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We have already seen that in order to expound the Bible in a proper, adequate, and high way, we need a knowledge of the theology of the Brethren. The top point of Brethren theology is that they opened up the Bible in the matter of dispensations. Reformed theology rejects the thought of dispensations and believes that the Old Testament is the same as the New Testament. In this theology there is no difference between the age of the law and the age of grace. The Brethren were the first ones to begin to know the Bible not only according to its spiritual principles but also according to dispensations. The problem that the Galatians had was that they did not have a clear vision of the change in dispensation. The Judaizers spoiled the distinction between the law and faith. Under the law what was needed was works, but under faith only believing is needed. To understand the book of Galatians, you must have the clear concept of God’s dispensations. God deals with His chosen people in different ages in different ways. Under the law God dealt with His people according to the law. In the age of grace God deals with His people according to grace by faith.
Paul wrote Hebrews 6:4-5 according to God’s dispensations: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” We all have been enlightened, having received the heavenly light. We have also received the heavenly gift of the divine life and the Holy Spirit, so we are the partakers of the Holy Spirit. In verse 4 we have tasted of the heavenly gift, and in verse 5 we have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. These are three kinds of tastes. The enlightenment, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, and the good word of God belong to the present age, the age of grace. The powers belong to the age to come, the age of the kingdom. In the New Testament, miracles and powers of the age to come are synonymous. The previous age was the age of law, this present age is the age of grace, and the age to come is the age of the kingdom.
In the age of the law there was no regeneration, and in the coming age there will be no regeneration either. Regeneration is only in the age of grace. Regeneration is to be born again with another life, the higher life, the divine life, to be a new creation. To regenerate the fallen and dead people with the divine life to make them a new creation was not present in the age of the law and will no longer be there in the coming age of the kingdom. Regeneration is absolutely a unique thing in this age of grace. Such a unique thing does not have any relationship to miracles. Miracles are not related to our spirit but to our bodies; however, regeneration is absolutely related to our spirit (John 3:6). Romans 8:11 tells us that the divine life can be given even to our mortal body. This is not a miracle but a matter of the imparting of the divine life. For the Lord to give life to our mortal body is for Him to impart the divine life into our natural body. That imparting of the divine life has nothing to do with miracles and is absolutely a spiritual matter of life. When the Lord comes back, our body will be transfigured. This is not a miracle but the saturation of our body with the divine life for God’s expression and our glorification.
God does two kinds of work: one kind belongs to the spirit with the divine life, and another kind, which are the works not of life but of power, are miracles. Works of power are related to our physical body and not to our spirit. When the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, that was not something related to his spirit but to his body. We know that his being raised from the dead had nothing to do with his spirit because he died again. During the Lord Jesus’ earthly ministry many were healed or raised from the dead, but they all eventually died. This is strong proof that miracles do not have any relationship to our spirit.
We must realize that there were miracles in the age of the law. Elisha performed many miracles, among which were the raising of the Shunammite’s dead son (2 Kings 4:32-37) and the healing of Naaman the leper (5:9-14). Although healings were there in the Old Testament, there was no regeneration.
Some of the powers of the age to come are described in the book of Isaiah. The coming age will be full of works of power. Isaiah 11:6-9 says, “The wolf will dwell with the lamb; / And the leopard will lie down with the kid, / And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; / And a young boy will lead them about. / The cow and the bear will graze; / Their young will lie down together; / And the lion will eat straw like the ox. / The nursing child will play by the cobra’s hole, / And upon the viper’s den / The weaned child will stretch his hand. / They will not harm nor destroy / In all My holy mountain, / For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, / As water covers the sea.” In the coming age the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and a young boy will lead wild animals. These miraculous things will be present in the coming kingdom age.
