and a clear apprehension of the efficacy of His Blood for

our sins, for without this we cannot be said to have started upon our road. Let us look then at these

three matters more closely.

The Blood is for atonement and has to do first with our standing before God. We need forgiveness

for the sins we have committed, lest we come under judgment; and they are forgiven, not because

God overlooks what we have done but because He sees the Blood. The Blood is therefore not

primarily for us but for God. If I want to understand the value of the Blood I must accept God’s

valuation of it, and if I do not know something of the value set upon the Blood by God I shall never

know what its value is for me. It is only as the estimate that God puts upon the Blood of Christ is

made known to me by His Holy Spirit that I come into the good of it myself and find how precious

indeed the Blood is to me. But the first aspect of it is Godward. Throughout the Old and New

Testaments the word ‘blood’ is used in connection with the idea of atonement, I think over a hundred

times, and throughout it is something for God.

In the Old Testament calendar there is one day that has a great bearing on the matter of our sins

and that day is the Day of Atonement. Nothing explains this question of sins so clearly as the

description of that day. In Leviticus 16 we find that on the Day of Atonement the blood was taken

from the sin offering and brought into the Most Holy Place and there sprinkled before the Lord

seven times. We must be very clear about this. On that day the sin offering was offered publicly in

the court of the tabernacle. Everything was there in full view and could be seen by all. But the Lord

commanded that no man should enter the tabernacle itself except the high priest. It was he alone

who took the blood and, going into the Most Holy Place, sprinkled it there to make atonement

7

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

before the Lord. Why? Because the high priest was a type of the Lord Jesus in His redemptive work

(Hebrews 9:12), and so, in figure, he was the one who did the work. None but he could even draw

near to enter in. Moreover, connected with his going in there was but one act, namely, the presenting

of the blood to God as something He had accepted, something in which He could find satisfaction.

It was a transaction between the high priest and God in the Sanctuary, away from the eyes of the

men who were to benefit by it. The Lord required that. The Blood is therefore in the first place for

Him.

Earlier even than this there is described in Exodus 12:13 the shedding of the blood of the

passover lamb in Egypt for Israel’s redemption. This is again, I think, one of the best types in the

Old Testament of our redemption. The blood was put on the lintel and on the door-posts, whereas

the meat, the flesh of the lamb, was eaten inside the house; and God said: "When I see the blood,

I will pass over you". Here we have another illustration of the fact that the blood was not meant to

be presented to man but to God, for the blood was put on the lintel and on the door-posts, where

those feasting inside the house would not see it.

It is God’s holiness, God’s righteousness, which demands that a sinless life should be given for

man. There is life in the Blood, and that Blood has to be poured out for me, for my sins. God is the

One who requires it to be so. God is the One who demands that the Blood be presented, in order

you.’ The Blood of Christ wholly satisfies God.

Now I desire to say a word at this point to my younger brethren in the Lord, for it is here that

we often get into difficulties. As unbelievers we may have been wholly untroubled by our conscience

until the Word of God began to arouse us. Our conscience was dead, and those with dead consciences

are certainly of no use to God. But later, when we believed, our awakened conscience may have

become acutely sensitive, and this can constitute a real problem to us. The sense of sin and guilt

can become so great, so terrible, as almost to cripple us by causing us to lose sight of the true

effectiveness of the Blood. It seems to us that our sins are so real, and some particular sin may

trouble us so many times, that we come to the point where to us our sins loom larger than the Blood

of Christ.

Now the whole trouble with us is that we are trying to sense it; we are trying to feel its value

and to estimate subjectively what the Blood is for us. We cannot do it; it does not work that way.

The Blood is first for God to see. We then have to accept God’s valuation of it. In doing so we shall

find our valuation. If instead we try to come to a valuation by way of our feelings we get nothing;

we remain in darkness. No, it is a matter of faith in God’s Word. We have to believe that the Blood

payment for our sins and as the price of our redemption, then we can rest assured that the debt has

been paid. If God is satisfied with the Blood, then the Blood must be acceptable. Our valuation of

it is only according to His valuation—neither more nor less. It cannot, of course, be more, but it

8

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

must not be less. Let us remember that He is holy and He is righteous, and that a holy and righteous

God has the right to say that the Blood is acceptable in His eyes and has fully satisfied Him.

The Blood has satisfied God; it must satisfy us also. It has therefore a second value that is

manward in the cleansing of our conscience. When we come to the Epistle to the Hebrews we find

that the Blood does this. We are to have "hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Hebrews

10:22).

This is most important. Look carefully at what it says. The writer does not tell us that the Blood

of the Lord Jesus cleanses our hearts, an then stop there in his statement. We are wrong to connect

the heart with the Blood in quite that way. It may show a misunderstanding of the sphere in which

the Blood operates to pray, ‘Lord, cleanse my heart from sin by Thy Blood’. The heart, God says,

is "desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9), and He must do something more fundamental than cleanse

it: He must give us a new one.

We do not wash and iron clothing that we are going to throw away. As we shall shortly see,

the ‘flesh’ is too bad to be cleansed; it must be crucified. The work of God within us must be

something wholly new. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you"

(Ezekiel 36:26).

No, I do not find it stated that the Blood cleanses our hearts. Its work is not subjective in that

way, but wholly objective, before God. True, the cleansing work of the Blood is seen here in

Hebrews 10 to have reference to the heart, but it is in relation to the conscience. "Having our hearts

sprinkled from a evil conscience". What then is the meaning of this?

It means that there was something intervening between myself and God, as a result of which I

had an evil conscience whenever I sought to approach Him. It was constantly reminding me of the

barrier that stood between myself and Him. But now, through the operation of the precious Blood,

something new has been effected before God which has removed that barrier, and God has made

that fact known to me in His Word. When that has been believed in and accepted, my conscience

is at once cleared and my sense of guilt removed, and I have no more an evil conscience toward

God.

Every one of us knows what a precious thing it is to have a conscience void of offense in our

dealings with God. A heart of faith and a conscience clear of any and every accusation are both

equally essential to us, since they are interdependent. As soon as we find our conscience is uneasy

our faith leaks away and immediately we find we cannot face God. In order therefore to keep going

on with God we must know the up-to-date value of the Blood. God keeps short accounts, and we

are made nigh by the Blood every day, every hour and every minute. It never loses its efficacy as

our ground of access if we will but lay hold upon it. When we enter the most Holy Place, on what

ground dare we enter but by the Blood?

But I want to ask myself, am I really seeking the way into the Presence of God by the Blood

or by something else? What do I mean when I say, ‘by the Blood’? I mean simply that I recognize

my sins, that I confess that I have need of cleansing and of atonement, and that I come to God on

9

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

the basis of the finished work of the Lord Jesus. I approach God through His merit alone, and never

on the basis of my attainment; never, for example, on the ground that I have been extra kind or

patient today, or that I have done something for the Lord this morning. I have to come by way of

the Blood every time. The temptation to so many of us when we try to approach God is to think

that because God has been dealing with us—because He has been taking steps to bring us into

something more of Himself and has been teaching us deeper lessons of the Cross—He has thereby

set before us new standards, and that only by attaining to these can we have a clear conscience

the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His Blood.

