THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Truth
Message Eight—The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures
Scripture Reading: John 14:6; 17:17; 18:37; 1 John 1:5-6, 8
I. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the divine truths as revealed in the Holy Scriptures—John 8:32; 17:17; 18:37:
A. Truth is the shining of light, the expression of the divine light—8:12, 32; 18:37; 1 John 1:5-6.
B. In the New Testament truth means “reality,” denoting the real things revealed in the Word, which are mainly Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the Body of Christ—Col. 2:9; Eph. 1:22-23.
C. The truths as revealed in the Scriptures have been lost, missed, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and wrongly applied throughout the ages; hence, there is the need of the Lord’s recovery—John 8:32; 17:17.
II. Life and truth are Christ Himself—John 14:6:
A. Truth is the outward definition and explanation, and life is the inward and intrinsic element.
B. If we do not understand the truth, we will have no way to enjoy Christ as our life—Col. 1:5-6; 3:4:
1. The experience of Christ as life is contained in Christ as the truth—John 14:6.
2. In order to experience and enjoy Christ as life, we need to know the truth—8:32.
III. The Lord desires to recover the subjective truths in the Holy Scriptures—the subjective aspect of the truth concerning the Triune God and the church—1:14; 14:16-20; 1 Tim. 6:15-16; 2 Tim. 4:22; 3:15-16:
A. The truths in the Holy Scriptures are always of two aspects—the objective aspect and the subjective aspect—Rom. 8:34, 10; Col. 3:1; 1:27:
1. The objective doctrines are for the subjective truths, and the subjective truths are for the producing of the church—2 John 1-2, 4; 3 John 3-4, 7-9a.
2. In the Lord’s recovery we want both the objective doctrines and the subjective experiences—John 8:32; 17:17; Eph. 1:13; 3:17a; Col. 1:5, 27.
B. The Gospel of John—a book on the subjective truths—reveals that we should have subjective experiences of Christ—4:14; 6:57; 20:22:
1. The Word became flesh so that the Lord might work Himself into us—1:14; 14:16-17.
2. Christ became the living water so that we may drink Him, the bread of life so that we may eat Him, and the breath of life so that we may breathe Him—4:10, 14; 6:32-33, 35, 51, 54-57; 20:22.
3. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches—15:1, 4-5:
a. The life of the vine is the life of the branches, the substance of the vine is the substance of the branches, and the nature of the vine is the nature of the branches.
b. In life, nature, substance, and essence the branches are exactly the same as the vine.
4. The issue of our receiving the Lord into us is that we become constituents of the church—12:24; 20:17; 15:4-5; 3:29-30a.
C. The subjective truths are linked to the Spirit and life and are constituted with Spirit and life—Rom. 8:2; 2 Cor. 3:6:
1. The Spirit and life are the substance of the subjective truths; thus, without the Spirit and life we do not have any subjective truths.
2. When we live by the Spirit and life, we have the experience of the subjective truths, and this issues in the church life—Rom. 8:2, 4; 16:1.
D. The Lord’s recovery is to recover the subjective experience of Christ for the practice of the church life—Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; 1:2:
1. The practical church life is an issue of our experience of the subjective truths; when we experience the subjective truths, the church is spontaneously produced—Rom. 8:10-11; 12:4-5; 16:1, 4-5; 1 Cor. 1:9, 30; 15:45b; 6:17; 1:2; 12:27.
2. The church, which is the issue of our subjective experience of Christ, is Christ constituted into His believers—Eph. 3:17a.
3. The subjective experience of Christ is actually Christ Himself entering into us to be our life and the constituent of our being—Col. 3:4, 10-11.
4. The Christ who died and resurrected has been wrought into us to produce the church, which is His Body—1:27, 18; 2:19; 3:15.
5. Christ in Himself is the Head, and Christ constituted into us is the Body—Eph. 1:22-23; 3:17a; 4:15-16; Col. 1:18, 27; 3:4; 2:19; 3:15.