Also, regarding the coming age, Isaiah 35:5-10 says, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, / And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped; / Then the lame will leap like a hart, / And the tongue of the dumb will give a ringing shout; / For water will break forth in the wilderness, / And streams in the desert. / And the desert mirage will become a pool, / And the thirsty ground, springs of water; / In the habitation of jackals, their resting place, / There will be grass with reeds and rushes. / And a highway will be there, and a way, / And it will be called, The Way of Holiness. / The unclean will not pass on it, / But it will be for him who walks on the way; / No fools will err in it. / There will be no lion there, / Nor will any ravenous animal go up on it; / They will not be found there; / But the redeemed will walk on it. / And the ransomed of Jehovah will return / And will come to Zion with a ringing shout, / And eternal joy will be upon their heads. / They will lay hold on gladness and joy, / And sorrow and sighing will flee away.” These verses are a further description of the blessings in the kingdom age. Then Isaiah 65:25 says, “The wolf and the lamb will feed as one, / And the lion will eat straw like the ox, / And dust will be the serpent’s food; / They will not harm nor destroy / In all My holy mountain, says Jehovah.” The three aforementioned portions from Isaiah are a picture of the coming age. The coming age will be an age full of miracles, not only in healing but also in restoration.
Between eternity past and eternity future there are basically three ages: the age of the old creation, the age of the new creation, and the age of restoration. From God’s creation of the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1 to the beginning of the age of grace is the time span of the age of the old creation. The age of grace is the age of the new creation. Most of the promises in the Old Testament are related to the age of the new creation, the age of grace. A small portion of the promises in the Old Testament are related to the coming age, such as the ones from Isaiah. In the age of the old creation God created mankind and the entire universe, and when what He created became fallen, He came in to heal, to restore. To restore the fallen creation is to recover and maintain it. God first created, and then God restored. We can see from Genesis to Malachi how God healed, recovered, and maintained His fallen creation. Part of this maintenance was the keeping of His chosen people under the custody of the law.
In the age of grace God is doing neither a work of creation nor a work of restoration. The age of grace is the age of the new creation. The old creation is merely the creation without God in it. The new creation is the old creation born of God with God as its new element. The old creation, because of the addition of God to it, becomes the new creation. The old creation does not have the divine nature, but the new creation, the believers born again of God, does (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hence, they are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life. The work of God in the age of grace is to produce the new creation. In the coming age, in the millennium, God will neither create nor produce the new creation, but He will do a work of restoring the old, fallen creation. This restoration work does not include us, because by that time we will have become the new creation already.
Matthew 19:28 describes the age of restoration, the coming kingdom age (Acts 3:21), after the Lord’s second coming: “Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that you who have followed Me, in the restoration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” The Greek word for restoration in this verse is also used in Titus 3:5, where it is translated “regeneration.” This Greek word is different from the word for born again (1 Pet. 1:23). In Matthew 19:28 this word is used for the restoration of the millennium. In Titus 3:5 it refers to a change from one state of things to another. The second birth, which the Lord spoke about in John 3, is something of the divine life, the inner life. But restoration in Matthew 19:28 does not denote anything related to the inner life but rather something related to a change of condition.
Acts 3:21 also refers to the times of the restoration in the millennium, as prophesied in Isaiah 11:1-10 and 65:18-25, referred to by Christ in Matthew 17:11 and 19:28. Acts 3:21 tells us that heaven must receive the Lord Jesus “until the times of the restoration of all things.” The coming age will be an age of restoration. Restoration is not to regenerate with the divine life but to restore the fallen things. According to the Bible, the three ages related to God’s work of creation are the age of the old creation, the age of the new creation, and the age of restoration. The entire creation became fallen. Out of this fallen creation God chose some out of mankind to be regenerated with His life and even with Himself to make them a new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
When the Lord comes back, the age of the new creation will be over. By that time many of the descendants of Adam will have died already; some will still be living on the earth, and the Lord will judge them. Second Timothy 4:1 tells us that the Lord Jesus is the Judge of the living and the dead. As the righteous Judge (v. 8), He will judge the living on the throne of His glory at His second appearing (Matt. 25:31-46), and He will judge the dead on the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15). His judgment of the living at His coming back is fully revealed in Matthew 25. He will gather all the living nations to Himself, and He will divide them into sheep and goats. The goats will go to the lake of fire, and the sheep will be transferred into the millennium on the earth to be the nations. These sheep have never been and they will never be regenerated. Revelation 20:8-9 tells us that at the end of the millennium some of the nations will be instigated by Satan to rebel against God. After the Lord’s judgment on these rebellious ones, the remnant of the nations will be in the new heaven and the new earth to be the nations outside the New Jerusalem.
