We Serpentine People are in the Process of Transformation into the Bride of Christ

The Bible shows us that the serpentine people (that’s us!) are becoming the universal increase of the unlimited Christ by the immeasurable Spirit with the eternal life. Hallelujah!

The Bible begins and ends with a couple: in the beginning we see Adam and Eve, and at the end we see the Spirit and the bride.

However, right after we see Adam and Eve, we also see the serpent, who comes in to deceive the bride (Eve) and inject his sinful nature, his poison, into her; from this time onward, the bride has been poisoned, and all men – who are to be part of the bride of Christ – are serpentine people.

The serpent has visited the bride and has succeeded in capturing her. However, praise the Lord, God is so much greater, higher, and wiser than the serpent – He Himself became a man to be the reality of the bronze serpent.

Particularly in John 3 we see that the Lord Jesus came to be lifted up just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and when He is lifted up, He will draw all men to Himself.

Yes, Christ did come as the Bridegroom, but in order for Him to get His bride, He had to be made sin for us and destroy sin on the cross; now whoever believes into Him shall not perish (as a result of being sinful) but will have eternal life. Hallelujah!

What a wonderful manifestation of the Father’s love! God loved the world so much that He came in His only Begotten Son, being made in the likeness of the flesh of sin, so that He may be lifted up as the bronze serpent on the cross and draw all men to Himself.

Whoever looks away from everything else unto Jesus and believes into Him is saved and becomes part of the bride of Christ! Amen!

When we believe into the Lord and repent of our sins and sinful nature, the divine life comes into us; then, in our daily living, whenever the Lord shines on us that we still live by our sinful nature and we turn to Him and live by the divine life in our spirit, we are in the process of being made the bride of Christ.

Christ will return for His bride; He is still working to perfect and build His bride, and when He returns, the bride will be prepared.

At the end of the Bible we see how Christ with His overcomers will deal with the serpent and his followers, and how the Spirit and the Bride become a universal couple. Hallelujah!

Being Life-giving Spirit Drinkers and not Contending Serpents in the Church Life Today

As believers in Christ, we have repented of our sins and of our sinful nature, and we have looked away unto Jesus, the reality of the bronze serpent; therefore, we are saved, we received the divine life, and we are part of the bride.

When Adam was bitten by the serpent, he became serpentine in nature, and we all as his followers and descendants are serpentine people.

But hallelujah, Christ came to be our replacement, and He died on the cross as our Substitute; we have believed into Him, and we now have eternal life. Praise the Lord!

The question is, however, in our daily life, do we live as part of the bride of Christ, or do we still live as serpents, according to our serpentine nature?

The answer to such a question depends on whether we live according to the flesh (where the sinful nature of Satan is) or we live in the spirit (where the life-giving Spirit is).

Are we still in John 3, where we see that we are serpentine people, or are we in John 7, where we are told that we can come to the Lord and drink of Him (vv. 37-39)?

If we today drink the Spirit as the living water (John 4:14), we are part of the bride, but if we live according to our natural man or the flesh, we are contending serpents. So in the church life we can be either life-giving Spirit drinkers or contending serpents.

Many problems happen in the church life simply because we do not drink the living water. Many problems in our family life and at work take place because we live as contending serpents and not as life-giving Spirit drinkers.

Many times we are dry in our Christian life, and we go on living according to the principle of good and evil, right and wrong; we live a moral life, an ethical life, and a good life, but we do not drink the life-giving Spirit. Oh Lord Jesus!

Apart from drinking the life-giving Spirit and living in the spirit, we are contending serpents.

But when we exercise our spirit, even when problems come or when we’re about to start an argument, and we drink the life-giving Spirit, when we come to the Lord as we are and drink of the Spirit that flows out from Him, we become part of the bride!

May we daily choose to turn to our spirit and drink the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit!

May we refuse to remain dry and may we be on the alert not to live according to our serpentine nature to be serpentine people; may we turn, turn, turn to our spirit, and may we drink, drink, drink of the life-giving Spirit as the living water!

Lord Jesus, save us from being contending serpents in the church life! May we choose to come to You and drink the life-giving Spirit to be inwardly supplied and be the bride of Christ. Amen, Lord, we turn to our spirit and come to You to drink of the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit! It is only the life-giving Spirit that can produce us to be the bride of Christ, so we come to drink and be filled in spirit! Amen Lord Jesus, we drink the living water flowing from You, and we refuse to be contending serpents!