E. The subjective truths concerning the Triune God and the church as the Body of Christ have been buried, but in the Lord’s recovery they have been resurrected to become recovered, resurrected truths—John 17:17; 18:37.
Ministry Excerpts:
SUBJECTIVE TRUTH AND OBJECTIVE TRUTH
We often speak about the matter of subjective truth and objective truth. All the truths in the New Testament are divided into these two categories, and similarly all the Old Testament truths are divided into these two categories. To make this matter clear to many of you, I would first like to explain the meaning of the words objective and subjective. The literal meanings of the Chinese words for objective and subjective are “guest’s view” and “host’s view.” Being objective is viewing things from the position of a guest or an outsider, and being subjective is viewing things from one’s self as a host. Viewing things from the position of an outsider is being objective, and viewing things from within is being subjective. Whatever occurs in others is objective; whatever occurs in me is subjective. All the truths that are not in me are objective truths; all the truths that are inside of me are subjective truths. All the truths outside of me are objective truths; they are truths, even though they are outside of me. All the experiences within me are subjective and are also truths. The Bible places equal weight on both aspects of these truths. I would now like to give you some illustrations.
THE BIBLE PLACING EQUAL WEIGHT ON BOTH ASPECTS
OF THESE TRUTHS
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” John 14:16 says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter.” It is sad that many who can recite John 3:16 so well cannot recite John 14:16. Actually these two verses are of equal worth. God had two “givings.” In John 3:16 He gave His Son to us, and in John 14:16 He gave the Holy Spirit to us. God gave His Son to sinners, and He gave the Holy Spirit to the ones who believe in His Son. God gave His Son to the world that they may be saved through Him. God gave the Holy Spirit to those who believe in His Son that they may be empowered to overcome. One is the giving of the Son, and the other is the giving of the Holy Spirit. Everything accomplished in the Son is an objective truth, and everything done in us through the working of the Holy Spirit is a subjective truth. Everything that is done in Christ is objective, while everything that is done in us through the Holy Spirit is subjective. All the work of the Holy Spirit is done within us. What Christ has accomplished is in Himself, and what the Holy Spirit has accomplished is in us. As long as something or some work is done in Christ, it is objective; as long as something is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, it is subjective. Please remember this point: objective matters are in Christ, and subjective matters are within us.
In John 15:4 the Lord repeated the phrase abide in Me twice. What is it to “abide in Me”? It is just to abide in the Lord. Abiding in the Lord is objective. We must first have the objective aspect before we can have the experience of “I [abide] in you,” which is the subjective aspect. We must remember that the words “I [abide] in you” are preceded by the words “Abide in Me.” Every subjective experience is based on an objective fact. No one could ever be saved if there was just the working of the Holy Spirit without the accomplishment of Christ. Neither could people be saved by only having the accomplishment of Christ without the working of the Holy Spirit. As I have said before, a man must have two feet to stand firm and two eyes to see clearly. Birds must have two wings to fly. Similarly, we must first be in the Lord, and then He will be in us.
John 6:47 says, “He who believes has eternal life.” Every believer knows this verse. It is true that we have believed, and it is true that he who believes has eternal life. However, no one can locate the eternal life. What does John 4:14 tell us? It says, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water gushing up into eternal life.” The water that He will give us is the water of life, and it will well up from within again and again until we sense its flavor. On the one hand, the Lord talks about the eternal life, and on the other hand, He talks about a well of living water springing up which enables us to taste the flavor of eternal life. John 6:47 speaks of the objective aspect, and John 4:14 speaks of the subjective aspect. First John 2:8 says, “…which is true in Him and in you.” Some of the truths are in Him, and some of the truths are in us. They are all truths, and we should pay attention to all of them. John 15 tells us how to bear fruit: “He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit” (v. 5). In other words, whenever the objective truth is balanced by the subjective truth, there will be much fruit-bearing. John 14:17 says, “The Spirit of reality…because He abides with you and shall be in you.” He abides with you is objective. This phrase points out the fact that the Holy Spirit through Christ was with the disciples. The phrase shall be in you is subjective. It points to the fact of Christ dwelling in the disciples through the Holy Spirit. At one time this word was objective and outside of them, but once the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in them, the objective facts became their subjective experience.
