The Work
The Normal Christian Life was compiled from talks given by Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng) to a group of young workers at Keswick, England, in 1938 and 1939, and subsequently published by the Witness and Testimony Literature Trust in 1957. It is organized in four sections that follow the argument of Paul's letter to the Romans, particularly chapters 6-8, and runs to approximately 200 pages. The English translation prepared from Nee's talks became the book's standard text.
The book's title encapsulates Nee's central claim: the victorious, Spirit-filled, crucified-and-risen life that Paul describes in Romans 6-8 is not a special attainment for spiritual elites but the normal life of every Christian - the standard, not the exception. Most Christians are living below the normal Christian life, Nee argues, because they have not understood or appropriated the truths about their death and resurrection with Christ that Paul teaches in these chapters.
The book became one of the most influential devotional works in Asian Christianity and had wide impact in charismatic renewal circles worldwide in the 1970s and 1980s. It is still widely read in evangelical and charismatic communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Biblical Engagement
Romans 6:6 ('Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin') is Nee's most important text. He argues that Paul's 'our old man is crucified with him' is not a metaphor or a legal fiction but a historical fact: when Christ was crucified on Golgotha, every believer was crucified in Christ. This is not something that needs to happen; it already happened. The believer's task is not to die to sin but to reckon himself dead to sin - to treat as true what God declares true.
Romans 6:11 ('Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord') is Nee's practical key. The word 'reckon' (logizomai) is an accounting term: to count, to regard as fact. The believer is to reckon himself dead to sin - to treat the crucifixion with Christ as an accomplished reality - and to act accordingly. Nee argues that this reckoning of faith, sustained and repeated, is the mechanism by which the truth of Romans 6:6 becomes experiential reality.
Romans 8:9 ('But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his') introduces the third element of Nee's argument: the indwelling Spirit is the power by which the believer lives out the implications of the crucifixion. The death of the old man is only the negative side; the positive side is the life of the Spirit. The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead (Romans 8:11) is the Spirit who enables the believer to live the resurrection life.
Galatians 2:20 ('I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me') is Nee's comprehensive statement of the normal Christian life: death to the old self, the living Christ replacing the old self, and the new life lived by faith in the Son of God. This verse is the experiential equivalent of Romans 6:6 and 8:11.
Author and Context
Watchman Nee (1903-1972) was born Ni Shuzu in Swatow (Shantou), Guangdong Province, China, into a third-generation Christian family. He was educated at Trinity College, Fuzhou, and converted at the age of seventeen under the preaching of Dora Yu. He never attended theological seminary; his theological education was largely self-directed through intensive Bible study and reading in the Keswick and Plymouth Brethren traditions.
Nee founded the Local Church movement in China - churches organized on the principle of one church per city, without denominational affiliation - which became one of the most significant indigenous Christian movements in Chinese history. By the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, there were hundreds of local churches across China following his principles.
After the Communist revolution, Nee initially attempted to cooperate with the new government. In 1952 he was arrested, tried for a range of charges including economic crimes, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He was never released: he died in prison in Anhui Province in June 1972, still imprisoned after twenty years. A small piece of paper found in his cell after his death read: 'Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and was resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. Watchman Nee.'
Themes
The book's theological argument proceeds in four stages: (1) The blood of Christ deals with what we have done - our sins are forgiven through justification. (2) The cross of Christ deals with what we are - our sinful nature is crucified with Christ through co-crucifixion. (3) The Spirit brings us into the experience of resurrection life - the positive fruit of what the cross has accomplished. (4) The church is the expression of Christ's resurrection life through the corporate body.
Nee's most distinctive contribution is his emphasis on the subjective appropriation of the objective work of the cross. Evangelical theology typically emphasizes the objective justification accomplished at Calvary; Nee insists on the equally important subjective work - the actual transformation of the believer's inner life through reckoning oneself dead to sin and alive to God. This synthesis of objective atonement and subjective transformation gave the book its unusual appeal across evangelical and charismatic traditions.
Reception
The book was widely distributed in the English-speaking missionary world from the late 1950s and became particularly popular in charismatic renewal circles in the 1970s because its emphasis on the Spirit's transforming power resonated with charismatic experience. It has been particularly influential in the Chinese diaspora church worldwide and in the house church movement in China.
Legacy
Nee's influence on Asian Christianity has been enormous. His Local Church movement continues under the leadership of Witness Lee and is represented by Living Stream Ministry. His theological framework - particularly his analysis of the tripartite human constitution (spirit, soul, body) and his emphasis on co-crucifixion and resurrection life - has shaped generations of Asian Christian leaders. The combination of his theological depth, his personal imprisonment and martyrdom, and the accessibility of his teaching made The Normal Christian Life one of the most influential Christian books of the twentieth century outside the Western tradition.