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Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18-19; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:15-16, 21-22; 3:4-6; 4:4-6, 22-24; 5:25-27, 32; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Rev. 1:11
In the previous chapters we stated that we must see God’s eternal purpose and that we must also see Christ. The term Christ has become too common among people today. Today the whole world knows this term, yet very few truly know Christ. Although we may know the Bible very well, we may not have a thorough and real knowledge of Christ. We should not have merely an empty vision of the knowledge of Christ. We need to have a practical knowledge of Christ.
One time someone sincerely advised me, saying, “Do not teach anymore that Christ is the Spirit, because those in Christianity cannot understand it and do not approve of it. They consider the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be three separate persons. They think that the Father is high above in the heavens and that the Son came to the earth, died, resurrected, ascended to the throne, and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father. They believe that the Father and the Son are two separate persons. Therefore, you must not say that the Son is the Father. Above all, you must not say that the Son is the Spirit. Do not say that Christ is the life-giving Spirit.”
If this were merely a matter of doctrine, I would not speak so much about it. However, the Lord is advancing in His recovery today, and the most important item in His recovery is the mingling of God with man. Today Christ is actually dwelling in us. Those in Christianity may ask, “If Christ is sitting in the heavens, how can He dwell in us at the same time? What is your scriptural basis for saying this?” Our basis for saying this is Colossians 1:27, which says that Christ is in us as the hope of glory. At the same time, however, the Bible also says that Christ is in the heavens. Therefore, in order to see that Christ is the Spirit, we must speak from the perspective of experience. If you speak according to empty doctrines, you may end up separating God into three separate persons. However, if you consider your actual experience, you will discover that Christ is the Spirit. In my youth I was under the influence of traditional teachings. However, when I became serious and began to seek the Lord, I found out that although on the surface many of these teachings seem to be right, they do not agree with our experience. According to our experience, Christ is in us. The Bible clearly shows us that as the source, Christ is the Father, and as the One who enters into us, He is the Spirit.
Isaiah 9:6 says, on the one hand, that He is a child and a Son, and on the other hand, that He is the mighty God and the eternal Father. Some people, however, only believe that the child born in the manger was the mighty God. They do not believe that the Son who was manifested is the eternal Father. Another verse, 2 Corinthians 3:17, says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” If you show these two verses to the opposers, they will have nothing to say. They will eventually have to admit that they do not understand this matter. If we cannot even understand man, who is so small, how can we comprehend the Triune God, who is so great? For decades I was cheated by Christianity and was kept ignorant, until one day I decided that I did not want to be ignorant any longer. I did not try to understand the truth in the Bible; I simply accepted it. The Bible says, “A Son is given to us; / ...And His name will be called / ...Eternal Father” (Isa. 9:6). The Bible also says that the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). I must accept these words whether I understand them or not, because they are in the Bible. My understanding may be wrong, but the Bible cannot be wrong.
When Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus suddenly appeared to him, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Saul must have been thinking, “I persecuted Stephen, Peter, James, and John. They are all people on the earth. I never persecuted anyone in the heavens. Yet this voice that is coming from the heavens is saying, ‘Why are you persecuting Me?’ Who could this be?” He did not understand what this was all about, so he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord then said, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (v. 5). Then Saul saw a vision—the vision of the Body of Christ. He saw that when he had been persecuting Stephen, he had been persecuting Christ, because Stephen was a part of Christ. Stephen had become Christ. On the day of his conversion, Saul of Tarsus was opened by the Lord to see that the church is the Body of Christ. Jesus is no longer the individual Jesus. Today He is in the heavens and also on the earth because He has become us and we have become Him.
Perhaps someone will ask, “If a Christian goes to the movies, plays mah-jongg, beats people, and commits arson, is that person also Christ?” Of course, that kind of living is of the devil and not of Christ. That is the devil in the flesh. When we say that we Christians are Christ, we are referring to the Christ in our spirit. When we live by the spirit, we are Christ. We do not mean that we have become God in His Godhead. Rather, what we mean is that we are the same as Christ is in life and nature. Praise Him! He has God’s life, and we also have God’s life. He has God’s nature, and we also have God’s nature.
