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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:10, 13, 17-23; 2:5-6, 10, 15-16, 18, 20-22; 3:4-6, 8-11, 14-21; 4:3-6, 11-16, 22-24; 5:18, 25-27, 30, 32; 6:10-19
Let us read a few verses from each chapter of Ephesians. Verse 10 of chapter 1 says, “Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” The Greek word for head up is the root noun for head formed into a verb. Christ is not only life, but He is also the Head, under whose headship all things will be headed up.
Verse 13 says, “In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.” In whom refers to Christ; in this One who will head up all things, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.
Verse 17 says, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” In this verse, spirit is in lower case. According to this rendering, it indicates our human spirit. However, it is hard to determine whether this is simply our human spirit or the Holy Spirit. We have to say that it is the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit; the two spirits mingle and twine together.
Verses 18 to 23 continue, “The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” In the phrase to the church, the little word to is very important. Whatever God has wrought in Christ and whatever Christ has attained is not only for the church but to the church, that is, transmitted to the church.
In chapter 2, verses 5 and 6 say, “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.” Then verse 10 says, “We are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them,” and verses 15 and 16 say, “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it.” Christ not only made, He created, in Himself one new man of two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles. The Body in verse 16 is the church, and according to verse 15 it is also the new man.
Verse 18 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father,” and verses 20 through 22 continue, “Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone; in whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” At the end of verse 22 we do not have the article the in Greek. In spirit, therefore, should be rendered in lower case; it is our human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit.
In chapter 3, verse 4 says, “By which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.” Colossians 2:2 speaks of “the mystery of God,” but Ephesians 3:4 refers to “the mystery of Christ.” The mystery of God is Christ, and the mystery of Christ is the church. Christ is the history, the story, that is, the definition and manifestation of God. In the same way, the church is the history, story, and definition and manifestation of Christ. Verses 5 and 6 continue, “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit, that in Christ Jesus the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the Body and fellow partakers of the promise through the gospel.” Again in verse 5 there is not the article the before spirit, so this refers to our human spirit.
Verse 8 says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” Paul did not preach doctrine, prophecy, or gifts; he preached the unsearchable riches of Christ. The riches are all the different items of what Christ is, the items of Christ’s wealth. Verses 9 through 11 continue, “And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, in order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Verse 14 speaks of “this cause.” This is the cause revealed in the previous verses. Verses 14 through 17a say, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” God strengthens us into our inner man for the purpose of Christ’s dwelling in our hearts. Verses 17b through 21 continue, “That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. But to Him who is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Verses 3 through 6 of chapter 4 say, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Then verses 11 through 16 speak of both growth and building. Verses 15 and 16 say, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”
Verses 22 through 24 say, “That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.”
In chapter 5, verse 18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit.” Verses 25 through 27 say, “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word, that He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish.” Verse 27 does not speak of sin and dirt, but rather of spot and wrinkle. Verses 30 and 32 conclude, “Because we are members of His Body...This mystery is great, but I speak with regard to Christ and the church.”
Verses 10 through 19 in chapter 6 speak of the whole armor of God. Verses 14 through 17 say, “Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the firm foundation of the gospel of peace; besides all these, having taken up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” Truth, righteousness, and peace are Christ, and Christ is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. In addition, Christ is also salvation, and He is the Word of God. Verse 18 continues, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” Again, spirit does not have the article the, so it should be rendered in lower case.
In the first chapter we saw Christ as all in all in the book of Colossians. In the second chapter we saw that this all-inclusive Christ must be wrought into us. Then in the third chapter we saw the secret of experiencing Christ. In this chapter we will see the issue, the result, of the experience of Christ. The issue, the result, of the experience of Christ is the church. The church comes out of the experience of Christ. This is revealed in a full way in Ephesians, a short book of six chapters. Ephesians is brief but truly profound. We can never exhaust reading it, and we can never exhaust what can be ministered of Christ with His church from it. There are four main items in this book. The first main item revealed in Ephesians is Christ “to the church” (1:22). The second main item is the ministry of Christ, and the third is the experience of Christ. The fourth main item is the mingled spirit; the Holy Spirit mingles Himself with the human spirit, and the human spirit is mingled with the Holy Spirit.
We have seen in Colossians that Christ is everything, but we do not see much of the work of Christ in that book. Ephesians goes on to reveal what Christ has accomplished, attained, and obtained. Christ has a real attainment, a real success, and He has obtained something. Ephesians 1 tells us that God’s economy, His arrangement and plan, is to head up all things in Christ. This is something great. We do not know how many items there are in the universe. No one can exhaust telling of the billions of items that are there. All these will be headed up in Christ. Christ will be the Head to head up all these things. This is God’s intention, God’s purpose, and God’s economy. In order to do this, however, Christ had to accomplish something.
