The Problem with Watchman Nee

I'm almost done with my re-reading of Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian Life and I've got an issue I don't think I can solve.

There's so much really good stuff in this book, and it really does take a few pages to lead up to Nee's strong conclusions and statements...it's impossible to do his thoughts justice in the limited space of a blog post.

So rather than attempt to fully support any overarching theological pronouncement, allow me to sprinkle some salt here in hopes that it will create a thirst for reading the whole thing.

*  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.

*  There is an old world and a new world, and between the two there is a tomb. God has already crucified me, but I must consent to be consigned to the tomb. My baptism confirms God's sentence, passed upon me in the Cross of His Son. It affirms that I am cut off from the old world and belong now to the new. So baptism is no small thing.

*  [God's] finger will touch, point by point, everything that is not of Him, and will say: "This must go." Are you willing? It is foolish to resist God, and always wise to submit to Him.

*  Man's thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins, but God's thought is always of the glory man will miss.

*  Because the Lord Jesus died on the Cross, I have received forgiveness of sins; because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, I have received new life; because the Lord Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the Father, I have received the outpoured Spirit. All is because of Him; nothing is because of me.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Truth is...I was thirsty for a rebirth of my appreciation for what Jesus has done for me and what He is doing through me. This book is a large glass of cold water.