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Scripture Reading: Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Rom. 6:11; Matt. 16:24
All spiritual experiences begin with a certain amount of knowledge, but once we have the knowledge of spiritual experiences, it is easy to consider that we have the experiences themselves. This is especially true for young believers. To have knowledge is one thing, but to have the experiences of life is another. If we hear a person testify with spiritual knowledge, we may think that he has the experiences of the Christian life, the church life, and the Spirit. In the first stage of the Christian life, however, what we mainly have is knowledge. Our knowledge needs to be tested by failures, trials, temptations, and many troubles. The more knowledge the Lord affords us, the more He will put us on the test.
In just one year, a believer can gain much spiritual knowledge. Then he may think that he has everything. He may believe himself to be the most wonderful, advanced, and spiritual believer. What he has, however, may be ninety-five percent knowledge in his intelligence, not experience. According to knowledge, he may seem to have been in the Lord for many years, but in actuality he has little real experience. When the Lord puts such a one on the test, he finds that what he has is nearly all knowledge.
There are many different ways the Lord puts us on the test. One is that at a certain point He withholds His hand from us and lets us fail. After we are saved, the Lord’s hand sustains us, but at a certain point He will withdraw His hand. He will leave us to ourselves, and we will be sure to have a failure. That seems terrible, but in actuality it is not. The Lord is very wise. In this way we see that what we thought we had was not real.
Another way the Lord puts us on the test is to give us trials. The number of ways that the Lord has to give us trials is inexhaustible, including physical matters, family matters, and many others. Moreover, trials often do not come by themselves; one trial follows another. The Lord gives us many trials to test us. Then we are in the “fire” to be “burned,” and in this burning we come to know how much of what we have is merely knowledge in our mentality, and how much is real experience. Then we discover that we have little real experience, perhaps only five percent or even one percent of what we thought we had. Little by little we find that the greater part of what we have is merely knowledge in our mind.
We should be advised and warned to be in fear and trembling and to have no trust in ourselves. If we have any trust in ourselves, it is easy to be tempted. This temptation is another kind of test. Temptation comes to us when we have some trust in ourselves. Because our heart is deceitful, the trust we have in ourselves is often in secret. Sometimes we do not even admit it to ourselves. The only way for the Lord to prove that we have a secret trust in ourselves is to allow temptation to test us. When we are tempted, we realize that we have self-trust and self-confidence. These temptations prove to us that we are not competent, that we are not good enough to trust ourselves, and that we are not good enough to meet the situations. Whenever this kind of temptation comes, we always fail. Even if we try our best, we simply cannot make it, because the Lord’s hand is withheld from us in order to allow us to meet the situation alone and prove that we are not competent for anything.
By all these tests we will realize how little we have and that what we mostly have is knowledge in the mind. Then something real will come out of this burning, and we will begin another stage. We will be equipped and further nourished with spiritual knowledge. We will know things in a deeper, fuller way. Then even though we have learned the lesson of the first stage that knowledge is not real experience, we will once again consider that we have much and have become rich. We will once again enter into a dream that we are spiritual and have acquired much. Then in the same principle, the Lord will put us on the test again. This is the process of the Christian experience.
The process of Christian experience can be compared to a potter with his clay. First, the potter paints a design on the clay, making it look beautiful. After being painted, however, the clay must be put into the fire to be burned. The Lord as the Potter always paints us first and then puts us through the fire to be burned. Day after day He operates according to the same principle in order to work something of Himself into us, first by spiritual knowledge and revelation and second by testing. This is the reason that many of the Lord’s children, after hearing a message and gaining some knowledge and revelation, are put into testing. The more we are clear about this process, the more we will be saved from troubles. This will humble us.
A person with spiritual knowledge may be very introspective. It is more difficult for this kind of person to be delivered from the self than it is for others. Such a person may be slow and cautious, and he looks at himself and analyzes himself. Some believers are at the opposite pole; they are careless. An introspective person, however, is very capable to take care of himself in the best way, but this is his problem. It is hard for such a one to forget about himself. He “sticks” to himself all the time and cannot get away from himself. It is hard for the Lord to work on such a person.
For a person to overcare for himself is to always look at, think about, and consider himself. This is not to care about his living, eating, and drinking; rather, it is to always consider whether he is proud or humble, whether he is really with the Lord, whether he is proper, or whether he has offended anyone. With such a one, ninety-nine percent of what he has may be his self, and one percent is the Lord. He is mostly occupied with the self to care for the self. For this kind of person, many failures become his helpers. Failures make a person bankrupt in caring for his self.
Many believers need to care for their character, but an introspective person should forget about his character. The more he builds up his character, the more he is in the self. This kind of character building simply helps him to analyze himself more. Day by day he checks to see if he is genuine and real. This becomes a very serious hindrance to his spiritual growth. Rather, spiritual growth depends on the denial of the self, and the denial of the self simply means to forget about the self.
The cross refers to the blood of Christ and to the death of Christ. The blood is for cleansing, but the death is for dealing with negative things. There are three aspects to the work of the cross. The first is the accomplished fact seen in Romans 6:6, which says that our old man has been crucified with Christ. Galatians 2:20 also indicates that we are crucified with Christ. This is a fact accomplished by the Lord. To see the fact is the first aspect, or the first step, in the experience of Christ’s work of the cross.
