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(This and the following messages on the new covenant were given by Brother Nee in the second Overcomer Conference in October 1931. A later book under the same title The New Covenant is an edited and expanded version of these messages.)
Scripture Reading: Matt. 26:28
Today we will speak on God's grace and how it is manifested in the new covenant. Many people today do not understand the new covenant. The new covenant does not have any power in them. For this conference I have looked to God to give me the message that I should preach. The initial burden I had was on the new covenant. Since then, this message has been growing stronger and stronger in me. This message is a central truth; it is the truth that the Lord has committed to us. Today our message will be on the new covenant.
Every Christian, whether he is a worker or not, whether he is a beginner or has walked a long way, must know what the new covenant is in his experience. Unfortunately, if you ask ten Christians about the new covenant, probably nine of them will not be able to answer you. Try this for yourself. The new covenant is the basis of everything. Our sins are forgiven because we have the covenant. We have the strength to obey God and bear a proper testimony because we have the covenant. We thank God that this covenant is not our covenant, but God's covenant. Our sins can be forgiven, and we can have the strength to obey God, testify, and accomplish what He has committed to us because of the covenant He has enacted. Moreover, we can rest in His covenant.
If a tailor cannot use his scissors and needles skillfully, or even worse, does not know anything about them, he cannot be a tailor. If a carpenter cannot use his saw and chisel, he cannot be a carpenter. If a cook does not know how to prepare a dish, he cannot be a good cook. Similarly, if a Christian does not know about the new covenant in his experience, he will not be able to accomplish God's purpose. It would be an impossible thing to do.
One thing that comforts our hearts is that even though the new covenant is a truth that many have forgotten, it is not a truth that is opposed by them. Many truths are not wrong, yet they are opposed. Many other truths can be understood, but they are forgotten. The new covenant is a very easily forgotten truth, but it is not a truth that is rejected by men. For this reason, we can take some comfort.
Some have said that our Bible is composed of the New and Old Testaments. Strictly speaking, however, the Bible cannot be called the New and Old Testaments. The terms New Testament and Old Testament were made up by the Protestant reformers. They were not the original name of the Bible. Actually, the New Testament is within the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is within the New Testament. The Lord Jesus called the Bible the "Scripture." He always said, "Thus says the Scripture." We have gone along with men's habitual usage and called it the Old and New Testaments. Although it is not so good to call the Bible the Old and New Testaments, the reformers, nevertheless, have given us some light in distinguishing the old covenant from the new covenant.
There was a famous Englishman who was called the "sweetest soul in the world." What made him so distinguished was the letters he wrote. Once he wrote in a letter:
Satan may have a great deal of water, but I have the fire. If we engage in a war in the air, the water and fire will clash and it will be just like thunder. I will not be afraid at all because I know that the fire belongs to Christ. As long as I put the fire in His hand, He will be responsible for keeping the coal burning.
This is dealing with Christ on the ground of the covenant. He did not beg, and he did not pray. There was no struggling and striving. He had absolute confidence and was not afraid at all. Even when the warfare was like thunder, he was still not afraid. He knew that Christ was responsible for the fire and for everything. This brother knew what a covenant is.
Mr. A. M. Toplady, who wrote the hymn "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me," had tuberculosis of the lungs for over ten years. When he was very ill, he wrote a hymn. One of the stanzas says:
Resting in the Lord's faithfulness — How sweet it is!For His love is truly wonderful.Resting in the Lord's gracious covenant — How sweet!For His covenant is forever dependable.
Unfortunately, many people do not know how to live on earth by the Lord's faithfulness and the Lord's covenant. Although we may know that the Lord's grace is sufficient for us and the Lord's love can satisfy our hearts, there are other things which we know nothing about, such as God's faithfulness and His covenant. I will speak on faithfulness and the covenant today. The above-mentioned brother shows us that we do not rest only in God's love, but also in His covenant.
All of us know that the Bible is the Word of God. God's Word reveals that grace involves three things: promises, facts, and covenants. In God's Word, there are also commandments, teachings, laws, and declarations. But as far as His Word is concerned, grace involves three things: promises, facts, and covenants. We can consider the following chart:
If we want to know the meaning of a covenant, we have to know the meaning of a promise and a fact. We also have to know the difference between a promise and a fact, and what a covenant, a promise, and a fact have in common. After we know the meaning of a covenant, we will then go on one more step to see what the new covenant is.
There are two aspects to God's Word. One is what He gives to man and the other is what man is responsible for.