Furthermore, this all-inclusive Christ, who is all, is in us. We must see such a light. We need to know such a Christ. He is so small that He can come into us, yet He is so great that the universe cannot contain Him. He is the One who fills all in all. He is so great. Moreover, all that God is and has are in Him. Apart from Christ we cannot find God. Christ is God’s story, God’s mystery. Christ is too marvelous!
If you know Christ, then you must also know the church. Matthew 16 shows us that if you know Christ, you need to also know the church. Peter said to the Lord, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Then the Lord answered him, “I also say to you...upon this rock I will build My church” (v. 18). Then, after mentioning the church, He went on to speak concerning the kingdom of the heavens. The kingdom of the heavens is the church, and the church is the kingdom of the heavens. We should pray-read all the verses concerning the church in the first five chapters of Ephesians. What is revealed in these chapters is not a natural thought or a human concept but a divine revelation. The church is not only the Body but also the new man. Formerly, every one of us was an old man, but today, having been saved, we are all in the church, and every one of us is a new man.
In order for a person to have a part in the church, he must see that his old man was terminated on the cross. Everyone who comes into the church needs to first leave his old man on the cross. This teaching is clear, and in theory it sounds very good. However, after a long period of practicing this, we still may be unable to leave our old man on the cross. Even if we are able, it may be only temporary. This is not because the teaching that the old man should be terminated is wrong. When we come to Ephesians 4, we see that merely crucifying the old man is not enough. The old man also needs to be put off. What we need is not just a short-term crucifying of the old man but a long-term putting off of the old man.
Now we must see what the new man is. The new man is Christ as the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, and the all-inclusive Spirit. This Spirit is Christ (2 Cor. 3:17). When you believe in Christ, the Spirit enters into you. However, do not think that now we have only the new man. We must realize that now we have two men. On the outside is the old man, and on the inside is the new man. To use the utterance of the Scriptures, our spirit as our inner man is the new man, and our flesh as our outer being is the old man. If someone scolded you and you became very angry, you would be expressing the old man. Thank the Lord that we are a new man, not in our flesh but in our spirit. However, we need to remember that we have the old man as well as the new man. This is why in Ephesians 4 Paul says that we need to put off the old man (v. 22). If someone scolds us, we should not get angry. Instead, we should quickly put off our old man. The more we are rebuked, the more we should put off the old man. If we do this, eventually we will even be able to help them with the rebuking. We must lay aside our old man and should by no means put on the old man.
We also need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (v. 23). Those who have been completely renewed in the spirit of their mind can completely ignore everything of the old man. Their concepts have been changed completely. This is not an easy matter. We should not say that we have already heard this teaching, because merely hearing this teaching is useless. If a person loves the Lord very much, yet he often vindicates himself or holds a grudge when he is wronged by others, then he has not put off the old man. If you still have a grievance and cannot let go of it, this proves that you are still putting on the old man. If you have put off the old man, you will realize that regardless of how others have offended you, they have offended your old man and not your new man. Your new man is in another realm. Therefore, we need to change our concept altogether by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. Then, when others offend us, we will no longer become angry, nor will we feel offended, because the one who was offended was our old man. Even if they were able to cut up our old man into many pieces and then bury or burn the pieces, we would not feel anything because we have put off our old man. This is easy to say but very difficult to experience. The one way we can experience this is by turning to our spirit. There is a new man within us. We need to turn to our spirit because there is indeed a new man within us.
