(2)
In Eph. 5:26 and Eph. 5:29 there are four crucial words: sanctify, cleanse, nourish, and cherish. Because the enemy has veiled these matters, not many Christians have a clear understanding of their significance. For this reason, I am very burdened of the Lord to consider them further in this message.
God’s intention in His economy is not to correct us or to improve us. Neither is it to have good people in place of bad people. In the eyes of God, it does not matter whether we are good or bad, for the only thing of value in His economy is Christ Himself. Therefore, God’s desire is to work Christ into us. Whether we are good or bad, we need the element of Christ added into us. This involves Christ’s work in sanctifying us. Sanctification in 5:26 does not mean merely to be separated from what is common, but it means to have the very element of Christ added to us.
Sanctification is not a matter of adjusting ourselves outwardly to fit into the situation of the church life. For example, a young brother may have been rather loose before coming into the church. Now that he is living in a brothers’ house he constantly reminds himself to behave properly. This behavior is not sanctification — it is religion. In the eyes of God, such religious behavior is included in what Paul calls dung (Phil. 3:8). The Lord does not want our self-improvement or self-adjustment; He wants to saturate our whole being with Himself. Hence, sanctification is not behavior, but the addition of the element of Christ to our being.
As one who is familiar with both the Bible and the teachings of Confucius, I have come to realize that in their daily living many Christians live as if they were disciples of Confucius. Under the influence of the religious concept, they regard the Bible as a book of doctrines and ethical teachings. For example, a sister may try desperately to submit to her husband. In doing this, she is actually living like a follower of Confucius, all the while believing that she is being a good Christian. She explains her behavior by saying that, according to the Bible, her husband is the head and she is obligated to submit to him. Such a word sounds very good, but it is religious, for it is not according to God’s economy to work Christ into us. We all know that in 5:22 Paul exhorts the wives to be subject to their own husbands. But do not forget that this follows his word about being filled in spirit (v. 18). This indicates that a wife’s submission should come out of the infilling of the Spirit, not out of an outward, deliberate attempt to be submissive.
Often in Christian weddings a pastor will charge the bride and groom according to Paul’s word in Ephesians 5 regarding husbands and wives. The wife promises to submit to her husband, and the husband vows to love his wife. However, neither the bride nor the groom realizes that submission and love are the issue of being filled in our spirit with the Triune God.
If a sister’s submission is genuine, it will not require deliberate effort. On the contrary, she will submit spontaneously out of her experience of Christ and her enjoyment of Him. She may not even realize that she is submissive, for she submits without purposely trying to do so. Such submission comes out of the element of Christ that has been imparted into that sister. How different this is from submitting because she has been taught to be under the headship of her husband! Such deliberate submission is religious and is not according to God’s economy.
There is a great difference between sanctification and behavior. In sanctification we do things without trying on purpose to do them. They are the spontaneous expression of our taking Christ as our life and our person. When Christ is our life and our person, He lives within us. It is He who is loving and submissive. To submit because of the indwelling Christ is one thing, but to submit because of behavior or outward correction is an altogether different matter.
The leading ones in the churches should not tell others what to do. Instead, we all must be able to testify that we live, not according to outward teachings, but according to the Christ who dwells in us to be our life and our person. Our aim is not to behave in a particular way, but simply to take Christ as our life and our person. Then what we do will be the outflow of the inner life. Spontaneously, the wives will submit to their husbands, the husbands will love their wives, and the children will be obedient to their parents. However, this kind of living will not be deliberate; it will be the issue of being filled in spirit with the Triune God.
When the young people are helped by a message, they may say that they will never be the same. But even this may be religious, for the young people may unconsciously try to improve themselves. They may try by their own effort to do what they heard in that message. Striving to make ourselves different is not sanctification.
In order to be sanctified in a genuine way, we simply need to contact the Lord and take Him as our life and our person. We need to pray, “Lord Jesus, You are my life and my person. Lord, take me, occupy me, and possess me. O Lord, come into every corner of my heart, fill my heart with Yourself, and make Your home in my heart. Lord, I don’t care whether or not I’ll be different, and I’m not concerned about behavior. I care only that You fill me and come out through me.” If you contact the Lord in this way, He will gradually and spontaneously be added into your being. This addition of Christ will sanctify you.
Subjective sanctification does not take place by teaching, but takes place by the inward working of the living Christ. This is the reason we emphasize the fact that in the Lord’s recovery we care little for doctrine in letters, but very much for the experience of Christ as our life and our person. I cannot express how heavy is the burden on my heart concerning this matter. If I can help the saints realize what sanctification is, I believe that this burden will be discharged. Please be impressed that sanctification definitely is not a matter of outward behavior or improvement. God desires to daily dispense the element of Christ into our being. It is this element alone that causes us to be sanctified.
