What is the deepest thought in the New Testament concerning the life of a Christian? Before today I didn’t really know it, but I knew one thing: it is NOT doing good and rejecting evil, and it is NOT self-endeavoring to do what the Bible says.
The deepest thought in the New Testament concerning the life of a Christian is that all the work that the Lord is doing on us is to destroy our outer, natural man, so that we can live the life of Christ from within us (see John 12:24-26; Phil. 1:21).
We as believers are seeds of life, containing the divine life within us; our outer man needs to be broken so that the divine life in us can be manifested!
Death and resurrection: man dies and God lives
God does not want to obliterate and eliminate man – it’s not about that. There’s a natural part in man, the part that is without the element of God, which is our natural man, our self, and our flesh – the part in man which is mingled with Satan. This part needs to be put to death and to die, so that the divine life would live in us! If we do not die to ourselves, we will not live the divine life.
We are seeds of life (Matt. 13:38) and we need to voluntarily put our self to death so that the life of God would have an opportunity to live out from within us.
All that the Lord is doing on us is to put to death our natural man so that we can live the life of Christ from within us! If we fall into the ground but do not die, we abide alone; but if we die as a seed of life, much life will flourish and blossom in resurrection!
When man dies, God can live. When our natural man is put to death, the divine life in us can live. This is the deepest thought in the New Testament concerning the life of a Christian.
It’s not about refining our humanity or choosing to do good things; it is not doing “good works” through our own efforts and rejecting to do evil things. Rather, through death and resurection, our natural man and our self are being put to death and God lives in us.
Remaining in the death of Christ and being conformed to His death so that Christ can life in us is a very profound principle of the Christian life (see Rom. 6:4-5; Phil. 3:10).
The result of the killing of the cross
The result of our receiving of the killing of the cross is not that we cease to exist and God fully replaces us – it’s not a matter of an exchanged life where we give up our low and inferior life so that God would give us His superior divine life. The result of the killing of the cross is that we experience the resurrection life of Christ and this life is also ministered into others.
The cross operates to break our outer man, to terminate our self, and to put our natural man to death, and the issue is that the life within us – the resurrection life of Christ – is being dispensed into others for the building up of the Body of Christ! When the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it bears much fruit in resurrection (John 12:24).
We need to stop trying to improve ourselves and cease all our struggle to be good Christians – we just need to abide in the Lord as the vine (John 15:1). As we love the Lord and enjoy Him, we abide in Him, and His continual operation is to put to death all the fleshly things in us. We just cooperate with Him by denying ourself and allowing Him to put to death our natural man.
The more we die with the Lord in such a way, the more His resurrection life will flow out and be dispensed! The Lord will use His own way, His sovereign circumstances, and “His people” to help us apply the cross to our being – with the result that life would be manifested and life would flow!
Being useful to God in resurrection
After being dealt with by the cross, our strength, ability, and capacity become useful to the Lord because they are in resurrection! God needs the ability and the capacity He put in us in creation – He doesn’t dissintegrate, discharge, destroy, or obliterate our capacities and abilities. God desires that our ability and our capacity would pass through death and enter into resurrection to be useful to Him.
The “dealt with” capacity to speak for God is useful to Him. Our natural eloquence is not appreciated by God, but our dealt-with eloquence is useful to Him for the building. After passing through death and into resurrection, the element of God is added to us and we become useful to Him.
For the ministry of life, our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross so that they may become useful in resurrection (see Phil. 3:3). In order for us to minister life to others we need not only to enjoy the Lord as the living water but also cooperate with the killing of the cross so that life would flow out of us.
The more we experience the killing work of the cross, the more life will be dispensed, and the more we are useful to the Lord. Our experience of the cross and the putting to death of our natural man is for the building up of the Body – these experiences release the divine life for the building up of the universal organic Body of Christ!
Lord, cause us to have a turn from doing, improving, and struggling, to allowing You to operate in us! Have a way to bring our natural capacity and ability through death into resurrection that they may be useful to You. Lord, we love You! We want to serve You and be useful in Your hands. We give ourselves to You, Lord, that You may operate in us and bring our whole being through death into resurrection for the ministering of life!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, Words of Life from the 1988 Full-time Training (give by brother Lee, chs. 5-6), and, Basic Lessons on Service (pp. 155-156), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray, / Put my soul-life all away; / Make me any price to pay, / Full anointing to receive.
# Crucified with Christ my Savior, / To the world and self and sin;
# Deeper, deeper, in the cross of Jesus; / Deeper let me go; / Death and life, they always go together; / Deepen, Lord, the flow. - Picture source: the grain of wheat in resurrection.
The Lord Jesus shows us that to truly live we must truly die and be reborn by His Spirit to His Life. Amen, Lord Jesus, kil me so You may Live!!
mike
AMEN…..