Christian Life and Its Sufferings (2)

0:00We praise the Lord for thy great plan, that we might well in place may be." Welcome to Life Study of the Bible brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. In 1924, Witnessly was dynamically saved by the Lord as a young man in his native China, and he promptly consecrated the rest of his life to the gospel. He co-labored with Watchman Knee for parts of the next three decades. And in 1962, Witnessly was led by the Lord to come to the United States. During his 35 years of service to the Lord in America, he ministered in weekly meetings and weekend conferences, delivering thousands of spoken messages. Much of his speaking has since been published, as more than 400 titles, many of which have been translated into numerous foreign languages. He gave his last public conference in February 1997 at the age of 91.

1:02We're happy today to be able to bring you recorded excerpts from his speaking, and encourage you to contact us if you have any further questions or comments. Please send email to radio at lsm.org. Now, let's join today's program. The word grace bears tremendous significance in the New Testament. Yet, like so many biblical terms, it has become almost a cliche to many people and has been greatly devalued in the understanding of most Christians. God's unmerited favor has become the most common definition among believers. And while this does convey a certain limited sense of the word, it's obvious by considering scripture that this definition is grossly inadequate. Consider Peter's use of the word grace in 1 Peter, chapter 2, verses 19 and 20. For this is grace, he writes, if anyone, because of a consciousness of God, bears sorrows by suffering unjustly. For what glory is it if while sinning and being buffeted you endure?

2:04But if while doing good and suffering you endure, this is grace with God. John Pester has joined us today for, I think John, fair to say, a rather in-depth study of a couple of very important verses in this book of 1 Peter. I certainly hope so, because this word grace, especially as it's unveiled and revealed in 1 Peter, is a tremendously significant word in the New Testament. I thought, John, in preparing this program, we're going to hear in the first portion of witness Lee's sharing a little bit about the translation that was involved or the translation work that was ongoing at the time. He was giving these messages in the production of what has become the translation we publish at Living Stream, which is the recovery version we refer to it from time to time. And for those of our listeners who are not familiar with the recovery version, this is a very literal, it of course has more contemporary language, but I think you know, fair amount about the recovery version. Give us a very quick overview of some of the principles

3:05that were involved in this translation. I think the overriding principle in the translation of the recovery version was to convey the spiritual light and understanding that the Lord has passed down from generation to generations to His church from the beginning. We call it the recovery version because there was a period of time when the Bible was locked up. It was a dark book. People didn't understand it and people didn't appreciate it. But as the Bible began to be opened up in the Reformation and through the subsequent interpretations that were supplied by many and light and men of God throughout the subsequent centuries, many, many precious truths have been recovered. And so the focus of the recovery version is not to give you facts and biblical archaeology and those kinds of details, but the principle focus of the recovery version in its translation and in the numerous footnotes that it contains is to convey a sense of the spiritual light and truth that the Lord has given to His body and which will sustain His body and cause His body

4:09to mature and grow and ultimately bring the Lord Himself back. I think this verse or these verses as we'll see in this program today really illustrate the benefit of a translation like the recovery version. Here are a couple of verses that when you really take these words literally according to the Greek text, they are difficult to understand on their own. And therefore, historically, translators recognizing this kind of difficulty, I've frequently opted away from the literal word itself to try to come up with something that lends the reader a bit more ease of understanding. So we have, I looked at a number of translations on these two verses I just read, verse Peter 219 and 20. Most of them render this word grace as being acceptable or thankful and it reads something like this, for this is acceptable. If anyone because of a consciousness of God bears sorrow by suffering unjustly, now that's a little easier to understand, but it is not really according to the original language, the literal

5:09word there is grace. So the recovery version has taken the literal Greek term and then relied on the footnote to help add understanding. And I think this is a real benefit of such a version, I think this is a great benefit and I think this is a prime example and illustration of where a literal translation provides spiritual understanding if there is a realization of the context and if there is a proper understanding of the word itself. Correct. Most people, when they talk about grace, talk about grace as being unmerited favor in relationship to our salvation. We were sinful and we were sinners and we were without any recourse to save ourselves and God in his without any merit of our own came in and gave us the favor of saving us and imparting salvation into us. That's the common understanding of grace, unmerited favor. But when Peter uses the very same word grace, he uses it in a completely different context which is foreign to that understanding.