We know that Christ died for us. After His crucifixion, however, Christ was raised up, and after this resurrection He was uplifted, brought to the highest place in the entire universe. He was made transcendent above all things, the things not only in space but throughout time, since the universe is space plus time. Christ is so high and transcendent that He is above all the universe, not only the things in this age but also in the age to come. Moreover, He was made Head over all things. God ordained Christ to be the Head even before His incarnation, but He was brought into the position of Head, made to be Head, after His resurrection and in His ascension. After He ascended to the heavens, God put Christ on the throne to be the Head over all things.
Moreover, all that Christ accomplished, attained, and obtained is to the church (v. 22). Many of us may not be clear about the phrase to the church. We can compare this to an injection that imparts something into our whole body. What God wrought in Christ, what Christ attained and obtained, is not only for the church but also to the church. God resurrected, raised up, Christ. God lifted Christ up in ascension to the highest place, and God put Him on the throne as the Head of all things. Now all that God has done toward Christ is to the church, His Body.
It seems that we Christians are so poor. How high and transcendent we are, yet how low and mean we feel! We need a vision. If I ask you where you are, what will you say? Will you just say you are here in this room? We all have to realize that we are in the highest place in the universe. Christ has accomplished this. He has solved all the negative things and obtained all the positive things, so there is nothing left to do. We have been put into Christ, and we have been incorporated with Him. Therefore, all that Christ has done, all that He has accomplished, obtained, and attained, is to the church, that is, is transmitted to the church.
The ministry of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers is the ministry of Christ (4:11-12). They minister the unsearchable riches of Christ to people. Christ is the Head, and He is all-inclusive. He has accomplished, attained, and obtained everything. How can this Christ, who is so much and has attained so much, be ministered to us? It is through the ministry of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. All the different kinds of ministry of the gifted persons are the ministry of Christ to others.
We thank the Lord that in the past five centuries He has recovered many teachings through His people. With those teachings there is some reality, but due to the weakness of the human instrument, people have been attracted to the teachings instead of the reality. In these last days, however, the Lord will recover not more teachings but more reality, that is, more and more of Himself. All the ministers, the gifted persons raised up by the Lord, must absolutely minister Christ, not doctrine, preaching the riches of Christ, the items of what Christ is, to the Gentiles. We have to minister the riches of Christ to people, such as life, wisdom, patience, and the humility of Christ.
In Taiwan in 1960 I shared with the young people all the names of Christ, denoting all that Christ is. I found almost three hundred different names, titles, or items of Christ. He is the temple, the tabernacle, and the Passover. As the offerings alone, He is many items: the burnt offering, sin offering, trespass offering, meal offering, peace offering, wave offering, and heave offering. Oh, the riches of Christ! All the ministers, all the gifted persons raised up by the Lord in these days, must learn to minister only the riches of Christ. Let us forget about doctrines, denominations, dispensations, predestination, and election. I do not like to hear these things. Let us learn how to minister Christ to others by the anointing of the Spirit.
Some among us have studied in seminaries and Bible institutes. I would ask them, “Have you ever learned that Christ is our wave offering and heave offering? Have you ever experienced Christ in this way?” We preach the riches of Christ, not the doctrines of Christ. Today the church needs the ministry that ministers Christ not as the menu but as food. Today’s Christianity is like a restaurant that serves only menus. In the so-called churches today we may learn to read the menu, but there is no food. There is doctrine about Christ, but there is no reality of Christ.
Sometimes when I go to a restaurant with the brothers, I am too tired to care for the menu. When they pass me the menu, I say, “I will just follow you. I don’t like to read; I like to eat. I don’t like to understand; I simply want to enjoy, so whatever you order for me is all right. I don’t care if it is sour or sweet; I will just take it.” We must learn to take the food. We must take Christ and not simply learn the doctrine of Christ. Learning doctrine exhausts us, but the enjoyment of Christ refreshes, strengthens, and satisfies us. After coming home from the restaurant, if someone asked me what I ate, I would tell them, “I ate a lot of things. I don’t know what they were. I just ate them. I don’t know their names, but I enjoyed them.” Even if I do not know the name of what I eat, I still digest it well. In a similar way, we must learn to know Christ, not knowledge, teaching, or doctrine.
