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Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:2a; 8:5b-6; 12:1, 3-5
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Transformation is not simply a change. Rather, transformation is a metabolic process. In this metabolic process a new element is supplied, and an old element is discharged. In metabolism a new element comes in to supply, replace, and discharge the old element.
Transformation is the completion and issue of renewing. First, we are renewed, and then we are transformed. Renewing issues in and brings in transformation. Renewing is in our mind, and transformation is in our entire soul. When our mind, the main part, the leading part, of our soul is renewed, our entire soul is transformed. The transformation of the soul comes out of the renewing of the mind. This kind of renewing and transformation saves us from our living, a living that is conformed to the present age (the modern style) of the world (v. 2a). The present age is just the modern style. This can be shown by the different architectural styles over the past centuries. In Europe you can tell the age of a building by its style of architecture. At the time the building was built, its architecture was the modern style. The hair styles and styles in dress of people today are also according to the present age, the modern style, of the world.
We have seen in one of the preceding chapters that our disposition has been soaked with the element of the world and that we love to have the present age, the modern style, the present fashion, of this world. Subjective sanctification saves us from the world-soaked disposition, and the renewing with transformation saves us from the appearance, the living, that is fashioned according to the present age, the modern style, of the world. Such a saving delivers us, by the indwelling Spirit, out of the world, not only inwardly but also outwardly. Inwardly, we are saved from our disposition, and outwardly, we are saved from a living that is conformed to the present age of the world.
Our being saved from the living that is conformed to the present age is through our cooperation by setting our mind on the spirit (v. 6). We need to turn our mind away from the worldly appearance. In order to be saved from the modern style of the world, we must set our mind on the spirit.
We must realize and believe that God’s divine element is always being dispensed into us. If we do not reject this dispensing, we will immediately receive the dispensing of this divine element into our being. It is the inner dispensing of the divine element that transforms our inner being. First, we must set our mind on the spirit, minding the things of the Spirit. Then we must be careful to not reject or block the inner dispensing of the divine element within us. This dispensing takes place day after day in a slow way. Digestion in our physical body is an illustration of this dispensing. Through digestion whatever we taste by eating is dispensed into our blood, cells, and fibers. Through the dispensing of the food into us, nourishment and sustaining strength are absorbed into our cells and fibers. Every day we live by this dispensing. The dispensing in the physical life is a figure of the dispensing in the spiritual life. In the spiritual life the dispensing is a matter of the divine element spreading within us. Through years of study and experience we found the fact of dispensing in the New Testament.
The dispensing of the divine element within us is spontaneous. This dispensing is also a law. The digestion of our physical food dispenses the food into our blood. This is a law. It goes on all the time. Physically speaking, we live on the dispensing of food through digestion. Spiritually speaking, we live on the inner dispensing of the abiding divine element in our being. This abiding divine element is God Himself. He is our food (John 6:35). As our food, He gets into us, and there is the dispensing of this food into our spiritual being. Without this spiritual dispensing, we could not live spiritually.
Being renewed in our mind and being transformed in our soul issue in all the virtues and victories in chapters 12 through 16 of Romans: being built up in the Body of Christ, living an excellent life of the highest standard of ethics (ch. 12), subjecting ourselves to authorities, practicing love, putting off the works of darkness by putting on Christ as the weapons of light (ch. 13), living a proper church life in its locality (ch. 14), and crushing Satan under our feet so that we may enjoy the God of peace by participating in the grace of Christ (16:20).
Being renewed in our mind and being transformed in our soul issue also in our being conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God (8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18). This is the prerequisite for our being glorified as a last step of God’s full salvation in His divine life (Rom. 8:30).
Dispositional sanctification by the indwelling Spirit, the freeing of the law of the Spirit of life, and the renewing of the mind, which issues in the transformation of the soul, are all very crucial and are connected to one another. First, the inner element, the nature of God, which is holiness, works within us. This working within us is dispositional sanctification. Through dispositional sanctification we are renewed in our mind and transformed in our soul. Then there is the freeing of the law of the Spirit of life. We must study these items diligently and seek to experience all of them.
In order to be built up in the Body of Christ, we must experience reigning in life, dispositional sanctification, the freeing of the law of the Spirit of life, and the renewing of our mind, which issues in the transformation of the soul. Without these experiences we cannot be built up in the Body of Christ. We do not have the capacity within our natural life to be one with others. Marriage life illustrates that we do not have much capacity in our natural life to be one. In God’s ordination man and woman should be married. Marriage is to make two people, husband and wife, one flesh (Gen. 2:24). The only couple in the universe that is able to be genuinely one is Christ and the transformed and glorified church. This couple will be in eternity. We must learn to reign in life, to be sanctified in our disposition, to be freed from the bondage of sin by the law of the Spirit of life, and to be renewed in our mind and transformed in our soul. When we have such experiences, we have the capacity to be built up with others.
The building up of the Body of Christ is a great matter. It is not simple or superficial. On the whole earth today, very few Christians have been built up. There are separations upon separations, divisions upon divisions, denominations upon denominations, groups upon groups. The building up of the Body of Christ is a very deep matter in Romans. The matter of reigning in life is mentioned in chapter 5, the freeing of the law of the Spirit of life in chapter 8, and the renewing of the mind, which issues in transformation, in chapter 12. Ultimately, the building up of the Body of Christ also is mentioned in chapter 12, after all the preceding experiences, and it continues through chapter 16.