6:14Peter talks about grace in a situation where we are unjustly suffering, but this is grace. And so in order to understand what Peter means by grace, we have to dive into the depths of the word. And first of all, just accept the word grace as grace and not try to make it more palatable or more understandable, but try to instead of making the word understandable to our concepts, we should conform our concepts to the word. And I think, witnessly, does that very well in this particular life-study message. I'm so appreciative of the fact that we're already on life-study message number 20, but we're only toward the end of chapter two. The first Peter shows you the significance and the depth of what's there. Why don't we go ahead and join witness league into this message and we'll come back at maybe the end of the program if we have time to talk a little bit more about the recovery version and how our listeners might be able to get a copy. If you read verse 19, Peter uses the grace, or even this call, the sentence, this is grace twice.

7:22These word grace used this way, this is grace, and this is grace with God, has very much bothered translators because this is hard for the reader to understand how could a common reader have such a sentence understand what it means. This is grace. So we just took the bonus to translate literally. This is grace. What is grace in our man of life? Well, it is just the motivation of the divine life which we have received at our regeneration within us and its expression. Outside of us, and this motivation and expression become so graces in our behavior and acceptable.

8:31So when people saw these people would say, this is grace. What is this? This is grace. In our daily life, in the manner of a holy life, we should, day after day, time after time, give people the impression that grace is with us. For instance, a sister was sick. And everybody was concerned for her. To our opinions, she was dying. But I tell you, she was happy in the hospital, and that surprised all the doctors, especially the nurses. What is this? The sufferings, nobody can bear, but this is there not only bear the sufferings, but also a sea. What is that concern for her life?

9:36If we were there, we would say this is grace. This is grace, right? This is grace. John, I thought you made a very interesting observation in our introduction that this sense in which Peter is using grace, almost opposite of the common understanding about unmerited favor. This is when we deserve to suffer, but instead we get God's mercy and his salvation as a free gift. And certainly, this is an aspect of grace. We're not denying that. But in this context, as you point it out, it's almost opposite of that. This is suffering in a sense. We really don't deserve, but there's an experience of Christ in the midst of this suffering that is the other sense of grace that we can't miss or shouldn't miss, isn't it? I think if we take the view that grace is just unmerited favor, we miss the whole point of what Peter is talking about in verses 2 11 through 419, the subject of which is the Christian life and its sufferings. The Christian life has its sufferings. No one who is in the midst of suffering, whether it's deserved or not, would ask for that

10:43as a portion of grace. Lord, give me more suffering. The Lord's prayers deliver us from temptation, deliver us from evil. But very few Christians would say that the sufferings that they're going through as a grace, but to Peter, it is. But it's not just the just sufferings or the deserved sufferings that our grace. Peter says that the unjust sufferings that we experience, we have a consciousness of God. A person has a consciousness of God. They're an intimate inward fellowship with God. And then as a result of that, there is some unjust suffering and some bearing of sorrows. How many Christians would say that an unjust suffering is grace? We have to realize that that in and of itself shows that there's a deeper understanding of what grace is. And I think we'll see in the next section, as we talk about the model of Christ, we'll really come to understand that grace is intimately and directly linked to the divine life of Christ, which we have received.