Grace is God giving us something, not our asking God for something. When God requires something from us, it involves a teaching, commandment, law, etc. These all speak of what God requires of man. They are not grace. Grace means God giving us something, God wanting to give us something, and God accomplishing something for us. There are three aspects to grace in God's Word: (1) the promises that God gives to us; (2) the facts that God has accomplished for us; and (3) the covenants that God establishes with us, which are the things that He will definitely do.
A promise is very different from a fact. There are also differences among a promise, a fact, and a covenant. A promise concerns the future, while a fact concerns the past. A promise is something that one will do, while a fact is something that one has done. A promise is what God will do for man, while a fact is what God has accomplished for man. A promise is: "If you do such and such, I will do such and such." A fact is what God accomplished for us in His mercy when He realized that we were powerless and unable to go on. After God accomplished the facts, He told us the facts through the Bible.
We can give a few illustrations to show the difference between a promise and a fact. Suppose that you are very poor, and your family is not well-off. A friend sees your suffering and tells you that in three days he will send a servant to give you a thousand dollars. What is this? It is a promise. What then is a fact? When your friend sees your poverty and deposits a thousand dollars in a bank account under your name, that is a fact. Anytime you need the money, you can have it. You can use your seal or your signature to draw money from the account. This is a fact. What your friend has given you has become a definite fact. A promise is something that will be done in the future, while a fact is something that has already been done, something that you do not need to do anymore. In the Bible we can find many examples of these two kinds of words. In the Bible there are thousands of promises. At the same time, God has accomplished numerous facts for us. If God says that He will do something and He does, then that is a promise. If God says that He has done something and He has, then that is a fact. God's promises have conditions. When we fulfill the conditions, we receive what has been promised. But if something is God's fact, it is already there. There is no need to fulfill any condition; all we have to do is to believe in the fact. Now let us first consider some promises.
"`Honor your father and mother,' which is the first commandment with a promise, `that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth'" (Eph. 6:2-3). Here we see one thing: God promises that we can be well and live long on the earth. But does this mean that everyone can be well and live long on the earth? No. Everyone cannot be well and live long. Only those who honor their parents can be well and live long. Therefore, this is conditional. Most promises are conditional. God loves to see men being well and living long. But not everyone can be well and live long because not everyone fulfills the condition. If you do not fulfill this condition, you will not receive this promise. In the Bible there are some promises with conditions and other promises without conditions. Any promise that has a condition has the possibility of not being fulfilled. I do not mean that God will be unfaithful. Rather, if a man does not fulfill the condition, he will not receive the fulfillment of the promise.
"Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant" (1 Kings 8:56).
"Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established" (2 Chron. 1:9).
"After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise" (Num. 14:34, KJV). According to the original language, the expression my breach of promise can be rendered, "I have left my promise."
"For it was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham or to his seed that he would be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those of the law are heirs, faith has been made void and the promise has been annulled" (Rom. 4:13-14). This verse says that if a man keeps the law, there is the possibility that the promise may be annulled.
"And these all, having obtained a good testimony through their faith, did not obtain the promise" (Heb. 11:39).
From these verses, we can see many principles concerning promises. (1) A promise requires one to beseech God for its fulfillment. A promise requires prayer and requires one to ask for the promise to be fulfilled in him. Not only do we see this in the Bible, we see this in the experience of many Christians. Many times, a man will not receive God's promise if he does not pray. (2) A promise not only requires one to ask God for its fulfillment, but the conditions also have to be fulfilled before one can receive the promise. If he does not fulfill the conditions, the promise will be annulled. Why were two million Israelites kept from entering Canaan? [Of the Israelites that left Egypt] why did only two living and two dead Israelites eventually enter Canaan? God let them wander in the wilderness for forty years because the Israelites disobeyed God in Kadesh-Barnea. This shows that God annulled His promise. Therefore, we see that a promise requires prayer. If we are not faithful to the promise and do not fulfill the conditions that should be fulfilled, the promise may be annulled. A promise must be fulfilled according to God's conditions; otherwise, it will be annulled. (3) More than just sin will annul God's promise. Romans 4 says that when we do anything or implement anything with our fleshly energy apart from God, the promise will also be annulled. (4) There is another group of people, who have prayed, have not sinned, and have not done anything by their fleshly energy apart from God; they have not done anything such as trying to do good or keeping the law. Yet they still have not received the promise. The reason for this is that the time is not yet ready. They have to wait for a certain time before they can receive what is promised.
