The Need to be Constituted with God to Have the Ministry of Life for the Body

This week in our study we come to the topic, Ministry of Life. In Christianity today there are many “ministries”, and as soon as someone feels he has a ministry from the Lord, he goes ahead and does his best to carry it out, many times resulting in creating yet another division in the Body of Christ.

There are all kinds of churches based on all kinds of ministries, and a genuine and honest believer would ask himself today,

According to the Bible, what is “ministry”? Why are there so many so-called ministries today, and they all divide the Body of Christ? What is my ministry?

We need to see that first of all that in God’s eyes and according to the Word of God there is only one ministry, which is based on God’s covenant. Based on the old covenant there was the ministry of the old covenant, which was of condemnation (see 2 Cor. 3).

But today we are under God’s new covenant, so the only ministry that God sees as being genuine is the ministry of the new covenant, which is of the Spirit and is of life, of righteousness, and of glory (2 Cor. 3-4). The issue and the result of the ministry of the new covenant is the building up of the Body of Christ for the accomplishment of God’s goal.

May the Lord enlighten us and show us what the ministry of life is and how can we also be produced as ministers of life to build up the Body of Christ today.

6 Matters Related to “the Ministry” and “Ministry”

There’s a difference between the ministry and ministry – “the ministry” is based upon God’s covenant, and the carrying out of the covenant depends on “the ministry”. “Ministry” on the other hand is a particular portion or function that a believer has, as part of “the ministry”, for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Based on the Bible and the ministry of the age, here are six main points concerning “the ministry” and “ministry”:

1. A ministry is to carry out whatever God has covenanted with His people. If there’s no covenant, there’s no need for a ministry. The ministry is a service, a particular work, that we as God’s people render to Him in order to carry out the covenant.

This automatically means that the ministry has NOTHING to do with any kind of human preference, desire, taste, or purpose. The Lord Jesus enacted the new covenant after He established the Lord’s table on the night of His betrayal, and that new covenant requires a ministry to carry it out. The first band of ministers were the disciples (the first apostles).

2. The ministry of the New Testament must be and is unique universally. There are no two ministries in the New Testament; rather, this one ministry comprises all the works and ministries of the apostles, who are the ministers not only of their own personal ministry but also collectively, their ministries are part of the one unique ministry of the New Testament.

All ministers carry out the same one ministry, work, and service. Every member of the Body of Christ also has a share in this genuine unique ministry of the New Testament!

3. The service of the New Testament ministry is exclusively to accomplish God’s New Testament economy concerning the church for the building up of the Body of Christ. A genuine ministry which is a part of the New Testament ministry must have this as the goal – accomplishing the New Testament economy of God through the building up of the Body of Christ.

This economy and purpose of God requires a lot of work to be done on earth by God’s people – and this work is the work of the ministry. Whatever a genuine minister does, it must be for the building up of the Body of Christ. No genuine ministry is for itself, but it is for the church and for the Body. The building up of the Body is the work of the ministry.

4. The ministry of the new covenant is the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness. As the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of the new covenant is opposed to the ministry of the letter – the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6). The ministry of the Spirit is a life-giving, life-imparting, and life-dispensing ministry!

As the ministry of righteousness, the ministry of the new covenant is opposed to the ministry of condemnation (which characterizes the ministry of the old covenant). This shows us that this ministry today must be the ministry of life, and not the ministry of death or division.

The old covenant is of letter, based on the written code of the law in the Old Testament, and it brings only condemnation to people, resulting in death. But the ministry of the new covenant is of the Spirit who gives life, and it brings in righteousness unto life! The issue of righteousness and justification is life, and the focus is the Spirit and righteousness, with the life supply.

5. The ministry of life is based on constitution. You can’t learn it, pick it up, acquire it as a skill, have it as a capability, or do anything outwardly to get it.

First of all, the ministry of life is God being built into our being – for the ministry to be brought about, God needs to be built into our being. As Gal. 4:19 tells us, Christ must be formed in us – Christ must be constituted in us and wrought into us until we look like Christ and have His form! Also, the ministry of life is the life-giving Spirit being constituted into us.

The ministry of life is produced and brought about by the very constitution of the Triune God into a human vessel, a believer!

6. Ministry is produced and formed, kept and preserved, by the experiences of the riches of Christ through suffering, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross. As we share in the sufferings of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the ministry is being produced.

In 2 Corinthians we see a pattern how this killing work of the cross and suffering works, and how Christ is wrought into the being of the apostles to make them ministers of the new covenant. In 1 Corinthians we see that Paul speaks of the gifts (in a negative way), and in 2 Corinthians we see that gifts are not even mentioned – the ministry is being the focus.

In 2 Cor 1, 4, 6, 11, 12 we see that Paul talks about his sufferings in great detail. He was called by God to serve Him as an apostle and a teacher in God’s economy, and he had to experience all these sufferings and adversities and the work of the cross. He needed all these experiences so that he would be pressed into a situation where he would experience the God of resurrection.

He experienced something excessive, beyond his power, almost despairing of life, having the response of death in themselves. In those situations the apostles learned not to trust in themselves but in the God of resurrection. It is through this kind of consuming work of the cross through the environment allowed by God that the apostles were constituted as ministers.

Here they enjoyed God in the deepest way – and this kind of enjoyment was not for their own happiness but to work God, Christ, and the Spirit into them. The way of being constituted with the Triune God to produce the ministry is not an easy thing – it takes a lot of time for God to be built into man so that man may have the ministry of life.

We Need the Ministry of Life

What we need in the church life today is the ministry of life. For the building up of a local church in the Lord’s recovery we need the ministry of life. We all need to continue to experience life and grow in life, so that among us may be many more ministers of life for the building up of the church.

If there is a lack in the local churches there’s the lack of life – we are short of the ministry of life, and we are deficient in the ministers of life. We need to open to the Lord and pray to Him, Lord, whatever it takes, constitute me as a genuine minister of life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

Being constituted as a minister is not merely gaining knowledge or doctrine, but having reality and substance in our being – having the Triune God wrought into the very fiber of our being. In order for the divine life to be worked into a human being it requires a process – even a lifelong process, in which there’s much deep, heavy, and thorough work done by God.

In 2 Cor. 4:12 we see that death operated in the apostles and life in the saints. Whenever the killing work of the cross is present in us, there will be resurrection and the impartation of life.

May we be those who don’t choose the way of “having a gift” (which rather damages the Body and divides the church) but the way of constitution, the way of growth, transformation, and maturing in life, so that we may have the ministry of life for the building up of the church!

Lord Jesus, unveil us to really see Your economy, Your new covenant, and the ministry which builds up the Body of Christ. May we give ourselves to You and open to You without reservation so that You may work Yourself into us. We want to take the way of constitution. Lord, constitute us more with God, with Christ, and with the Spirit. Whatever it takes, Lord, constitute us as genuine ministers of life for Your recovery, for the building up of the church, and for the saints.

References and Further Reading

• This sharing is inspired from brother Minoru Chen’s speaking in this message and portions in, Life-study of 2 Corinthians (msgs. 5-7), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, ITERO spring 2013 “The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body“, week 6 entitled, The Ministry of Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The new covenant ministry—a ministry of God— / is the ministry of the Spirit who gives life (who gives life) / and of righteousness as the expression of God.
  # Lord, grant me the experiences / To produce such a ministry. / Through revelation and sufferings, / Lord, constitute Yourself in me.
  # We work together with God by a life, / We work together with God by a life: / All-sufficient, / All-mature; / Able to fit / All situations.
• Pictures credit: instagrams by me here and here.