In subjective sanctification something of Christ is added to us, but in cleansing something of us, especially our natural disposition, is subtracted. As we are cleansed, our natural disposition is washed away. Disposition is the most inward aspect of our constitution; it is the very root of our being. We were born with a certain disposition. Disposition, therefore, is altogether inward. However, character, a combination of disposition, custom, and habit, is partly inward and partly outward, whereas behavior is wholly outward. The Lord Jesus cares little about our behavior, more about our character, but very much about our disposition. As Christ is adding His element into us, He is also cleansing us and subtracting our natural disposition. His cleansing washes away the natural element from the depths of our being.
We have pointed out that the Lord will wash the church from all wrinkles. Wrinkles are caused by our natural disposition. Hence, the only way these wrinkles can be removed is for the element of our natural disposition to be cleansed away.
With the young people it is easy to point out what their disposition is. However, if the Apostle Paul were with us, it would be difficult to discern his disposition, because he has been so deeply cleansed and purified. His old, natural disposition has been washed away by the element of Christ.
The washing away of our natural disposition cannot be accomplished by teaching, but can be accomplished only by the impartation of the element of Christ into our being. At the same time the element of Christ is being added, something of ourselves is being carried away. Therefore, on the one hand, we have the addition of Christ, but, on the other hand, we have the subtraction of the natural disposition. Gradually, Christ is being added into our being, and our natural disposition is being subtracted. The result of this process is transformation, a metabolic change in which the new element is constituted into us and the old element is carried away.
We have pointed out that 5:25-27 presents Christ in three stages. When Christ was in the first of these stages, the stage of the flesh, He went to the cross and there gave Himself up for the church. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In this second stage He is sanctifying and cleansing us. If we open to Him and tell Him that we are willing to take Him as our life and our person, He will work within us as the life-giving Spirit to add Himself to us and to carry away our oldness and our natural disposition. This is the work of the living Christ in sanctification and cleansing.
We proceed to the nourishing and the cherishing. When I was young, I spent a great deal of time studying the book of Ephesians. Nevertheless, I did not understand what it meant to be nourished and cherished. But through experience I have come to know what it is to be nourished and cherished by Christ. Whenever we open to the Lord Jesus and take Him as our life and our person, He sanctifies us and cleanses us. At the same time He gives us nourishment. We know this by the fact that we have a wonderful sense of satisfaction within. Satisfaction comes from nourishment.
Only by receiving the life supply can we endure the Lord’s cleansing of our disposition. Surgeons realize that for a patient to withstand surgery, he must have nourishment. For this reason, blood and glucose are transfused into the patient. The Lord’s cleansing is a kind of spiritual surgery, surgery on the depths of our inner being. The Lord’s cleansing is His operating. For such an operation we surely need His nourishing.
I know of a certain brother whose natural disposition was rude, mean, and even cruel. Sometimes he came to me in tears distraught over the kind of person he was. He admitted that no one could satisfy him. Regarding himself as the most loathsome person on earth, he was desperate to know what to do about his situation. I could not do anything to help him in an outward way. But I can testify that the Lord gradually cleansed and purified him thoroughly. He loved the Lord very much and was completely open to Him. Because he gave the Lord the ground within him, the Lord could come in to sanctify him and to cleanse him. The Lord operated on him and washed away the element of his natural disposition. In order to bear such extensive surgery, we need the supply of the Lord’s inward nourishment. This brother could testify of the nourishment and enjoyment the Lord gave to him as He was cleansing him. Be assured, whenever the Lord sanctifies and cleanses, He also nourishes.
Any sanctification or cleansing that is not accompanied by nourishment is not genuine. It is the product of self-effort. Whenever you try to sanctify yourself or cleanse yourself, you will have the sense of spiritual starvation. But if the Lord does the sanctifying and the cleansing, He will supply the nourishment, and you will enjoy sweet satisfaction. The more the Lord purifies you, the more of His nourishment you will receive. Instead of suffering under the process of purification, you will enjoy the Lord and His abundant life-supply.
As the Lord nourishes us, He also cherishes us. He is like a mother who cherishes her child even as she feeds him. How the little ones enjoy the warmth and comfort of their mothers! If you consider your experience, you will realize that when the Lord sanctifies, cleanses, and nourishes you, He cherishes you with His tender warmth. His cherishing comforts you, soothes you, and calms you. Hallelujah for the Lord’s sanctifying, cleansing, nourishing, and cherishing!
Only the living Christ can do all this. Doctrines cannot do it and not even the Bible can do it. If you want the sanctifying, the cleansing, the nourishing, and the cherishing, you must place all your trust in the living Christ. Tell Him, “Lord Jesus, nothing can replace You. Lord, I love You, I open my heart to You, and I give You all the ground in my being. Lord, possess me and be my life and my person. Lord, I don’t care about outward things, not even about the church life in an outward way. I care only that You, Lord, will be my life and my person.” If you contact the Lord in this way, you will discover how living, real, available, and present He is. He will sanctify you by adding Himself to you. He will cleanse you by washing away the old element of your natural disposition. He will also nourish you with His riches and cherish you with His warmth. As all this is taking place within you, you will have a marvelous enjoyment of the Lord. This is the way the Lord is preparing His Bride. In this way we are becoming the glorious church Christ will present to Himself at His coming back.