On one hand, Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:30 said, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus.” On the other hand, in Colossians 1:27 Paul said, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” To be in Christ is the objective aspect, and to have Christ in us is the subjective aspect.
EMPHASIZING EACH ASPECT EQUALLY WILL RENDER US THE GREATEST HELP
If we want to discover these two aspects of the truth in the Bible, we can find several hundred verses which show the subjective aspect of the truth as well as the objective aspect of the truth. If we can grasp these two aspects, we are able to grasp the tracks in the Bible. A train has two tracks on which to run. If there is only one track, the train will derail. With two tracks, the train can move ahead. Both the objective and subjective aspects of the truth need our attention. Emphasizing each aspect equally will render us the greatest help. I do not want to preach any theology here. Rather, I would like to speak a little on the practical side. For the time being, I will briefly mention the major accomplishments of Christ on the objective side as well as the work of the Holy Spirit on the subjective side.
First of all, Christ’s death on the cross for our sins and for us is the kernel of the objective truths in the Bible. When a person touches the Bible, he will see Christ’s death, Christ’s redemption, and how Christ was made a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins. Once you open the Bible, you will see these things, unless you do not read it at all. He hung on the tree to personally bear our sins. This matter was accomplished on the cross. He has borne your sins, my sins, and the sins of so many people. These are the facts.
If the Lord Jesus has borne your sins, my sins, and the sins of all the people in the world, then why are all the people not saved? Why is it that some of the ones who have believed in the Lord and who we know are saved do not have the joy of salvation? Why are they grieved over their sins? They are grieved because they always see the subjective side of how inwardly sinful, filthy, and unclean they still are. Consequently, they do not see how they can be saved. We need to know that all that Christ has accomplished is on the objective side and cannot be found on the subjective side. If a lamp is on this side, how can you find it on the other side? What the Lord accomplished at Golgotha was not accomplished in us. If we search within ourselves, we will never find it. Although I cannot find Christ’s dying for us within, can it be found on the cross? If Christ’s death for us can be found on the cross, then we can declare, “Hallelujah! Christ has borne my sins; I am saved.” Whenever our faith latches on to the objective things, the Holy Spirit will infuse power into our inner being and will cause us to have the peace of forgiveness and the joy of salvation. If we try to find the death of Christ on the subjective side, we will never be able to find it because this is not God’s way. God first gave His Son to man, and then He gave the Holy Spirit to man. The giving of the Holy Spirit follows the giving of God’s Son. Christ came first, then the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit is doing is to complete in us what the Lord has accomplished on His side.
THUS IF WE ONLY PAID ATTENTION TO THE OBJECTIVE TRUTH AND DISREGARD THE SUBJECTIVE TRUTH,
WOULD HAVE ONLY ONE WING, STILL CANNOT FLY
However, we should not emphasize one half and neglect the other. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that we have been raised up together with Christ Jesus. On the other hand, Ephesians 1:19-20 says, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ.” Although the believers in Ephesus were resurrected with Christ, the apostle Paul still wanted them to know the exceeding greatness of His power. Verse 19 tells us the greatness of this power; verse 20 tells us that this power is the resurrection power. In other words, although we have been resurrected, we still need to know the greatness of this power. On the objective side we have resurrection; on the subjective side we still need to know the power of resurrection. Faith is toward what Christ has accomplished, while obedience is specifically toward what the Spirit will accomplish. Faith is toward Christ, and obedience is toward the Spirit. Therefore, it is very crucial to believe and obey.
