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Scripture Reading: Gen. 3:15, 21; Isa. 53:7; Dan. 9:25-26; Zech. 12:10; John 8:44; 1:29; Rom. 8:3; Matt. 1:21; Heb. 9:28a; 1 Pet. 2:24; John 3:14; Heb. 2:14b; John 12:31; Gal. 6:14a; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 6:14b; Col. 1:15b, 20; Eph. 2:14-16; John 12:24; Rev. 13:8
The truths concerning the accomplishments of Christ have been made shallow by the majority of today’s Christian teachers. Perhaps some will say that Christianity also preaches the gospel and speaks about the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion, shedding of blood, forgiveness of sins, and accomplishment of redemption, as well as His resurrection and ascension. It is true that the fundamentalists speak about all these matters, but what they speak is very shallow and too common. As a result, these shallow, common things occupy people’s inner being and hinder them from receiving the deeper truths. If you talk to Christians about what the Bible teaches concerning Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, you will discover that they have no ear or heart to hear. This proves that the taste within them has been spoiled so that they have no ear to hear. Mothers know that they should not give just any kind of food to their children; otherwise, they will spoil their children’s taste, and their children will not take the proper, nutritious food. Many truths taught in Christianity are just candies; they are not only shallow but also damaging to people’s taste.
On the other hand, I hope that you will change your concept. Do not be so proud to think that you know everything. The main revelation of the New Testament is the three accomplishments of Christ: His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. This is not to say that His incarnation and His human living are insignificant. They are also profound but easier to explain. The death of Christ is not only profound but also hard to preach because it involves many complicated items and includes many details. The same is true with His resurrection and ascension.
Concerning the accomplishments of Christ, we have already covered three items: creating all things, becoming flesh, and passing through human life. Now we will go on to consider the fourth point: passing through death—dealing with sin, Satan, the world, the flesh, the old man, and the old creation with its ordinances and releasing the divine life to accomplish redemption.
The matter of the death of the Lord Jesus is covered in the New Testament from the Gospels to Revelation. The Old Testament also contains many types and prophecies concerning this matter. The first type, which is also a prophecy, is the seed of the woman. This is recorded in Genesis 3:15, where God said to the serpent, “He [the seed of the woman] will bruise you on the head, / But you will bruise him on the heel.” This refers to the death of Christ. Although we cannot see the word death here, it indeed implies the death of Christ. Furthermore, after their transgression Adam and Eve immediately had the consciousness of sin and were ashamed of their nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. What they did, however, was according to their own way and was ineffective. Therefore, God made them coats of skin for their covering (vv. 6-7, 21). We know that skin implies a great deal. Skin was taken from oxen or sheep. Before the skin was taken, the oxen or sheep had to die. Therefore, skin implies death. The oxen or sheep had to be killed before their skin could be made into clothing to cover man’s shame. This shows us a type of the substituting death, the death that covers man’s sin.
Then we go on to chapter 4, where the Bible says that Cain presented an offering to God from the fruit of the ground (v. 3). There was no shedding of blood with the fruit of the ground because it did not pass through death. Abel, however, presented an offering from the firstlings of his flock, that is, from their fat portions; in this we can see death. The lamb sacrificed by Abel typifies Christ, who as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) was slain on the cross by the righteous God and who through death shed His precious blood to redeem us (1 Pet. 1:18-19) and to cover us with Himself as our righteousness (cf. Luke 15:22). Here it is implied that a sacrifice was slain and blood was shed; this typifies Christ’s death. Hence, we can see everywhere in the Bible the matter concerning the death of Christ.
Let us cite three prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the death of Christ. First, Isaiah 53:7 says, “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter / And like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, / So He did not open His mouth.” Second, Daniel 9:25-26 says, “From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks...And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off.” This tells us that the year of Christ’s death would be the seventh year of the sixty-ninth week. Third, Zechariah 12:10 says, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they will look upon Me, whom they have pierced.” Then 13:6 says, “Someone will say to Him, What are these wounds between Your arms? And He will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of those who love Me.” The One “whom they have pierced” is Christ, and the “wounds between [His] arms” denote the spear wound He suffered on the cross (John 19:34). All these are prophecies concerning Christ’s death.