I may be mistaken, but I feel very strongly that some of us are thinking in terms such as these:

‘Today I have been a little more careful; today I have been doing a little better; this morning I have

been reading the Word of God in a warmer way, so today I can pray better!’ Or again, ‘Today I

have had a little difficulty with the family; I began the day feeling very gloomy and moody; I am

not feeling too bright now; it seems that there must be something wrong; therefore I cannot approach

God.’

What, after all, is your basis of approach to God? Do you come to Him on the uncertain ground

of your feeling, the feeling that you may have achieved something for God today? Or is your

approach based on something far more secure, namely, the fact that the Blood has been shed, and

that God looks on that Blood and is satisfied? Of course, were it conceivably possible for the Blood

to suffer any change, the basis of your approach to God might be less trustworthy. But the Blood

has never changed and never will. Your approach to God is therefore always in boldness; and that

boldness is yours through the Blood and never through your personal attainment. Whatever be your

measure of attainment today or yesterday or the day before, as soon as you make a conscious move

into the Most Holy Place, immediately you have to take your stand upon the safe and only ground

of the shed Blood. Whether you have had a good day or a bad day, whether you have consciously

sinned or not, your basis of approach is always the same—the Blood of Christ. That is the ground

upon which you may enter, and there is no other.

As with many other stages of our Christian experience, this matter of access to God has two

phases, an initial and a progressive one. The former is presented to us in Ephesians 2 and the latter

in Hebrews 10. Initially, our standing with God was secured by the Blood, for we are "made nigh

in the blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:13). But thereafter our ground of continual access is still by the

Blood, for the apostle exhorts us: "Having therefore... boldness to enter into the holy place by the

blood of Jesus... let us draw near" (Heb. 10:19,22). To begin with I was made nigh by the Blood,

and to continue in that new relationship I come through the Blood every time. It is not that I was

saved on one basis and that I now maintain my fellowship on another. You say, ’That is very simple;

it is the A.B.C. of the Gospel.’ Yes, but the trouble with many of us is that we have moved away

from the A.B.C. We have thought we had progressed and so could dispense with it, but we can

never do so. No, my initial approach to God is by the Blood, and every time I come before Him it

is the same. Right to the end it will always and only be on the ground of the Blood.

This does not mean at all that we should live a careless life, for we shall shortly study another

aspect of the death of Christ which shows us that anything but that is contemplated. But for the

present let us be satisfied with the Blood, that it is there and that it is enough.

We may be weak, but looking at our weakness will never make us strong. No trying to feel bad

and doing penance will help us to be even a little holier. There is no help there, so let us be bold in

10

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

our approach because of the Blood: ‘Lord, I do not know fully what the value of the Blood is, but

I know that the Blood has satisfied Thee; so the Blood is enough for me, and it is my only plea. I

see now that whether I have really progressed, whether I have really attained to something or not,

is not the point. Whenever I come before Thee, it is always on the ground of the precious Blood.

Then our conscience is really clear before God. No conscience could ever be clear apart from the

Blood. It is the Blood that gives us boldness.

"No more conscience of sins": these are tremendous words of Hebrews 10:2. We are cleansed

from every sin; and we may truly echo the words of Paul: "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord

will not reckon sin" (Romans 4:8).

In view of what we have said we can now turn to face the enemy, for there is a further aspect

of the Blood which is Satanward. Satan’s most strategic activity in this day is as the accuser of the

brethren (Rev. 12:10) and it is as this that our Lord confronts him with His special ministry as High

Priest "through his own blood" (Hebrews 9:12).

How then does the Blood operate against Satan? It does so by putting God on the side of man

against him. The Fall brought something into man which gave Satan a footing within him, with the

result that God was compelled to withdraw Himself. Man is now outside the garden—beyond reach

of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)—because he is inwardly estranged from God. Because of what

man has done, there is something in him which, until it is removed, renders God morally unable to

defend him. But the Blood removes that barrier and restores man to God and God to man. Man is

in favour now, and because God is on his side he can face Satan without fear.

You remember that verse in John’s first Epistle—and this is the translation of it I like best:

and as we walk in the light with Him everything is exposed and open to that light, so that God can

have not a profound knowledge of myself, nor that God has not a perfect knowledge of me. It is

not hat I try to hide something nor that God tries to overlook something. No, it is that He is in the

Blood is enough for that!

Some of us, oppressed by our own weakness, may at times have been tempted to think that

there are sins which are almost unforgivable. Let us remember the word: "The blood of Jesus Christ

his Son cleanses us from every sin." Big sins, small sins, sins which may be very black and sins

which appear to be not so black, sins which I think can be forgiven and sins which seem unforgivable,

"every sin". "The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin", and it does so because in the

first place it satisfies God.

1 1 John 1:7: Marginal reading of New Translation by J.N. Darby

11

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

Since God, seeing all our sins in the light, can forgive them on the basis of the Blood, what

ground of accusation has Satan? Satan may accuse us before Him, but, "If God is for us, who is

against us?" (Romans 8:31). God points him to the Blood of His dear Son. It is the sufficient answer

against which Satan has no appeal. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God

that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised

from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans

8:33,34).

So here again our need is to recognize the absolute sufficiency of the precious Blood. "Christ

having come a high priest... through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place,

having obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:11,12). He was Redeemer once. He has been High

Priest and Advocate for nearly two thousand years. He stands there in the presence of God, and

What then of our attitude to Satan? This is important, for he accuses us not only before God

but in our own conscience also. ‘You have sinned, and you keep on sinning. You are weak, and

God can have nothing more to do with you.’ This is his argument. And our temptation is to look

within and in self-defense to try to find in ourselves, in our feelings or our behavior, some ground

for believing that Satan is wrong. Alternatively we are tempted to admit our helplessness and, going

to the other extreme, to yield to depression and despair. Thus accusation becomes one of the greatest

and most effective of Satan’s weapons. He points to our sins and seeks to charge us with them

before God, and if we accept his accusations we go down immediately.

Now the reason why we so readily accept his accusations is that we are still hoping to have

some righteousness of our own. The ground of our expectation is wrong. Satan has succeeded in

making us look in the wrong direction. Thereby he wins his point, rendering us ineffective. But if

we have learned to put no confidence in the flesh, we shall not wonder if we sin, for the very nature

of the flesh is to sin. Do you understand what I mean? It is because we have not come to appreciate

our true nature and to see how helpless we are that we still have some expectation in ourselves,

with the result that, when Satan comes along and accuses us, we go down under it.