In Revelation 21 there are two categories of people — the peoples of God on the new earth (vv. 3-4) and the sons of God in eternity (vv. 5-7). The sons of God are regenerated to be the new creation. The peoples of God are not regenerated but restored to their created condition, which was lost due to the fall of Adam. Through Christ’s redemption the heaven, the earth, and all created things were reconciled, redeemed, back to God (Col. 1:20). Redemption is not a matter of the divine life. To be redeemed is not to be regenerated. For the heavens and the earth to be redeemed does not mean that they are regenerated. Christ’s redemption is not only for us, the regenerated people, but also for all the things in the heavens and the earth. The sheep in the millennial kingdom and the peoples of God outside the New Jerusalem will be the restored ones and the redeemed ones, but they have never been and will never be regenerated.
In the new heaven and the new earth, the tree of life has two functions. One function is to produce the fruit to feed the believers, and the other function is to produce leaves for the healing of the nations. Healing is something miraculous. The miraculous healing through the leaves of the tree of life is related to the physical body of the nations. The fruit of the tree of life, which feeds the believers, is related to the divine life within them.
Let us now summarize in a brief way what we have fellowshipped concerning God’s work in all the dispensations. God created the universe, and His creation became fallen. Then God came in to regenerate His chosen people, who were part of the old creation, to make them a new creation. At the Lord’s coming back, He will judge the living. Some of these living ones will be the peoples on the new earth at the time of the millennium. At the end of the millennium some of these peoples will rebel, and God will judge them. The remnant of these living ones will be transferred into the new earth and will be the nations, the peoples of God, around the New Jerusalem. These peoples will have been restored and even redeemed, but they will never have been regenerated. In the new heaven and the new earth, God will have a new creation plus a restored part of the old creation. At the consummation of God’s work in the new heaven and the new earth is God’s new creation with Himself in this new creation as its life and its everything. This new creation is actually the New Jerusalem, which is a mingling of the Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. In eternity future there will also be the restored old creation. We must realize that the new heaven and the new earth will not be another heaven and another earth. The new heaven and the new earth will be the old heaven and the old earth restored but not regenerated. The new heaven and the new earth and all the nations are the restored old creation. In the center of the restored old creation is the new creation, the New Jerusalem.
In the age of God’s old creation, God did some creating work and also some restoring work. This restoring work is the performing of miracles. The miracles, the powers of the age to come, do not belong to God’s new creation but to the restoration of God’s old creation. In the New Testament times there were also healings, such as the resurrection of people who died. In the age of the kingdom all people will be healed miraculously. We must be clear, though, that no miracle belongs to God’s new creation. To say that miracles are the work for the new creation is absolutely wrong. If this is right, there would be no martyrdom of the saints. Both Peter and Paul were among the many martyrs throughout the history of the church. If Peter had had the concept that miracles were something for the new creation, he might have told the Lord, “Lord, You have used me to raise up the dead. Why wouldn’t You rescue me from the hands of the persecutors? You once released me from prison. Why wouldn’t You do it again? Why wouldn’t You keep me on this earth until Your second return?” Peter, of course, did not have such a concept. In fact, Peter, like Paul (2 Tim. 4:6), knew that he would leave the world by martyrdom, and he was ready for it (2 Pet. 1:14). All the people who were physically healed eventually died. All the miracle performers, even the greatest ones like Peter and Paul, were martyred, killed. The Lord would not perform miraculous things for His chosen people all the time. However, during the age of the new creation, the age of grace, for certain purposes the Lord borrowed the powers of the age to come, the miracles, from another age.
The New Testament believers have been enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift, have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted the good word of God, and have also tasted the powers of the age to come. The first four items are fully destined for us in this age, but the last item, the powers of the age to come, are not destined for us in this age of grace. One reason why I know that the powers of the age to come are not destined for us is Paul’s experience with a thorn in his flesh recorded in 2 Corinthians. Paul asked the Lord three times to remove this thorn, but the Lord’s reply was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (12:9). The work of power to take away the thorn from your body is a kind of healing. This healing does not belong to the new creation but to the restoration. Whether the Lord heals and restores your body, which is part of the old creation, is up to Him. He may do it, and then again, He may not do it.