11:46And that's why witness Lee says that grace in this sense is kind of the inward motivation of the divine life. There is an inward motivation of the divine life in every Christian, which allows that Christian to experience God in such extreme circumstances that even though the circumstances are unjust, God is there. God is present, God is enjoyable, God is experienceable because the very grace that we experience is the very God himself. You know, we're talking about Peter's use of the word here, but I recall this also was very thematic in Paul's writings. I mean, there's a place where Paul says it's not I but Christ. In other words, it's not I but Christ. In me, then in another place, Paul says it's not I but the grace, which means that it is this grace, which is Christ himself in dwelling us that is enabling us to ride above or transcend these kind of negative experiences. I think all of the apostles, when you get right down to their intrinsic understanding of the word grace, it was always the inward motivation and the inward operation of

12:52the divine life, which is the inward operation of Christ himself working in our being and working out an outward expression that when people see us in the midst of an unjust suffering, their only response is this is grace. Well, we said that Paul also gives us this thought, assuming that Paul is the writer of Hebrews, which we somewhat accept here, recognizing it's not universally accepted. He writes in chapter 12 of Hebrews, therefore receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us have grace or let us take grace through which we may serve God well pleasingly with piety and fear. And we will hear witness Lee in this coming section, bring us back a verse now from 19 back to 18. It sets up the context, household servants, be subject in all fear to your masters, not only to the good and for bearing, but also to the crooked for this is grace. Here's witness Lee again. We all have to learn to have grace, learn to have grace. That means to

13:54possess grace, to take grace, to apply grace, grace here. Grace is just the processed child God as the all-inclusive, life-giving and indwelling spirit. Right in you, have grace, take grace, apply grace in any kind of circumstances. I tell you, you and I, we all have to learn how to apply grace, brings it back to verse 18. The household servants, subject yourself, you know, fear to your masters, not only to the good and for bearing, but also to the crooked for this is grace. If anyone because of consciousness of God, indicating that he is living in an intimate

15:02fellowship with God, this implies so much. That is, deep within us, there is always consciousness before God, you see, and this consciousness always tells us something, always regulates us, right? Always guides us, always says something to us. If anyone because of these inward consciousness, there are sorrows. Suffering unjustly, this is grace. For todays, you are called, and this is called to the enjoyment of God as grace in any kind of circumstances.

16:07Forever, the circumstances would be, God is our enjoyment within, and this very God is our grace, our grace, and this is not only our inward motivation, but also our outward expression. People can see it, people can realize it, and people can see it glowing on our face, in our attitude, in our spirit, in our atmosphere, then they would say, my, this is wonderful, this is pretty, this is beautiful, this is sweet, this is gracious, this is acceptable, and this is thankful, what is this, this is grace. Well, he emphasizes again here, John, we have both the inward motivation, we have the outward expression. I'd like to go back to this example he used in the first section, we have an elderly sister in the hospital, suffering and illness, it's going to lead to death,

17:13and the suffering is intense, but what is manifest, what's expressed, and all around can see, is really something that can only be described as beautiful, as sweet. Of course, we know now, this is grace, isn't it? This is grace, and this grace is really the outward manifestation of the inward reality of a person living in a consciousness with God, and having a consciousness of God, inwardly, deeply, a person contacts the Lord, and experiences the Lord as grace, and there is a spontaneous outflow of that life in the expressions and in the actions of that person. I think it's very critical to realize that when in John, chapter 1, it says grace and reality came with Jesus Christ. Grace is always intimately associated, not just with the work of Christ, the work of forgiveness, but the very person of Christ Himself as He's lived out and worked out in our experience, and it's so impressive to me to realize that this grace is really just Christ

18:21Himself. If we're suffering because of something that we have done and deserved, we don't have much complaint, because we reap what we sow. But if we're in a situation of unjust suffering without the person and the reality of Christ coming out from within our regenerated spirit, we have no capacity to endure that situation. Rather, as we'll see in the next verses, when the Lord was in the midst of those kinds of unjust sufferings, He said He was reviled, but He did not revile in return. But in our experience, if we don't have the experience of grace, and we get put in the midst of an unjust situation, what immediately comes out of our mouth is reviling, because we just do not have the capacity, the supply to endure unjust suffering. It's difficult enough for us to endure just suffering, but to endure unjust suffering, we need the