The New Testament is filled even more with words concerning the death of Christ. For example, Romans 8:3 says, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Paul does not directly mention the death of Christ; instead, he says “condemned sin.” To condemn sin is to judge sin. This judgment is not carried out before the judgment seat but in the death of Christ on the cross. This implies Christ’s death. By these illustrations you can realize that many passages in the Bible refer to the death of Christ.
Now we will go on to see how the death of Christ dealt with all the negative persons, matters, and things in the universe, such as Satan, the world, sin, the flesh, the old man, the old creation with all its ordinances and all persons, matters, and things involved. We will also see the positive aspect of Christ’s death in releasing the divine life. The dealing by the death of Christ is all-inclusive. All the negative persons, matters, and things in the universe were dealt with in the death of Christ.
The Lord Jesus died on the cross first to deal with sin. The matter of sin involves a great deal. In Chinese theology two terms are used concerning sin: yuan tsui (original sin) and pen tsui (one’s own sin). Because yuan and pen in Chinese are synonymous, I often mixed up these two terms when I was young. Yuan tsui, the original sin, refers to the sin committed by Adam; whereas pen tsui, one’s own sin, refers to sins committed by ourselves. Adam is the forefather of the human race, so the sin he committed is yuan tsui, the original sin. The sins we commit ourselves are pen tsui, our own sins. In another sense, the original sin is the nature of sin, whereas the sins we commit are the deeds of sin. Furthermore, the original sin is sin itself, whereas our own sins are the fruits of sin. To use modern expressions, the original sin is the “sin-gene,” whereas our own sins are the outcome of sin. Actually, this kind of saying is still not accurate enough.
Brother Nee pointed out that, according to Darby’s study of the New Testament, sins (plural) are dealt with in Romans 1:1 through 5:11, and beginning with 5:12, sin (singular) is dealt with. Sin is inward and is related to our nature; sins are outward and are related to our position. The Lord Jesus’ death on the cross dealt primarily not with sins but with sin, the gene of sin.
Sins are the outcome of sin, the descendants of sin; they are not sin itself. For example, Isaiah 53:6b says, “Jehovah has caused the iniquity of us all / To fall on Him.” “Iniquity” here is an offspring of sin. Sin has many offsprings, such as transgressions, iniquities (v. 5), sins of guilt (Psa. 69:5), errors (19:12), turning aside (Deut. 17:17), wickedness, and trespasses. All these are fruits born of sin. Also, Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time to those who eagerly await Him, apart from sin, unto salvation.” In this verse, first there is sins (plural), and then there is sin (singular). We can understand this only by a careful study.
Sin has a function, and it is called a “law,” the law of sin (Rom. 7:23, 25). How does this law operate? Whenever it operates, man commits sins. This law does not know how to do good, it cannot do good, and its expertise is not to do good. As soon as it begins to operate, man begins to commit sins; this is the law of sin. Today people have discovered many laws; but two thousand years ago, when science was not yet so advanced, Paul had already discovered four laws, one of which was the law of sin. The Chinese philosophers discovered this law a little later, but instead of calling it a law, they called it a “principle.”
The law of sin is the automatic function of sin itself; it is also the natural power of sin. When sin lies dormant, the law remains inactive. But once sin becomes active, the law of sin begins to work; consequently, man commits sins. Paul says that the evil was present with him whenever he wanted to do good (v. 21) and that he did not do the good which he wanted to do, but the evil which he did not want to do, that he practiced (v. 19). Therefore, he found out that the law of sin was with him when he wanted to do good. This proves that in him there was something that was called “sin.” This thing has a spontaneous function. When it is asleep, there is no problem, but once it is aroused, terrible things happen. In Romans 7 Paul says that the function of the law was to awaken the law of sin, which was asleep in him (v. 9). When the law shouted, sin was awakened; when sin became active, the law of sin began to operate. Consequently, he sinned. Here, Paul is speaking about the sin itself, the “sin-gene,” and not the issue, the fruit, of sin.
In John 8:44 the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, “You are of your father the devil...He was a murderer from the beginning...When he speaks the lie, he speaks it out of his own possessions.” This is the proper translation according to the Greek text. The Chinese Union Version translates it this way: “When he speaks the lie, he speaks out of himself.” Lü Chen-chung’s Version translates it another way: “When he speaks the lie, he speaks out of his own nature.” Both are not the meaning of what the Lord Jesus expressed at that time. The Lord Jesus’ speaking was full of wisdom. In describing the relationship between Satan and sin, He said that sin is something of Satan’s own. Greek experts affirm that this expression denotes something that Satan has within himself, something as Satan’s private possession, something as a secret in him. Hence, the Lord Jesus’ word means that the devil lies out of his private possession, which is the source of lies.