Those who minister to the Lord’s people must realize that what people need today are the riches of Christ, not doctrine or teaching. Sometimes, of course, in order to convey Christ to others we need doctrine as a means, but what we give people is not the means but the Christ it conveys. In the book of Ephesians there is the ministry that always ministers Christ to others. The church today is not built up because there is too little nourishment, supply, and real material with which to build up the church. There is too little ministry of the riches of Christ to the saints, so the saints are starved to death. The church needs Christ as the building material. This requires the ministers and the ministry to minister Christ to people. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers all minister Christ to the saints to perfect them by this ministry.
The biggest point in Ephesians is the experience of Christ. Concerning the experience of Christ there are seven items. Five of the items are: being strengthened into the inner man (3:16), being renewed in the spirit of the mind (4:23), growth (v. 16), building by the growth (2:20-22), and fighting the battle (6:12). These five items — strengthening, renewing, growing, building, and fighting — are the different aspects of the experience of Christ, but before we experience these, we must realize two additional items. First, we have to realize that we are in Christ. In Ephesians the phrase in Him or in whom is used many times (1:4, 7, 10-11, 13; 2:21-22; 3:12; 4:21). All the experiences of Christ are based on the fact that we are in Christ, that is, incorporated with Christ and one with Christ. If I am incorporated with someone, then legally and judicially speaking, I am one with him; whatever he has is mine. Christ has ascended and has been made Head over all things. To be incorporated with a poor man is pitiful, but to be incorporated with a billionaire is very wonderful. Praise Him, Christ is more than a billionaire, and we are incorporated with Him!
People often ask us what the name of our church is and what we are doing. We may say we are Christ Incorporated, and day by day we are doing the business of the Christ incorporation. This is our business. We are “buying” and “selling” Christ, “dealing” with Christ, “making concessions” with Christ, and “trading” with Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, I wish to trade nothing but Christ with you. Today we are incorporated with Christ; we are in Christ.
The second item we must realize is that Christ is in us. Not only are we in Christ, but Christ is in us. This is a mutual “in.” We are in Him, and He is in us mutually. Christ wants to make His home in us. Verses 16 and 17a of chapter 3 say, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” We are wholly in Him, and He is wholly in us. We must see these two facts. Once we have seen these two facts, we need the five factors mentioned above — strengthening, renewing, growing, building, and fighting. These five aspects of the experience of Christ are based on the facts that we are in Him and He is in us.
To be strengthened is the start of the real experience of Christ. Verse 16 speaks of being strengthened into the inner man. The inner man is a very specific term. Originally, before we were saved, we did not have such an inner man. We had a human spirit, but we did not have an inner man. We had only the human life in our soul, so our soul was a man. Formerly, though, there was no life in our human spirit, so it was not a man; it was only an organ. At the time the Lord Jesus came into our spirit, He imparted Himself into our spirit as life. Now there is another life in our spirit. We have the human life in our soul, making it a human person, but now we also have Christ as the divine life in our spirit, so there is now a divine person in our spirit. Our regenerated human spirit has become no longer just an organ but the inner man. This is the start of our experience of Christ.
However, a person may be immature; a person may even be a baby. Some persons are strong, and others are very weak. Some persons are grown up, but some are immature. All are persons, but there is also the matter of age and health. We have been regenerated, and we have an inner man, but with some the inner man is weak and young, even childish or babyish.
We are often weak in our spirit but strong in the soul. We can demonstrate this in the following way: When we come together, we always like to talk. We are strong in talking. This proves we are strong in the mind and in the soul. If we try to have a time of prayer, however, everyone will be silent. The best way to silence people is to ask for a time of prayer. Without a time of prayer, the brothers and sisters will talk unceasingly, even if we try to silence them. The best way to silence them is to say, “Let us pray.” Then everyone will be as silent as the tombs in the cemetery. This is because to pray is to exercise the spirit. The talking and the silence are proof that we are too strong in the mind and soul and too weak in the spirit. That is why we need to be strengthened into the inner man.
We need to be weakened a little in the soul, the outer man. We are too strong in the outer man. When a husband and wife argue, they are strong. Even when they do not argue but simply discuss, they are still strong to say, “I know this or I know that.” When they pray, however, they say, “O Lord, I don’t know how to pray.” They know how to talk, discuss, and argue, but they do not know how to pray. In the church life and even in the family and marriage life, we can see the weakness of the inner man. We are too strong in the soul, so we need to be weakened and lowered a little. Many times in my family life I have been tempted to argue, but I have learned the lesson to say, “Lord, lower me and weaken me a little. I like to be weak. I like to be brought to the cross to be slaughtered. I like to be weak in the soul but strong in the spirit.” This is the way the Lord Jesus was. In a proper sense, when He was brought to the cross to be slaughtered, He was weak in His soul, in Himself, but He was strong in the spirit. Our spirit, our inner man, needs to be strengthened and enlarged.
