Scripture Reading: 10-11, 2 Cor. 4:16; Titus 3:5b; Eph. 4:23; 5:26; Matt. 26:29; 1 Cor. 11:27-31; Matt. 18:21-22, 35; Eph. 4:32; 5:2; Matt. 5:23-24
In this chapter we want to see the renewing process that we need to pass through in our Christian life for God’s purpose. Second Corinthians 4:16 says that our inner man is being renewed day by day. Brother Nee once told us that the book of 2 Corinthians may be considered as an autobiography of the apostle Paul. The life described in this Epistle is a life full of sufferings, but when we spend more time to get into the depths of this Epistle, we can see that it is actually talking about renewing. All the sufferings God has assigned to us have one unique purpose — to renew us. Regardless of whether we are good or bad, we are the old creation, but God in His economy desires to work out something new from His old creation. God spent a brief time to create the old creation. He spoke the things of the old creation into being in five days, He created man on the sixth day, and rested on the seventh day. This old creation is not God’s goal. Instead, the old creation is the material and sphere by which God gains something new.
According to the entire Bible, God uses four dispensations in His old creation to work out something new. The first dispensation is the dispensation before law, or the dispensation of the fathers from Adam to Moses’ giving of the law. The second dispensation is the dispensation of law from Moses’ giving of the law to the first coming of the Lord Jesus. The third dispensation is the dispensation of grace from the first coming of the Lord Jesus to His second coming. The fourth dispensation is the dispensation of the kingdom. After the Lord’s second coming, He will set up God’s government on this earth to practice God’s kingdom in its manifestation for one thousand years. In these four dispensations, which are all in the old creation, God works to produce the new creation. After the fourth dispensation, the new heaven and the new earth are brought in with the New Jerusalem as the center. The New Jerusalem is the composition of all of God’s redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. All of God’s redeemed people in God’s glorification will be the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem composed of God’s living, glorified people is absolutely new. Nothing old will be there.
Today we are in the process of being renewed to become the New Jerusalem. Thank God that today we are in the third dispensation, the dispensation of grace. In this dispensation some wonderful things have happened. The first wonder that happened in this dispensation is that the Triune God Himself became a man. He did not only come to man but also came to man in His incarnation. He came to man by becoming a man. This is marvelous! The incarnation of the Triune God is many, many times greater than the creation of the heavens and the earth. One of the greatest wonders in this universe was God’s incarnation, His becoming a man. The very God, the complete God, entered into the womb of a human virgin and stayed there for nine months. Then He was born as a God-man. The little babe in the manger at Bethlehem whose name was Jesus was not only a man. He was both man and God, so He was a God-man.
The second wonder in the dispensation of grace is that the very God who created the heavens and the earth lived on the earth as a man, not just for a short period of time but for thirty-three and a half years. Instead of living in a famous place, He lived in a despised city of a despised region, Nazareth of Galilee. He was not born into a rich family but into a poor family, and He did the work of a carpenter. We may say that this carpenter was Jesus, but we need to realize that Jesus was God. What a wonder that God lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years!
The third wonder is His going to the cross to die an all-inclusive death. Through His death He solved all the problems in the universe, terminating the entire old creation. In that all-inclusive death He released His divine life.
The fourth wonder in the dispensation of grace is Christ’s resurrection and ascension. He rose up not only by Himself but also with all of God’s chosen ones, including you and me. As a man, He ascended to the third heaven. From the earth to the moon is a short distance, but from the earth to the third heaven is a distance beyond the imagination of the human mind. In His ascension He poured Himself out as the all-inclusive Spirit. That Spirit was the consummation of the Triune God. He poured out Himself as such a Spirit upon God’s chosen people to make them all His Body. Today we believers are parts of the Body of the wonderful Christ. All of these items have transpired as wonders, but our apprehension of these items is not so thorough. Because of our lack of vision, we suffer without seeing or apprehending God’s purpose in our suffering.