God is well able to deal with our sins; but He cannot deal with a man under accusation, because

such a man is not trusting in the Blood. The Blood speaks in his favour, but his is listening instead

to Satan. Christ is our Advocate but we, the accused, side with the accuser. We have not recognized

that we are unworthy of anything but death; that, as we shall shortly see, we are only fit to be

crucified anyway. We have not recognized that it is God alone that can answer the accuser, and

that in the precious Blood He has already done so.

Our salvation lies in looking away to the Lord Jesus and in seeing that the Blood of the Lamb

has met the whole situation created by our sins and has answered it. That is the sure foundation on

which we stand. Never should we try to answer Satan with our good conduct but always with the

Blood. Yes, we are sinful, but, praise God! the Blood cleanses us from every sin. God looks upon

the Blood whereby His Son has met the charge, and Satan has no more ground of attack. Our faith

in the precious Blood and our refusal to be moved from that position can alone silence his charges

and put him to flight (Romans 8:33,34); and so it will be, right on to the end (Revelation 12:11).

Oh, what an emancipation it would be if we saw more of the value of God’s eyes of the precious

Blood of His dear Son!

12

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

We have seen that Romans 1 to 8 falls into two sections, in the first of which we are shown that

with what we are. We need the Blood for forgiveness; we need also the Cross for deliverance. We

have dealt briefly above with the first of these two and we shall move on now to the second; but

before we do so we will look for a moment at a few more features of this passage which serve to

emphasize the difference in subject matter and argument between the two halves.

Two aspects of the resurrection are mentioned in the two sections, in chapters 4 and 6. In Romans

4:25 the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is mentioned in relation to our justification: "Jesus our

Lord... was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification." Here the matter

in view is that of our standing before God. But in Romans 6:4 the resurrection is spoken of as

imparting to us new life with a view to a holy walk: "That like as Christ was raised from the dead...

so we also might walk in newness of life." Here the matter before us is behaviour.

Again, peace is spoken of in both sections, in the fifth and eighth chapters. Romans 5 tells of

peace with God which is the effect of justification by faith in His Blood: "Being therefore justified

by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (5:1 mg.) This means that, now

that I have forgiveness of sins, God will no longer be a cause of dread and trouble to me. I who

was an enemy to God have been "reconciled... through the death of his Son" (5:10). I very soon

find, however, that I am going to be a great cause of trouble to myself. There is still unrest within,

for within me there is something that draws me to sin. There is peace with God, but there is no

peace with myself. There is in fact civil war in my own heart. This condition is well depicted in

Romans 7 where the flesh and the spirit are seen to be in deadly conflict within me. But from this

the argument leads in chapter 8 to the inward peace of a walk in the Spirit. "The mind of the flesh

is death", because it "is enmity against God", "but the mind of the spirit is life and peace" (Romans

8:6,7).

Looking further still we find that the first half of the section deals generally speaking with the

question of justification (see, for example, Romans 3:24-26; 4:5,25), while the second half has as

its main topic the corresponding question of sanctification (see Rom. 6:19,22). When we know the

precious truth of justification by faith we still know only half of the story. We still have only solved

the problem of our standing before God. As we go on, God has something more to offer us, namely,

the solution of the problem of our conduct, and the development of thought in these chapters serves

2 Note - The author uses ‘the Cross’ here and throughout these studies in a special sense. Most readers will be familiar with the

current use of the expression ‘the Cross’ to signify, firstly, the entire redemptive work accomplished historically in the death,

burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Himself (Phil. 2:8,9), and secondly, in a wider sense, the union of believers

with Him therein through grace (Rom. 6:4; Eph. 2:5,6). Clearly in that use of the term the operation of ‘the Blood’ in relation

to forgiveness of sins (as dealt with in Chapter 1 of this book) is, from God’s viewpoint, included (with all that follows in these

studies) as a part of the work of the Cross. In this and the following chapters, however, the author is compelled, for lack of an

alternative term, to use ‘the Cross’ in a more particular and limited doctrinal sense in order to draw a helpful distinction, namely,

that between substitution and identification, as being, from the human angle, two separate aspects of the doctrine of redemption.

Thus the name of the whole is of necessity used for one of its parts. The reader should bear this in mind in what follows.—Ed.

13

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

to emphasize this. In each case the second step follows from the first, and if we know only the first

then we are still leading a sub-normal Christian life. How then can we live a normal Christian life?

How do we enter in? Well, of course, initially we must have forgiveness of sins, we must have

justification, we must have peace with God: these are our indispensable foundation. But with that

basis truly established through our first act of faith in Christ, it is yet clear from the above that we

must move on to something more.

Cross for us as our Substitute and has thereby obtained for us forgiveness, justification and

reconciliation. But we must now go a step further in the plan of God to understand how He deals

You will scarcely find the word ‘sinner’ in the first four chapters of Romans. This is because

there the sinner himself is not mainly in view, but rather the sins he has committed. The word

‘sinner’ first comes into prominence only in chapter 5, and it is important to notice how the sinner

is there introduced. In that chapter a sinner is said to be a sinner because he is born a sinner; not

because he has committed sins. The distinction is important. It is true that often when a Gospel

worker wants to convince a man in the street that he is a sinner, he will use the favourite verse

Romans 3:23, where it says that "all have sinned"; but this use of the verse is not strictly justified

by the Scriptures. Those who so use it are in danger or arguing the wrong way round, for the teaching

sinners. We are sinners by constitution rather than by action. As Romans 5:19 expresses it: "Through

the one man’s disobedience the man were made (or ‘constituted’) sinners".

How were we constituted sinners? By Adam’s disobedience. We do not become sinners by

what we have done but because of what Adam has done and has become. I speak English, but I am

not thereby constituted on Englishman. I am in fact a Chinese. So chapter 3 draws our attention to

what we have done—"all have sinned"—but it is not because we have done it that we become

sinners.

I once asked a class of children. ‘Who is a sinner?’ and their immediate reply was, ‘One who

sins’. Yes, one who sins is a sinner, but the fact that he sins is merely the evidence that he is already

a sinner; it is not the cause. One who sins is a sinner, but it is equally true that one who does not

sin, if he is of Adam’s race, is a sinner too, and in need of redemption. Do you follow me? There

are bad sinners and there are good sinners, there are moral sinners and there are corrupt sinners,

but they are all alike sinners. We sometimes think that if only we had not done certain things all

would be well; but the trouble lies far deeper than in what we do: it lies in what we are. A Chinese

may be born America and be unable to speak Chinese at all, but he is a Chinese for all that, because

he was born a Chinese. It is birth that counts. So I am a sinner not of my behaviour but of my

heredity, my parentage. I am not a sinner because I sin, but I sin because I come of the wrong stock.

I sin because I am a sinner.

We are apt to think that what we have done is very bad, but that we ourselves are not so bad.