Wonders and signs are not part of God’s central testimony of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, neither are they part of His full salvation; the Lord borrowed the miraculous things from the coming age to show that what the apostles preached and ministered and how they acted were absolutely of God, not of man (Acts 2:43; Heb. 2:3-4). God would not perform the miraculous things all the time in the age of grace. Even if the thorn in Paul’s flesh were taken away, Paul would still die. God did not desire to take away Paul’s thorn in this age of grace.
In the three and a half years of our Lord’s earthly ministry, He did two categories of work. First, He ministered His life to God’s chosen people, which was His main work (John 10:10b). He died on the cross so that He could release the divine life (12:24), and He resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) so that He could impart the divine life through His death into God’s chosen people. Second, He performed some auxiliary miracles. When the Lord performed miracles, though, these were not the real goal of His ministry. John 2:23-25 says, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed into His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” Many saw the signs that Jesus did and believed in Him, but Jesus would not entrust Himself to them. John 3:1 continues by saying, “But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” The word but at the beginning of verse 1 indicates that this case of Nicodemus differs from the cases in the foregoing verses, 2:23-25. All the cases there are cases of people believing in the Lord because of seeing the miracles He did. The Lord could not commit Himself to such people. But this case in chapter 3 is one of life and regeneration. This reveals that the book of John is not for miraculous things but for life. This is why even the miracles done by the Lord are called signs in this book, signifying that the Lord came for life, not for miracles.
The Lord would not commit Himself to those who believed in Him by seeing the signs that He did, but another man came. This man came, not for signs or miracles, but he came seeking knowledge. Nicodemus may have thought that he needed some better teachings to improve himself, but the Lord’s answer unveiled to him that his need was to be born again. To be born again is to be regenerated with the divine life, other than the human life received by natural birth. Hence, Nicodemus’s real need was not some better teachings to improve himself but the divine life to remake him. The Lord presented Himself to Nicodemus not as a miracle performer nor as a rabbi to teach him. He unveiled to Nicodemus that He was the bronze serpent to die for him (vv. 14-16). Regardless of how good Nicodemus might have been outwardly, inwardly he had the serpentine nature of Satan. As a descendant of Adam, he was poisoned by the old serpent, and the serpent’s nature was within him. He needed the Lord to be in the form of a serpent that his serpentine nature might be dealt with on the cross and that he might have eternal life. Nicodemus needed regeneration. He needed to receive another life, the divine life. All the regenerated people will become the Lord’s bride, and He will be the Bridegroom. This bride will be the new creation by regeneration.
To regenerate Nicodemus is one thing, and to have others believe in Him because of seeing the miracles He did is another thing. The signs that the Lord did proved to everyone that He was God’s sent One. But the Lord would never entrust Himself to those who believed in Him because of seeing the signs. He had no confidence in the miracle seekers.
Many thousands of people were either healed by the Lord or directly affected by the miracles He performed in His earthly ministry. The Lord miraculously fed five thousand people at one time with only five loaves and two fish (6:9-13). The next day He told the same crowd not to work for the food which perishes, referring to the food He fed them with the day before, but to work for the eternal food, which is the bread of life (vv. 27, 35, 57). He told them to eat Him, that His flesh was good for them to eat and that His blood was good for them to drink (vv. 53-54). Then those people who were miraculously fed by Him said, “This word is hard” (v. 60), and many of them left (v. 66). Only a few remained with the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus then asked the twelve if they would leave also. Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (v. 68). Peter’s attitude was that he and the twelve would never leave the Lord but would stay with Him, not to get the physical bread but to receive the words of eternal life.
