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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:13-16, 22-24
The church was established on the earth on the day of Pentecost. The works of God are all under His sovereign authority, and His sovereign authority is in all His works. On the day of Pentecost, when the church in Jerusalem was established, it was established not merely with the inhabitants of Jerusalem but with peoples from all over the world who were gathered together at Jerusalem. There were speakers of at least fourteen or fifteen dialects gathered together that day. Thus, the first appearing of the church was among a group of people from many different places and countries who spoke many different languages. In a matter of moments all those people from so many places and countries, who spoke so many different languages, became one new man. They were all speaking the same kind of language there. Anything man does requires gradual improvement, and what comes last is the best; however, what God does, does not need improvement; it is the best from the first moment. The first appearing of the church was at its highest standard. This is very significant. The first appearing of the church was not merely among a local group of people; instead, it was among an international group of people. We thank God that we here in this conference are not merely a group of people from one locality. The regions represented here today are even more widespread than those represented by the people in Jerusalem at that time. Hallelujah! If we were to invite representatives present here from each of the six continents to the platform, we could ask them to use their native languages to speak the same thing. This demonstration would give us a deep impression of the new man among an international group of people.
I absolutely believe that this international gathering is not a coincidence but the Lord’s arrangement. At this time we have received a deep impression that the Lord in these days is moving in His recovery. I myself feel that it is marvelous to be able to release these messages on the new man, which have never before been released. Even during the conference preceding this training, I was not clear as to what I should speak in this five-day training. It was not until the first day that I became clear within that the Lord wants us to take the opportunity to release the messages on the new man, while representatives from all six continents are present. I believe that from now on, the churches in all the six continents will no longer be the same as before, and the churches will go on in the way of the new man. We all must arrive at this goal of being the one new man in the whole earth, speaking the same thing with one heart and one mouth to the glory of God.
Christianity has been bearing a negative testimony for several centuries by constantly saying that Christians have no way to be one. But today the Lord wants to present a positive testimony for Christianity to see that Christians can certainly be one. Brothers and sisters, can Christians really be one? By the Lord’s grace it is more than possible. In a previous chapter I used negative words to speak of positive matters. I said that it is impossible even for a husband and wife to arrive at true oneness. Without the Lord’s mercy and grace, all of us descendants of Adam are “little demons,” and no one can be one with anyone else. But on the day of Pentecost the Lord came in, and those speakers of different dialects immediately became one in the Lord. We thank the Lord that all of us have been baptized into the Triune God. Every one of us can boast, “Hallelujah, today I am in Christ. In Christ we all have the Lord and His grace, so we are all one. We can be one; this is absolutely possible.” It is possible because we are all in the Lord and have His grace.
If we look at ourselves, there is no way for us to be one with others. Therefore, we should not look at ourselves, and the Lord never asks us to look at ourselves. The Lord wants us to look at Him. The Lord says, “Look to Me and you will be saved.” As soon as we look at the Lord, we are immediately one in the Lord. Therefore, we can all testify together today that it is possible for Christians to be one. Moreover, it is not only possible; we are already practicing it. The two days of gospel meetings that we had during the conference would not have been possible in a mere Christianity alliance. In the Lord’s church there is no need for an alliance because we are already one. This is a symbol, a sign. I really believe it when I say that from now on the Lord will go the same way and do the same work in each of the six continents; He will sound the same trumpet and produce the same testimony.
In this chapter I want to give a further word of fellowship. Please remember that the appearing of this new man is not a movement. Rather, it is entirely a matter of spiritual life, and this spiritual life is our Lord Jesus truly and practically being our life. It is not that you stir me up and I stir you up; instead, it is that each of us lives out Christ by enjoying and experiencing Him. This is altogether a story of Christ’s life. On the one hand, we are now excited because we have seen that the six continents have become one new man. On the other hand, however, we do not want to have any outward activity because of our excitement. What we want is to experience Christ inwardly as our life and thus spontaneously produce the new man as its result. We are the new man. The reason we are the new man is that each of us has Christ in us as our life.