Up to the present we still cannot explain what Satan’s private possession is. However, by the word of the Lord Jesus we can be sure that this private possession of the devil is the source of sin. Because of this, Satan has a name that is called “the evil.” Within Satan there is an evil thing that is not found in any other angel or any other creature; it is uniquely his. If you ask me what this evil thing is, then I would tell you that this evil thing which uniquely belongs to Satan is called “sin” in the Bible. Then if you ask me further where sin came from, I can only tell you that although many have been trying to find out where sin came from, it is still a secret. Even the Chinese philosophers who achieved a great deal in their study concerning the origin of sin were unable to answer this question.
Nevertheless, the Bible impresses us deeply with the fact that sin is Satan’s private possession, something of Satan’s own, something that is uniquely and exclusively his. Therefore, he is the father of liars and the father of lies. Not only the liars are of him, but even the lies are essentially of him. There is something within him as his private possession, and this is the gene of sin. When he seduced Eve and Adam by instigating them to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the gene of sin entered into man. This is why Romans 5:12 says, “Through one man sin entered into the world.” World here denotes the people of the world. It is the same as the word for world in John 3:16, which says, “God so loved the world.” This is the way sin entered into man.
Therefore, strictly speaking, the understanding of the early Chinese theologians concerning sin was not quite accurate. They considered yuan tsui, the original sin, as the sin committed by our forefather Adam, and pen tsui, our own sin, as the sins committed by ourselves. Actually, the original sin is not the sin committed by Adam. The sin committed by Adam, to Adam himself, was Adam’s own sin. The original sin is something of Satan’s own, something as Satan’s private possession. This is the origin, the source, of sin.
What the Lord Jesus dealt with on the cross was sin, the sin itself. This is why, after Romans 7, Paul says in 8:3, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” This means that there is something called sin, and when the Lord Jesus was crucified, sin was also crucified. In this way God judged sin in the flesh of the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, God condemned sin by sending His Son “in the likeness of the flesh of sin” and also “concerning sin.” Concerning sin means including anything that is related to sin.
Although this One whom God sent was “in the likeness of the flesh of sin,” there was no sin in Him (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). This is typified by the bronze serpent, which Moses lifted up in the wilderness (Num. 21:9). In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” This word indicates that the bronze serpent is a type of Him as our Substitute on the cross. The bronze serpent had the form of the serpent but was without the serpent’s poison; it had the serpent’s form but not the serpentine nature. When the bronze serpent was hung on the pole, only the serpent’s form was hung there; it was not an actual poisonous serpent. In the same principle, when the Lord Jesus was put to death on the cross, He was crucified in the flesh; that flesh was “the likeness of the flesh of sin,” the form of sin. It was in such a “likeness of the flesh of sin” that God condemned sin and dealt with everything related to sin.
Not only so, since man has the gene of sin within, he surely has the deeds of sin without. The Lord Jesus dealt with our inward sin, the gene of sin, by becoming sin on our behalf and condemning and judging sin in the flesh of sin. He dealt with our outward sins by bearing our sins and suffering God’s righteous punishment on our behalf to satisfy God’s righteous requirement. This was Christ’s passing through death to deal with our sins. This is proved by Isaiah 53:6, Hebrews 9:28, and 1 Peter 2:24.
Today the kingdom of Satan consists of three categories of beings: one category comprises the rebellious, fallen angels in the air as the messengers of Satan; another category comprises the demons in the water; and still another category comprises the fallen human beings on earth. The fallen angels include “the authority of the air” mentioned in Ephesians 2:2 and “the rulers,” “the authorities,” “the world-rulers of this darkness,” and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies” mentioned in 6:12. The rulers and authorities of the air are the messengers under Satan. Originally, in the preadamic universe, God entrusted the angels with the ruling authority (cf. Heb. 2:5; Rev. 4:4, 10). When Satan rebelled against God, some of the angels followed Satan in his rebellion (12:4, 9) and became the fallen angels, the unclean spirits. The demons are some of the living creatures who lived on the earth in the preadamic age and were judged by God when they joined Satan’s rebellion (Job 9:4-7 and footnote 51, Recovery Version); thus, they lost their bodies and became the disembodied spirits, who are restricted to the waters (Gen. 1:2; cf. Rev. 20:13) and need human bodies as a means to carry out their activities on the earth. Therefore, sometimes they intentionally cling to the human body. Since these unclean spirits, the demons, are related to Satan, they were all judged and dealt with by God through the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus (John 3:14; Heb. 2:14b).
