| Watchman Nee |
| "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5 |
"In respect of his DIVINITY the Lord Jesus
REMAINS UNIQUELY the only begotten Son of God." The Normal Christian Life
"Spiritual warfare accordingly demands an attitude of total
death to feeling and an absolute trust in God. Only a person with this attitude
can bear up alone and not seek companions or man's approval in fighting the
enemy. Only this caliber of Christian can proceed under all sorts of anguished
feelings. He cares not al all for his life nor about death but only cares for
the leading of God. He indulges no personal interest, desire, or longing. He has
offered himself to death already and then lives exclusively for God. He nether
blames nor misunderstands Him because he considers all His ways to be loving.
This is the class of person who is able to fill the breach. Though he may appear
to be deserted by God and forgotten by men, yet he mans his battle station. He
is a prayer warrior. He overcomes Satan." The Spiritual Man, Vol II
"Satan has disguised himself as an angel of light to lead
saints to worship with their intellect a Jesus other than the Lord, to receive a
spirit other than the Holy Spirit, and by these to propagate a gospel other than
the gospel of the grace of God." The Spiritual Man, Vol III
"The spiritual path does not yield any enjoyment to the
person himself; it is instead a life of daily fighting. To remove warfare from a
spiritual life is to render it unspiritual. Life in the spirit is a suffering
way, filled with watching and laboring, burdened by weariness and trial,
punctuated by heartbreak and conflict. It is a life utterly outpoured entirely
for the kingdom of God and lived in complete disregard for one's personal
happiness." The Spiritual Man, Vol II
"Some people perhaps may consider themselves extremely wise
in their ability to advance many arguments against the gospel; others may take
for granted that unbelief is due to dullness of understanding; but the truth in
both cases is that the eyes of man's mind have been covered by Satan... It is
difficult to estimate how much of the world's philosophy, ethics, knowledge,
research, and science flow from the powers of darkness. But of one point we are
certain: all arguments and proud obstacles against the knowledge of God are the
fortresses of the enemy." The Spiritual Man, Vol III
"Except a man receive God's new life and serve Him therein,
every bit of service for God is but the work of the flesh. His intention to
serve and even to suffer for Him is vain. Before he is regenerated, his will,
even though it may be inclined towards good and God, is futile. For it is not
what fallen man intends to do for God but how God Himself wishes man to do for
Him that really counts in God's eyes. Man may devise and initiate countless
notable works for God; nonetheless, if they do not originate with God they are
nothing more than will-worship." The Spiritual Man, Vol III
"Man is not regenerated because he wills it so. He must be
born of God. Nowadays Christians entertain the incorrect concept that if anyone
wishes to be saved and seeks the way of life he undoubtedly will be a good
disciple of Christ, for nothing can be better than this desire. God nonetheless
affirms that in this matter of regeneration as well as in all other matters
related to Him, the will of man is totally nonefficacious." The Spiritual Man,
Vol III
"In salvation, we are saved not because we want to be saved
but because God wants to save us; and so it is to be throughout our lives. We
need to see that aside from what God does through us, all other activities,
however commendable they may be, are utterly nonefficacious." The Spiritual Man,
Vol III
"According to the actual condition of man, while he is a
sinner his will is rebellious against God. Therefore God must bring men to
Himself as well as grant them new life." The Spiritual Man, Vol III
"Man's spirit needs to be quickened because it is born
dead." The Spiritual Man, Vol I
"To be penitent, to feel sorry for sin, to shed tears, to
even make decisions does not bring in salvation. Confession, decision, and many
other religious acts can never be and are not to be construed as new birth." The
Spiritual Man, Vol I
"At regeneration man receives God's own life into his
spirit and is born of God." The Spiritual Man, Vol I
"He who is not united with the Lord has not yet believed
and therefore has no part in Him." The Spiritual Man, Vol I
"Once a man is born of God he can never be treated by God
as not having been so born of Him. However endless eternity may be, this
relationship and this position cannot be annulled. This is because what a
believer receives at new birth is not contingent upon a progressive, spiritual
and holy pursuit after he believes but is the pure gift of God. What God bestows
is eternal life. No possibility exists for this life and position to be
abrogated." The Spiritual Man, Vol I
"If we who are responsible for preaching the gospel truly
perceive that unless people receive God's life into the depths of their beings
we have not done anything profitable, then what a drastic reformation will there
be in our work! Indeed, such knowledge will brings us to the realization that
many who do profess to believe in the Lord Jesus have never actually done so."
The Spiritual Man, Vol I
"It is vital that each believer know beyond doubt he has
been regenerated already and has received new life." The Spiritual Man, Vol I
"God makes it quite clear in his Word that he has only one
answer to every human need -- his Son, Jesus Christ." The Normal Christian Life
"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." The Normal Christian Life
"I need forgiveness for my sins, but I need also
deliverance from the power of sin... 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."
