Substitution

I've had Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian Life sitting on my shelf (both in Chicago and in TL) for about 6 months now, and I've tried to start reading it a few times-- the problem is that even by reading the first 5 pages I can tell it's a book that's going to challenge and convict me, and sometimes it's hard to get motivated to dive into one of those. I'm working on it again, though, and within those first five pages that I have read Nee brings up a point that seems obvious enough, but that I had never quite heard put into words.

He writes: "God makes it quite clear in his Word that he has only one answer to every human need-- his son, Jesus Christ. In all his dealings with us he works by taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place. The Son of God died instead of us for our forgiveness: he lives instead of us for our deliverance. So we can speak of two substitutions-- a Substitute on the Cross who secures our forgiveness and a Substitute within who secures our victory."

The longer I live and serve God, the more I realize that there is really not much of anything we ever do or can do in this life. Our only part is to seek the face of God, to ask that he would reveal more of Christ to us, to ask that he would crucify us and help us to set aside our own selves. And the mystery of it all is that it is here where I begin to find fulfillment. When I set aside myself and let Christ live in place of me, I find who I am without the bonds of sin and the weakness of the flesh, and I live through Christ (or he through me) the fullest version of the life I was born for.