God is taking pains to show us that we ourselves are wrong, fundamentally wrong. The root trouble

is the sinner; he must be dealt with. Our sins are dealt with by the Blood, but we ourselves are dealt

with by the Cross. The Blood procures our pardon for what we have done; the Cross procures our

deliverance from what we are.

14

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

We come therefore to Romans 5:12-21. In this great passage, grace is brought into contrast

with sin and the obedience of Christ is set against the disobedience of Adam. It is placed at the

beginning of the second section of (Romans 5:12 to 8:39) with which we shall now be particularly

concerned, and its argument leads to a conclusion which lies at the foundation of our further

meditations. What is that conclusion? It is found in verse 19 already quoted: "For as through the

one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one

shall the many be made righteous." Here the Spirit of God is seeking to show us first what we are,

and then how we came to be what we are.

At the beginning of our Christian life we are concerned with our doing, not with our being; we

are distressed rather by what we have done than by what we are. We think that if only we could

rectify certain things we should be good Christians, and we set out therefore to change our actions.

But the result is not what we expected. We discover to our dismay that it is something more than

just a case of trouble on the outside—that there is in fact more serious trouble on the inside. We

try to please the Lord, but find something within that does not want to please Him. We try to be

humble, but there is something in our very being that refuses to be humble. We try to be loving,

but inside we feel most unloving. We smile and try to look very gracious, but inwardly we feel

decidedly ungracious. The more we try to rectify matters on the outside the more we realize how

deep-seated the trouble is within. Then we come to the Lord and say, ‘Lord, I see it now! Not only

The conclusion of Romans 5:19 is beginning to dawn upon us. We are sinners. We are members

of a race of people who are constitutionally other than what God intended them to be. By the Fall

a fundamental change took place in the character of Adam whereby he became a sinner, one

constitutionally unable to please God; and the family likeness which we all share is no merely

superficial one but extends to our inward character also. We have been "constituted sinners". How

did this come about? "By the disobedience of one", says Paul. Let me try to illustrate this.

My name is Nee. It is a fairly common Chinese name. How did I come by it? I did not choose

it. I did not go through the list of possible Chinese names and select this one. That my name is Nee

is in fact not my doing at all, and, moreover, nothing I can do can alter it. I am a Nee because my

father was a Nee, and my father was a Nee because my grandfather was a Nee. If I act like a Nee

I am a Nee, and if I act unlike a Nee I am still a Nee. If I become President of the Chinese Republic

I am a Nee, or if I become a beggar in the street I am still a Nee. Nothing I do or refrain from doing

will make me other than a Nee.

We are sinners not because of ourselves but because of Adam. It is not because I individually

have sinned that I am a sinner but because I was in Adam when he sinned. Because by birth I come

of Adam, therefore I am a part of him. What is more, I can do nothing to alter this. I cannot by

improving my behaviour make myself other than a part of Adam and so a sinner.

In China I was once talking in this strain and remarked, ‘We have all sinned in Adam’. A man

said, ‘I don’t understand’, so I sought to explain it in this way. ‘All Chinese trace their descent from

Huang-ti’, I said. ‘Over four thousand years ago he had a war with Si-iu. His enemy was very

strong, but nevertheless Huang-ti overcame and slew him. After this Huang-ti founded the Chinese

nation. Four thousand years ago therefore our nation was founded by Huang-ti. Now what would

15

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

have happened if Huang-ti had not killed his enemy, but had been himself killed instead? Where

would you be now?’ ‘There would be no me at all’, he answered. ‘Oh, no! Huang-ti can die his

death and you can live your life.’ ‘Impossible!’ he cried, ‘If he had died, then I could never have

lived, for I have derived my life from him.’

Do you see the oneness of human life? Our life comes from Adam. If your great-grandfather

had died at the age of three, where would you be? You would have died in him! Your experience

is bound up with his. Now in just the same way the experience of every one of us is bound up with

that of Adam. None can say, ‘I have not been in Eden’ for potentially we all were there when Adam

yielded to the serpent’s words. So we are all involved in Adam’s sin, and by being born "in Adam"

we receive from him all that he became as a result of his sin—that is to say, the Adam-nature which

is the nature of a sinner. We derive our existence from him, and because his life became a sinful

life, a sinful nature, therefore the nature which we derive from him is also sinful. So, as we have

said, the trouble is in our heredity, not in our behaviour. Unless we can change our parentage there

is no deliverance for us.

But it is in this very direction that we shall find the solution of our problem, for that is exactly

how God has dealt with the situation.

In Romans 5:12 to 21 we are not only told something about Adam; we are told also something

about the Lord Jesus. "As through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even

so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous." In Adam we receive

everything that is of Adam; in Christ we receive everything that is of Christ.

The terms ‘in Adam’ and ‘in Christ’ are too little understood by Christians, and, at the risk of

repetition, I wish again to emphasize by means of an illustration the hereditary and racial significance

of the term ‘in Christ’. This illustration is to be found in the letter to the Hebrews. Do you remember

that in the earlier part of the letter the writer is trying to show that Melchizedek is greater than Levi?

You recall that the point to be proved is that the priesthood of Christ is greater than the priesthood

of Aaron who was of the tribe of Levi. Now in order to prove that, he has first to prove that the

priesthood of Melchizedek is greater than the priesthood of Levi, for the simple reason that the

priesthood of Christ is "after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:14-17), while that of Aaron is, of

course, after the order of Levi. If the writer can demonstrate to us that Melchizedek is greater than

Levi, then he has made his point. That is the issue, and he proves it in a remarkable way.

He tells us in Hebrews chapter 7 that one day Abraham, returning from the battle of the kings

(Genesis 14), offered a tithe of his spoils to Melchizedek and received from him a blessing. Inasmuch

as Abraham did so, Levi is therefore of less account than Melchizedek. Why? Because the fact that

Abraham offered tithes to Melchizedek. But if that is true, then Jacob also ‘in Abraham’ offered

to Melchizedek, which in turn means that Levi ‘in Abraham’ offered to Melchizedek. It is evident

that the lesser offers to the greater (Hebrews 7:7). So Levi is less in standing than Melchizedek,

and therefore the priesthood of Aaron is inferior to that of the Lord Jesus. Levi at the time of the

16

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

battle of the kings was not yet even thought of. Yet he was "in the loins of his father" Abraham,

and, "so to say, through Abraham", he offered (Hebrews 7:9,10).

Now his is the exact meaning of ‘in Christ’. Abraham, as the head of the family of faith, includes

the whole family in himself. When he offered to Melchizedek, the whole family offered in him to

Melchizedek. They did not offer separately as individuals, but they were in him, and therefore in

making his offering he included with himself all his seed.

So we are presented with a new possibility. In Adam all was lost. Through the disobedience of

one man we were all constituted sinners. By him sin entered and death through sin, and throughout

the race sin has reigned unto death from that day on. But now a ray of light is cast upon the scene.

