The self denotes the soul-life in its opinions, likes, dislikes, and choices. Opinions are a matter of our mind; likes and dislikes, or preferences, are a matter of our emotion; and choices are a matter of our will. When the Lord told His disciples that He would be crucified, Peter rebuked Him, saying, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (Matt. 16:22). Peter’s self was expressed in his opinion. We need to see that the Lord’s recovery has no place for our opinions, preferences, or choices. If we mean business with the Lord and have received some vision, we must condemn the self.
Immediately after Peter expressed his opinion to the Lord, the Lord said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (v. 24). Contrary to the understanding of most Christians, taking up the cross does not primarily mean suffering; instead, it means killing. Crucifixion was a historical method of carrying out a death sentence. To crucify a person is not mainly to cause him to suffer but to terminate him. If we know what the Lord’s recovery is, and we see that in the recovery there is no place for the self—our natural being in our opinions, preferences, and choices—we will take up the cross.
To take up the cross means to remain on the cross. We were crucified with Christ, and we need to remain on the cross. Apparently, the Lord was crucified after the three and a half years of His ministry. Actually, He was crucified from the very beginning of His ministry, when His baptism, which signifies death and burial, took place. Throughout the three and a half years of the Lord’s ministry, He bore the cross, living a crucified life. He continually denied the self during His human life on earth for the accomplishment of the Father’s will. The Lord bore the cross from His baptism to His crucifixion.
In order to follow the Lord, we must follow His pattern by taking up the cross and denying the self. We need to remain under the killing of the cross by denying our opinions, preferences, and choices. In John 21:18-19 the Lord told Peter, “When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go...Follow Me.” Here the Lord indicated that Peter’s preferences would be terminated, and He prophesied that Peter would be martyred. History tells us that this indeed occurred.
We need to see that in the Lord’s recovery we must crucify, reject, and deny the self with its opinions, preferences, and choices. This is a crucial matter. It does not work merely to advise or exhort the saints not to have opinions or to be opinionated. We need a basic dealing with our opinion, which requires a vision that causes us to see that our old man and our old “I” have been crucified already (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20). Based upon that accomplished termination, we deny our self.
In the Lord’s recovery there is no place for the self with its natural opinions, preferences, and choices. If these things come in, they will annul the nature of the Lord’s recovery. Christianity has lost the genuine church life through centuries of promoting the self with its opinions, preferences, and choices. In order to remain in the Lord’s recovery, we need the light and the vision to see what the self is and that in the recovery it has no place.
The Lord said, “Whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25). To lose our soul-life is to not live in our old, natural being. In our old being we may be quick or slow, proud or humble, selfish or generous. No matter what kind of person we are in our old being, we should not live that person. This is difficult because we naturally live our old person. If we have the vision, we will see that we still mostly live our old person, our old being. Because we are regenerated and are being transformed, our natural man will be terminated not by our own doing but by our living another person, Christ.
The natural concept concerning the Christian life is often a matter of ethics and morality. According to our natural concept, we may think that if a man has a bad temper, when he is saved, he should improve his behavior and no longer lose his temper. However, according to this concept, if a man is naturally timid, he does not need to change his behavior, because he already has a pleasant natural man. We need to see that transformation is altogether not a matter of ethics or morality. Whether or not we are naturally ethical or moral, we need to be transformed. Whether we are naturally slow or quick, bold or timid, pleasant or short-tempered, we need to be transformed and live Christ. The Lord’s recovery is a matter of taking up the cross, denying the self, losing the soul-life, and living Christ.
Question: How can we tell real transformation from natural ability in those who are serving in the church?
Answer: With genuine transformation there will be the mark of the cross. When a capable and ethical man is saved and comes into the church life, the leading brothers should recognize that his ability is natural if they see no mark of the cross. If a man who is naturally capable but not ethical is saved and comes into the church, he may become ethical but remain natural. If this is the case, there will still be no mark of the cross. In recent turmoils many forgot about the mark of the cross and were deceived by natural ability. If we know the Lord’s recovery, we will know that our old being should be on the cross. Our ability to discern the mark of the cross and natural ability in others also depends on how much of the cross we have experienced ourselves.