Dealing with the Self and the Natural Life through the Cross for our Full Cleansing

In order for us to be cleansed from sin and rebellion, we need to be those dealing with the self and deal with every part of our natural life and daily walk, taking this seriously and being before the Lord to be dealt with by the cross.

In Lev. 14 we see the cleansing of the leper, which has two sides – on the one hand there’s an outward cleansing and on the other there’s a dealing with the inward being.

On the one hand the Lord has prepared a way for us to be redeemed by Him, and He as the life-giving Spirit has come into our spirit to regenerate us and be the divine life that heals us from within.

On the other hand, we as believers in Christ need to be serious with the Lord concerning our being cleansed from sin and rebellion, and for this we need to be one with Him to deal with the self and the natural life.

On His side, the Lord has become a man of high standard yet with a low status, and He came full of life to give us life. He died for us, He shed His blood on the cross for us, and He offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit who filled Him.

He has resurrected and has become a life-giving Spirit, and He is now in ascension and in glory. And He did this not just for Himself but for and with all of us.

He died for us, He took us with Him through death. He resurrected from the dead, and we are in Him as He resurrected, was raised, ascended, and was enthroned.

Our real position today is in the heavenlies with Christ, seated with Him on the throne.

In His all-inclusive salvation Christ has prepared for us a way to be saved from sin and its power, and to be cleansed from rebellion, so that we may become God’s people who is holy, clean, and rejoicing, to express Him corporately.

In His salvation Christ is able to save us to the uttermost – from sin, from rebellion, and from any uncleanness, to the uttermost. We just need to see what He has done, what He has accomplished, and what we have in Him, and by virtue of being one spirit with the Lord, we can enjoy all that Christ is and has done.

We do have a great need, which is to be healed, cleansed, and cured from spiritual leprosy, which comes from within us, but the Lord has prepared a wonderful salvation to cleanse us, and we just need to open by faith and receive.

We simply need to thank the Lord for His precious blood that was shed on the cross. Today we can simply confess our sins and apply His blood and we are cleansed and washed. Praise the Lord!

However, besides this cleansing, we need to do something else, which is typified by the cleansed leper shaving all his hair and bathing, which is dealing with the self and its difficulties, and dealing with the natural life and its living.

Such dealings are by the cross, so we need to open to the Lord’s operation in us through the cross, and we will be cleansed.

Dealing with the Self and the Natural Life through the Operation of the Cross for our Full Cleansing

On one hand, we as sinners who are cleansed need to experience the Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension.

On the other hand, as typified by the cleansed leper shaving all his hair, we ourselves need to bear the responsibility of dealing with the self and the natural life, cutting off all that is of our old living and natural life so that we may be fully cleansed.

In Lev. 14:8 it says that the one who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water, and he shall be clean. Then, when he returns to the camp, he has to sleep outside his tent for seven days, and shave again all the hair of his body, and then he will be fully cleansed and enter into the fellowship with the others.

This shows that for us to deal with our sin and rebellion, which come from Satan, is a serious matter with God. Because sin is serious before God, and because rebellion is not something light before Him, we should not deal with it in a loose, light, or careless way.

The Bible indicates both in type in the Old Testament and in reality in the New Testament that we need to cooperate with the Lord to deal with the self with its difficulties, and we need to deal with the natural life by the cross, so that we may be fully cleansed.

The leper to be cleansed had to shave all the hair of his body with a razor, and there were specific kinds of hair that were mentioned, each of them having a spiritual significance.

The hair on the head signifies the glory of man. Every man has his boasts in certain areas, being competent and knowledgeable in certain matters, and being able to boast of certain achievements. Some boast of their ancestry, others of their education, their virtues, their zeal for the Lord, and their love for the Lord.

Almost everyone can find an area in which to boast, to glorify himself, to make a display before man. This needs to be shaved, that is, dealt with by the cross, so that we may be cleansed.

We have nothing to boast of except Christ and His cross, and our glory is not in ourselves but in Christ. We need to be those dealing with the self and its issues of self-glorification by the cross.

The beard signifies the honor of man. People esteem themselves honorable with regard to their position, their family background, or even their spirituality. People always feel that they are a little superior to those around them in a certain respect, and they feel they are a bit above others. Oh Lord Jesus.

We need to come to the Lord, humble ourselves before Him, and deal with the self in this respect by the cross.

The eyebrows signify the beauty of man. By birth and by nature we all have some naturally good and strong points, which didn’t issue from the experience or God’s salvation but from natural birth.

We may be naturally kind, gentle, loving, caring, or polite, and this is something we live out automatically, without touching the Lord or experiencing Him.