We Serpentine People are in the Process of Transformation into the Bride of Christ

John 3 begins by telling us that we are serpentine people who need a Substitute to die for us and, by believing into Him, we have eternal life; this chapter ends with the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ.

How can we, serpentine people, become the bride of Christ?

If we look at our daily living we may be like Nicodemus, living in a good, moral, ethical, and religious way, fearing God and not doing evil; we may even want to hear some good teachings to become better.

We have to admit that, even though we are believers in Christ with the divine life in them, we still do not live by the Spirit but by ethics, religion, morality, and good.

It is by default that we live according to our serpentine being; before our regeneration we may have done evil and committed sins, but now after our regeneration we try to do the good thing, the right thing, and reject the evil and wrong thing.

This is to live according to the tree of knowledge of good and evil; with this tree there’s not just evil and death but also good, while the tree of life has nothing but life. Morality is not life; morality is good, but it is not life unless it is Christ living in us.

Paul testified in Gal. 2:20, I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

The Christian life is a life of being terminated from the old source, from living according to our natural man and thus being serpentine people, and living by the divine life in our spirit.

As believers in Christ we have two lives in us – the divine life and the human life; also, we have two natures – the divine nature and the human nature, and two persons – the old man and the new man, the regenerated man.

Who lives in us daily in our day-to-day living – is it us, the old man, or is it us living by the new man, by the divine life in our spirit?

If we are honest with the Lord we may tell Him,

Lord, forgive me for not living You adequately today. I am still so short of what You require as I live the family life and the church life. Forgive me, Lord, for still living in myself and not living by the divine life in my spirit.

According to our natural birth, all of us automatically and spontaneously live by our serpentine being; this is to live according to the principle of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

However, our natural life and living are not part of the increase of Christ, the bride of Christ; it is only the regenerated part of our being, our regenerated spirit, that is Christ’s increase – we need to decrease, and Christ needs to increase.

In a real and practical way, Christ should be our life and our person; we need to live Him and be one spirit with Him (Gal. 2:20; 4:19; John 15:5).

We need to abide in the Lord and let Him abide in us so that we may have one life and one living with Him. In this way we as serpentine people are becoming the bride of Christ.

We need to learn the secret of being in Christ by abiding in Him and letting Him abide in us; when we love Him and keep His word, the Father and the Son come to us, abide with us, make their home with us, and manifest themselves to us.

When we have this kind of living, then in reality we are serpentine people in the process of transformation into the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ.

And the ultimate consummation of this bride will be the New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God and the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:3, 9-10). Amen!

May the Lord have mercy on us that we may learn to live by our regenerated being (Rom. 8:4; Phil. 4:11-13).

May we bring this matter to the Lord in a serious way and ask Him to show us whether we live in the old man or by the Spirit in our spirit. In His light we will see whether we live Christ or we live by our old nature, whether we practice being one spirit with the Lord or we still live by our serpentine nature.

May the Lord have mercy on us that we all may learn to live by our regenerated being so that we may go on in the process of becoming the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us that we may live by our regenerated being to be the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ. Save us from living by our natural man, our old man, or the flesh and the self. Oh Lord, show us by what person we are living – do we live by our old person or by our new person? Lord, are we living by the old nature or by our new nature, the regenerated spirit? Oh Lord, are we practicing being one spirit with You? Keep us in the process of being transformed to become the bride of Christ. Keep us turning to You and living one spirit with You in our daily life!

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Noi, oamenii șerpești, suntem în procesul de transformare întru Mireasa lui Cristos.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1982, vol. 2, ”The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” chs. 7, 10-11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 6, Christ as Typified by the Bronze Serpent.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # My old man has been crucified with Him, / With all its foul corruption deep within; / And buried too its nature serpentine, / Completely finished—this great fact is mine, / I hold it fast…. / So, Lord, I give my heart to Thee today, / That it may be Thy home in every way, / A place for Thee to come and settle down, / And all Thy grand recovery work to crown / In one new man. (Hymns #1179)
  # Lord, teach me how to exercise / My spirit now to contact Thee, / That in Thy Spirit I may walk / And live by Thy reality. (Hymns #493)
  # The Spirit is but Christ Himself, / He is the Lord applied / To generate the men of earth, / Transform them as His Bride. / The living Word is Jesus too, / God-breathed as life to us, / That we be wholly sanctified, / A Bride all-glorious. (Hymns #1228)