(3)
Scripture Reading: Mark 1:1, 10-11; 9:1-9; Acts 21:18-24
In the foregoing message we pointed out an important difference between the Epistle of James and the Gospel of Mark. In James we see something of a life that is not fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. In Mark we see a life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy. In fact, the life presented in the Gospel of Mark is the reality, substance, and pattern of God’s New Testament economy.
Perhaps you are wondering what our reason is for saying that in the Gospel of Mark we see a life that is the substance of God’s New Testament economy. We say this because the life the Lord Jesus lived was the expression of God. According to the Gospel of Mark, there is no indication that the Lord Jesus was living merely in a way to keep the law, that He did certain things simply because they were required by the law. Furthermore, the Gospel of Mark does not indicate that the Lord Jesus only lived a good life. How, then, did the Lord live? The Lord Jesus lived God, and He expressed God. Whatever He did was God’s doing from within Him and through Him. This means that all that the Lord Jesus did was not merely the keeping of the law or the doing of good in an ethical sense. The Lord Jesus was a Person who lived God and expressed Him in all that He said and did.
I can assure you that there has never been another life like that of the Lord Jesus. The biographies of other people may indicate that they were good or that they tried to keep the law of God. But the Lord Jesus is the only One who lived God and expressed Him in a full way. Of course, the Lord never broke the law, and He never did anything wrong. Nevertheless, the crucial matter regarding His life was not that He kept the law or that He did good. The crucial point is that He lived God and expressed Him. The Lord’s living was not in the kingdom of law-keeping or of doing good. He lived altogether in another kingdom, the kingdom of God.
Do you live in the kingdom of God? We may say that we live in the kingdom of God, but we may live in another realm in a practical way day by day. Instead of living in the kingdom of God, we may live in the kingdoms of law, ethics, or morality. Throughout the centuries, many saints have lived in these kingdoms and not in the kingdom of God.
Especially since the time of John Wesley, there has been much talk among Christians concerning holiness. Some regard holiness as a matter of so-called sinless perfection. Others think that holiness is related to regulations concerning such matters as the style of dress. Regulations such as these are not in the kingdom of God. They belong to another kingdom, perhaps the kingdom of good.
Those who live in the kingdom of God have God as their life, and they live Him. God lives in them, through them, and out of them. As a result, they live a life that expresses nothing other than God Himself. God is the real holiness, morality, and ethics. Therefore, to have God as life and to live Him is to live in a way that is higher than human morality or ethics.
Only the kind of life that lives God and expresses Him produces the Body of Christ. Any other way of living always damages the Body. Throughout its history the church has been divided not mainly by evil things, but primarily by good things that are not God Himself. If all Christians would care only for God Himself and for having Him as life and living Him, there would not be any divisions among believers.
The reason there would be no divisions if we all cared only for God Himself is that God is one. In Ephesians 4:4-6 Paul speaks of the one Body, the one Spirit, the one Lord, and the one God and Father. If we see the oneness in Ephesians 4, we shall know how to keep the oneness of the Body of Christ, a oneness that is actually the Triune God Himself. If we all have God as our holiness, righteousness, and everything to us, there will not be any divisions among us. However, if we have something other than God, there will be divisions. Anything that we have other than God Himself is a factor of division.
It is God’s intention in His recovery to bring us back to His New Testament economy. The pattern for God’s New Testament economy is found in the life of the Lord Jesus, as presented in the Gospel of Mark. Not even the writings of Paul present us a complete pattern, because at least once Paul himself was distracted from the New Testament economy of God. Hence, not even Paul is a complete pattern of God’s economy.
In chapter twenty-one of Acts we see a situation in which Paul was distracted from God’s New Testament economy. He was convinced by some in Jerusalem to return to the law and fulfill certain of its requirements. This took place after Paul had written the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. In those Epistles Paul spoke strongly against continuing to keep the law in the Old Testament manner.