We may think we are ok, we are so good, and we are not as bad as others, but these natural abilities and natural good and strong points need to be dealt with by the cross, so that Christ would be the content and source of our expression, and He would be the One living in us.

The hair on the whole body signifies the natural strength of man. In ourselves we are full of natural strength, natural methods, and natural opinions; we think that we can do this and that for the Lord, and we feel we are capable of doing all things. Oh Lord Jesus!

When the Lord shines on us and our natural strength and opinions and feelings, we will repent, we will apply His cross, and we will deal with the self with all its difficulties and issues.

The Apostle Paul was one who had a thorough “shaving” of all the hair on his body; in Phil. 3:1-11 we see that he had some natural good points, he had a great background, awesome upbringing, spiritual seeking, and great achievements, but he counted them all as dung that he may gain Christ.

He sought more to be found in Christ and gain Christ, knowing Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, so that everything he did was Christ doing in him, and he would even attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.

We need to allow the “razor of the cross” to “shave all our hair” spiritually, that is, we need to let the cross operate in us to deal with the self and the natural life. When all the aspects of the self are dealt with through the razor of the cross, and when we have nothing and are nothing, we shall be clean.

This is not our case yet; we are not yet there, so we need more dealing of the self and the natural life, and we need to cooperate with the Lord and His cross operating in us.

We may be healed and cleansed to a certain degree, but we still need to be under His cleansing all the time. It is good to open to the Lord again and again and ask Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You for the full and complete cleansing of sin and rebellion in our being. Shine on us, Lord, and expose our self-boasting, our superior feelings, our naturally good and strong points, and our natural strength. Lord, we agree with the light, and we allow You to operate in us through the cross to deal with the self and the natural life. Oh Lord, may all the aspects of our self be dealt with by the cross so that we may be clean. Amen, Lord, cleanse us by dealing with all the difficulties of the self and the manifestations of the natural life.

Bearing the Responsibility of Dealing with every part of our Natural Life and Daily walk to be Cleansed

We thank the Lord that He has provided a way for us to be cleansed; He Himself passed through a process to become an all-inclusive salvation to save us to the uttermost.

We also thank the Lord for having mercy on us to show us that in ourselves we are full of leprosy, so we need to cooperate with Him to deal with the self and the natural life for our cleansing.

We should utterly reject the self by doing everything through the cross and by the Spirit to dispense Christ into one another for the sake of the Body of Christ. The cross of the Lord within us enlarges us to receive Christ and it also operates to reduce our natural man and turn us into ashes.

His Spirit fills us and saturates us, His living water flows within us, and for the increase of this flow, we need to bear the responsibility of dealing with every part of our natural and our daily walk.

In Lev. 14:9 the leper was responsible to shave his entire body, wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh a second time, after waiting and watching seven days; this shows that a sinner who is to be cleansed needs to bear the responsibility for dealing with every part of his natural life and daily walk.

If we deal with our sin and our sinful self seriously, in a definite, thorough, and absolute way, we shall be clean. If we are not serious about it, the spiritual leprosy will return, and we will remain unclean.

We need to be serious with the Lord, definite before Him, and thorough and absolute in dealing with the self and the natural life. We shouldn’t try to get around it or be light or superficial, but be very thorough and absolute in our dealing.

The fact that the cleansed leper had to do this seven days signifies a complete period of time – our whole life. We can never graduate from dealing with the self and the natural life.

Rather, we all bear the responsibility before the Lord to deal with every part of our natural life by the cross, and deal with every part of our daily walk before Him until we are cleansed.

Lord Jesus, we want to be serious, definite, thorough, and absolute in our dealing with every part of our natural life and daily walk in Your light and by the cross. We come before You, Lord, to cooperate with You in dealing with the self and the natural life through the cross and by the Spirit, so that what we minister others would be Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. Keep us watching and being serious about this dealing, Lord, so that we may be fully cleansed and suitable for Your service.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, The Experience of Life, pp. 185-189 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 5, The Cleansing of Leprosy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Deep in me, Lord, mark Thou Thy holy Cross, / On motives, choices, private dear desires. / Let all that self in any form inspires / Be unto me as dross. (Hymns #417)
  # Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray, / Put my soul-life all away; / Make me any price to pay, / Full anointing to receive. (Hymns #279)
  # Oh, may Thy Cross within me / Deepen its work and burn / In me enlarge Thy measure, / And me to ashes turn. / Oh, may Thy Spirit fill me / Each day more than before, / And may Thy living water / On me and thru me pour. (Hymns #280)