The Principle of Incarnation

In 1 Corinthians 7:10 it says, “But to the married I charge, not I but the Lord, A wife must not be separated from her husband.” In 7:12 it says “But to the rest I say, I, not the Lord, If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she consents to dwell with him, he must not leave his wife.” In 7:25 it says, Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who has been shown mercy by the Lord to be faithful.” In 7:40 it says, “But she is more blessed if she so remains, according to my opinion, but I think that I also have the Spirit of God.“

1 Corinthians 7 illustrates the principle of incarnation. In this chapter we see Paul expressing his opinion as one who had been shown mercy to be faithful, having the Spirit of God and having this opinion included in the divine record of the Holy Scriptures. In Paul we see Christ living again and at the same time we see Paul living but that living being the expression of Christ. This is a picture of what is spoken of in John 14-17. In this portion of the word we see many ins.

John 14:20 says “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

John 15:4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”

John 17:21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”

John 14 tells us not to be troubles because the Lord is going to prepare a place for us in the Father. John 15 tells us that we are branches in the vine. To abide in the vine that the vine my abide in us. John 17 tells us that we are in Christ like He is in the Father and He is in us like the Fathers is in Him what a marvelous mystery and wonderful fact.

 

The Keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens

Matthew 16:18-19
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in the heavens.

We want to see in this post the way to build the church through the exercise of the keys of the kingdom of the heavens. The gates of Hades are against the church. The building of the church has been underway for a long time however there is something frustrating this building. In verse 18 we are told that the gates of hades are against the building of the church. Peter was giving the keys of the kingdom of the heavens to bind and to loose. These keys were used on the day of Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius. However Witness Lee helps us to see that today we need to use these keys in a subjective way.  The building up of the church has been frustrated for to long because of the open attack  through the gates of Hades against the church. Through the proper exercise of the subjective keys of the kingdom of the heavens the church can be built up for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

Matthew 16:23-28
But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men. Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul-life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul-life? For the Son of Man is to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will repay each man according to his doings. Truly I say to you, There are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

“The Gates of Hades refer to Satan’s authority or power of darkness.” (RcV Matthew 16:18 fn. 6) These gates are not only outside of us but also within us as three subjective gates. These subjective gates are our mind, self and soul. These gates are clearly seen in Matthew 16:23, 24, 25. When we fail to shut these gates we let Satan attack the church. Three keys are also revealed to us in Matthew 16:24 and 25. We need to exercise these keys to shut the gates of Hades in our being.  We exercise these keys when we deny our self, bear the cross and lose the soul.

 

Crucial Factors

There are three crucial factors to our experience and growth in life. The first crucial factor is Christ Himself. Christ is life! John 11:25 says “Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live.” He came that we might have life and experience it abundantly (John 10:10b). John 4:14 says, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” Today Jesus Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). According the 2 Corinthians 3:6 the Spirit gives life. This is a matter of the Spirit with our spirit as the essence of the New Testament. The second crucial factor is Christ’s resurrection. In the evening of the Lord’s resurrection He appeared to His disciples and says in John 20:22 receive the Holy Spirit. This was His imparting the Holy Spirit as life into the disciples. In 1 Peter 1:3 we are told we were regenerated through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! Also according to Philippians we need to know the power of Christ resurrection. This is essential in order to be conformed to the death of Christ. Which leads to our third crucial factor the wonderful death of Christ. What a releasing death. John 12:24 says, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Without these three crucial factors we can not experience and grow in life.

Transfer and Transformation

In Romans 5:10 we see that we have been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ the Son of God and we are being saved in His life. God’s salvation is a matter of life. In Romans 6-8 we see our crucification with Christ to walk in newness of life and our practical experience of this salvation in life through our walking according to the Spirit in our spirit. Through this, life is dispensed into our tripartite being that we would be saved to the uttermost.

In 2 Corinthians we see that for our experience and growth in life we need the transfer from the Old Testament ministry to the New Testament ministry for our transformation which issues in our growth in life. As those who experience this transfer from the old to the new we are captives of Christ freed to be under the transfusing of Christ, incense-bearers scattering the fragrant aroma of Christ, living letters of Christ expressing Christ as our reality, mirrors reflecting the glory of God by beholding the face of Jesus, and vessels to contain Christ, the priceless treasure in our earthen vessel.