The result of being strengthened is that Christ makes His home in us. The Greek word in 3:17a is the verbal form of the noun home. The inner man is our human spirit with Christ in it, whereas the heart includes the mind, emotion, will, and conscience. When our spirit, our inner center, is strengthened, Christ can spread out and take over our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. In this way Christ makes His home in our heart. We may illustrate this with a glove. I may put my hand into a glove, but it is not settled in the glove at first. There is still the need for the hand to “make home” in the glove. Gradually the thumb gets into the glove’s thumb, and then the second and third fingers settle into place, and after some time the entire hand settles into the glove.
Yes, Christ is in us, but He may be in us in an unsettled way. This requires further consecration and more yielding to Him. Our spirit, our inner man, must be strengthened. When we are strong in our spirit, the indwelling Christ has the ground, the opportunity, to spread Himself into and take over our mind, emotion, and will to occupy every part of our soul, that is, to occupy our heart. Then Christ will settle in all our inward parts. He will have not only regenerated our spirit, but He will have indwelt, made home, in our heart. This is an inward matter, not an outward one. Our soul must be taken over; our mind, emotion, and will must be saturated with Christ.
At the beginning of our experience of Christ, we were regenerated. Now we have a regenerated spirit, an inner man, but it is young, weak, and small. Christ is in our spirit, but He is not dwelling there; rather, He is imprisoned there. Our spirit becomes a prison to Christ rather than a home. Once Christ comes in, He may have no freedom to move around. Now we must be strengthened into the inner man. This means that our soulish life must be lowered down, our soul must be weakened, but our spirit must be uplifted. Our spirit, not our soul, must be first. With too many of us, however, the soul is first; it is too strong. It needs to be cast down. When we are strengthened into the inner man and give Christ more ground, then He can saturate our hearts and make His home there.
Ephesians 4:23 says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The spirit of your mind is another particular term. It indicates that the spirit is in our mind. Again it is hard to tell whether this is the human spirit or the Holy Spirit. There is the article the, but spirit is rendered in lower case. I believe that this is the mingled spirit. To be renewed in the spirit of our mind means that our mind is taken over by the spirit. It is not that our mind controls our spirit but that our spirit controls our mind. With too many of us, the mind is over the spirit, but if we surrender, yield, and consecrate ourselves, the mingled spirit will control our mind so that it becomes the spirit of our mind. It is by such a spirit that our mind is renewed.
We have too much oldness in our mind, in our thinking. Our mind is too old. We need to be renewed in our mind. This is a great matter. The reason we do not grow is that we are simply too old. The husbandman of an orchard can tell us that the way to help trees grow is by cutting off the old branches to make the tree new. If the oldness is cut off, something new will come out. We have been using our mind for our whole life. It is too old, and it needs to be renewed, not by human hand or thought but by the renewing spirit.
After we are renewed, we will grow with Christ and into Christ. Doctrinally speaking, we are in Christ, but experientially speaking, in so many things we are still not in Christ. Therefore, we need to grow up into Christ in those things. Verse 15 of chapter 4 says, “We may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” We need to grow into Christ not only in one thing but in all things.
By the growth we will be built up to produce a building (v. 16b). We all have to be built up, not with ourselves as the material but with Christ as the material. The more we grow, the more we have Christ, the material for our building up.
After being built up, we must fight the battle. We do not fight by anything of ourselves. Rather, Christ is every aspect of the whole armor of God. The truth, the reality, with which we gird and strengthen ourselves, is Christ (6:14a). Righteousness as our breastplate to cover our conscience is Christ Himself, and the shoes of the gospel of peace are also Christ (vv. 14b-15). Peace is Christ, and even the gospel is Christ, whom we preach. In addition, the faith that shields us is also Christ, the Author and Perfecter of faith (v. 16). If we have Christ, we have the living faith; if we do not have Christ, we do not have faith. The helmet of salvation is also Christ (v. 17a). Christ is our salvation and our covering. If we have Christ, we have a covering for our head. The word of God is Christ, the living Word (v. 17b). This word is a sword. All the other items of the armor are defensive, but the sword is offensive to slay the enemy. Christ is every part of this armor. This means that we fight the enemy in Christ, by Christ, and with Christ. This also is an aspect of the experience of Christ.