Through the obedience of Another we may be constituted righteous. Where sin abounded grace

did much more abound, and as sin reigned unto death, even so may grace reign through righteousness

unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:19-21). Our despair is in Adam; our hope is

in Christ.

God clearly intends that this consideration should lead to our practical deliverance from sin.

Paul makes this quite plain when he opens chapter 6 of his letter with the question: "Shall we

continue in sin?" His whole being recoils at the very suggestion. "God forbid!", he exclaims. How

could a holy God be satisfied to have unholy, sin-fettered children? And so "how shall we any

longer live therein?" (Romans 6:1,2). God has surely therefore made adequate provision that we

should be set free from sin’s dominion.

But here is our problem. We were born sinners; how then can we cut off our sinful heredity?

Seeing that we were born in Adam, how can we get out of Adam? Let me say at once, the Blood

cannot take us out of Adam. There is only one way. Since we came in by birth we must go out by

death. To do away with our sinfulness we must do away with our life. Bondage to sin came by

birth; deliverance from sin comes by death—and it is just this way of escape that God has provided.

Death is the secret of emancipation. "We... died to sin" (Romans 6:2).

But how can we die? Some of us have tried very hard to get rid of this sinful life, but we have

found it most tenacious. What is the way out? It is not by trying to kill ourselves, but by recognizing

who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death" (Romans 6:3).

effective, and that now seems just as big a problem. How are we to ‘get into’ Christ? Here again

God comes to our help. We have in fact no way of getting in, but, what is more important, we need

put us into Christ. Let me remind you of I Corinthians 1:30. I think that is one of the best verses

of the whole New Testament: ‘Ye are in Christ’. How? "Of him (that is, ‘of God’) are ye in Christ."

Praise God! it is not left to us either to devise a way of entry or to work it out. We need not plan

17

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

him are ye in Christ Jesus’. We are in; therefore we need not try to get in. It is a Divine act, and it

is accomplished.

Now if this is true, certain things follow. In the illustration from Hebrews 7 which we considered

above we saw that ‘in Abraham’ all Israel—and therefore Levi who was not yet born—offered

tithes to Melchizedek. They did not offer separately and individually, but they were in Abraham

when he offered, and his offering included all his seed. This, then, is a true figure of ourselves as

‘in Christ’. When the Lord Jesus was on the Cross all of us died—not individually, for we had not

yet been born—but, being in Him, we died in Him. "One died for all, therefore all died" (2 Cor.

5:14). When He was crucified all of us were crucified.

Many a time when preaching in the villages of China one has to use very simple illustrations

for deep Divine truth. I remember once I took up a small book and put a piece of paper into it, and

I said to those very simple ones, ‘Now look carefully. I take a piece of paper. It has an identity of

its own, quite separate from this book. Having no special purpose for it at the moment I put it into

the book. Now I do something with the book. I post it to Shanghai. I do not post the paper, but the

paper has been put into the book. Then where is the paper? Can the book go to Shanghai and the

paper remain here? Can the paper have a separate destiny from the book? No! Where the book goes

the paper goes. If I drop the book in the river the paper goes too, and if I quickly take it out again

I recover the paper also. Whatever experience the book goes through the paper goes through with

it, for it is in the book.’

"Of him are ye in Christ Jesus." The Lord God Himself has put us in Christ, and in His dealing

with Christ God has dealt with the whole race. Our destiny is bound up with His. What He has gone

through we have gone through, for to be ‘in Christ’ is to have been identified with Him in both His

death and resurrection. He was crucified: then what about us? Must we ask God to crucify us?

Never! When Christ was crucified we were crucified; and His crucifixion is past, therefore ours

cannot be future. I challenge you to find one text in the New Testament telling us that our crucifixion

is in the future. All the references to it are in the Greek aorist, which is the ‘once-for-all’ tense, the

‘eternally past’ tense. (See: Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14). And just as no man could

ever commit suicide by crucifixion, for it were a physical impossibility to do so, so also, in spiritual

terms, God does not require us to crucify ourselves. We were crucified when He was crucified, for

God put us there in Him. That we have died in Christ is not merely a doctrinal position, it is an

eternal fact.

The Lord Jesus, when He died on the Cross, shed His Blood, thus giving His sinless life to

atone for our sin and to satisfy the righteousness and holiness of God. To do so was the prerogative

of the Son of God alone. No man could have a share in that. The Scripture has never told us that

we shed our blood with Christ. In His atoning work before God He acted alone; no other could

18

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

We often use the terms ‘substitution’ and ‘identification’ to describe these two aspects of the

death of Christ. Now many a time the use of the word ‘identification’ is good. But identification

would suggest that the thing begins from our side: that I try to identify myself with the Lord. I agree

that the word is true, but it should be used later on. It is better to begin with the fact that the Lord

included me in His death. It is the ‘inclusive’ death of the Lord which puts me in a position to

identify myself, not that I identify myself in order to be included. It is God’s inclusion of me in

Christ that matters. It is something God has done. For that reason those two New Testament words

"in Christ" are always very dear to my heart.

The death of the Lord Jesus is inclusive. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is alike inclusive.

We have looked at the first chapter of I Corinthians to establish the fact that we are "in Christ

Jesus". Now we will go to the end of the same letter to see something more of what this means. In

I Corinthians 15:45,47 two remarkable names or titles are used of the Lord Jesus. He is spoken of

there as "the last Adam" and He is spoken of too as "the second man". Scripture does not refer to

Him as the second Adam but as "the last Adam"; nor does it refer to Him as the last Man, but as

"the second man". The distinction is to be noted, for it enshrines a truth of great value.

As the last Adam, Christ is the sum total of humanity; as the second Man He is the Head of a

new race. So we have here two unions, the one relating to His death and the other to His resurrection.

In the first place His union with the race as "the last Adam" began historically at Bethlehem and

ended at the cross and the tomb. In it He gathered up into Himself all that was in Adam and took

it to judgment and death. In the second place our union with Him as "the second man" begins in

resurrection and ends in eternity—which is to say, it never ends—for, having in His death done

away with the first man in whom God’s purpose was frustrated, He rose again as Head of a new

race of men, in whom that purpose shall be fully realized.

When therefore the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, He was crucified as the last Adam.

All that was in the first Adam was gathered up and done away in Him. We were included there.

As the last Adam He wiped out the old race; as the second Man He brings in the new race. It is in

His resurrection that He stands forth as the second Man, and there too we are included. "For if we

have become united with him by the likeness of his death, we shall be also by the likeness of his

resurrection" (Romans 6:5). We died in Him as the last Adam; we live in Him as the second Man.

The Cross is thus the power of God which translates us from Adam to Christ.