On the cross the Lord also judged the world and cast out Satan, the ruler of the world (John 12:31). The Greek word for world is kosmos, denoting “an order,” “a set form,” “an orderly arrangement,” hence, an ordered system set up by Satan, the adversary of God. All the things on the earth, especially those related to mankind, such as religion, culture, education, industry, and commerce, and all the things in the air have been systematized by Satan into his kingdom of darkness to form an anti-God world system on the earth. This whole satanic system lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19).
Besides kosmos, the Bible uses another Greek word, aion, with reference to the world. Aion means an “age,” “era,” and it denotes the modern appearance or the fashion of the world. Every age has its modern appearance, its fashion, its customs (cf. Eph. 2:2); it is the actual world encountered by people, and it includes “the things in the world” (1 John 2:15). This shows us the difference between kosmos, the world, and aion, an age. Kosmos refers to the entire world, whereas aion refers to an age as a part of the world. The entire world from the past to the future is a kosmos, a whole entity, composed of many ages, each of which is an aion. Hence, world is a general term, whereas age is a specific term.
The world involves all persons, things, and matters as well as all the ages. Every age has its fashion. For example, the time prior to the Ching Dynasty was an age, and the people at that time had their fashion. Then, after the Republic was established, that was the age of the Republic, and the people at that time had their fashion. But today, to us, those things have become ancient, antique, and are no longer fashionable. I still remember forty-four years ago while I was preaching the gospel in Chefoo, a very modern lady attended the meetings. She grew up in my hometown but was educated in Shanghai. When she came to listen to the gospel, she had her hair up in four layers. When she walked in, I felt uncomfortable looking at her. After a few times when she came again, one layer of her hair was gone; then soon afterward, another layer was gone; eventually, all the layers were completely torn down. I felt very happy because it proved the effectiveness of the gospel.
The world involves a great number of items, including all the ages. The ages have all been systematized by Satan to usurp and frustrate man from fulfilling the purpose of God and distract man from the enjoyment of God. When Satan, the ruler of this world, was cast out through the crucifixion of the Lord in His flesh, the evil system, the kingdom of darkness, was also judged. Hence, the death of Christ also dealt with the world.
Genesis 6:3 says, “Jehovah said, My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he indeed is flesh.” Man’s body was transmuted into flesh because the element of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the element of Satan, was added into it (3:7). In the Bible the flesh includes man’s corrupted body (Rom. 6:6; 7:24), the entire fallen man (3:20; Gal. 2:16), and even the good aspects of man (Phil. 3:3-6). Everything, whether good or bad, is of the flesh as long as it is of ourselves. In Romans 8:8, concerning the flesh, Paul makes this conclusion: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The greatest reason that God abhors the flesh so much is that Satan dwells in the flesh. The flesh is the headquarters of God’s enemy, the largest base of the operation of God’s enemy. We may say that all the works that Satan carries out in man are based on man’s flesh. Therefore, God hates the flesh just as much as He hates Satan; God wants to destroy the flesh just as much as He wants to destroy Satan. Through His becoming a man in the flesh (John 1:14) and dying in the form of the fallen man and in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3), Christ dealt with the fallen flesh.
In the old creation we are the old man. The old man is lived out in the flesh and is inclined to keep the law. When we were the old man, the old husband, we were under the bondage of the law. Whatever we were or whatever we did was unto death (7:4-5). However, Christ has come, and the old man has been crucified with Him as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 6:14b). Since the old man has been crucified, the regenerated man is now free from the law of the old man (Rom. 7:3-4, 6; Gal. 2:19); hence, we are no longer under the law but under grace in order that we may live to God.
