What does it mean that we take Christ as our person for the new man? What does it mean in our personal daily life to take Christ as our person?
The Body of Christ is mainly a matter of life – taking Christ as our life for the Body – and the new man is mainly a matter of person – we need to take Christ as our person for the one new man. In the new man we take Christ as our person to make plans and decide how we should live (see Rom. 15:32).
This means that in our decisions and in our living, we don’t merely “ask God for His blessing on what we want to do” but we check with the Lord all the time, inquiring of Him if this is what He is doing or speaking right now.
To take Christ as our person means that we don’t decide anything in ourselves and by ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we need to ask each and every one of the saints about our decisions – it means that we take Christ (the person of the new man) as our person, and we stay in the fellowship of the Body.
In big decisions and in small decisions, we need to take Christ as our person and live not by our culture, religion, or ethics, but by Christ, our person. We need to have such a consciousness that our decisions and our living is part of the new man, and therefore we need to check with the Lord and others in fellowship all the time.
We need to take Christ as our person in an individual way and in a corporate way – Christ is our person, and the corporate Christ is also our person. When we all take Christ as our person in our decisions and in all our living, the new man comes into being in a practical way.
Taking Christ as our Person – How do we Live our Life?
As regenerated human beings, Christ as a living Person is in our spirit, seeking to spread into every part of our being and to live in us. But how do we live our life? How do we make our decisions?
As the person of the new man, Christ is in us and wants to be our person especially in the matter of our decisions and our living. When we live our life by taking Christ as our person, especially in making decisions, our living will be the living of the new man.
The Lord Jesus lived such a life, always checking with the Father, speaking what He hears from the Father, doing the Father’s will, and seeking the Father’s glory (see John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 17:4).
Paul was also such a one, taking Christ as his person in his dealing with the saints, caring for others, laboring for the Lord, forgiving the brothers, and in all his living – Christ was revealed in him, formed in him, living in him, making His home in his heart, and He was his life (see 1 Tim. 1:16; Gal. 1:15a, 16a; 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17a; Phil. 1:8; 2:5; 2 Cor. 2:10).
What about us? We were all born in our natural life, we were raised in our culture, we were educated with a certain set of ethics, and we were saved in religion. But do we live by our natural life? Do we behave in our culture? Do we act in an ethical or religious way?
Religion, ethics, culture, morality, etc – all these are a bondage holding us down until Christ as the wonderful One comes. When Christ comes, He sets us free from our culture, our ethical mind, our religion, and anything else.
We need to give Christ the preeminence, and we need to check with Him about everything. When we speak, is Christ speaking? When we are about to do something, is Christ about to do that thing?
If we want to go somewhere, do we merely seek God’s blessing or do we ask Him, Lord, are You going there? The Christian life in the one new man is not about “asking God for permission” but about taking Christ as our person in all our decisions and the daily matters of our living.
Taking Care of the New Man in our Daily Walk
All the churches on the earth are part of the one Body of Christ, being the local representations of the one universal Body of Christ. In the same way, all the local churches on the earth are part of the new man, and all the believers in Christ need to take Christ as their person for the new man to come into being practically.
If we take Christ as our person, we will not decide anything by ourselves but would rather check with the Lord and with the other saints first. Everything we do as a part of the new man affects the other members.
If the Lord would come back today, would He find the new man on the earth? Yes, there are many local churches, and there are many believers who love the Lord, but is the reality of the new man found among all the local churches?
All the local churches on the earth are the one new man, and for the new man to come into being in reality, all the saints need to take Christ as their person. In all our decisions, whether great or small, we need to take Christ as our person.
Lord Jesus, I want to go shopping – how do You feel about it? Lord, I want to purchase this particular item – would You buy it? Is this item useful to You for the one new man? Lord, I want to move to this particular locality: do You want me to move? Are You moving there? Lord, I like this person – do You want me to marry this one?
Again and again, we need to check with the Lord, take Him as our person in our decisions, and check with the saints, not deciding things or living by ourselves. We may even pray to Him,
Lord, I want to receive grace and mercy with all the saints as the one new man, taking You as the person in all of us. Save me from deciding things by myself, and save me from living outside of the fellowship of the Body. Lord, I give You my decisions, one after another – have preeminence in me! I want to take You as my person in a practical way day by day!
We shouldn’t be politicians, doing things because they need to be done, going to visit people because there’s a need, etc. Check with the Lord. Don’t do things because of outward factors tell you to – do things and go places because the Lord sends you there and He is doing things.
We need to have a consciousness of checking with the Lord and with others. How do our fellow brothers and sisters feel about this matter? How do the saints the Lord put us with feel about us doing this or that, or moving somewhere?
The living of the new man is a corporate living – our decisions are corporate decisions and not our personal decisions (see 1 Cor. 4:19). As Paul did, even when we forgive others we need to forgive them in the person of Christ, one with Him.
On the one hand, we are responsible for our own growth before the Lord, and on the other hand, together as members of Christ as the new man, we are also accountable to others – we cannot do things without checking with those that the Lord put around us.
Lord Jesus, save us from being formal Christians or defeated believers. We don’t want to live an individualistic life, a life outside of checking with You and with the Body about everything. Remind us again and again to consult You and take You as our person in everything. Lord, speak in our speaking. Do things in our doing. Go places in our going. Be expressed in our living. We want to practically take You as our person in the matter of our decisions and in all our living!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man (pp. 64, 72-73, 64-65), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 7 / msg 7, Arriving at a Full-grown Man (1) Taking Christ as Our Person and Living the Life of a God-man.
- Recommended further reading: chs. 8-11 in, Taking Christ as our Person for the Church Life (by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# We have seen Christ is reality: / But it’s not sufficient just to see: / He in our experience must be / Everything to us. / We in prayer behold Him face to face, / In the Word and meetings know His grace; / But in daily life, in every place, / What is He to us?
# Not just by the outward teachings, / But by His anointing moved; / Not just by the outward pattern, / But by inward vision proved. / Not by human rules or rituals, / But by heaven’s rule within; / Not by human-made decisions, / But by guidance giv’n of Him.
# God and man will have one living, / Always in the mingled spirit; / We two are incorporated / One organic entity! / This the vision of the ages / Will control our daily living / That the Lord may have His Body / Shining as the holy city.
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