When I was a young Christian, I thought that God would bless us by giving us many good things since we had become His children. Some preachers promise people that if they believe in Jesus Christ, they will not only be saved but also receive many blessings. They may say that these blessings are outward happiness, peace, and joy. Many people believed in Jesus Christ for this reason. What human being does not want earthly blessings so that he can have happiness, peace, and joy? Many Christians, however, can testify that when they believed in the Lord Jesus, they did not have any outward peace in their environment. Some may have been promised that they would receive peace and joy after believing in the Lord Jesus. Instead, they may have lost their job, or they may have been in a car accident. The Christian life does not seem to be a life of outward blessings but of sufferings.
I have been a Christian for sixty-four years, since 1925. In the long period of my Christian life, I have suffered more than I have enjoyed outward peace and joy. Most of us can testify that in our Christian life there has been more suffering than outward peace and joy. When a couple gets married, this is a joyful time, but many can testify that in their marriage life they suffer more than they enjoy outward peace and joy. After getting married, many people later have the thought that they married the wrong person. The reason for this is that we suffer in our marriages. To have children is also a joyful matter. Our little children are precious to us, but those of us who have had children and who have watched our children grow into adulthood can testify that our children have brought us more suffering than joy. We may think that the apostle Paul was blessed because he did not have a wife or children. Paul did not have children according to the flesh, but he had many spiritual children. He had more children than all of us. Second Corinthians reveals that Paul’s sufferings came mainly from his spiritual children.
When Brother Nee told us that 2 Corinthians could be considered as the autobiography of Paul, I thought I understood, but actually I did not understand. Gradually, I began to understand what Brother Nee told us. In God’s design all of us who are His chosen people have to go through sufferings. There is no exception to this because He wants us to be a new creation. He wants us to be transferred from the realm of the old creation into the realm of the new creation. This transfer is a process of suffering. You may think that you made a mistake in your choice of a partner in marriage, but regardless of how much wisdom you exercised in choosing a spouse, eventually your choice was a “mistake.” After hearing this fellowship, some who are not married may feel that it is better not to marry, but not to marry will bring us more sufferings. Then what shall we do? We have to be inwardly happy in our sufferings. The apostle Paul says that he rejoiced in his sufferings (Col. 1:24) because he realized that all sufferings are the process to make us new.
The context of 2 Corinthians 4:16, which says that our inner man is being renewed day by day, shows us that this renewing takes place through sufferings. Paul calls the sufferings that he passed through “the putting to death of Jesus.” In 4:10-11 Paul says, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who are alive are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” According to the Greek, the putting to death is “the killing.” The killing of Jesus means that Jesus kills us, puts us to death, all the time. Putting to death here equals the cross. The putting to death of Jesus is the working of death, the working of the cross.
The Lord Jesus told His disciples that if they were going to follow Him they must take up their cross (Matt. 16:24). If we are going to follow the Lord, we must take up our cross and follow Him. Without taking up our cross, we cannot follow the Lord. Our young people may be looking forward to a promising, flourishing future, but Jesus never promised such a future. He told Peter to take up his cross and follow Him. Later He told Peter, “Truly, truly, I say to you, When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go. Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had said this, He said to him, Follow Me” (John 21:18-19). What the Lord wanted here was to prepare Peter to follow Him to death. The sufferings we pass through are a process to transfer us from the realm of the old creation to the new creation.
Paul, who was a pattern of a victorious, overcoming Christian, suffered much more than we do (Acts 9:16). He tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:11 that he was always being delivered unto death. He was under the killing of the cross every day. He was dying every day so that he could be renewed every day. This is why Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that we do not lose heart, we are not discouraged, and we are not disappointed. This is because “our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory” (v. 17). The suffering that we pass through to be renewed does not compare with the glory of our being new. Actually, the Christian life is not a suffering life. The Christian life is a life of being renewed day by day. Still, this renewing is by suffering. God does not like to see His children suffering, but we have to go through the process of suffering.