As the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15b), Christ died on the cross in the old creation, and through such a death He terminated the entire old creation and accomplished redemption for all creation. The entire old creation is typified by the cherubim on the riven veil in the temple (Exo. 26:31; Ezek. 1:5, 10; 10:14-15; Matt. 27:51). Luke 23:44-45 says, “It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun’s light failing; and the veil of the temple was split down the middle.” Darkness here is related to sin, whereas the veil typifies the flesh of the Lord Jesus, because Hebrews 10:20 refers to “a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh.” The cherubim embroidered on the veil, which was split at the Lord Jesus’ death, represent all creation. This means that when Christ died in the flesh, He brought all creation with Him. When the veil in the temple was split, the cherubim embroidered on the veil were also split. This indicates that when Christ was crucified in the flesh, all the creatures were crucified with Him. Through this, all the created things, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens, were reconciled to God (Col. 1:20). Therefore, Hebrews 2:9 clearly says that Christ tasted death not only on behalf of everyone but also on behalf of everything.
By passing through death Christ dealt with sin, Satan, the world, the flesh, the old man, and the old creation. Furthermore, His death was also for the creation of the one new man. In order to create the one new man, Christ had to abolish all the ordinances and all the different customs of living, habits, traditions, and practices among human beings. Thus, as the Peacemaker, Christ created all His believers, both Jews and Gentiles, in Himself into one new man (Eph. 2:14-16). Not only are there barriers between the Jews and the Gentiles, but there are also barriers among the nationalities and races. Unless these barriers are removed, we cannot be one in Christ as the new man. Praise the Lord, on the cross Christ has abolished all the ordinances! Now in the church life, regardless of our race, color, nationality, status, and habits of living, we can be built together to become the Body of Christ as one new man.
All the negative persons, things, and matters in the universe, including sin, Satan, the world, the flesh, the old man, the entire creation, and the ordinances, were dealt with through the death of Christ. On the positive side, as the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying, Christ released the divine life (John 12:24) and imparted it into us so that, like Him, we may become many grains to be made into one bread as His Body (1 Cor. 10:17a). Thus, He accomplished an all-inclusive death.
Since the Lord Jesus dealt with sin on the cross, is sin still in us today? Is sin alive or dead in us today? And how about the law of sin now? We all must admit that sin is still one of our biggest problems. Furthermore, the Lord dealt with the old man on the cross, but is our old man truly dead? Hebrews 2:14 says that the Lord destroyed the devil through death. This is a fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 concerning bruising the serpent’s head. However, is the devil alive or dead today? It is true that these were all dealt with in the all-inclusive death of the Lord Jesus, but in our feelings and our practical experiences, sin still lives, the old man also still lives, and the devil lives even more.
On the surface it seems that the Bible contradicts itself. On the one hand, Hebrews 2:14 says that the Lord Jesus partook of blood and flesh and destroyed Satan through His death on the cross. But Paul, who wrote Hebrews, also tells us to beware of the devil lest we be taken advantage of by him, for we are not ignorant of his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11). In Ephesians 6:11 Paul also exhorts us to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil. If Paul were here, perhaps someone would ask him how he could reconcile his words. Furthermore, at the end of the Bible, in Revelation 20:1-3, there is a strong angel coming with a great chain in his hand to lay hold of Satan, bind him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss. If Satan was already dead, why would there still be the need to bind him? And after one thousand years, he will then be released again to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth (vv. 7-8). That will be his final activity, in which he will deceive the nations on the earth to rebel against God for the last time. According to these records, has Satan, the devil, been dealt with?
We must realize that the revelations in the Bible always have two sides: one side is the fact, and the other side is the fulfillment. Likewise, we need two kinds of seeing: one kind is the actual seeing, and the other kind is the seeing by faith. The actual seeing is the seeing according to what we actually feel. According to this kind of seeing, Satan is not dead, our old man is not dead, and the sin in us is not dead. But according to the seeing by faith, that is, according to God’s view, all these items that we see as alive are already actually dead. This may be illustrated by the fact that although the Lord Jesus was crucified two thousand years ago, in God’s eyes He had already been crucified from the foundation of the world (13:8).
