Date: 1940Place: UnrecordedScripture Reading: Gal. 4:19; 5:22-23; Heb. 12:5-7, 9-11; 1 Cor. 3:12, 14; 7:10, 17, 25; 11:11; Gen. 2:12; Matt. 28:19; 2 Thes. 3:5; Phil. 4:11-12; 1 Pet. 1:6-7
For a new believer there is very little difference between the natural life and the old man. The natural life is the life that is created by God, while the old man is man's life after the fall. Before Adam sinned, he had the natural life. After he sinned, he had the life of the old man in addition to the natural life. Every person has the natural life. Only wooden statues do not have the natural life. But since man sinned, he not only has the natural life, but also the life of the old man.
Christ also had the natural life, but He did not have the life of the old man. Moreover, although Christ had the natural life, He did not live by it, but by the spiritual life. A believer needs to be dealt with in two areas: in his natural life and in the life of the old man. The life of the old man has been dealt with in Christ. Now he needs to deal with the natural life, that is, the life that tries to do good and practice morality.
First Corinthians 3:12 shows us that man's work in the eyes of God is of two kinds. One is the work of gold, silver, and precious stones. Gold and silver are minerals, while precious stones are a kind of compound. All of them are buried in the ground for a long time, and all of them need to go through a process of cutting. The other is the work of wood, grass, and stubble. This is the work of the natural life. Jacob's experience shows us that the natural life is something that must be dealt with by the Lord. Although Jacob had the right goal, he employed the wrong means. His goal was to have God's blessing, but he tried to acquire it by exercising his natural life. In the end God had to step in to deal with him.
There is a difference between sanctification in 1 Corinthians 1:30 and holiness in Hebrews 12:10. The former refers to Christ as sanctification to the believers, while the latter refers to the holiness wrought in the believers through sufferings. The latter is produced through discipline and constituted in the believers through the Holy Spirit. The result of this discipline is the fruit of righteousness. This fruit is not manufactured, but grown. All fruit grows in a spontaneous way. There is no need for a fruit tree to exert any effort to produce fruit; it bears fruit spontaneously. In the same way the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the result of the indwelling Christ being assimilated and produced by the believers. God's intention is not only for the believers to have Christ as their life, but for them to bear the fruit of Christ in their living.
A believer's reward in Christ is His living within the believers and living on their behalf. This is what Paul meant when he spoke about Christ being formed in the believers in Galatians 4:19. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ is wrought into the believers to the extent that for them to live is Christ.
Let me mention something about George Cutting (the author of Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment). When I was in England, I went to pray with him. At that time he was over ninety years old already. He prayed repeatedly: "Christ cannot be without me, and I cannot be without Christ." I did not say anything. He went on: "This is our living in union with Christ." His living was one which lived Christ. Only those who have never experienced the Lord's dealing would be so presumptuous as to say, "If all will be stumbled because of You, I will never be stumbled" (Matt. 26:33).
The Bible is the word of God. But some parts of the Bible are also the words of Paul. Many words in 1 Corinthians 7 are the words of Paul. Because the Lord was formed in Paul, and because for Paul to live was Christ, his speaking became God's speaking. In order to reach this stage, a believer's natural life must be dealt with thoroughly.