The Normal Christian Life
"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 Normal Christian Life
"We should understand that the meaning of our body as the
temple of the Holy Spirit is more than its being the recipient of a special
privilege. It likewise means being a channel for effective power." The Spiritual
Man, Vol III
"God makes it quite clear in his Word that he has only one
answer to every human need -- his Son, Jesus Christ." The Normal Christian Life
"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." The Normal Christian Life
"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 Normal Christian Life
"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... The blood was put on the lintel and on the doorposts,
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 doorposts, where those
feasting inside the house would not see it." The Normal Christian Life
"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?... 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." The Normal Christian Life
"Never should we try to answer Satan with our good conduct
but always with the Blood." The Normal Christian Life
"The teaching of Romans is not that we are sinners because
we commit sins, but that we sin because we are sinners. We are sinners by
constitution rather than by action... Yes, the 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... It is birth that counts. So I am a sinner because I am born in
Adam. It is a matter not of my behavior 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." The Normal Christian Life
"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." The Normal Christian Life
"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, on 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... 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 behavior, make myself other than a part of Adam,
and so a sinner... Unless we can change our parentage there is no deliverance
for us." The Normal Christian Life
"In Adam we receive everything that is of Adam; in Christ
we receive everything that is of Christ... Our despair is in Adam; our hope is
in Christ." The Normal Christian Life
"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 Christ 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 and indisputable fact." The Normal
Christian Life
"The Lord Jesus, when He died on the Cross, shed His Blood,
thus giving His sinless life to atone for 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 never told us that we shed our
blood with Christ. In His atoning work before God He acted alone; no other could
have a part. But the Lord did not die only to shed His Blood; He died that we
might die. He died as our Representative. In His death He included you and me."
The Normal Christian Life
"As the last Adam, Christ is the sum total of humanity; as
the second Man he is the Head of a new race... We died in Him as the last Adam;
we live in Him as the second Man. The Cross is thus the mighty act of God which
translates us from Adam to Christ." The Normal Christian Life
"Just as we cannot have justification if we have not seen
Him (Jesus Christ) bearing our sins on the Cross, so we cannot have
sanctification if we have not seen Him bearing us on the cross... what is true
of your forgiveness is also true of your deliverance. The work is done." The
Normal Christian Life
"Has Christ been crucified? Then can I be otherwise? And if
He was crucified nearly two thousand years ago, and I with Him, can my
crucifixion be said to take place tomorrow? Can His be past and mine present or
future? Praise the Lord, when He died on the Cross I died with Him. He not only
died in my stead, but He bore me with Him on the Cross, so that when He died I
also 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." The Normal Christian Life
"Any true experience of value in the sight of God must have
been reached by way of a new discovery of the meaning of the Person and work of
the Lord Jesus." The Normal Christian Life
"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. He has made
full provision for sin's rule to be utterly broken." The Normal Christian Life
"Once man is completely under the dominion of the flesh he
has no possibility of liberating himself." The Spiritual Man
"When Christ was judged, all who will be regenerated
present in Christ." The Spiritual Man
"The Bible hence never regards new birth as being severity
to the body, impulsive feeling, the demand of the will, or reform through mental
understanding." The Spiritual Man
"He who is accepted in Christ is as acceptable as Christ."
The Spiritual Man
"Unregenerated man is powerless to fulfill any of God's
will." The Spiritual Man
"Those who attempt to follow the law only disclose their
disobedience to God, seeking to establish their own righteousness in lieu of
God's righteousness." The Spiritual Man
"God does not impart His life to us to educate and train
the flesh. Rather, it is given to overcome the flesh." The Spiritual Man
"If we attempt to teach an unregenerate to do good and to
worship God, we are simply teaching a dead man." The Spiritual Man
"Whatever does not issue from waiting upon God, from
depending upon the Holy Spirit, is unquestionably of the flesh." The Spiritual
Man
"Just as God hates unrighteousness, so He abhors
self-righteousness. The good acts done naturally without the necessity of
regeneration or union with Christ or dependence upon the Holy Spirit are no less
carnal before God than are immorality, impurity, licentiousness, etc." The
Spiritual Man
"Since a believer cannot be freed from the influence of the
flesh for a moment, he should never cease exercising the heart to judge himself;
otherwise he will step once more into the boasting of the flesh>" The Spiritual
Man
"Faith comes through revelation. Without the latter the
former is impossible." The Spiritual Man
"If a believer walks according to God's Spirit he will not
originate or regulate anything; he will instead wait quietly for the voice of
the Holy Spirit to be heard in his spirit intuitively and assume for himself the
position of a subordinate. BLy hearing the inner voice he rises up to work,
obeying the direction of intuition." The Spiritual Man
"All the promises which God grants us in the Bible may be considered conditional. None are bestowed to gratify one's fleshly lust." The Spiritual Man