Book Summary: “The Normal Christian Life” by Watchman Nee
Watchman Nee’s The Normal Christian Life summary: notes, quotes, & highlights
The Blood of Christ
Man has 2 problems: Sins (our individual deeds) and sin (our indwelling nature).
God forgives our individual sins through the blood of Christ, and He delivers us from our indwelling sin through the cross of Christ.
There are two substitutions. Jesus took our place on the cross to secure our forgiveness from sins, and the Holy Spirit takes our place within to secure our victory over sin.
The reason we are forgiven isn’t because God overlooks what we’ve done, but because He sees Christ’s blood.
The flesh is too bad to be cleansed—it must be crucified altogether.
The Cross of Christ
We’re born with indwelling sin no matter how we behave. If I behave like a Nee I am a Nee, but if I don’t behave like a Nee I’m still a Nee. Trying to fix our outward behavior only reveals how deep-seated our sin truly is.
Christ’s blood can’t remove us from Adam’s race. Since we came into Adam’s race by birth, the only way out must be by death.
The Lord included me in his death which allows me to identify myself in Him.
Jesus was “the last Adam” who absorbed Adam’s sin nature and took it to death. When Jesus resurrected, he became “the second man,” initiating new race of men that will never die.
Step 1: Revelation or “Knowing” (Romans 6:6)
“Our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin”
—Romans 6:6
My old, sinful self died on the cross in Christ, and Romans 6:7 says that “whoever is dead is freed from sin.”
Man’s way is to suppress sin in hopes of overcoming it, but God’s way is to erase the sinner altogether. The reason we’re free from sin’s dominion isn’t because God strengthened our old man, but because God crucified him.
Trying to exercise self-control doesn’t work, because I’m powerless and need to set myself aside all together—God has already killed my sinful flesh, so I can stop my human striving and self-effort.
I don’t have to try to be dead, buried, or risen—I am already dead! God reckons me as dead, buried, and risen, and tells me to recon myself in the same way.
Death is utter weakness. My old self is so weak that it can’t get any weaker.
Just like I don’t have to do anything for my justification, I don’t have to do anything for my sanctification. Do you think that God would cleanse all my sins and then leave me to get rid of the sin-producing factory myself?
Instead of praying for myself, I need to recognize what God has already done and praise him for it!
Step 2: Faith or “Reckoning” (Romans 6:11)
“Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus”
—Romans 6:11
When Christ died, I died, because I am in Him.
First God told us to believe on Christ’s death for our justification. Then He told us to reckon that we are crucified so we’d experience deliverance from sin.
God tells us to reckon ourselves as dead—not so that we would become dead through the process of reckoning—but because we already are dead. God couldn’t ask me to reckon myself as dead if I were still alive.
Mark 11:24 says, “Whatever you pray for, believe that you have received it and you will have it.” Faith doesn’t believe that you MAY get something, or that you CAN get something, or even that you WILL get something—faith believes that you already HAVE it.
Sin is not our nature anymore if we’ve been born of God. Christ’s life has been planted in us as a new birth and its nature is not to sin.
Then why do I still sin? It’s not in the nature of wood to sink, but it will “sink” if held underwater.
Even though my old self has truly died with Christ, Satan uses my daily experiences to try to convince me that my old self is still alive. So we must choose: will we believe Satan’s lie or God’s truth? Will we be governed by appearances, or by what God says?
If Satan can get us to doubt God’s Word, then he accomplishes his goal and has us in his power; but if we unshakenly rest in God’s fact, assured that He can’t go against His Word, then it doesn’t matter what tactics Satan adopts, we can well afford to laugh at him.
“We walk by faith, not by appearance” 2 Corinthians 5:7
Temptation takes our eyes off the Lord and focuses them on appearances. Faith is needed when we encounter a mountain of evidence that seems to contradict God’s word. Either faith or the mountain has to go. If God’s Word is truth, then everything else must be a lie. Everything will eventually yield to God’s truth.