How can God's promise be accomplished in us? Every time we see a promise in God's Word, we have to spend some time before God to pray until His Spirit rises within us, and we have the deep realization that this promise is personally for us. If a promise is without any conditions, we can receive it immediately by exercising our faith to consider this promise as ours and by believing that God will work according to His promise. Since He has promised, He will surely fulfill it. He will fulfill what He has promised in us. We can then praise and thank God, based on this faith. If a promise has a condition, we have to fulfill, obey, and deal with the matter according to the required conditions. After this, we should go to God in prayer and ask Him to accomplish His promise in us according to His faithfulness and righteousness. We should pray in this way until faith rises up within us. When this happens, we do not need to pray anymore because we know that God has heard our prayer. We can begin praising and thanking God. Soon, we will see God's promises truly fulfilled in us.
The word fact is not in the Bible, but in reality, there are many accomplished facts in the Bible. A fact can also be called an accomplished work. Saying it in this way may make it more easily understandable. What is the difference between a fact and a promise? What is a fact? The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is a fact. The coming of the Holy Spirit is also a fact. Are these promises? Strictly speaking, they are no longer promises. In the Old Testament they were promises. But now they have become facts. In the Old Testament God promised that the Lord Jesus would be born of a woman under the law and would redeem men under the law. This promise has been fulfilled. Some of the promises in the Old Testament have become accomplished facts. Can we kneel down and ask God to let the Lord Jesus die for us and redeem us again? No, we cannot! But I have heard many people who pray this way. Solomon prayed for God to fulfill in him and accomplish what He had promised to David. But he did not need to ask God to make him a king because he was already a king. Doing so would be foolish. The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus has been accomplished once for all! The advent of the Holy Spirit has also been accomplished once for all. There is no need for more prayer and beseeching.
Furthermore, God has accomplished many other things in Christ. All these have become facts. The Bible shows us that many things concerning life and godliness have been accomplished in Christ. All these are accomplished and, therefore, are facts. As far as God's promises are concerned, we have to pray. If we do not pray, we will miss these promises because God will not work to accomplish His promises. But if we do not pray, will God's facts — the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus — not be fulfilled in us? No. Whatever is a fact is a fact. There is no more need to ask for it again or beseech God to accomplish it. All we have to do is believe that it is true and apply it as if it is real. The Word of God shows us that even a dying sinner can be immediately regenerated and saved if he believes in God's Word and accepts His facts. This is possible because the redemptive work of Christ has been accomplished. In the Bible God never asks us to do anything that He regards as an accomplished fact. All we have to do is to fulfill one simple step — believe.
A promise is different. A promise can be delayed, while a fact cannot be delayed. On the one hand, we cannot receive God's fact and, on the other hand, say that God will only give us what we want five years from now. What God has accomplished and has given to us in Christ cannot be withheld for a later time. Even God Himself cannot withhold His facts or delay giving them to us. If there is any withholding or delaying, it is a contradiction of the fact.
Friends, the redemption of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit are not the only facts; even many things that we daily attempt to solve but cannot are facts; Concerning this point, we can look at Ephesians 2:1-10: "And you, though dead in your offenses and sins, in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all conducted ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest; but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works that no one should boast. For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them." "Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus."
Brothers and sisters, in verses 5-6, the word "together" is used three times. Are these words God's promises or are they God's facts? God did not say that before we can be raised and ascended, we should do good and overcome the world. He said that when He raised Christ from the dead, He also raised us up. When He caused Christ to ascend, He also caused us to ascend. All these are accomplished facts. Can any one of us ask God to raise him and let ascend him with Christ? No. There is no need. If you have been joined to Christ, you are raised and ascended already. There is nothing more to ask for. If this was a promise, there still might be a need for asking. But if it is a fact, there is no need to ask and no need to pray. We should continually pay attention to this point. Many people cannot differentiate between God's fact and God's promise. They think that they must ask in order to obtain the fact. But what is the result of this asking? The more they pray, the more they lose their faith; they pray their faith away. All we have to do is to apply God's fact. There is only a need to apply; there is no need to ask.
God has shown us that the facts that He has given us are accomplished matters; there is no need to ask for them anymore. Our death, resurrection, and ascension with Christ are accomplished facts. We do not ask for God to give us a resurrected and ascended life today. If we ask, God will answer, "You have the resurrected and ascended life already." No Christian has received a life that is not the resurrected and ascended life. If we think that we can only obtain by asking, we still do not know God's accomplished works. A promise is something that God will give us, while a fact is something that God has given us. A promise is the word God will give to us when we are in trouble and pray to God for help. We can hold onto these words of promise and receive His help. Facts are all the things pertaining to life and godliness which God has already given to us in Christ. They are God's accomplished works. Since God has given them to us, there is no need for us to seek for them. All we have to do is to apply them. Hallelujah! Glorious facts! Accomplished facts! All the facts that Christ has accomplished are ours.