19

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

Our old history ends with the Cross; our new history begins with the resurrection. "If any man

is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold they are become new" (2

Cor. 5:17). The Cross terminates the first creation, and out of death there is brought a new creation

in Christ, the second Man. If we are ‘in Adam’ all that is in Adam necessarily devolves upon us;

it becomes ours involuntarily, for we have to do nothing to get it. There is no need to make up our

minds to lose our temper or to commit some other sin; it comes to us freely and despite ourselves.

In a similar way, if we are ‘in Christ’ all that is in Christ comes to us by free grace, without effort

on our part but on the ground of simple faith.

But to say that all we need comes to us in Christ by free grace, though true enough, may seem

unpractical. How does it work out in practice? How does it become real in our experience?

As we study chapters 6, 7 and 8 of Romans we shall discover that the conditions of living the

normal Christian life are fourfold. They are: (a) Knowing, (b) Reckoning, (c) Presenting ourselves

to God, and (d) Walking in the Spirit, and they are set forth in that order. If we would live that life

we shall have to take all four of these steps; not one nor two nor three, but all four. As we study

each of them we shall trust the Lord by His Holy Spirit to illumine our understanding; and we shall

seek His help now to take the first big step forward.

Romans 6:1-11 is the passage before us now. In these verses it is made clear that the death of

the Lord Jesus is representative and inclusive. In His death we all died. None of us can progress

spiritually without seeing this. Just as we cannot have justification if we have not seen Him bearing

Cross. Not only have our sins been laid on Him but we ourselves have been put into Him.

How did you receive forgiveness? You realized that the Lord Jesus died as your Substitute and

bore your sins upon Himself, and that His Blood was shed to cleanse away your defilement. When

you saw your sins all taken away on the Cross what did you do? Did you say, ‘Lord Jesus, please

come and die for my sins’? No, you did not pray at all; you only thanked the Lord You did not

beseech Him to come and die for you, for you realized that He had already done it.

But what is true of your forgiveness is also true of your deliverance. The work is done. There

is no need to pray but only to praise. God has put us all in Christ, so that when Christ was crucified

we were crucified also. Thus there is no need to pray: ‘I am a very wicked person; Lord, please

crucify me’. That is all wrong. You did not pray about your sins; why pray now about yourself?

Your sins were dealt with by His Blood, and you were dealt with by His Cross. It is an accomplished

fact. All that is left for you to do is to praise the Lord that when Christ died you died also; you died

in Him. Praise Him for it and live in the light of it. "Then believed they his words: they sang his

praise" (Psalm 106:12).

Do you believe in the death of Christ? Of course you do. Well, the same Scripture that says He

died for us says also that we died with Him. Look at it again: "Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

That is the first statement, and that is clear enough; but is this any less clear? "Our old man was

crucified with him" (Romans 6:6). "We died with Christ" (Romans 6:8).

20

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

When are we crucified with Him? What is the date of our old man’s crucifixion? Is it tomorrow?

Yesterday? Today? In order to answer this it may help us if for a moment I turn Paul’s statement

here in twos. You traveled to this place together. You might say, My friend came here with me’,

but you might just as truly say, ‘I came here with my friend’. Had one of you come three days ago

and the other only today you could not possibly say that; but having come together you can make

either statement with equal truth, because both are statements of fact. So also in historic fact we

can say, reverently but with equal accuracy, ‘I was crucified when Christ was crucified’ or ‘Christ

was crucified when I was crucified’, for they are not two historical events, but one. My crucifixion

nearly two thousand years ago, and I with Him, can my crucifixion be said to take place tomorrow?

Can His be past and mine be present or future? Praise the Lord, when He died in my stead, but He

bore me with Him to the Cross, so that when He died I died. And if I believe in the death of the

Lord Jesus, then I can believe in my own death just as surely as I believe in His.

Why do you believe that the Lord Jesus died? What is your ground for that belief? Is it that you

feel He has died? No, you have never felt it. You believe it because the Word of God tells you so.

When the Lord was crucified, two thieves were crucified at the same time. You do not doubt that

they were crucified with Him, either, because the Scripture says so quite plainly.

You believe in the death of the Lord Jesus and you believe in the death of the thieves with Him.

Now what about your own death? Your crucifixion is more intimate than theirs. They were crucified

at the same time as the Lord but on different crosses, whereas you were crucified on the self same

cross as He, for you were in Him when He died. How can you know? You can know for the one

sufficient reason that God has said so. It does not depend on your feelings. If you feel that Christ

has died, He has died; and if you do not feel that he died, He has died. If you feel that you have

died, you have died; and if you do not feel that you have died, you have nevertheless just as surely

died. These are Divine facts. That Christ has died is a fact, that the two thieves have died is a fact,

ruled out! The self you loathe is on the Cross in Christ. And "he that is dead is freed from sin"

(Romans 6:7, A.V.). This is the Gospel for Christians.

Our crucifixion can never be made effective by will or by effort, but only be accepting what

the Lord Jesus did on the Cross. Our eyes must be opened to see the finished work of Calvary.

Some of you, prior to your salvation, may have tried to save yourselves. You read the Bible, prayed,

went to Church, gave alms. Then one day your eyes were opened and you saw that a full salvation

had already been provided for you on the Cross. You just accepted that and thanked God, and peace

and joy flowed into your heart. Now salvation and sanctification are on exactly the same basis.

You receive deliverance from sin in the same way as you receive forgiveness of sins.

For God’s way of deliverance is altogether different from man’s way. Man’s way is to try to

suppress sin by seeking to overcome it; God’s way is to remove the sinner. Many Christians mourn

over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well. The idea that,

because failure to lead a holy life is due to our impotence, something more is therefore demanded

of us, leads naturally to this false conception of the way of deliverance. If we are preoccupied with

3 The expression "with him" in Romans 6:6 carries of course a doctrinal as well as historical, or temporal sense. It is only in the

historical sense that the statement is reversible. W.N.

21

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

the power of sin and with our inability to meet it, then we naturally conclude that to gain the victory

over sin we must have more power. ‘If only I were stronger’, we say, ‘I could overcome my violent

outbursts of temper’, and so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise more

self-control.

But this is altogether wrong; this is not Christianity. God’s means of delivering us from sin is

not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. That is surely rather

a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the Divine way. God sets us free from the dominion of

sin, not by strengthening our old man but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything but

by removing him from the scene of action.

For years, maybe, you have tried fruitlessly to exercise control over yourself, and perhaps this

is still your experience; but when once you see the truth you will recognize that you are indeed

powerless to do anything, but that in setting you aside altogether God has done it all. Such a

revelation brings human self-effort to an end.

The normal Christian life must begin with a very definite ‘knowing’, which is not just knowing

something about the truth nor understanding some important doctrine. It is not intellectual knowledge

at all, but an opening of the eyes of the heart to see what we have in Christ.