Ascension is the last great accomplished truth in the New Testament. The Lord’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension are some of the greatest truths in the Bible. Concerning the Lord’s ascension, you do not know how much time I spent shortly after I was saved thinking how good it would be if only I could daily sit in the heavenlies and have my sin under my feet. I was like an airplane in the sky that could not stay in the sky forever. I continually besought the Lord that one day I would be able to sit steadily in the heavenlies and break my record of ascension. Then one day I read Ephesians 2:6: “And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” I realized then that when Christians were raised up together with Christ, they were also seated together with Him in the heavenlies. This is not due to their diligence or prayers. It is because Christ brought us into the heavenlies when He ascended. Because He is in the heavenlies, I am also in the heavenlies. However, I should allow the power of the Lord’s ascension to be manifested in me.
On the other hand, Colossians 3:1-3 says, “If therefore you were raised together with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This is subjective. Ascension means that our life has been hidden with Christ in God. Because we have died, resurrected, and ascended, we ought to seek the things which are above and daily set our mind on the things which are above. Suppose a sinner hears that the Lord Jesus has died for him and thinks that since the Lord has died for him, he can go on sinning. We all know that this is not right. We have the position of ascension. However, if we continually set our mind on the things that are on the earth, even our ascended position will do us no good. If we believe in Christ’s ascension and, at the same time, continually set our minds on the things above rather than the things on earth, we will not only be in the heavenlies objectively, but we will also be in the heavenlies subjectively.
IT BEING ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO BELIEVE ALL THAT CHRIST HAS DONE ON THE OBJECTIVE SIDE;
IT BEING ALSO ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO OBEY WHAT THE SPIRIT WANTS TO DO ON THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE
Brothers, only having objective facts without having subjective experience is too theoretical; one will not have any taste of heaven from this. It is absolutely necessary to believe all that Christ has done on the objective side. It is also absolutely necessary to obey what the Spirit wants to do on the subjective side. All spiritual experiences come first from believing what Christ has accomplished and then by obeying the Spirit’s leading. Christ’s accomplishments cause us to gain the position; the Spirit’s leading causes us to gain the experiences. The accomplishments of Christ are facts for us to believe. The leading of the Spirit is the principle for us to obey. All spiritual experiences begin from the objective side; there is no exception. Our anchor must be cast in Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension.
John 15:4-5 says, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The order in this passage is most important. Being “in Me” is first. The “Me” in this verse is the Lord. One must first be in Christ. This is the objective side. Then “I in you” follows. “I in you” is Christ abiding in us. This is the subjective side. We must first have the objective aspect, then the subjective aspect will be added. What follows thereafter is a promise that we will bear much fruit. Being in the Lord is the objective side. Once we have the objective side, then we will have the subjective side of the Lord abiding in us. When we believe in the objective fact, everything on the objective side will come into us. The issue of the objective plus the subjective is fruit-bearing. There will not be any fruit-bearing if we only have the objective side; similarly, we will not bear any fruit if we just have the subjective side. Whenever the objective and subjective sides are joined together, there will be fruit-bearing.
When the church began in Jerusalem, there were both men and women praying in the upper room. In typology, men represent the objective truth, while women represent the subjective truth. The presence of men typifies the presence of objective truth or doctrine, while the presence of women typifies the presence of subjective truth or experience. In the church today, some preach only the subjective truth. An example of this is the so-called holiness group; they only have the female aspect. However, others only teach the objective truth. An example of this is the Brethren; they only have the male aspect. Both of these extremes suffer loss. By paying attention only to the subjective side, one not only fails to gain any experience, but he also suffers daily. On the other hand, those who pay attention solely to the objective side and live a carefree daily life, thinking that they have died, resurrected, and ascended with Christ and, therefore, need not care for anything else, will not have any experience either. God’s way is not to pay attention only to the objective side or only to the subjective side. The principle in the Bible is for us to first have the objective aspect and then the subjective aspect. We should first have the facts of Christ and then follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. The result will be much fruit-bearing. May God teach us to obey Him more and serve Him more according to His way. (Fact, Faith, and Experience, ch. 20)