 

Experiencing Christ in Philippians

In this post we want to see from the book of Philippians our need to experience Christ for the growth in life. In chapter 1 Christ is our life and living. In chapter 2 Christ is our pattern and expression. In chapter 3 Christ is our goal and seeking. In chapter 4 Christ is our power and secret. Paul aspired to magnify Christ in his situations. For this he needed the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Paul was also very concerned for the Philippians believers experience and enjoyment of Christ. We see from Philippians 1:5 that our experience of Christ is the factor for the fellowship of the gospel. This experience and enjoyment of Christ also issues in the fellowship of the gospel. For the Philippians believers to have fellowship with Paul in the gospel was a safe guard to their experience and enjoyment of Christ and an issue.

In order to safe guard our experience and enjoyment of Christ we see from chapter 2 our need to work out our own salvation through God’s inner operation. We need to be saved from our murmurings and reasoning through the bountiful supply of the Spirit and God’s inward operation so that others may find us in Christ all the time. For this we need to know Christ. We not only receive the revelation of the full knowledge of Christ Jesus but also desire to know Him. To know Him in Philippians 3:10 is to experience Christ. Through our experience of Christ we know him not only by seeing Him through revelation but through experiencing and enjoying what we are seen. This requires us to count as loss the former things and count as loss everything, that we would be found in Christ having the righteousness that is out of God. We also need to know Him and the power of His resurrection being conformed to His death. That we could think the one thing in chapter 4 having all the wonderful human virtues as the expression of Christ by His empowering us. This requires our know Christ and taking Christ as our secret of sufficiency. That we would have Christ as our forbearance which would be unto virtue and praise for a life full of rejoicing and giving thanks.

The Revelation of Life

In this post we want to see the revelation of life in Romans 8. However before we get to Romans 8 we need to see in Romans 7 that we are held captive by the law of sin and death. In Romans 7:24 the apostle Paul cries “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death.” In Romans 8 we see a great change. This great change is a result of God’s wonderful salvation. Paul was no longer in himself but was in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation and in Christ the law of the Spirit of life is freeing us from the law of sin and death. In Romans 8 life is the Triune God.

The Triune God today is the Spirit. The Spirit is the consummated God. This consummated God is life to man. This life is a law, the law of the Spirit of life. Life, law and Spirit are synonymous terms. The revelation of life shown to us in this chapter is the Divine Trinity dispensed into the tripartite man. When the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit came into our spirit our spirit became life. Next this processed Triune God mingled with our spirit desires to spread. As we set our mind on our spirit the Spirit as the law of life begins to saturate our mind and becomes life to our mind. Finally as the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us this Spirit gives life to our mortal body.

In order for us to apply this wonderful salvation of God we need to see the connection between Romans 8 and Hebrews 4. It is only by our putting to death the practices of the body by the Spirit that we stay in the salvation which is enlivens our spirit, soul and body. However for this we need to discern our spirit from our soul through the living and operative word of God. Because it is in our spirit where we touched the enthroned Christ as grace for our full salvation.

What is Growth?

In this post we want to see that the life of God received by us through regeneration wants to grow and that the grow of this life is the increase of God in us. This grow and increase is seen in the picture of the grafting (Romans 11:17, 24). In Romans 6:5 it says “For we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

Grafting produces an organic union. It is not the exchanging of a poor life for a better life. Rather, it is the uniting of two lives as one so that they may share one mingled life and one living. Such a mingling of life takes place when two similar yet different lives pass through death (cutting) and resurrection (growth). This depicts our union with Christ.                                                                                                     Witness Lee, Holy Bible Recovery Version, Romans 11:17 note 1

Colossians 2:19 speaks of growing with the growth of God. Through our being grafted into Christ as the root of fatness we can receive the life supply to grow. This grow is for our living Christ. In John 6:57 he who eats Christ lives because of Him. Christ becomes the factor for our living. We live in His living. The key to our living Christ is our loving Him. It is through our loving Him that we set our being on Him. So we can follow Paul to say for to me to live is simply Christ (Philippians 1:21).

