We need to be renewed for the one new man; to be renewed is to have God’s element added into our being to replace and discharge our old element, and God arranges our environment so that our outer man is consumed and our inner man is renewed.
We need to realise that, on the cross, Christ created the one new man; He terminated all the negative things (including all the ordinances that divided and separated us), and He created in Himself the one new man with His divine life in resurrection.
When we were regenerated, Christ came into us, and He is the one new man in our spirit. However, we still live quite a lot in our old man, in our natural man, in the flesh, in our unrenewed mind, and in the self; so we are still old, and we are related to the old things.
We need to be renewed for the one new man.
Yes, the one new man was created by Christ, but we as believers in Christ need to partake of this creation, participate in this new creation, by being renewed day by day.
We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind so that the one new man would come into existence practically.
For us to partake of the new creation, every day we need to put off the old man and put on the new man through the renewing.
We need to cooperate with the Lord.
On His side, He has done everything – He terminated all the negative things, He became the life-giving Spirit to come into us and regenerate us, and He brought the one new man in our spirit.
On our side, we need to put off the old man – the old manner of life, the old social life, and everything of the old things – and put on the new man.
Christ, on the cross, like a tailor, completed a jacket – He finished it; now we need to put it on, after we put off the old man. The new man has been finished and is waiting to be put on for a long time; now it is our turn to cooperate with the Lord by allowing Him to renew us for the one new man.
The key to putting off the old man and putting on the new man is being renewed in the spirit of the mind.
If we are concerned only for our own spiritual welfare, if we care only for the things that relate to us, and if we don’t see what Christ has accomplished on the cross and we don’t realise His desire to gain the one new man in practicality today, we will be ignorant of God’s purpose, and the Lord is being delayed.
But praise the Lord, He is faithful to speak to us again and again concerning the matter of the one new man, how He wants to gain the practicality of the new man in our daily living!
Being Renewed is having God’s Element added into our Being to Replace and Discharge our Old Element
What does it mean to be renewed? Many think that to be renewed is to have a new start, to press the RESET button, and to turn over a new leaf, so that we may have a new beginning. Being renewed is much more than that.
Only God is new, and for us to be renewed is for us to have God’s element added into our being to replace and discharge our old element.
Without having God added into ours, it doesn’t matter how many “new beginnings” or “turning over a new leaf” we have, we are not new – it’s the same old you repeating this over and over again.
Only God can cause the renewing; when His element comes in, the old element can be discharged from us, and His new element replaces it. Newness is God; therefore, to become new is to become God (Rom. 6:4; 7:6).
Newness is nothing else but God; newness is not to make things over but newness is God. Christ on the cross didn’t create another man – He created a new man, the one new man; this means that the new man is filled with God who is new!
God is forever new, and He infuses His ever-new essence into our being to renew our entire being (Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10).
The Spirit of God renews us by infusing God’s attributes into our inward parts; these attributes are forever new, they can never become old, and they are everlasting and unchanging (Rev. 21:5).
Our God is new, and the Spirit of God is also new; He renews us by infusing our inward parts with God’s love, His light, His holiness, and His righteousness, all of which are forever new.
With God there’s no oldness; He has never become old, even though He has been existing forever, He is at best “ancient” but never old! He is forever new, and His Spirit is a Spirit of newness, infusing us with His new element to make us new; we are being renewed!
The One sitting on the throne says, I make all things new (Rev. 21:5). It seems that God doesn’t like antiques or old things; He is tired of anything old, and He wants to infuse His ever-new element into all His people to renew them and make them new as He is, even the one new man!
The renewing Spirit imparts the divine essence of the new man into our being to make us a new creation (Titus 3:5); we are saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
Regeneration is a kind of washing, washing away all our negative elements; positively, however, the holy Spirit is a renewing agent to renew us.
Hallelujah, we are under the renewing of the Holy Spirit – we are being renewed – for the one new man, so that we may become the new creation of God, the One who is ever new!
Lord Jesus, keep us in the process of being renewed for the one new man. We open to You, Lord, so that Your new element may be added to our being to replace and discharge our old element. Hallelujah, our God is new, and there is no oldness with Him! Praise the Lord, we have been washed from anything old by our regeneration, and now we are under the renewing of the Holy Spirit! Amen, Lord, we open to Your continual infusing of our inward parts with God’s attributes to make us new, even the one new man!
God Arranges our Environment for the Outer Man to be Consumed and the Inner Man to be Renewed
According to 2 Cor. 4:16, we do not lose heart, though our outer man is decaying, for our inner man is being renewed day by day. God arranges our environment so that little by little and day by day our outer man will be consumed, worn out, and terminated, and that our inner man would be renewed.