Some in Christianity say that the new man cannot be realized. This is because they do not know Christ as their life; at the most they know Christ as their Savior. But today in the Lord’s recovery the Lord wants to have an absolute, thorough, and complete recovery of the all-inclusive Spirit as our daily life. Regardless of which continent we come from, we each must live by this all-inclusive Christ daily in reality, and this is done by taking Him as our life and our person. Moment by moment we enjoy Him, experience Him, and allow Him to live out of us; therefore, in Him we cannot be anything else but one. We do not need to endeavor to be united; we are one spontaneously. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there cannot be slave nor free man, there cannot be male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:27-28). We are one new man. This is not a movement, a stirring up, or an organization. We are one new man because we live by Christ and allow Him to live out of us. Even though we are of different nationalities, races, and languages, we have one thing in common: Christ is our life.
Ephesians 4:14-15 says, “That we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error, but holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” Then verse 16 continues to say, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together.” First we grow up into Him; then we are out from Him. First there is the growing into Him, and then there is the coming out from Him. In any organization there are liaison officers, but in the church we do not need such liaison officers because Christ is our “liaison.” We can be joined and knit together because the entire Body is out from Him. If we want to be out from Him, however, we must first grow up into Him. When you grow up into Christ in all things, then out from Him you can spontaneously be joined and knit together with all the saints. If we are not in Christ, or if we have not grown up into Christ in so many things, then we cannot be joined together even with our own flesh brothers. If, however, we have grown up into Christ in all things, then we can be joined together. One brother may be from Ghana, Africa, and another brother may be from Taipei, Taiwan. They come from two different places that are distant from each other, and they have different customs, skin colors, languages, and concepts, yet when they meet each other, there is something within them that joins them together. They do not need a liaison in order to be joined together because they have already been joined together. They both have grown up into Christ in all things, and now they are joined and knit together out from Him.
Moreover, I would like to say that in the Lord’s economy there is no evolution; evolution is of the devil. In the Lord’s economy, however, there is transformation. The Lord Jesus, who is the all-inclusive Spirit, can transform people. Christianity cannot transform anyone. Religion can only teach people, adorn them, and do a cosmetic work on them. As far as human society is concerned, religion is good. However, the Lord’s economy is not a matter of religion but a matter of the living Spirit. The all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit has come into us. He does not come to “beautify our faces”; rather, He comes to transform us.
According to the Bible, God’s economy is transformation. How are we transformed? It is not through teachings but by our Lord who accomplished everything by His death and resurrection. He accomplished whatever He needed, and He accomplished whatever we needed; He accomplished everything that both God and man needed. Then He became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The Spirit gets into anyone who calls on the Lord’s name, and then He operates and works in him in many ways to transform him. The Lord truly can transform people; this is something I have experienced myself. We are of different nationalities with different customs and different backgrounds. The reason we can become one new man is that the Lord has done a transformation work in us. The Lord truly transforms us. Even with the highest doctrines none of us can change ourselves.
When I first went to America, the Lord gave me the wisdom to see that I was not going there to sell my “Chinese goods” but that I was going to supply Christ to people. Therefore, I did not speak doctrines to them. I preached what I had experienced and supplied them with what I myself had eaten. On the one hand, I supplied them with Christ, and on the other hand, I ate the Christ whom I supplied. This Christ transformed me inwardly, and He also transformed them inwardly. Therefore, it was easy for us to be blended together. This is not to say that I have been Americanized, but that I have been “Christized,” and they also have been “Christized.” This is not a matter of mere wisdom; this is a matter of transformation.
Not only are the Chinese and the Americans different, but even the northern Chinese and the southern Chinese have many differences. In 1933 when I went from northern China to Shanghai, Brother Nee and the co-workers called a special meeting for me. After the messages many people came to fellowship with me. They spoke the Shanghai dialect, and I could not understand them at all. Nevertheless, whether or not I could understand, I talked with them. In the end they understood me, and I understood them because Christ was in them and in me. Although we could not understand each other’s dialect very well, we really knew what we were talking about, so it was easy for us to become the new man and speak the same thing. Today we also are speaking about the new man.