We always dream about having a glorious church life. The chorus of a hymn in our hymnal begins this way — “Glorious church life” (Hymns, #1221). On the one hand, the church is glorious, but on the other hand, no church is glorious outwardly. None of the churches that Paul established were glorious outwardly. They all had problems. When I was a young Christian, I heard someone give a message saying that the best church was the church at Philippi. When I studied the book of Philippians, however, I saw that two sisters were dissenting from one another (4:2). There were also murmurings and reasonings among the Philippians. This is why Paul charged them to do all things without murmurings and reasonings (2:14). If we read Paul’s Epistles closely, we can see that the churches he established were not glorious according to our expectation.
When I came into the Lord’s recovery, I came with an expectation that everything would be glorious. I was called by the Lord to give up my job and serve Him full time. I was brought by the Lord into the center of the work in Shanghai, and I began to see that every day suffering after suffering came to the leading one in the work, Brother Watchman Nee. He was a big “umbrella” that received all the persecution and attacks. Some saints who knew Brother Nee said that he never had one day of peace. He suffered his entire life.
The situation in the church life at times may seem very poor, but we should not lose heart, because we are going through a process of renewing. When we pass through certain sicknesses, our physical body develops resistances to those sicknesses to make us stronger. We even learn how to take care of ourselves in a better way when we pass through physical illnesses. Many years ago I developed a stomach ulcer. I also contracted tuberculosis. That disease brought me very close to death. Through that disease, however, I became strong. After a person is sick for a certain time and he is healed, he becomes strong. Therefore, we should not lose heart. After the church has gone through much suffering, we should be assured that the church will be stronger.
In the work on mainland China when I was there, Brother Nee was the “umbrella,” so he became the target of the enemy’s attacks. Since the work began from the island of Taiwan and has spread to all the continents in these past thirty years, I have spontaneously become the umbrella. Since I have been the umbrella, all the arrows of the enemy have come to me. I must testify, however, that despite all of these attacks I am stronger than ever. I work much more today than I did twenty years ago. I read through nearly every book that we put out. After being edited, the publications come to me so that I can read them. Just to read them takes much time, but often I have to labor more to make the writings satisfactory. In addition to this, I also hold many conferences and meetings, and this involves much travel. Some who are close to me are concerned about my working so much since I am over eighty years of age, but we all have to realize that we are destined to suffer so that we may be renewed.
Paul tells the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 3:3, “That no one would be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed for this.” Footnote 2 on this verse in the Recovery Version says, “God has destined, appointed, that we should pass through afflictions. Hence, afflictions are God’s allotted portion to us, and He has set us, located us, in a situation of afflictions.” We have been appointed to sufferings. Madame Guyon said that she kissed the crosses that came to her, but I would not say that. I thank God for sufferings, but I would not say that I welcome them. However, I do not fight against the sufferings. The reason I am calm in the midst of sufferings is that I realize that the real blessing is not outward peace and joy but the actual renewing in our Christian life.
In Matthew 13:43 the overcomers are likened to the sun shining forth in the kingdom of their Father. The sun rises afresh every morning. If we are to be the overcomers, the sun, we must also rise up every morning to be revived by the Lord. Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” We should follow the sun to be revived and to have a new start every morning. Our path is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the full day. I like Paul’s expression in 2 Corinthians 4:16 — “day by day.” The Christian life does not only have one day. We are being renewed day by day. This means that day after day we have to be revived by the Lord. Yesterday morning we may have had a revival, but this morning we need another one, and tomorrow we need another one. Every year we need three hundred sixty-five revivals to be renewed day by day.
God has the best provisions to help us to receive the renewing. The first provision is the cross, the putting to death of Jesus. According to 2 Corinthians 4, Paul was always under the killing of the cross, the Lord’s death. The cross is the greatest help to accomplish the renewing for us.