This new man is the church. To put on the new man is to put on the church, and to put on the new man is to live the church life. If you do not know the church to this extent, you may be very burning today, but tomorrow you will cool down. If you know the church, you will put off the old man and put on the new. I do not care how others treat me because ultimately they help me to put off the old man. We should not view our relationships with one another according to our natural perception. Instead, we should view them altogether in the new man. Gradually, the brother who offended you will also see the light. When he sees that, instead of being offended, you have put on the new man, he will also give up his natural being and put on the new man. In this way your coordination in the church will be in oneness, the genuine oneness that cannot be broken.
We must realize that the church is the new man. If we truly see that the church is the new man, and if we put off the old man and put on the new, we will never be a problem in the church. If this is the case, we will spontaneously stand on the ground of the church, and there will definitely be the oneness. This is possible because the Body is one and the Spirit is also one. When we are in spirit, we are on the ground of oneness. As long as we are in spirit, we are in the oneness. We need to see the church, which is very mysterious. According to experience, the church is the golden lampstand, and the golden lampstand is the seven Spirits. The seven Spirits should be the church life today. To be the church is to live under the control of the seven Spirits and to continually walk in the spirit. We need to know God’s eternal purpose, we need to know Christ, and even more, we need to know the church. Christ is all, and the church is in the Spirit. Christ is all, and the church is the new man. Therefore, every day we need to learn this basic lesson of turning to the spirit, putting off the old man, and putting on the new man.
We do not need the brothers and sisters to help us put off the old man. Ephesians only says that we should put off the old man and put on the new man. When we helped others in the past, we may not have been absolutely pure to the extent that the element of Christianity had been completely purged out of us. Sometimes the help we render to people can change in nature without our realizing it. I used to say that our wives and our children help us to be dealt with. Today, however, I hope we can see that we do not necessarily need these ones. The reason why these ones are often necessary is because we often force the Lord to the point where He has no alternative but to use these ones to help us. Let us use the disciplining of students as an illustration. Most students do not need to be disciplined every day. A student who does not study unless he is disciplined is a bad student. A good student or a good child does not need discipline.
We need to see that because Ephesians speaks from the heavens, there is no need for help from the circumstances on the earth. In Ephesians the shining, enlightenment, and revelation all come from the heavens. Thus, there is little need for earthly help. God’s grace is so sufficient that there is no need to have a great deal of outward help from the circumstances. If we need such help, it is because of our weakness and dullness. Therefore, we must not receive the words concerning being broken and being dealt with according to our natural concept. Such words are usually received in a way that is too natural. Whether or not you have a wife, and whether or not you have the circumstances, you need to always put off the old man and put on the new.
To put on the new man is to turn to our spirit. It does not matter how the brothers and sisters treat us. We simply need to turn to our spirit. Then we will not need the help from the outward circumstances because we will be constantly turning to our spirit. The church is the new man, and this new man is in our spirit.
Because we have not clearly seen this positive vision nor sufficiently received this positive light, there have been many teachings, even among us, that lean toward the natural concept. It is easy for people to agree with teachings that lean toward the natural concept, but it is not so easy for them to accept a teaching that has been purely released from the heavens as light or a vision. Today we must realize that we do not necessarily need the outward circumstances. All that matters is that we put off the old man, put on the new, and live in our spirit.
On the day of Pentecost, when Peter stood up to give a message, he was completely beside himself. Later, after healing the lame man, he spoke to the people at the portico called Solomon’s, saying, “Men of Israel,...you denied the holy and righteous One...and the Author of life you killed” (Acts 3:11-15). If I had been there on that day, I would not have let Peter go. I would have interrupted him right on the spot, saying, “Peter, do you remember what you did a few weeks ago? You denied the Lord three times in one night, and now you still have the audacity to speak?” Peter stood there that day to speak as if nothing had happened, as if he had not failed before. How could he do that? He could do that because he had put on the new man. He had put off the Peter who had denied the Lord and had put on the new man. Everything is all right when we turn to our spirit. We are not a civic organization discussing character cultivation and behavior improvement. We need to turn to our spirit and live in our spirit. We must look to the Lord that the churches would not remain old but would remove all the oldness and become altogether new.