In the synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — this is not pointed out in so much detail. John purposely points out that the feeding of the five thousand should be taken as a sign, symbolizing that the Lord is imparting Himself as the bread of life into our spirit. Eventually, He said, “It is the Spirit who gives life,” and “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (v. 63). The real bread of life is not physical but absolutely wrapped up with the Spirit and with life. Where were those five thousand who were fed by the Lord after His resurrection? The Lord healed, no doubt, thousands of people. Where were those healed ones at the beginning of the book of Acts? How many did the Lord really gain at the conclusion of His earthly ministry? First Corinthians 15:6 even tells us that the Lord appeared to over five hundred brothers at one time after His resurrection. After the Lord’s labor for three and a half years, however, we can see only one hundred and twenty faithful ones. Again, the Lord would not entrust Himself to the miracle seekers. The New Testament ministry ministers the central line of God’s New Testament economy to produce the new creation, not to bring forth anything like restoration.
One of the troubles with the Corinthians was the overemphasis of the speaking in tongues. Speaking with new tongues is one of the five signs listed in Mark 16:17 and 18. To speak with new tongues is one of the five miracles listed here that belong to the coming age. In the first chapter of 1 Corinthians Paul says that God has called us into the fellowship of His Son (v. 9), who is the power of God and the wisdom of God to us (v. 24). Christ became wisdom to us from God as righteousness and sanctification and redemption (v. 30). First Corinthians unveils to us that the very Christ, who is the portion of all believers and into whose fellowship we all have been called, is all-inclusive. This book unveils Christ as at least twenty wonderful items for our enjoyment (see footnote 2 in 1 Corinthians 1:9 in the Recovery Version). Not one of these items of Christ revealed in 1 Corinthians indicates any kind of miraculous thing. All these items of Christ indicate life and the life supply. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul restricts the abuse and the overuse of tongue-speaking. He tells the Corinthians clearly that to speak in tongues does not build the church, but prophecy does (v. 4). Paul encourages the saints in Corinth to prophesy, to speak for Christ, to speak forth Christ, and to speak Christ. One of the reasons for the problems with the Corinthians was their exaltation of the miraculous speaking in tongues.
The problem with the Galatians was that they were seduced back to the law. Paul indicates in his Epistle to them that it was absolutely wrong for them to go back to the law because today is the day of grace. What God is mainly doing in the age of grace is to reveal His Son in us (1:16a) that His Son may live in us (2:20a), that His Son may be formed in us (4:19), and that we may be clothed with His Son (3:27). “Neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters” (6:15).
Now we must see what the problem was with the Hebrews. They had been enlightened, they had tasted of the heavenly gift, they had received the Holy Spirit, and they were even partaking of this Holy Spirit. They had also tasted the good word of God, but they remained in the initial stage of the enjoyment of the New Testament blessings. The good word of God in 6:5 refers to the word of the beginning of Christ mentioned in 6:1, which is the milk the Hebrew believers tasted when they believed in the Lord. The good word of God is milk, whereas the word of righteousness is solid food.
Hebrews 5:12 says, “When because of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you what the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God are and have become those who have need of milk and not of solid food.” This verse tells us that the word of God is likened to milk and solid food. The rudiments, or primary elements, of the beginning of the oracles of God are in the category of the word as milk, not as solid food. Verse 13 continues, “Everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.” Many of us are familiar with the word of life and the word of grace, but I do not think many Christians have a thought concerning the word of righteousness. The word of righteousness is the solid food and is not for infants. Everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness. The word of righteousness is a word on a higher level and is something deeper. Paul’s use of the word inexperienced indicates that we need to experience the word of righteousness. From the point of our regeneration in the Lord we began to know the word of life (Phil. 2:16), the word of grace (Acts 20:32), the word of the truth (Eph. 1:13), and the word of the gospel (Acts 15:7). We not only acquired the knowledge of these kinds of words, but we also had the experience. But how many of us have adequately experienced the word of righteousness? Hebrews 5:14 says, “Solid food is for the full-grown, who because of practice have their faculties exercised for discriminating between both good and evil.” To fully enter into the word of righteousness, we need experience and we need exercise.