The second provision is the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5 speaks of the “renewing of the Holy Spirit.” We have the Holy Spirit within us. His main work is first to regenerate us and then to renew us every day. We are receiving the new supply of the Spirit daily to renew us metabolically. Thank the Lord that we have such a renewing Spirit. The third provision God gave us is our mingled spirit, our human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit. In our human spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells, works, and renews us. Ephesians 4:23 says that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Our spirit is the place where we receive the renewing. Our mingled spirit spreads into our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed for our transformation.
Many times when we are suffering, we are questioning, “Why am I suffering? What is the reason?” Many Christian teachers tell people that if they are careful to obey the Lord, they will have less suffering, but the experiences of many spiritual people throughout the history of the church have been just the opposite. While we are in the midst of suffering, we need to receive the renewing. Otherwise, the suffering we pass through means nothing to us. Within us there is a refuge. This refuge is our spirit. We need to turn from our mind to our spirit. Then we are safeguarded, hidden, and concealed from any attacks. It is in our spirit that we will be renewed.
In addition to the cross, the Holy Spirit, and our spirit, we have the holy Word. The Head of the Body cleanses the church, His Body, by the washing of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26). Because I have studied the Bible for such a long time, I can recall chapters such as Matthew 1 and Romans 8. When I just think about the contents of these chapters, I get washed. When I think about Romans 8:4 — to walk according to the spirit — I get washed. We all need to receive the washing of the water in the word daily.
We may feel that many of the things that we pass through are not fair, but we need to realize that the cross is not fair. When Pilate sentenced the Lord Jesus to death, was that fair? Was the Lord Jesus put on the cross fairly? What was fair that happened to the Lord Jesus? Everything that happened to the Lord Jesus was not fair. We should not say, “This is not fair.” No suffering is fair. The Lord could respond to us in this way: “Yes, the suffering itself is not fair, but My calling you to suffer is fair. I am fully right in placing you into this unfair treatment so that you can receive the renewing.” Some of us may still be under a certain amount of suffering. We have to learn how to turn to our spirit. That is our refuge, our hiding place, to receive the renewing. Because we are human, according to our thinking and our consideration, what we are passing through is not fair. We may not even be able to take the situation we are in, but when we come to the Word, regardless of what chapter or verse, the word will wash us. There is water in the word to wash us. Washing is a synonym of renewing. By these four items — the cross, the Holy Spirit, our mingled spirit, and the holy Word — we can receive the renewing.
I would also like to say something about the Lord’s table meeting. Whenever we come to the Lord’s table, we need renewing. When the Lord Jesus established the table, He said, “I shall by no means drink of this product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father” (Matt. 26:29). The Lord established a principle here. He will never take an old table. The table He set up was new, and the table He will take in the kingdom of His Father will be new. We have to come to the Lord’s table in a new way, in the principle of newness. How can we come to the table in newness? We need to realize that anything negative is a cause and a factor of oldness. Negative things cause us to be old.
When we come to the Lord’s table, we first have to make a thorough confession of all the negative things, and we have to deal with all the negative things. We have to confess and deal with any negative things between us and God and between us and men. Our relationship should be right and positive with God and with man (Acts 24:16). If it is not, we need a thorough confession and a thorough dealing. Another thing that makes us old is not forgiving others. Always forgive people (Matt. 18:21-22, 35; Eph. 4:32; 5:2), and always seek to be forgiven (Matt. 5:23-24). Because we are human beings, people offend us, and we offend people. As long as we are flocked together, we will offend each other. What husband and wife have never offended each other? Because God has placed two people together in marriage and because they are so close to each other, they will offend each other frequently. These offenses are the cause of oldness. What is the way to get rid of this oldness? The way is to forgive each other. We need to forgive others and seek to be forgiven. One of Brother Nee’s “proverbs” for a healthy marriage life was that both the husband and the wife needed to learn how to say, “I’m sorry. Forgive me.” If we do not learn how to say this to one another in our marriage life, we will get ourselves into trouble. We must learn to say to our spouse, “I’m sorry. Forgive me.” We need to pray that the fellowship in this chapter will become our experience day by day so that we can enter more into the reality of being renewed day by day.