When we read the Bible, it is important to determine what are God's promises and what are God's facts. Every time we read about God's grace — how God has worked for us — we have to ask if this is a promise or a fact. If it is a promise, we should meet its conditions and pray much until God gives to us the assurance within that the promise is for us. We will have the faith to believe that God has heard our prayers, and we will spontaneously praise God. Although God's promise may not be fulfilled immediately, we can say by faith that it is already in our hand.
What should we do if it is a fact? Should we ask God to accomplish it again? Should we ask God to make it a reality again? Should we ask God to give it to us again? If we pray to God, "God, make me resurrect with Christ and ascend with Christ," God will say, "You have already been raised and ascended with Christ." All the facts in the Bible have already been accomplished by God. All the facts of God have been done and cannot be done again. If we see a fact, we can immediately exercise faith to thank God, saying, "God, it is so. The matter is settled." We must believe that our life is according to the fact and should begin living according to the fact. We prove our faith by such a practice. God says that we have already resurrected and ascended. We do not have to ask God to cause us to resurrect or ascend anymore. We should believe that we are indeed resurrected and ascended and thank God that we have been resurrected and ascended. Towards the world and Satan, we should adopt the attitude that we have already resurrected and ascended. We should not adopt an attitude of hoping that we will resurrect or ascend, but that we have already resurrected and ascended.
When we read the Bible, we should be very careful to determine God's facts and exercise our faith over them one by one to believe that these facts have been accomplished according to the Bible. If we do this, our spiritual life will be many times richer. If we cannot believe, we have to honestly confess that our hearts are evil and that we have an evil heart of unbelief. We should ask God to have mercy on us and remove this heart of unbelief from us. It is unfortunate that, even though God has accomplished many facts for us, we do not have any experience of them because of our lack of faith.
We can take Romans 6:6 as another example. "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves." This verse speaks about three things: sin, the old man, and the body of sin. Sin is the master, the old man is the self that likes to go along with sin, and the body is the puppet of the old man, which practices sin outwardly. Sin is the master within us which directs the old man and causes the old man to direct the body to sin. Therefore, when a man sins, he should not only blame it on the devil or inward sin. He should blame the old man — himself. We have sin within us. This sin is what we commonly call the sinful nature. The old man represents everything that comes from Adam. This old man follows sin's direction and causes the body to sin. The body is merely the outward slave. Some have thought that the way to be delivered from sin is by inwardly eradicating the root of sin. Others have thought that the way is by outwardly suppressing the body of sin. But God's work is completely different from man's work. He deals with the old man. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, God crucified us there as well. "Our old man has been crucified with Him" (6:6). Just as the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, we were crucified on the cross. God has dealt with our old man. Many times, we want to deal with our old man by ourselves. But we find that our old man is still alive in our experience. Thank God, the Lord Jesus has already crucified our old man on the cross. God has put the resurrection life of Christ within us. This is our new man. Sin has not changed and the body of sin has not changed. God has crucified the old man on the cross and the new man is now within us. Since the old man is crucified and the new man is here, we can have new hopes, new desires, new inclinations, and new thoughts. Although sin remains powerful, it cannot direct the body anymore. It is as if the body has become unemployed. "Annulled" in the original language includes the sense of being unemployed. When God crucified our old man with the Lord Jesus on the cross, the body of sin became unemployed. Since the old man is gone, the boastful mouth, the hasty hand, and the wandering eyes have all become unemployed. As a result, we are no longer a slave to sin.
Some have said that the body has hurt us and hurt us seriously; therefore, we should suppress the body. Others have said that the root of sin has hurt us and hurt us seriously; therefore, we should eradicate the root of sin. But God does not say this. God did not deal with the root of sin nor the body of sin, but with our old man, crucifying it with the Lord Jesus on the cross. As a result, the body of sin is unemployed and sin is no longer the master. The root of sin and the body of sin still exist. Even though the root of sin still tries to tempt us, the fact that we have the new man and our old man has been crucified makes it possible for every one of us to have the experience of victory.