Paul presents the building up of the Body in Romans 12, but he does not use the word build in this chapter. Instead, he says that we are “individually members one of another” (v. 5). This describes the building up of the Body. To build is to be members one of another. To be members one of another is difficult to experience. In a group of three coordinating in the gospel, it may be pleasant and joyful or very unpleasant, depending on the different temperaments of those in the group. On some occasions the team members may exercise to be polite to one another, not wanting to offend one another. But at other times the team members may simply express their feeling, disregarding the feeling of the other team members. Hence, it is not easy to be members one of another.
In September 1939 Brother Nee held a conference in Shanghai after he had returned from his visit to England. The messages of the conference were concerning the Body of Christ. They were deep and high. In one of these messages Brother Nee used Deuteronomy 32:30a to show the principle of the Body: “How shall one chase a thousand, / And two put ten thousand to flight?” Brother Nee said that if one works by himself, he is able to gain one thousand. If two work individually, they can gain two thousand. But if two work together, they can gain ten thousand, five times as many as the two who work individually. Brother Nee said that this is the principle of the Body. This was the first time that I heard this matter. Brother Nee spoke message after message, week after week, concerning the Body, from 1939 until the middle of 1942. But after this period of time a big turmoil broke out. That turmoil was so severe that Brother Nee gave up his ministry for a period of time.
In February 1986 I spoke on the subject of one accord during a training of the elders and co-workers. Through those messages I sounded the trumpet concerning the matter of one accord. Due to the messages given in that training, a letter was spontaneously drafted and sent to me with the signatures of over four hundred leading brothers throughout the world (see Elders’ Training, Book 8:The Life-pulse of the Lord’s Present Move, ch. 10) who attended that training, assuring me that they would be in one accord with the ministry. But within a short time—about nineteen months—a strong opposition against my ministry began by a few brothers. One of them said publicly that he regretted signing the letter of February 1986. This is another example of how difficult it is to be built together with others.
I have been practicing the church life since July 1932. During these fifty-eight years I can testify that I have seen much discord. Recently, in a meeting with the elders of the churches in California, I spoke about the genuine oneness and the one accord. The genuine oneness that the Lord prayed for in John 17 was actually practiced in Acts 1 and 2. In John the genuine oneness was taught, but in Acts the one accord was practiced. The one accord is just the practice of the oneness. Without the practice of the oneness, which is the one accord, the oneness might simply be a kind of thought or theory. But with the practice of one accord, the genuine oneness is realized in practicality.
In Acts the most prevailing thing among the disciples was neither their prayer nor the outpouring of the Spirit. The most prevailing thing was the one accord (1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; 15:25). In Acts 1 the Lord’s disciples saw the vision of the Lord’s ascension (vv. 9-11). That vision of the Lord’s ascension caused them to be outside of themselves and to be in one accord (vv. 14-15). Because of the one accord, they turned the entire world upside down (17:6, KJV). Their one accord was truly unique. Even to the present day, that one accord has never been repeated. We in the Lord’s recovery are somewhat weak and poor because of the lack of one accord. To be in one accord is to be built up. The one hundred twenty were built up. Their being in one accord was a building up. Therefore, the heavens opened, and the world was turned upside down.
In the beginning of Acts the practice of one accord by the disciples brought in the Holy Spirit’s outpouring and the blessing of three thousand people being saved on the day of Pentecost (2:41). The church was established and built up through the one accord. In order to have the one accord today, we must pass through these aspects of being saved in the life of Christ presented in Romans 5 through 12.
Being built up together in the Body of Christ saves us from the individualism of our natural life. Individualism is the philosophy, thought, doctrine, and principle of not being one with others. When not going along with others and not being one with others becomes a principle or philosophy, that is individualism. Some brothers or sisters may respect the elders and may realize that the church needs a group of brothers to take care of the administration of the church. But often these same brothers or sisters may not agree with the elders or may refuse to be one with them. Such individualism is difficult to deal with. Actually, each one of us has this problem of individualism. In order to be built into the Body of Christ, we must overthrow individualism. Conversely, if we are built up in the Body of Christ, we will be delivered from the individualism of our natural life.
We are built up in the Body of Christ, saved from the individualism of our natural life (12:5), through our cooperation by presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice (v. 1). In the past five years I discovered that the primary frustration to the Lord in carrying out His new way is not our agreement or disagreement with the new way. The main frustration and difficulty in carrying out the new way is twofold: first, we do not present our body, and second, we do not like to cooperate with others. If we present our bodies and go along with others, we will be in the new way. It is not enough to agree with the new way. We must also present our bodies as a sacrifice to the Lord and present our bodies to go along with others. This is the building up of the Body of Christ, and this is the new way.
In one locality, I know a number of the saints very well. Many of these saints agree with the new way, but there is still very little actual practice of the new way among them. The reason for this is that the saints are short in the presenting of their bodies to the Lord as a sacrifice for the new way, and they are also short in going along with others. If the saints would present themselves and go along with one another, immediately there would be the practice of the new way. To visit people with the gospel is not a small thing. To visit people requires that we present our bodies to the Lord as a sacrifice and that we go along with others. When we go to visit others, the three or four of us who go together should be as one man. In this way our visiting people with the gospel becomes very effective.
We are built up in the Body of Christ through our cooperation by not thinking more highly of ourselves than what we are (vv. 3-4). We think more highly of ourselves than what we are. For this reason we see very little of the building up of the Body of Christ and very little actual practice of the new way.