How do you know your sins are forgiven? Is it because your pastor told you so? No, you just

know it. If I ask you how you know, you simply answer, ‘I know it!’ Such knowledge comes by

Divine revelation. It comes from the Lord Himself. Of course the fact of forgiveness of sins is in

the Bible, but for the written Word of God to become a living Word from God to you He had to

give you "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" (Eph. 1:17). What you needed

apprehension of Christ, when you know it in your own heart, you ‘see’ it in your spirit. A light has

shined into your inner being and you are wholly persuaded of the fact. What is true of the forgiveness

of your sins is no less true of your deliverance from sin. When once the light of God dawns upon

because Romans 6 says so. It is something more even than that. You know it because God has

revealed it to you by His Spirit. You may not feel it; you may not understand it; but you know it,

for you have seen it. Once you have seen yourself in Christ, nothing can shake your assurance of

that blessed fact.

If you ask a number of believers who have entered upon the normal Christian life how they

came by their experience, some will say in this way and some will say in that. Each stresses his

own particular way of entering in and produces Scripture to support his experience; and unhappily

many Christians are using their special experiences and their special scriptures to fight other

Christians. The fact of the matter is that, while Christians may enter into the deeper life by different

ways, we need not regard the experiences or doctrines they stress as mutually exclusive, but rather

complementary. One thing is certain, that any true experience of value in the sight of God must

22

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

have been reached by way of a new discovery of the meaning of the Person and work of the Lord

Jesus. That is a crucial test and a safe one.

And here in our passage Paul makes everything depend upon such a discovery. "Knowing this,

that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should

no longer be in bondage to sin" (Romans 6:6).

So our first step is to seek from God a knowledge that comes by revelation—a revelation, that

is to say, not of ourselves but of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. When

Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, entered into the normal Christian life it

was thus that he did so. You remember how he tells of his long-standing problem of how to live

‘in Christ’, how to draw the sap out of the Vine into himself. For he knew that he must have the

life of Christ flowing out through him and yet felt that he had not got it, and he saw clearly enough

that his need was to be found in Christ. ‘I knew’, he said, writing to his sister from Chinkiang in

The more he tried to get in the more he found himself slipping out, so to speak, until one day

light dawned, revelation came and he saw. ‘Here, I feel, is the secret: not asking how I am to get

twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all indeed.’

It was as though something which had indeed been true all the time had now suddenly become

true in a new way to him personally, and he writes to his sister again: ‘I do not know how far I may

be able to make myself intelligible about it, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful—and

yet, all is new! In a word, "whereas once I was blind, now I see"... I am dead and buried with

Christ—aye, and risen too and ascended... God reckons me so, and tells me to reckon myself so.

He knows best... Oh, the joy of seeing this truth—I do pray that the eyes of your understanding

Oh, it is a great thing to see that we are in Christ! Think of the bewilderment of trying to get

into a room in which you already are! Think of the absurdity of asking to be put in! If we recognize

prayers and more praises. Much of our praying for ourselves is just because we are blind to what

God has done.

I remember one day in Shanghai I was talking with a brother who was very exercised concerning

his spiritual state. He said, ‘So many are living beautiful, saintly lives. I am ashamed of myself. I

call myself a Christian and yet when I compare myself with others I feel I am not one at all. I want

Exchanged Life’. The whole passage should be read.—Ed.

23

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

to know this crucified life, this resurrection life, but I do not know it and see no way of getting

there.’ Another brother was with us, and the two of us had been talking for two hours or so, trying

to get the man to see that he could not have anything apart from Christ, but without success. Said

our friend, ‘the best thing a man can do is to pray.’ ‘But if God has already given you everything,

what do you need to pray for?’ we asked. ‘He hasn’t’, the man replied, ‘for I am still losing my

temper, still failing constantly; so I must pray more.’ ‘Well’, we said, ‘do you get what you pray

for?’ ‘I am sorry to say that I do not get anything’, he replied. We tried to point out that, just as he

had done nothing for his justification, so he need do nothing for his sanctification.

Just then a third brother, much used of the Lord, came in and joined us. There was a thermos

flask on the table, and this brother picked it up and said, ‘What is this?’ ‘A thermos flask.’ ‘Well,

you just imagine for a moment that this thermos flask can pray, and that it starts praying something

like this: "Lord, I want very much to be a thermos flask. Wilt Thou make me to be a thermos flask?

Lord, give me grace to become a thermos flask. Do please make me one!" What will you say?’ ‘I

do not think even a thermos flask would be so silly,’ our friend replied. ‘It would be nonsense to

times past has already included you in Christ. When He died, you died; when He lived, you lived.

Now today you cannot say, "I want to die; I want to be crucified; I want to have resurrection life."

just as absurd as that of the thermos flask. You do not need to pray to the Lord for anything; you

merely need your eyes opened to see that He has done it all.’

to recognize what the Lord has already done and to praise Him for it. Light dawned for that man.

With tears in his eyes he said, ‘Lord, I praise Thee that Thou hast already included me in Christ.

All that is His is mine!’ Revelation had come and faith had something to lay hold of; and if you

could have met that brother later on, what a change you would have found!

Let me remind you again of the fundamental nature of that which the Lord has done on the

that the government of your country should wish to deal drastically with the question of strong

drink and should decide that the whole country was to go ‘dry’, how could the decision be carried

into effect? How could we help? If we were to search every shop and house throughout the land

and smash all the bottles of wine or beer or brandy we came across, would that meet the case?

Surely not. We might thereby rid the land of every drop of alcoholic liquor it contains, but behind

those bottles of strong drink are the factories that produce them, and if we only deal with the bottles

and leave the factories untouched, production will still continue and there is no permanent solution

of the problem. The drink-producing factories, the breweries and distilleries throughout the land,

must be closed down if the drink question is to be permanently settled.

We are the factory; our actions are the products. The Blood of the Lord Jesus dealt with the

question of the products, namely, our sins. So the question of what we have done is settled, but

24

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

would God have stopped there? What about the question of what we are? Our sins were produced

would cleanse away all our sins and then leave us to get rid of the sin-producing factory? Do you

believe He would put away the goods produced but leave us to deal with the source of production?

To ask this question is but to answer it. Of course He has not done half the work and left the

other half undone. No, He has done away with the goods and also made a clean sweep of the factory

that produces the goods.

The finished work of Christ really has gone to the root of our problem and dealt with it. There

are no half measures with God. "Knowing this," says Paul, "That our old man was crucified with

him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin"

Lord graciously open our eyes.

25

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

We now come to a matter on which there has been some confusion of thought among the Lord’s

children. It concerns what follows this knowledge. Note again first of all the wording of Romans

6:6: "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him". The tense of the verb is most precious

for it puts the event right back there in the past. It is final, once-for-all. The thing has been done

and cannot be undone. Our old man has been crucified once and for ever, and he can never be

un-crucified. This is what we need to know.