What is Life?

We will see in this post what life is. The life that is the really life (1 Timothy 6:19) is simple the Triune God Himself. In Ephesians 4 :18 the Bible speaks of the life of God. In this verse the word “life” is in apposition to the word “God.” God is life and life is God. Not only is God life but He is also for life. This life of God is eternal, divine and unlimited, making it the only really life. This really life, life of God, was embodied in the Son of God. The Son said that He was the life (John 11:25) and that He came to give life and give it abundantly (John 10:10). Christ today is now the life-giving Spirit in order that this life can be given to all those who believe into Christ. Lastly this Spirit and life are found in the word of God. In John 6:63 the Lord said that the words which He spoke were Spirit and life. When we touch the word of God with our spirit we receive life and when we speak the word of God into other they can receive life, the life of God in Christ as the Spirit. This requires us to come to the word in the way of food. In Matthew 4:4 we are told that man should not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God.

 

God’s Intention

God intended that man, a living soul, would choose Him as life and take Him as life by his spirit through the Holy Spirit, that God would be in man’s spirit as the highest authority. However in man’s fall the soul acted independently from God to took in Satan, who embodied himself in the tree of knowledge. Thus man gave up his spirit and came under the control of the sin (Gen. 4:7-8).

In Genesis 1, God had two intentions in His creation of man. One was to express Himself, and the other was to deal with His enemy. God created man in His own image for the purpose that man may express God. In this creation, God committed His authority to man to deal with the enemy….These are the two intentions in God’s creation of man, one one the positive side and the other on the negative side. Both the positive and the negative side of God’s intention are a matter of a corporate Body. To express God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, strictly speaking, is not a matter of individuals but a matter of a corporate Body.                                                            Witness Lee CWWL 1963 Vol. 3 pg. 266

Our God is seeking something today that will fulfill the desire and intention of His heart. He is seeking a Body. This Body will be His expression! Every person is expressed through their whole body not simple their individual members. In the same way God is seeking to have the Body of Christ not just many separate member of Christ. We as believers have all been regenerated with the life of Christ, which is the life of the Body. We need to realize this Body life.

There are four practical steps brother Witness Lee gives us to realizing the Body life. We need to give up our self. Through the application of the cross we are saved from become a  damage to the Body. We need to give up the self by giving up our self-seeking, self-centeredness, self-opinions, self-intentions, and self-exaltation. Next we need to give up our independence. We need to be practically related with others members of the Body. Third we need to keep the harmony. Finally we need to remember that all things are secondary to Christ and His Body.

 

The Experience of Life

What I have seen concerning the various dealings in the experience of life is that without these deals we are frustrated in our experience of Christ as life. If we are going to go on with the Lord in an absolute way we need to have the adequate experience of life. However in order to experience life we need to deal with many things in our being. The basic experiences of life become a passage way into the depths of God, who is life. God is defined and understood through the experience of life. Life is understood as part of a relationship. When we approach the experience of life as a part of a relationship with God we are plunged into the experience of the riches of God Himself. This Triune God is experienced in our spirit. When we experience God in our spirit we are having the really experience of life. In this experience we are mingled with God and our being is brought into God.

By the mercy and grace of the Lord we have seen something of life, and we have seen that in order to experience life we need certain real dealings, including dealing with the flesh, the self, the conscience, the world, and the spirit. All these are for the practical experience of life. If we take care of all these dealings, we will attain to a point where we realize the divine life in the church life, We will realize the Body of Christ not merely in doctrine but in practical way in our Christian practice and Christian life; that is, we will realize the real practice of the Body of Christ.     Witness Lee CWWL 1963 Vol. 3 pg. 263

We need to develop our capacity to experience Christ as life in order to practice the Body of Christ. Through the dealings we are opened up to fully develop this capacity. It is through these dealings that we give the proper opportunity, the proper spiritual environment, to the law of the divine life in us. It is according to this law of life that we experience life. The experience of Christ is not in the natural life with the law of good, but in the divine life with the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). So we much deny the soul-life, crucify the I with its independent capacity and be strengthened into the inner man, to experience life for the Body of Christ.