The entire revelation of the book of Hebrews shows us that Christ has an earthly ministry and also a heavenly ministry. In His earthly ministry He was incarnated, crucified, and resurrected. Through that ministry we were all redeemed back to God through “repentance from dead works and of faith in God” (6:1). Through His earthly ministry we were also baptized into Him (v. 2a), and all our negative things were washed away and terminated. Repentance from dead works, faith in God, and baptism are mentioned as the word of the beginning concerning Christ, the good word of God, in Hebrews 6:1 and 2. To tell people in preaching the gospel that Christ was the Son of God who died on the cross for sinners is merely to preach the good word of God referring to Christ’s ministry on this earth.
The Hebrews received the gospel to this extent, but they never realized that Christ has another ministry, a ministry in the heavens. Now they must go on from the good word of God to the deeper word, the word of righteousness (5:13), which is not mainly concerned with God’s redemption but with the way of His economy and which is the solid food for them to reach maturity (6:1). Therefore, the book of Hebrews was written to bring the Hebrew believers on from the good word of God concerning Christ’s earthly ministry to the word of righteousness concerning His heavenly ministry, from the first, initial stage of God’s salvation to the full stage of God’s salvation. This book’s intention is to bring the childish believers on to maturity, from the earth to the heavens. It even tells us that we are partakers of a heavenly calling (3:1). Hebrews also mentions the heavenly gifts (6:4), the heavenly things (8:5), the heavenly country (11:16), and the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22). Eventually, this book points out to us that today the very Christ who died on the cross and who made the new covenant for us is now in the heavens as the heavenly Minister, the heavenly High Priest, and the heavenly Mediator of the new covenant. He is in the heavenlies to minister all the blessings of God’s New Testament economy into His chosen people.
The Hebrew believers were remaining in the initial stage of salvation and would not go on to the heavenly ministry of Christ. In Hebrews 6:1 Paul says, “Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be brought on to maturity.” The word of the beginning of Christ is the good word of God mentioned in 6:5. Leaving the good word of God, we need to be brought on to maturity, which is to advance from Christ’s earthly ministry to His heavenly ministry. The heavenly Christ is in the Holy of Holies in the heavenly tabernacle, and the way into the Holy of Holies has been made for us. Now we all have to enter into the Holy of Holies in the heavens where Christ is.
In Hebrews 6:4 and 5 we saw that the Hebrew believers had tasted four things that are the genuine blessings assigned to us for the new creation — the heavenly light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, and the good word of God. In addition to this, the Hebrews had also tasted the powers of the age to come, the miracles. The Hebrew believers had tasted, in the first stage of God’s salvation, the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. This shows us that miracles are not in the stage of God’s full salvation but in the initial stage of God’s salvation.
In the book of Acts miracles followed the apostles’ preaching of the gospel. Eventually, in the book of Acts, though, there is a strong indication that the miracles were waning. In Acts 2 and 4 the believers had all their possessions in common. This practice, however, did not last long. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that he was “in fastings often” (11:27). Since fastings are listed in this verse with hardships, they must refer to involuntary fasting due to lack of food; hence, they differ from hunger. Hunger may refer to a situation where there is no way to obtain food; involuntary fasting may refer to a situation of poverty. There was a time when Paul lacked food, and no one in the churches was sharing with him. Paul was such a great apostle who established so many churches, yet no church among these churches would have anything in common with him. He was forced to make tents for a living (Acts 18:3; 20:34).
To have everything in common according to what was practiced in the book of Acts was altogether over by Paul’s time. Paul even had to exhort the Corinthians to bring their money on the first day of every week to give to the Lord (1 Cor. 16:2). If they were not reluctant to do this, Paul would not have charged them in such a way. The Corinthians did not have all things in common. Paul even begged them to share their wealth with the poor saints in Judea (2 Cor. 8:8-15). The strongest miracle in the New Testament is not healing but having all things in common. To heal a sick person is not as great as to make everything common among thousands of people. Only the Lord could perform such a miraculous thing among people. This great miracle, this “bright moon,” shined for only a short time. It had waned by the time of the apostle Paul. Throughout church history there were a number of times when Christians tried to practice having everything in common. Every time they tried, they experienced failure. The biggest item of the miracles recorded in Acts, having everything in common, took the lead to wane.