Then, when we know this, what follows? Look again at our passage. The next command is in

verse 11: "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin". This, clearly, is the natural

yourselves to be dead’. That is the order. When we know that our old man has been crucified with

Christ, then the next step is to reckon it so.

Unfortunately, in presenting the truth of our union with Christ the emphasis has too often been

placed upon this second matter of reckoning ourselves to be dead, as though that were the starting

that ‘knowing’ is to precede ‘reckoning’. "Knowing this... reckon." The sequence is most important.

Our reckoning must be based on knowledge of divinely revealed fact, for otherwise faith has no

foundation on which to rest. When we know, then we reckon spontaneously.

So in teaching this matter we should not over-emphasize reckoning. People are always trying

to reckon without knowing. They have not first had a Spirit-given revelation of the fact; yet they

try to reckon and soon they get into all sorts of difficulties. When temptation comes they begin to

reckon furiously: ‘I am dead; I am dead; I am dead!’ but in the very act of reckoning they lose their

temper. Then they say, ‘It doesn’t work. Romans 6:11 is no good.’ And we have to admit that verse

with Christ, the more we reckon the more intense will the struggle become, and the issue will be

sure defeat.

For years after my conversion I had been taught to reckon. I reckoned from 1920 until 1927.

The more I reckoned that I was dead to sin, the more alive I clearly was. I simply could not believe

myself dead and I could not produce the death. Whenever I sought help from others I was told to

read Romans 6:11, and the more I read Romans 6:11 and tried to reckon, the further away death

was: I could not get at it. I fully appreciated the teaching that I must reckon, but I could not make

out why nothing resulted from it. I have to confess that for months I was troubled. I said to the

Lord, ‘If this is not clear, if I cannot be brought to see this which is so very fundamental, I will

cease to do anything. I will not preach any more; I will not go out to serve Thee any more; I want

first of all to get thoroughly clear here.’ For months I was seeking, and at times I fasted, but nothing

came through.

I remember one morning—that morning was a real morning and one I can never forget—I was

upstairs sitting at my desk reading the Word and praying, and I said, ‘Lord, open my eyes!’ And

then in a flash I saw it. I saw my oneness with Christ. I saw that I was in Him, and that when He

died I died. I saw that the question of my death was a matter of the past and not of the future, and

that I was just as truly dead as He was because I was in Him when He died. The whole thing had

dawned upon me. I was carried away with such joy at this great discovery that I jumped from my

26

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

chair and cried, ‘Praise the Lord, I am dead!’ I ran downstairs and met one of the brothers helping

in the kitchen and I laid hold of him. ‘Brother’, I said, ‘do you know that I have died?’ I must admit

he looked puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’ he said, so I went on: ‘Do you not know that Christ has

died? Do you not know that I died with Him? Do you not know that my death is no less truly a fact

than His?’ Oh it was so real to me! I longed to go through the streets of Shanghai shouting the news

of my discovery. From that day to this I have never for one moment doubted the finality of that

word: "I have been crucified with Christ".

I do not mean to say that we need not work that out. Yes, there is an outworking of the death

which we are going to see presently, but this, first of all, is the basis of it. I have been crucified: it

has been done.

What, then, is the secret of reckoning? To put it in one word, it is revelation. We need revelation

from God Himself (Matt. 16:17; Eph. 1:17,18). We need to have our eyes opened to the fact of our

union with Christ, and that is something more than knowing it as a doctrine. Such revelation is no

vague, indefinite thing. Most of us can remember the day when we saw clearly that Christ died for

us, and we ought to be equally clear as to the time when we saw that we died with Christ. It should

be nothing hazy, but very definite, for it is with this as basis that we shall go on. It is not that I

What does reckoning mean? ‘Reckoning’ in Greek means doing accounts book-keeping.

Accounting is the only thing in the world we human beings can do correctly. An artist paints a

landscape. Can he do it with perfect accuracy? Can the historian vouch for the absolute accuracy

of any record, or the map-maker for the perfect correctness of any map? They can make, at best,

fair approximations. Even in everyday speech, when we try to tell some incident with the best

intention to be honest and truthful, we cannot speak with complete accuracy. It is mostly a case of

exaggeration or understatement, of one word too much or too little. What then can a man do that

is utterly reliable? Arithmetic! There is no scope for error there. One chair plus one chair equals

two chairs. That is true in London and it is true in Cape Town. If you travel west to New York or

east to Singapore it is still the same. All the world over and for all time, one plus one equals two.

One plus one is two in heaven and earth and hell.

analogy of accounting. Suppose I have fifteen shillings in my pocket, what do I enter in my

account-book? Can I enter fourteen shillings and sixpence or fifteen shillings and sixpence? No, I

must enter in my account-book that which is in fact in my pocket. Accounting is the reckoning of

facts, not fancies. Even so, it is because I am really dead that God tells me to account it so. God

could not ask me to put down in my account-book what was not true. He could not ask me to reckon

that I am dead if I am still alive. For such mental gymnastics the word ‘reckoning’ would be

inappropriate; we might rather speak of ‘mis-reckoning’!

Reckoning is not a form of make-believe. It does not mean that, having found that I have only

twelve shillings in my pocket, I hope that by entering fifteen shillings incorrectly in my account-book

such ‘reckoning’ will somehow remedy the deficiency. It won’t. If I have only twelve shillings,

27

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life

yet try to reckon to myself: ‘I have fifteen shillings; I have fifteen shillings; I have fifteen shillings’,

do you think that the mental effort involved will in any way affect the sum that is in my pocket?

Not a bit of it! Reckoning will not make twelve shillings into fifteen shillings, nor will it make

what is untrue true. But if, on the other hand, it is a fact that I have fifteen shillings in my pocket,

then with great ease and assurance I can enter fifteen shillings in my account-book. God tells us to

reckon ourselves dead, not that by the process of reckoning we may become dead, but because we

are dead. He never told us to reckon what was not a fact.

Having said, then, that revelation leads spontaneously to reckoning, we must not lose sight of

the fact that we are presented with a command: "Reckon ye..." There is a definite attitude to be

taken. God asks us to do the account; to put down ‘I have died’ and then to abide by it. Why?

Because it is a fact. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, I was there in Him. Therefore I reckon

it to be true. I reckon and declare that I have died in Him. Paul said, "Reckon ye also yourselves

to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God." How is this possible? "In Christ Jesus." Never forget that

is a question of faith not in yourself but in Him. You look to the Lord, and know what He has done.

The first four-and-a-half chapters of Romans speak of faith and faith and faith. We are justified

by faith in Him (Rom. 3:28; 5:1). Righteousness, the forgiveness of our sins, and peace with God

are all ours by faith, and without faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ none can possess them.

But in the second section of Romans we do not find the same repeated mention of faith, and it might

at first appear that the emphasis is therefore different. It is not really so, however, for where the

words ‘faith’ and ‘believe’ drop out the work ‘reckon’ takes their place. Reckoning and faith are

here practicall