We have to be strengthened into our inner man that Christ may settle and make home within us. Then we have to be renewed with Christ and grow with Christ and into Christ. Then we must be built up with Christ and fight with Christ. We have to learn to experience Christ in such a full and living way.
All the foregoing points — what Christ is to us, the ministry of Christ, and the experience of Christ — depend on the mingled spirit. In Ephesians we have the Holy Spirit, the human spirit, and the two spirits mingled together. We can right away determine that some verses refer to the Holy Spirit, and we can decide that some verses refer to the human spirit, but in several verses it is hard to say whether it is the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, because they refer to the mingled spirit, the Holy Spirit mingled with our human spirit.
Whatever Christ is today is in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the transmission. Christ ascended to the height, so how can Christ come into us? He comes as the Holy Spirit, who is the transmitting element. The Holy Spirit in our spirit is the transmission, transmitting and flowing all the time, day by day. There is an inner flow within every Christian, and this inner flow is the transmission of the Holy Spirit, transmitting all the riches of Christ, Christ Himself, into us. He has come into us, He has sealed us (1:13), and we have to be careful not to grieve Him (4:30). This means that we have to obey Him, cooperate with Him, and go along with Him.
Then concerning our human spirit, we have to be filled in spirit (5:18), pray in spirit (6:18), and see the vision in our spirit (1:17). We should learn not merely to consider the things of God in our understanding, our mind, but to realize the things of God by our spirit, to see things in vision and revelation by our spirit. In this way our spirit will be mingled with the Holy Spirit, and we will realize all the wonderful riches of Christ in this mingling and mingled spirit. All that the Holy Spirit transmits to us is in this mingled spirit, and whatever we do to know the Lord and experience Him must be in this mingled spirit.
I say again, the first three main items of Ephesians depend on this item, the mingled spirit. The key is the mingled spirit. All that Christ is, is in the Holy Spirit, and today the Holy Spirit comes into us as the transmitting agent, indwelling us and transmitting to us day by day. This is just like the current of electricity that transmits the electricity into a building; when the current stops, the supply of electricity stops. In the same way Christ is constantly transmitted into us by the transmitting Spirit. The organ for us to receive the transmitting of the Holy Spirit is our human spirit. The Holy Spirit transmits Christ into our spirit. Therefore, we must learn how to exercise our spirit to contact the Holy Spirit.
If we read Ephesians again and note all the verses about the spirit, we will find these three aspects: the Holy Spirit transmits Christ to us, our spirit receives what the Spirit transmits, and these two spirits — the transmitting Spirit and the receiving spirit — are mingled together as one spirit. It is in this mingled spirit, including our spirit and the Holy Spirit, that we are one with Christ and one with the other saints. If we are not one with others, this means that we are out of the mingled spirit. If we are in the mingled spirit, we will be one, and we will have the Body. The Body is in the mingled spirit, and the building up is also in the mingled spirit.
Moreover, if we remain in the mingled spirit, we will be sanctified and cleansed, and all the spots and wrinkles will be gone (5:26-27). We cannot wash away blemishes and wrinkles on our face with soap and water. In the same way the blood of Jesus can wash away our sins, but the blood cannot wash away our spots and wrinkles. These can be washed away only by the inner life. If I were young again, all my wrinkles would be gone. This proves that wrinkles are signs of oldness. The church, however, must never be old. The more the church grows, the younger it becomes. The inner life washes away all the wrinkles. Many people say that the longer a church is in a place, the older it becomes. In a sense, I believe this is so. I am afraid that after fifteen years the church here may be old with many wrinkles. Where there is the lack of the inner life, there are wrinkles. Similarly, spots are the signs of wounds. When the church has been wounded, there are spots. The longer a church remains in one place, the more wounds it will suffer, and it will have spot after spot. However, the more we have the rich inner life, the more the life brings the washing, purifying power. Life cleanses away all the wrinkles and spots.
This sanctifying and cleansing is by the washing of the water in the word (v. 26). In the word there is the inner life, and this inner life is the washing water. The water is in the word. The more we have the inner life, the more the washing power of the living word cleanses all the wounds and washes away all the wrinkles, recovering us to our original condition in life. In this way the church will not only be grown up but also purified — without blemish, spot, or wrinkle — and glorious, fresh, new, and perfect. All this comes from the experience of Christ.
There is no need to worry. We have the best promise: The Lord Jesus gave Himself up for the church because He loved the church, and He will sanctify and cleanse the church to present her to Himself a glorious and perfect church. Do you believe this? I believe it. Sooner or later the Lord will accomplish this. Praise Him! The building up and purification of the church is the result, the issue, of the experience of Christ.
