Jan 10, 2026
The True Christian • Feb 01st 1986
The True Secret of the Christian Life
What if everything you’ve been told about the “victorious Christian life” is based if everything you’ve been told about the “victorious Christian life” is based on a misunderstanding of history and human effort? If we want to understand Christian living, Gene Edwards argues that we must stop looking at formulas, imitation, or performance—which he finds disastrous—and instead, look beyond time and space to the origins of the faith. Gene Edwards challenges the notion that the secret to the Christian life lies in external duties like Bible reading, prayer, or witnessing, asserting that these are not foundational, especially considering the illiteracy of the early church. He reveals that the only true Christian is the Father, who staked out a franchise on this life. The secret is not what we do, but how the Eternal Son lived every moment on earth: by means of the Father’s life, in an unbroken, eternal fellowship of beholding, loving, listening, and obeying. Join Gene Edwards as he unpacks this liberating truth, demonstrating that the Christian life is simply an internal, eternal habit of fellowship that the Lord now lives in and through us.
We’re going to have a rather informal meeting tonight. I’m going to talk with you, and I’m going to ask you to talk back to me, if you will. This morning in the second service, second morning service, I said that tonight I would talk to you about the secret of the Christian life, the secret of the Christian’s life.
By way of introduction, I’m going to tell you just a little bit about myself. Saved in Texas, a senior in college, shortly thereafter entered the ministry, instantly went to seminary at Southwestern, and became a pastor. After pastor, I became an evangelist. I saved the world by the time I was 29. It was all a blur from one end of America to the other. I was completely burned out in spirit and in soul, but I learned a little bit about myself, and what I had learned was that I was really more interested in being a Christian than I was in serving the Lord. I actually had to make a decision about which I was going to be, and it was not an easy decision. I laid down the ministry in its entirety and told the Lord I would never minister again until I ministered, or I just wouldn’t, unless He ministered in me, through me, lots of things like that.
I went on an exploration to find out something about, may I use this term, deeper things of the Lord. Well, I was mercifully treated by the Lord, and I learned a great deal, and I have to say that was experientially, not knowledge. I think that I learned a great deal from some of the very best possible places. And I know you’re curious as a cat as to what I’m talking about. About that time, I got sick, and that destroyed all possibilities of my taking anything that I may have thought I’d discovered and running out somewhere with it, which would be my natural inclination, being of an evangelistic heart. I was out of it for the next four years.
Then I have to tell you that I had two things on my heart. One of them was to know the Lord. I don’t mean in salvation. I trust you understand what I’m saying. And I wanted to know His church, and when I say that, it’s very difficult to explain what I mean, but I think you could come a lot closer to understanding than most folks, and for sure, you could come a lot closer to understanding than most Baptists because of the very unique assembly you have here. I think the Lord granted me both of those desires. In my heart, I discovered things of Him, in Him, through Him, by Him, and for him that I never knew existed, not in my wildest imagination. And I had the privilege of experiencing the body of Christ and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as very few people ever have, and one of the highest expressions of the church that I suppose anyone ever had the opportunity to.
Five years ago, my health broke again, and I have been confined to bed most of the last five years, and this is kind of my first time out, so you better kick your shoes off and lean back. I’ve got a lot to say, folks. I went through that stage at 30, and I have to hope and believe that I’ve gone to another one now in my 50s. Now, you’ve been wondering how old I am. I’m 16, going on 127.
I will share something with you tonight that you have never heard before, and if I am wrong, you come and correct me. Okay? Brother Peter, would you do that? If you say, Gene, this is old hat, I wish you would come and tell me. In fact, come and tell me of any book you have ever read that deals with this subject. Come and tell me of any minister anywhere that is speaking today about what I will share with you tonight. I would like to know, and that’s not a dare. That’s a hope. A genuine hope.
Before I get there. I have something very personal I want to say, and I want you to listen to me. I want to say something that probably doesn’t even need to be said, but I feel the need to say it. I’ve been very impressed with your church. In fact, I didn’t know anything like this existed. I’ve only met 4,5, 10, or 15,000 Baptist preachers in my life. Among all the Christian workers that I know, very few are real leaders. Leadership is a rare commodity. If you have leadership that is innovative, you even have a rarer commodity. Innovative leadership is even more rare. Now then, if you want to get it over into the scale of the exotic, try to find a leader, a Christian leader, who is an innovator and a pioneer, and you’re down to a handful. And you’re lucky. Say amen. I’m glad you did that. Thank you. I’m encouraged by that.
I belong to a group of Christian people who had one of the greatest expressions of the church that’s ever been, and when you get in it, you get used to it. But every person who’s ever left that place has wandered from one end of this country to another, thinking there was another one somewhere, and they’re still looking, and they just never have found it. And you can get in here and begin taking the church for granted, don’t do that. It’s very unique. Be grateful. Now, mind me. Be grateful. And follow Peter, and don’t give him a hard time, just do what he tells you to, and don’t think about it.
Okay, before I begin telling you the secret of the Christian’s life, you’re going to tell me, rather than expose any of our ignorance here tonight, we’ll play superior. Okay? We’ll all play superior. What do other people say is the secret to the Christian life? And let’s… Okay? Alright, you got it, good. We’ll start with the simplest things and then work our way to the deepest, most profound things we’ve ever heard. Now, I want you to talk to me, and I want you to say it really loud and clear because I really would like to know what you do know and what you’ve been exposed to. What’s the secret to the victorious Christian life? What is the secret of the Christian life? What are the secrets of the Christian life? What are the things that make us victorious? Or whatever.
Alright. Start. Now talk to me. Prayer.
Alright, we have prayer. Obedience. Faith. Death to self. Serving others. Fellowship with other believers. Teachable. Having a teachable spirit. Okay, I got seven. We’re going on. Christ in me, the hope of glory. That isn’t bad. The Word of God. Alright, you’re referring to the Scripture. Okay. Alright. The worship of God. And what was another one? Believing in God. Thanksgiving. Hearing God. Boy, I tell you, Peter, this is great. Your folks are doing real fine. All right, go ahead. Speaking to God. Hey, aren’t you going to throw in tongues? Come on, Baptists. Don’t be so sectarian. Throw in speaking in tongues. Somebody do it. Amen. Speaking in tongues. Alright. Helping one another. Getting the truth in the inward parts. An abundance of the Father’s life. Being filled with the Spirit.