The reason that the Bible gives us revelations is to produce faith in us that we may have the seeing of faith. Faith is not something that we have naturally; faith is produced by seeing certain persons, things, and matters that we appreciate. For example, when you see a piece of clay, you do not treasure it in your heart, and therefore you do not have faith in it; instead, you reject it. However, when you see a diamond, you appreciate it in your heart, and faith is spontaneously produced. Thus, the book of Revelation shows us a treasure, and because we appreciate it, faith is produced in us. On the one hand, faith is not by sight; on the other hand, faith greatly requires seeing; that is, it requires revelation. The Bible is full of revelations, and even the last book is called Revelation, a book that reveals the treasures. Therefore, today when we read the Bible, we need to learn not only to read the dead letter but even more to see the revelations contained therein. Once we see the revelation, faith will spontaneously be produced in us. Once we have faith, we are living in the vision, and as a result, our old man, sin, and the devil are all dead in our experience. However, if we do not live in the vision that Revelation has shown us, our old man, sin, and the devil are all alive.
We must realize that all persons, things, and matters are false and that only God and His words are real. While we are living on the earth, we must believe only in God and in His words and not in the environment that we see. This means that we must believe in God’s view and not in our actual view. We have to declare, “It is a lie that Satan lives! It is a lie that sin lives! And it is a lie that our old man lives!” This is because, according to God’s view, actually all these items have already died. However, this requires us first to have a revelation, a vision, to see that they are all dead and then to make the declaration in faith. Vision is the scene shown to us by God’s revelation; our faith is produced from the seeing of the vision. As a result, we acknowledge and experience what God has revealed to us.
Today we are here not just to study the doctrines in letter, nor are we here conducting a seminary. What we are doing is digging out the treasures that are buried underneath the letter of the Bible and showing them to you for your realization. In God’s eyes all the negative things in the universe have already died. Satan has died, sin has died, and our old man has died. These are accomplished facts in the eyes of God. Revelation is a book completely of prophecies. According to the nature of prophecies, the verbs used should be in the future tense. But the strange thing is that nearly all the verbs in Revelation are in the past tense, indicating that all the things referred to in the book have all been accomplished. This means that God sees all those things as things that have already been accomplished. Those who have the vision will say Amen! Where are we today? If you see according to God’s view, you will say, “I am not in the city of Taipei; rather, I am in the holy city, New Jerusalem!” This is because in God’s eyes we are in the New Jerusalem now. However, when those who are without a vision read the book of Revelation, they think that it is still too early to enter into the New Jerusalem, since Paul and John have been waiting for two thousand years and have not yet entered. Therefore, they consider that the New Jerusalem is something that will take place a long time from now. Actually, in faith, we are already in the New Jerusalem.
Sin, Satan, and the old man are already dead! We should have this vision and declare in faith, “Already dead! Already dealt with!” The key is in what you believe. If you believe that it is dead, then it is dead; if you do not believe that it is dead, then it is not dead. The Bible is a covenant, including the old covenant and the new covenant. The fulfillment of a covenant is conditional. The condition for the old covenant is the law, whereas the condition for the new covenant is faith. This is why many places in the New Testament mention faith (Eph. 4:5, 13; 1 Tim. 1:4; Titus 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:1; Jude 3). But how can we have faith? In illustration, there are many jewelry stores in Hong Kong. When you go to visit any jewelry store, the owner will not only ask you verbally to buy the gems, but even more he will display the gems before your eyes. Once you see them, you have faith. The entire Bible, especially the New Testament, is a revelation that shows us the facts according to God’s view. When you see them, you have faith.
Today many Christians have not seen these treasures, so they show people only “stones and clay.” Consequently, the more they preach, the more people do not believe. But when we preach, we need only fifteen minutes to get people saved. This is because we show them the treasures instead of speaking to them about such superficial matters as going to heaven or going to hell. When they see the treasures, they will believe and desire to receive salvation. The way to be saved is to repent (Matt. 4:17), to call (Rom. 10:13), and to believe into (John 1:12-13), which is to receive. When we receive, we obtain salvation. This is exactly our practice.
What is covered in this chapter is a great vision and a great deliverance. I hope that you all could see, receive, and enter into it. For example, concerning the truth about sin, you need to find all the verses in the New Testament that mention sin (singular) and then study them and pray over them, asking the Lord to give you the vision. Then you will realize that sin has already been crucified and condemned by God. Then you will be able to thank and praise the Lord, and you will have faith. Likewise, concerning Satan, the world, and the old man, as you see each item, you receive it and obtain it. Then what you learn is real, thorough, and subjective.