Many have asked, "Why can I not overcome sin?" I am afraid that the problem with many people is that they only know God's promises; they do not know God's facts. They try to handle God's facts the same way that they handle God's promises. Some have thought that, before there is the possibility for victory over sin, they have to receive a "second blessing" or "second work" to remove the root of sin. But the Lord Jesus has died and resurrected. Many think that even though Christ has been crucified, they have not yet been crucified. Many think that even though Christ has been resurrected, they have not yet been resurrected. Many people do not realize that the old man has been crucified, so they beseech God to crucify their old man. They do not realize that they have been resurrected, so they ask God to grant them the resurrection life. Little do they realize that they are asking for the impossible because God has already done these things. Once He has done them, they are done forever. He cannot do them a second time. There is a great difference between promises and facts. If we do not distinguish between them, we will not progress at all in our spiritual journey because the first step in our spiritual journey, the victory over sin, is missing. A promise will be done, while a fact has been done. God does not need nor can He accomplish the facts again.
Some have asked, "If this is the case, why do we sin again? If the old man has already been crucified and if we have the new man, why do we still sin?" This leads us to a new question.
What should we do to realize God's accomplished facts?
A mistake that many people make is that they change God's facts into promises. The old man has been crucified. However, some think that God has only promised to crucify the old man. They think that they should ask God to crucify the old man. Whenever they sin, they think that their old man is still not crucified. So they again ask God to crucify it. Whenever they encounter temptations, they think that the old man has not been dealt with, and they again ask God to deal with it. They do not realize that God's facts are different from His promises. God has done many things. Facts are not things that God has promised to do.
Therefore, we do not need to pray. We do not need to have more zealous prayers, but to believe. Toward God's facts, we must only believe. If we believe, we will have the experience. Fact, faith, experience — this is the order that God has ordained, and this is a great principle in our spiritual life. We only need to do this: First, we should know God's facts. God must reveal them to us through the Holy Spirit. Second, after we know God's fact concerning a certain matter, we should lay hold of God's Word and believe that we are already according to His Word. God's fact says it and we are what His Word says. Third, we should exercise this faith and thank God that we are what He says we are and should live according to what we already are. Fourth, whenever temptations and trials come, we should believe that God's Word and facts are more reliable than our experience. All we have to do is fully believe in God's Word; He will be responsible for giving us the experience. If we only pay attention to our experience, we will fail. We should pay attention to believing in God's fact. This is our only responsibility. We can commit our experience to God because it is His responsibility.
The basis for a Christian's experience is Romans 6:6. All we have to do is to allow God's Spirit to show us how our old man is crucified. Then we should lay hold of God's Word and believe that we are dead to sin. After this, we should live as if we are already dead. Even when temptations come and tell us that we have not died, we should still believe more in what God has done than in our feelings and experience. If we do this, experience will follow. We should note that God's fact does not become real by doing this. Rather, we do this because God's fact is already real.
If our old man has not died, we could pray and ask Him to crucify it. But if the crucifixion is an accomplished fact and we still ask God to accomplish it again, then there is nothing more to say except that we are entirely lacking in faith. May we have greater faith before God. I admit that if I had not personally passed through my sickness in the past three years, I would not have known what faith is. In many places I have seen many dear brothers. But I have seldom seen a person who believes in God. What is faith? Faith is believing that whatever God has said means exactly what He has said. It is believing that everything is according to God's Word. God has said that the old man is dead. This means that our old man is dead. It is a fact that our old man is dead. A fact is something that God has accomplished through Christ. No one can say anything more about it. God sent His Son to accomplish everything for us and told us, through the Bible, what He accomplished. Now what He has accomplished is finished; God can do nothing more, and we should do nothing more than accept it before Him with a humble heart and believe that His Word is real. May our hardened hearts and evil hearts of unbelief be removed so that we will receive God's grace.
Many people do not realize the importance of faith. They think that obedience is more important. Actually, faith and obedience are equally important in the Bible and on our spiritual journey. Faith comes first, then obedience. A man must have faith before he can obey. If a man wants to obey before he believes, he is a "wretched man" indeed.
We must have faith because facts only require our faith. Faith is the only means of turning facts into experience. God's facts are almost exclusively in Christ. This means that God's facts can only become facts in Christ. Since God's facts are in Christ, we can only enjoy these facts when we are in Christ. When we believe in Christ and are joined to Him, we can experience God's accomplished facts in Christ. We must remember that apart from Christ, these things are no longer real. They are only real in Christ. Being in Christ means we are joined to Christ. This happened when we were saved. Although many people are in Christ, they do not abide in Christ. They do not exercise their faith to stand on the position that God has given them in Christ. Consequently, they lose the realization of God's fact.
Brothers, faith is truly important. Only when we believe are we in Christ. Only when we abide in Christ are God's facts our facts. May God open our eyes today to see that we are already dead, resurrected, and ascended in Christ. We should believe that we are this way in Christ. Whenever we do not have faith, we are living outside of Christ and cannot experience the facts that are in Christ. Oh, may God grant us the faith!