19:21living person of Christ as a real model and pattern, lived and worked out of our being. When we have that, that is grace, and when people see that expression within people, their response is, this is grace, there's an appreciation for it, there's a thankfulness for it, but the person that is imparting that expression, there's not a real realization within their being, they're just in the enjoyment, and that enjoyment manifests itself as grace. Wow, this is wonderful. You just mentioned a model pattern. This comes up in the next verse in our sequence here, verse 21, for to this you were called, because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in his steps. We want to get into the intrinsic and real deeper meaning of this portion as well. Here's what is left for our final segment. We were called today's, because Christ, listen, also suffered on your behalf. His life is a model, a writing copy. I use the word Xeroxing. Christ's daily life, according to the

20:36four gospels, was a copy for Xeroxing. And we should be his reproduction. We should be his Xeroxed copy, till the spiritual light, until all the riches of the divine life, eventually will come out just like Christ, a reproduction of Christ. This is grace and Christ left us a model. Grace here is very much related to the model. From people say, this is grace, I tell you right way, you became a Xerox copy of Christ, of the model, of the writing copy. You see? From people say,

21:38what is this? This is grace. I tell you, you become a copy of the writing copy. You become a reproduction of Christ, every daily living, that bears the sickness, the greasiness. I tell you, that is not only grace, that is a reproduction of Christ. This is not just an imitated Christ. What John, I have to confess, I somewhat purposely wanted to cut him off there with this somewhat provocative thought. I ask you to pick this up. What we're talking about, this reproduction of Christ, as contrasted with a more common or typical thought of imitating Christ. I think it's important to realize that most people, when they see this verse in 1 Peter, they think of that

22:39Christ has left us a model and a pattern, and we need to imitate him. I would just ask them to look at the verses that immediately follow that exhortation about Christ being our model and ask any Christian whether or not they could imitate Christ in those matters. A, he committed no sin. B, there was no guile found in his mouth. C, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. And D, he kept committing all to him who judges righteously. That is not a pattern that I can imitate in my natural life. The only person that has ever done that is Christ himself. And we have received that person. And only when we find ourselves in the midst of those kinds of circumstances, the only way we can extricate ourself from them is to take Christ as grace, to experience the one who accomplished these things and have that model worked out in our being in an organic way. This was Peter's realization that the model that was left was Christ himself, who is now

23:42indwelling us, who is now enlivening us, who has regenerated our human spirit. We have been left with the model and the person who can carry out the model. Well, I want to close maybe with how we open and that's by presenting to our listeners the benefit or the value of the recovery version. I picked up this verse, John, and the footnote that is on this very word that you were just speaking about, the word model. He says, this does not refer to a mere imitation of him and his life, but to a reproduction of him that comes from enjoying him as grace in our sufferings, so that he himself as the indwelling spirit with all the riches of his life reproduces himself in us. We become the reproduction of the original writing copy, not a mere imitation of him produced by taking him as our outward model. Praise the Lord for this. And amen. This is grace. This is grace. Well, we normally close by encouraging you to contact us to get the printed life study messages. We're doing that today. And also, of course, we are recommending highly,

24:46strongly this recovery version of the whole Bible with footnotes from Genesis to Revelation. So if you'd like to find out about either of these marvelous resources, we hope you'll contact us. Our toll free number is 1-888-Life Study. 888-543-3788. All right, and that is all the time for today. For John Pester, I'm Chris Wilde. Thank you very much for listening. You've been listening to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly, brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. Whether you're hearing this program via radio, online or as a podcast, you'll find hundreds of audio studies just like this one by visiting our website, lsmradio.com. We also hope you'll email us with your questions or comments. Radio

25:47at lsm.org or call us toll free 1-888-Life Study. That's 888-543-3788. Thanks for listening.