On one hand the Spirit of God – who is a renewing Spirit – brings into us and infuses us with the ever-new element of God to renew us. On the other hand, God uses our environment, our circumstances, to facilitate this renewing process.
We enjoy the renewing work of the Spirit of God bringing into us the new elements of God to make us new, but God also knows that we need the help of our environment to break down and consume all the things that are old.
Our environment includes the people around us, those close to us, our spouse and children, our relatives, our colleagues at school, our co-workers, and all the things around us; all these can be used by God to consume our outer man for us to be renewed.
In order for us to be renewed fully, there needs to be the stripping away and consuming of our outer man; this requires the work and help of the environment.
We should not belittle or complain about our situation, our environment, and those whom God put to be with us, for God uses them and all things to consume our outer man and renew our inner man.
Our Christian life is not always going up and up; it has a lot of dips, and it is full of ups and downs. As we encounter difficulties and frustrations, God works to renew us; sometimes God even allows turmoils and problems in the church so that the saints and the church may be renewed.
We don’t like problems or turmoils, and we do not choose troubles or hardships, but through these things God strips away our natural man and He adds more of God to us.
When we look back at our mishaps, problems, difficulties, and even the turmoils, we realise that we gained so much more of God in these things (as we turned to the Lord desperately) than when we didn’t have any problems and were reading the Bible on our own.
From our experience we know that it is when we go through the valleys, when we go through difficulties and problems, that somehow the Lord is able to touch the deepest part of our being, and we get renewed and revived. Amen!
This doesn’t mean that we should ask God for more problems and difficulties; rather, God is sovereign to measure them to us according to our capacity of what we can take, and as we pass through these things, little by little and day by day, our outer man is being consumed, while our inner man is being renewed! Amen!
We are being renewed by the renewing capacity of the divine life in resurrection (John 11:25; 2 Cor. 1:9; 4:14; Phil. 3:10).
The life of God which we have received is a resurrection life, and our God is a God of resurrection. The Lord said, I am the resurrection and the life; He mentioned resurrection first and then life, for the life that He is actually is the resurrection life!
Resurrection life is the life that passes through death and emerges out of death. We may feel that we pass through situations of death both personally and corporately, but our God is a God of resurrection.
We shouldn’t be afraid of any kind of negative or death situation but enjoy the God of resurrection!
In the last two thousand years in the history of the church there has been so much persecution from without by the enemy, and there have been many adversaries within causing difficulties, conflicts, and turmoils; however, the church has never been defeated, for our God is a God of resurrection!
All the death situations around us only give God the opportunity to manifest the power of His resurrection life.
Paul even testified that he was in some situations and he could only respond by saying, Death, I’m done, I’m finished…he had the response of death in himself, so he based his confidence not in himself but on God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9).
We may feel that we are ending, we may be finished, but God is just beginning! Our confidence is no longer on ourselves but on God! Amen!
Being renewed is no an overnight matter; it takes a long time in our life, and it requires that we pray, contact God, receive God, and get God added into us all the day.
Also, it requires that we pray, confess our sins, and reject ourselves to take the cross of Christ. On His side, God arranges all things to consume our old man and renew our new man. Hallelujah!
Thank You Lord for sovereignly arranging all things in our environment so that little by little and day by day our outer man will be consumed and our inner man will be renewed. We open to Your inward renewing work: infuse us with Your ever-new and ever-fresh element, and have Your way to discharge and remove our old element. We just want to contact You, be open to You, and allow You to work Yourself into us and to strip away anything of the old man for the new man to be renewed. We believe that we are being renewed by the renewing capacity of the divine life in resurrection! Hallelujah, nothing can defeat or put down the resurrection life, and no matter the situation of death we’re in, life operates in us to renew us and make us the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” pp. 359-361, 363, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 7, Being Renewed in the Spirit of Our Mind for the Practical Existence of the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Now we Thy new creation are- / New spirit and new heart; / We’re daily from the old renewed, / New life Thou dost impart. (Hymns #16)
– We are pressed on every side; unable to find a way out; / Persecuted and cast down; / Every suffering in our natural man is another opportunity / For our inner man to develop and be renewed. / So we do not lose heart though our outer man is decaying; / We do not lose heart for our inner man is being renewed day by day. (Song on, We Do Not Lose Heart)
– Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / Thru every block and barrier it breaks; / Conqu’ring the pow’r of darkness and of hell, / It swallows death and victory partakes. (Hymns #639)
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