Faith is accepting God’s fact no matter how convincing Satan’s arguments appear.
When I have faith I’m operating in alignment reality. When I doubt, my mode of operation is misaligned with reality.
Faith always references something in the past while hope references something in the future. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith (past) is the assurance of things hoped (future) for, a conviction of things not seen.” Faith happens when hope becomes real to me.
Faith makes things that are already real become real IN MY EXPERIENCE. Faith makes Christ’s truths real to ME.
Faith is an ongoing, daily process.
Eternal life isn’t given to us as individuals—the life is in the Son, and 1 John 5:12 says, “Whoever has the Son has life.”
God has put me in Christ, so everything that’s true of Jesus is true of me. I abide in Him.
God used the cross to wipe out everything that was not of Himself.
Salvation is exiting Satan’s world system and entering God’s.
Being baptized proclaims myself dead and fit for the grave.
“Me in Christ” means that I died with him on the cross. “Christ in me” means that He lives in me through the Holy Spirit.
Step 3: Consecration or “Presenting Ourselves to God” (Romans 6:13)
Jesus is my life, so I can give him everything. (But I don’t have anything to give him unless I’ve passed through death first because everything from the old creation is condemned.)
We shouldn’t consecrate ourselves to Christian work—but rather to be and do whatever God requires.
We need to wholly give ourselves to God. We can’t expect a tailor to make us a coat if we don’t give him any cloth to work with.
Giving ourselves to God is both a one-time event and an ongoing process.
Christians can sometimes find themselves out of step with the world and out of step with God.
Side Note: The Holy Spirit
Repentance means changing your mind. I used to think sin was pleasant, but now I’ve changed my mind. I used to think the world was an attractive place, but now I don’t. I used to think being a Christian was miserable business, but now I think the opposite. I used to think certain things were delightful, but now I think they’re vile. I used to think certain things were utterly worthless, but now I think they’re the most precious.
There wasn’t anything special about the OT tabernacle. It was just a tent made out of ordinary material, but the great God chose to make it his home.
Truly understanding that God dwells inside of us will revolutionize our lives.
Some of us recognize that God has ownership of our lives while others are still their own masters.
The Spirit can’t really operate effectively in us until the Lordship of Christ is a settled thing in our hearts.
Side Note: Romans 7
“Nothing good lives in my flesh. I have the desire to do good but can’t do it. I don’t do the good that I want. I only do that either which I don’t want to do.”
—Romans 7:18–19
The more that the flesh tries to carry out God’s will, the more it fails.
We tend to think that we aren’t as sinful as others, but the 10th commandment says “don’t desire” which proves beyond dispute just how hopeless our condition really is.
“Law” = I do something for God. “Grace” = God does something for me.
We talked about how God delivers us from sin, but He also delivers us from the law. Romans 7:4 says that we were made dead to the law through the body of Christ.
Being delivered from the law means that God no longer requires those things from me—He provides them himself. Romans 7:1–4 paints a picture of us being divorced from the law and married to Christ. Like a demanding husband, the law required a lot from us but never offered any help in carrying out those requirements. Jesus requires even more from us, but He Himself carries it out in us.
God didn’t change his requirements; we just aren’t the ones expected to fulfill them anymore.
It’s wrong to trust in Bible reading and prayer for victory. Our help is in the One who is the object of that reading and prayer.
Step 4: Walking in the Spirit
Christ manifests himself in spirit-form, so when I operate in the flesh, that suspends the riches I have in Christ. Even though I FACTUALLY still have the things of Christ, I EXPERIENTIALLY manifest the things of Adam.
Living in the Spirit means trusting the Holy Spirit to do in me what I can’t do myself. Every time God demands something from me, I look to Him to fulfill those requirements. It isn’t a case of trying, but of trusting; not of struggling but of resting in him.
Exodus 14:13 says, “Stand still and see Jehovah’s salvation which He will work for you.”
The fight with the flesh isn’t ours but the Holy Spirit’s. Scripture says, “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.”