The apostle Paul also healed people miraculously. Acts 19:11 and 12 say, “God did works of power of no ordinary kind through the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out.” Despite the extraordinary works of power God performed through Paul, Paul eventually had a thorn in his flesh that God would not remove. Paul entreated the Lord three times that this thorn might depart from him, but the Lord responded to Paul by saying that he had to enjoy and experience His sufficient grace. Paul also tells us that he labored more abundantly than all the apostles, yet he says it was not him but the grace of God (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul’s experience and labor were of and by the divine grace, which is the Triune God as life to us for our enjoyment. The Gospel of John tells us that when the Lord came, grace came, and that He as the incarnated God was full of grace (1:14, 17).
Paul’s intimate spiritual son, Timothy, was instructed by Paul to take the natural way for healing his stomach sickness. In 2 Timothy 4:20 Paul says, “Trophimus I left at Miletus sick.” Paul left such an intimate one in sickness without exercising any healing prayer for him. Paul and his co-workers were under the discipline of the inner life in this time of suffering rather than under the power of the outward gift. The former is of grace and in life; the latter, of gift and power — miraculous power. In the decline of the church and in suffering for the church, the gift of power is not as much needed as the grace in life.
Furthermore, Peter was once rescued miraculously from prison by an angel of the Lord (Acts 12:7). Paul also was rescued miraculously from prison at Philippi (16:26). Eventually, however, both Peter and Paul were imprisoned and martyred. They were among the many thousands of martyrs put to death by the Roman Empire. Why did the Lord not perform any miracles to rescue them?
Most of the healings I saw in the Pentecostal movement were false healings. But I can testify that Brother Nee and I both experienced the healing of grace. I nearly died of tuberculosis at one time and also had a serious stomach ailment. I was healed of both of these illnesses. I was ill for nearly two and a half years with tuberculosis in my lungs, learning the lesson of grace and not of miraculous healing. After I recovered from this illness and began to minister the word in 1946, I have been laboring vigorously both day and night with nearly no time for vacation. Even today I am still physically strong, not by miraculous healing but by the Lord’s merciful healing of grace. Thousands of seekers of Christ can all testify to the same experience I had. They did not have a miraculous healing, but they enjoyed a kind of healing through the lessons of life. This is what George Müller called the healing by grace, not the healing by gift.
Any group throughout church history that practiced the gift of healing extensively has been eventually exposed for pretense and falsehood. One brother among us, who was once a missionary to Indonesia, participated in a Pentecostal revival there. Some of the believers asked the Lord to change water into wine for their Lord’s table meeting. One of their leaders performed a certain ritual to change the water into wine. During this ritual, the brother who now meets with us saw this Pentecostal leader about to add something to the water to change it into “wine.” When this leader realized he was being watched, he stopped what he was doing and waited until a later time to “change the water into wine.” What a falsehood!
What the Lord is doing in this dispensation of grace is the work in our spirit for the new creation. A number of good saints who were very much used by the Lord died in sickness. They were never healed by the Lord. Many Christians who were all seeking, spiritual, and mature, eventually had a certain kind of disease that ended their life. They never were healed. Brother Nee was healed of tuberculosis in his lungs, and this was a real healing of the Lord. Meanwhile, he also had heart disease, and this was never healed. For over forty years he suffered the effects of this disease, and eventually he died of it. In the dispensation of grace the Lord’s work is for the new creation, not for the old creation.
The miracles, including tongue-speaking, do not belong to the word of righteousness but are listed with the good word of God, the word of the beginning of Christ, which is in the “kindergarten” stage of the Christian life. Paul’s burden in the book of Hebrews was to bring the believers out of the kindergarten stage and to bring them on to maturity, to the word of righteousness concerning Christ’s heavenly ministry, concerning the way of His economy, which is the solid food for them to reach maturity. In the New Testament age God’s main work is to bring forth the new creation, and the new creation work is based upon regeneration in our spirit by God’s divine life, not by any miracle. From the time of regeneration God continues to renew us, to sanctify us dispositionally, to transform us from one degree of glory to another degree of glory, and eventually to conform us to the image of the firstborn Son of God unto glorification. This is the main work of God in the New Testament age to produce His new creation.