The second aspect of the work of the cross is the realization of the fact. The Lord as our Savior died for us, and we died with Him. Along with His crucifixion for us was our crucifixion with Him. We can see this in the type of Noah’s ark. The ark passed over the judgment of the flood with eight persons. In this way the ark suffered the judgment for the eight persons, but it also suffered the judgment with the eight persons, because the eight persons were in the ark. If the eight persons were not in the ark, how could the ark suffer the judgment for them? The ark could suffer judgment only for the people who were in it. In the same way, the substitution of Christ’s death for us depends on our identification with Him. If there is no identification, there is no substitution. Christ’s death is for us because we are identified with Him and are in Him, and because we are in Him, we have died with Him.
When we receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we recognize that He died for us and also with us, and because He died with us, we died also. Therefore, we hand ourselves over to the cross. This is the meaning of Galatians 5:24, which says, “They who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” They who are of Christ Jesus recognize and realize the fact that they have died, so they put their flesh to death. With respect to the accomplished fact, we simply need to say, “I am crucified with Christ.” To realize, recognize, and admit what the Lord has accomplished is the second aspect, the second stage or step, of the experience of the work of the cross.
This is the experience spoken of in Romans 6. On the one hand, verse 6 tells us that we have been crucified with Christ, and on the other hand, verse 11 tells us to reckon that we are dead. To reckon is to recognize a fact, just as we recognize that three plus two is five. As we recognize that we have been crucified on the cross, we are released from the bondage and dominion of sin (vv. 18, 22).
The third aspect of the work of the cross is to always bear the cross. Several times in the Gospels the Lord tells us to bear the cross (Matt. 16:24; 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). At the time we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we recognized that we died with the Lord, and we sealed this realization by handing ourselves over to the cross, by putting ourselves on the cross. From that time on, we should not come down off the cross. Rather, we must bear the cross. To bear the cross is to always keep ourselves in the death of Christ, to always appropriate the Lord’s death.
The Lord bore the cross first, and then He was crucified on it. We, however, were crucified first, and then we bear the cross. Christ accomplished His death on the cross, and we were nailed on the cross in Christ and through Christ; this is a fact. Then at the time we believed in the Lord, we recognized the fact of our death on the cross, and we sealed our realization by being baptized. From this time on, we should never come down off the cross; we must always keep ourselves in the position of death. Seeing the accomplished fact, recognizing and receiving it, and bearing the cross are the three steps for us to experience the death of Christ.
As we have said, when we recognize that we have been crucified on the cross, we are released from the bondage and dominion of sin. As fallen persons, however, we have not only the problem of sin but a bigger, more serious problem, which is the self. Sin and self are the two main elements of the fallen person. Sin is the nature of the fallen person, and the self is the life of the fallen person. Nature is related to our desires; since we have the sinful nature, we have the desire of sin. Life is the energy, strength, and power to do things according to the nature. When we recognize that we have been crucified on the cross, we are set free from sin, released from the bondage of the nature of sin, but we still have the self, which is the biggest problem.
To bear the cross gives us a real deliverance from the self. We must always keep ourselves under the death of the cross. This puts the self to death. To bear the cross has very much to do with the denial of the self. To bear the cross is simply to put the self, the soulish life, to death. The way of deliverance is not introspection, to look at oneself. It is to bear the cross all the time, recognizing that we, that is, our self, have been put to death. The cross is applied to the self, so we have no more hope in the self; we never look at it, we never analyze it, and we have nothing to do with it. This is the way of deliverance.
The daily and practical way to apply the cross is simply to recognize that we have been crucified. If we have a large debt and someone pays it, we should recognize this fact and stand on it; that is all. In this regard we can tell a sinner, “Friend, the Lord Jesus is your Savior. He died on the cross for all your sins.” There is no need for the sinner to analyze. He should simply receive Christ as his Savior and accept the fact that He died on the cross. It is just as simple for the believers. There is no need for us to analyze. We can say, “Lord, You died for me on the cross, so I am through. I am finished. I also was crucified on the cross, and I put my seal on this. Now I am on the cross, and the cross is on me. From this time on I stand on this fact.” This is the real denial of the self.
If we recognize that we died and were buried, we should not look at ourselves. We should stand on the fact and then bear the cross. Do not give any ground to the self again, because the self is on the cross, and the cross is on the self; that is, the self bears the cross. Without bearing the cross in this way, we cannot have the real denial of the self. In fact, to bear the cross is to deny the self, and to deny the self is to bear the cross.
To always keep ourselves under the death of the cross is to deny our soulish life — our thoughts, our desires, and our will. We should not allow the desires, thoughts, or will of the natural life to do something. Whenever we have a thought, desire, or will to do something, we must not forget that the cross is on us and we are on the cross. To stand on this fact is to bear the cross, and this is to deny the self.
To be released from sin, we simply need to reckon that we were crucified, but to deny the self requires that we always keep ourselves in the death of Christ. To be crucified on the cross is once for all, but to bear the cross is not once for all. We must bear the cross all the time. Therefore, it is easy to be freed from sin, but it is rather difficult to be delivered from the self. As soon as we give up the death of the cross, we will live by the self.
As we shall see, the real bearing of the cross for the denial of the self must be in the Spirit, not of ourselves. By the power, strength, and energy of the Spirit we can always keep ourselves under the death of the cross. The more we realize that we are under the death of the cross, the more we are filled by the Spirit. For this purpose, we need to cooperate with the Spirit. Without our cooperating, the Spirit cannot work. In the following chapter we will emphasize this in more detail.