The cross obtains salvation for us, while the Spirit produces salvation in us. Christ’s resurrection is the basis for our salvation, while Christ’s Spirit inside of us is the power of our salvation.
Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ.”
The new life grows and manifests in us so much that His likeness starts reproducing in our lives. Galatians 4:19 says, “Until Christ is formed in you.”
God doesn’t give us humility, patience, holiness, or love as individuals. He only gives us one gift to provide all we need: Jesus.
We think that sanctification is every aspect of our lives becoming holy, but that’s not holiness—it’s just the fruit of holiness. True holiness is Jesus.
We come to know Christ more as we become more aware of how much we need him. We don’t have to try, we just have to trust him for everything as we take our hands off.
Dying to the self is saying “I cannot” in everything.
Trying to force ourselves to be what we aren’t is an exhausting and bitter experience.
The highest point the will can reach is that of willingness. (See Matthew 26:41)
Christ has “made me free.” If I really believe that and put my faith in him, then I won’t need to experience the struggle depicted in Romans 7.
Walking in the Spirit isn’t about mustering up our willpower, but about experiencing his life.
There’s too much hypocrisy and play-acting in the lives of Christians. If we need to love the unlovable, we should say, “God, You see him as lovable, and You love him. Now love him through me!“
Romans 8:14 says, “Anyone who is led by the Spirit of God, is a son of God.”
Romans 5 says that our sins are forgiven. Romans 6 says that we are dead with Christ. Romans 7 says that we are utterly helpless by nature. Romans 8 says that’s why we rely on the indwelling Spirit. Romans 12 says that when we rely on the Spirit we become “one body in Christ.”
The vessel that Jesus uses to reveal himself to today’s generation is not the individual, but the body (global church). It requires a complete body to attain Jesus’s stature and to display his glory. It doesn’t matter which one of us does the work, because we’re all the same body.
Side Note: The Cross and the Soul Life
Christ’s death works inside us daily, and “bearing the cross” is our cooperation in that.
The soul uses “free will” to usurp the place of the Spirit as the animating power within us.
We shouldn’t do anything without relying on God. Knowing God leads us to surrender our autonomy.
Everything coming from flesh glorifies man, while everything coming from new birth glorifies God.
God changes our interests. I used to fervently study history and geography, but now I fervently study scripture instead.
We focus too much on the goal we direct our energy towards, and focus too little on where we source that energy from.
I can’t do anything apart from Christ.
Matthew 15:13 says, “Every plant that wasn’t planted by the Father will be routed up.” Anything that we set out to do without God has the taint of the flesh on it.
Step 5: Bearing the Cross
“Whoever loves his father, mother, or child more than me isn’t worthy of me. And if you don’t take your cross and follow after me you’re not worthy of me.”
—Matthew 10:37–38
The cross first bore me; now I must bear it.
In Matthew 10:39, Jesus said, “Whoever finds his soul shall lose it: and whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it.”
When Jesus calls us to go, our response reveals our true treasure. If God himself is our treasure, we won’t look back. It’s so easy to become more attached to God’s gifts than to the Giver.
The cross has to detach my spirit from everything that isn’t God himself.
Those of us who have received Christ contain new life. If life isn’t overflowing from us and being imparted to others, then maybe our own soul is standing in the way.
When the body becomes our life, we live like animals. When the soul becomes our life, we may be gifted, cultured, and educated, but still live as rebels alienated from God’s life. When we live in God’s Spirit, our soul and personality become useful tools.
The Goal of the Gospel
When Mary poured out the expensive perfume on Jesus’s feet, the disciples said it was wasteful.
“Waste” means that you exchanged too much for too little.
We should waste ourselves on God.
The gospel teaches each of us how much we’re really worth.
God isn’t so concerned about our work for him. He’s more concerned about us being at his feet and anointing his head. Pour out everything you have — your very self to God. And if that’s all he allows you to do, that is enough.
We will only be satisfied when he is satisfied.
If I really want God to use me I need to “waste” myself on him.