After writing those books, Paul went to Jerusalem for the last time. Acts 21:18 says that Paul went in “to James, and all the elders were present.” According to verse 20, they pointed out to Paul “how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed, and are all zealous for the law.” They had been instructed concerning Paul that he was “teaching all the Jews throughout the nations apostasy from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs” (v. 21). Then James and the others went on to give Paul this advice: “Therefore do what we tell you: Four men are with us who have a vow on themselves; take these and be purified with them, and pay their expenses that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things of which they have been instructed concerning you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the law” (vv. 23-24).
Acts 21:18 does not say that Paul went in to see the elders and James was present. This verse says that Paul went in to James and the elders were present. This indicates that James was the central figure in the church in Jerusalem and that he exercised a strong influence.
How could James have become such a strong and central influence among the believers? It probably was because he was so godly and pious, and he emphasized practical Christian perfection. Nothing attracts people more than one’s perfection. Even one as spiritual as Paul was not as attractive as James in this regard. If James were with us today, no doubt we would be attracted by his Christian perfection.
As an illustration of how people are attracted to what they consider perfect, let me relate something Brother Nee told me in 1932. Brother Nee wore his hair a little longer than was customary among the Chinese at that time. One day he said to me, “Brother Lee, if I were to cut my hair shorter, more of the people would receive my ministry.” Because the Chinese people at the time were very conservative, they were not willing to accept anything they regarded as modern. To them, a gentleman should wear his hair quite short. Certain ones would have been open to receive Brother Nee’s ministry if he met their standard of perfection in this matter.
Christians are easily attracted to those who seem to practice Christian perfection. For example, suppose a certain brother is gentle, humble, and meek, and always speaks in a kind, loving way. Would you not be attracted to him? Would it not be easy for you to be influenced by him? I use this as an illustration to point out how people are attracted by perfection.
If we see that perfection attracts people, we shall be able to understand the nature of James’ influence in Jerusalem. James was godly, righteous, and, in a certain sense, holy. He certainly had a measure of practical Christian perfection. Nevertheless, with James we do not see the life of someone living in the kingdom of God.
In the entire New Testament there is only one person who lived fully, wholly, and absolutely according to the New Testament economy of God, and this person was the Lord Jesus.
When I was young, I was taught to take Jesus as my example and to follow Him. To a certain extent, I taught others to do the same thing. However, for years I wondered how we could take Jesus as our example and follow Him. Do you know how to take Jesus as your example? Do you know how to follow Him? When I asked certain Christian teachers and pastors about this, they pointed out that the Lord Jesus was gentle and that He was never angry.
Eventually I learned from reading the Scriptures that at least on one occasion the Lord Jesus was angry. This was the occasion when “He found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting there. And having made a whip of cords, He drove them all, both the sheep and the oxen, out of the temple, and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned the tables” (John 2:14-15). This made me question what I had been taught about the way to follow the Lord Jesus. I began to lose my trust in what I now realize is a natural understanding and teaching about taking Jesus as our example.
In the Gospel of Mark we see that the Lord Jesus did not live a life merely of human morality or of keeping the law. Instead, He lived God the Father as His life. This kind of living is much superior to a life of living the law or human morality.
God’s desire is that He be expressed from within us. He does not want to see us merely living a life that is moral or a life that is according to the law. He wants to see Himself expressed from within us as we take Him as our life and live Him. In Mark we have the portrait of a life not of the law nor merely of morality, but of the One who lived God and expressed Him.
In a forthcoming message we shall see that as the One who lived God and expressed Him, the Lord Jesus had God the Father as His inner divine essence, and God the Spirit outwardly as His power. He, therefore, lived His life by the divine essence that was within Him and by the divine power that was upon Him. This means that He lived a life of God. This kind of living is revealed in the Gospel of Mark.
All the while He was on earth, the Lord Jesus lived a life of God. With Him, the things of the Old Testament had passed away. His life was altogether new, for He had God the Father within Him and God the Spirit upon Him. His life, therefore, was absolutely related to God Himself and was fully according to God’s New Testament economy. Hallelujah for such a life! This life is the reality, substance, and pattern of God’s New Testament economy. It is the life that produces the members of Christ to form His Body to express the Triune God.
