The True Secret of the Christian Life

Give it a little thought for a moment, would you? I want you to listen to this; every Christian needs to hear this. Einstein stepped off a train, and a bunch of reporters came around him. He’d come into a city to speak about this new thing called relativity and E = mc². They asked him, “Now we know we can’t understand it, and everybody’s told us it’s too deep for us, but would you please explain E = mc², this relativity business, in some way we can put in the newspaper?”

Boy, his answer was unreal. He said, “I think we all have the idea that if you were to remove all matter from creation, there would be a gigantic empty place. He said that is not true. Matter, time, and space are one, and if you remove all the atoms and molecules, and if they cease to exist, ‘nothing’ even ceases to exist.” Did you hear that? There’s not even a big hole. There’s not even a big abyss, an empty abyss. The empty abyss goes with the matter. Do you know what that means? That means the great, big, massive thing called space began with creation. Creation was physical matter, atoms dropping out of the hand of God, and with that came the big hole, the big empty space, and until then, there was nothing. I mean, no, no, no, that’s not right. Not even nothing. There was not even nothing.

Well, what was there? Do you know what was there? There was one thing, and there was nothing else on the edges of that one thing. There was God. He was All. And you know something else? He was a Christian.

I’d like you, for one moment, please, to drop all your concepts of what the Christian life is and what a Christian is, and let us free ourselves, for a moment, in our imaginations of time and of space, and let us, as best we can, see before creation: God. Only my arms aren’t big enough. And He is the All. And He is living the Christian life. And you better believe this: He’s the only one who ever has or ever will. He’s got…He has staked out a franchise on the Christian life. It belongs to Him and nobody else.

Now, for those of you who are doers, that may come as a tremendous disappointment. Those of you who love to play golf, I understand golf is the game of a man who is determined he’s going to do it. Against all odds. Well, trying to live the Christian life is very much like trying to get a pig to learn manners at the dinner table. You have the wrong species. The Christian life is confined to God. Now, hold steady. Don’t throw anything yet. Wait just a moment.

Who was the first Christian? Now you tell me, who was the first Christian? Okay. We have somebody holding out for the Trinity here, real strong. May I put it this way? The first Christian was the Father. The first Christian was the Father. Now, who was the second Christian? I don’t know if it was the Holy Spirit of the Eternal Son. I really don’t know. But I’m fascinated with something that, in all of the references, there is so little definition of the Holy Spirit’s part in this. Don’t strain the scripture to try to find it, because it’s simply not there. I understand someone recently wrote a book entitled ‘The Shy Member of the Trinity’. I love that title. He is there to glorify the Father and the Son, and he is very shy toward any glorification. He is there to glorify, not to be glorified. He is there to work the works of the Father and the Son.

But I want to come back to the Christian life and say to you that within this eternal God was the fellowship of the Godhead. There was the fellowship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and for just a moment, long before you and I came along, I would like for us to take a moment and look at the Christian life as it was first lived.

Have you ever heard of the term epistemology? Do you know that word? Could you define it right now? Is there anybody in here smart enough to define that word? Not anybody, huh? The study of truth. Alright? How we know what we know. That’s pretty good. Epistemology is the study of the origin and meaning of truth. Okay. Here is true epistemology. Here is a look at the beginning of the Christian experience. And brothers and sisters, it makes everything we’ve ever heard pale. And if you will begin here and work forward, the Christian life will become such a glorious and a beautiful thing for you to see.

Will you start at the headwaters? Will you start at the fountainhead? Will you start at the source? Will you begin at the wellspring, look there, and look nowhere else for a moment, and let what was in the Godhead before creation pour forth? Let us look. How is the eternal Son living the Christian life in eternity past, in fellowship with the Father? Can you see? Now here is the Christian life.

Boy, if it were the way we have been taught, you know what we would see? We would see the Son sitting in a chair, reading His Bible, praying, and speaking in tongues, and we would say that is the Christian life and the secret to the Christian life. Now, that’s true. If we press this point too far, that’s where we end up. There was no Bible there, and you know, there wasn’t even any prayer there. And excuse me, Pentecostals, forgive me. Please forgive me. I doubt that the Eternal Son was speaking in tongues. There was no soul-winning. What was going on?

I wish you could just camp right here. I wish we could throw a tent and just camp right here and forget ourselves utterly; to lose the “I” syndrome. I’m a Christian, what do I do? I am a Christian. What is the Christian supposed to do? To totally lose the “I” syndrome and come into the Godhead and look around and see what’s going on. You will be surprised how much the Lord Jesus, while he was on this earth, let leak out what was going on in eternity past. If you don’t believe me, try John 6, John 7, John 14, John 15. Try them and look for what was going on in eternity past.

I’ll go a little further. What was going on was even previous to eternity, because eternity implies that there was something there besides God. If you look in the book of Titus, you will find in the margins of the New American Standard one of the most incredible passages. It says, Before times eternal. Listen to that again. Before times eternal. Oh, brothers and sisters, come with me to the Godhead, and let us see the Christian, and here is simplicity in its essence. You may add to this if you will search it out, no guessing. I will tell you what I am certain of that was going on at that time. Of this I am certain. Of this I can prove.