Today we all must see that this is not merely a conference of all the continents in which we decide what we all will speak about from now on. Absolutely not. Instead, it is a matter of all of us seeing that the Lord is our life and our person. The Lord today wants to show Satan that He can produce the one new man out of every tongue and people from among the nations. It is not an outward teaching or an outward movement, but it is He Himself within us as life and as our person. We all receive Him and grow up into Him in all things, and then the whole Body is joined and knit together out from Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, perhaps you would ask me, “Is there anything in the first few verses in Ephesians 4 that speaks about transformation?” No, there is nothing, but if you go on to verse 23, there is something about transformation. We grow up into Him, and then come out from Him; this is transformation. No one can grow into Christ and come out from Christ without being transformed. Only by holding to truth in love and growing up into the Head, Christ, in all things can the entire Body be joined and knit together out from Him. When we are joined and knit together, we are transformed. The Chinese brothers will be the same as the brothers from Ghana; the brothers from all the different countries will have been transformed to be the same. I absolutely believe this. When we are all transformed, all the cultures, backgrounds, customs, and languages will be swallowed up by Christ. This is the glory of Christ. A brother from Ghana, Africa, will speak, sing, fellowship, and praise with a brother from Germany; this is the glory of Christ. I believe that this word is a prophecy of what will happen in the next ten years.
In ten years you will see that many people speaking many different languages will be able to fellowship, praise, and proclaim the Lord’s holy name together. At this time only a few brothers have come from Africa, but I certainly believe that one day hundreds and even thousands will come together. When we grow up into Christ in all things, the entire Body will be joined and knit together out from Him. When we grow up into Him and come out from Him, then we will be completely in Him and not in ourselves. In ourselves we have no way. Furthermore, not to mention the Chinese and the Americans, even you who are from the same island and from the same home cannot be one. Out from yourselves there is no way to be joined and knit together, but when we grow up into Him and come out from Him, we are easily joined and knit together. You and I and all of us must grow up into Him, pass through Him, and come out from Him; then there will be this new man.
Verses 22 and 24 continue to say that we must put off the old man and put on the new man. The old man refers to our old social life. To put off the old man means to put off this old social life. Putting on the new man refers to putting on the church life. The old social life is just the old man, whereas the new church life is the new man. Many in Christianity do not know this matter. The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which was published in the 1940s, translates the old man in Ephesians 4 as “your old nature” and the new man as “the new nature.” In this view, putting off the old man means putting off the old nature, whereas putting on the new man means putting on the new nature. This shows that many in Christianity do not have the proper knowledge of the church as the new man. The Lord’s salvation today causes us to put off not merely our old nature but also our old social life. The Lord’s salvation today does not cause us merely to put on a new nature; it also causes us to put on the church life. To put off the old man and put on the new man means to put off our old social life and put on the church life. The old social life has many different kinds of backgrounds. There are the Japanese social life, the Chinese social life, the South American social life, the North American social life, the Southeast Asian social life, and so on. The old social life is of different kinds. However, I tell you that the church life is unique; there is only one kind. In the Lord’s life and in Him as the all-inclusive Spirit, we are putting off the old social life and putting on the new church life. The result is that in the church life we are the new man. This is not an outward reformation or an outward movement, but it is a transformation of our living from within.
How is the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man accomplished? The key is in verse 23, which says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” It is hard to say if this spirit is our human spirit or the Spirit of Christ; it must be the two spirits mingled as one spirit. This tells us that in order to put off our old social life and put on the new church life, we need to open our spirit within and allow the Spirit of Christ to fill, saturate, and permeate our entire spirit until the Spirit overflows into our mind, emotion, and will. It is by this overflowing Spirit that we can be renewed, and this renewing is transformation. Transformation is not the result of any outward teaching; rather, it is the issue of the Spirit’s saturating, permeating, watering, and processing. The life-giving Spirit enters our spirit to process us, and this processing is transformation because the element of the Spirit increases. It is this mingled spirit — the spirit that is two spirits becoming one spirit — that seeps out of our spirit and soaks through our mind, emotion, and will, even our entire being. In this way we are renewed in this spirit of our mind. The renewing makes us all into the new man. In this renewing we put off the old social life and put on the church life. This is putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
The Lord today is doing this work on the earth, and this is the goal of the Lord’s recovery today. All those who love Him, pursue Him, and follow Him on the entire earth today must be renewed in the spirit of their mind to become the one new man, taking Him as their person and living by Him. This is what the Lord wants today.