Especially at the initial stage of the New Testament in the Acts, God used miracles, but these miracles, including speaking in tongues, are absolutely related to the physical life. For this reason, the miraculous things would be easily accepted by people and would easily attract people. Once people get attracted to the miraculous things, it is hard for you to get them away from them and to bring them to the enjoyment of Christ Himself as life. Medical doctors to some extent prescribe morphine for certain diseases. It is very effective, but it must be prescribed in a limited, restricted way. If you use it without any limitation, you will get addicted, and this addiction will eventually kill you. Morphine is good, but it should not be taken as food. In this sense the miraculous things can also become addicting.
I have been observing the so-called miraculous things for close to sixty years. Once people get this kind of so-called experience of the miracles or of tongue-speaking, there is a strong tendency for them to become addicted to it. This addiction always frustrates them from going on in the inner life. I am so strong against the overemphasis of the miraculous things because I know the subtlety of the enemy. The miraculous things are not only a real attraction but also a distraction. Once you get addicted to morphine, you will always come to it again and again even though you know it is not so healthy. We should weigh everything against the truth concerning the New Testament economy of God.
The miraculous things can distract people from God’s main work to produce the new creation. God produces the new creation by regenerating the fallen and dead creation with His own divine life in the very spirit of the fallen and dead people, whom He chose in eternity past, to make them a new creation. This is accomplished by Himself as the divine life, as the Spirit, entering into His chosen people’s spirit to regenerate them, to sanctify them, to transform them, and to conform them unto glorification. This has nothing to do with miracles. All these miraculous things, including speaking in tongues, belong to the coming age.
It has been documented that the Mormons, in their early days, practiced all the miracles, including tongue-speaking. It has also been documented that not only the Mormons practiced tongue-speaking, but also the ancient Egyptians spoke in tongues. Furthermore, tongue-speaking was a Gentile phenomenon in the ancient Han dynasty of China. A brother among us from Ghana told us that he saw tongue-speaking by the pagan priests and priestesses in their idol worship. During their religious festivities, some kind of ecstasy would come upon the priests and priestesses, and at some point they would speak in something other than the language they spoke in Ghana. They would speak something, and this would be interpreted in a way of prophecy. The townspeople would try to check out which of the priests and priestesses were false and which ones were not. There were times when what they prophesied came true. If they spoke something that did not happen, however, everyone would mock them for a long time. When this brother from Ghana was saved and saw Christians doing similar things, that was quite a surprise to him. This shows that the miraculous things can be performed by the enemy (2 Thes. 2:9). At least the people in this village in Ghana checked out the prophecy to see whether or not it would come true. Many in Pentecostalism, however, prophesy falsely and are never exposed. All the powers of the age to come (miracles), including tongue-speaking, can be imitated by unbelievers. But the matter of regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification by God as the Spirit with His divine life in our spirit eventually saturating our entire body could never be imitated by anyone.
Karl Marx invented communism by picking up the word in Acts 2:44 concerning having all things in common. The Communists are attempting to practice having all things in common. Through the centuries some groups of Christians always tried their best to imitate these miraculous things, such as practicing having all things in common, healings, tongue-speaking, and other miracles. These things can be taken and imitated by people in a natural way. However, God’s full salvation, which issues in God’s new creation and begins from regeneration, passing through sanctification, transformation, conformation, and reaching glorification, can never be imitated.
I hope that by His mercy all of us have seen something concerning the truth of dispensations. Miracles are not designed by our God for this age but for the coming age. Yet in this age there is sometimes the need of miraculous things to prove that what God does in this age is genuine. What He is doing in this age, however, is altogether not in the physical realm but in the realm of our spirit. The majority of the New Testament writings are for God’s work in our spirit. Only a small percentage of the New Testament refers to God’s work in the physical realm. Whatever God works in the physical realm is a miracle, but whatever God does in our spirit, in the realm of our spirit, is not miraculous but divine. We treasure the divine work. We do not care much for the miraculous work because that work does not belong to us in this age. That belongs to God’s restoration work in the coming age.
