In this chapter we will consider the charter of the church. Although there is not such a word as charter in the New Testament, there may not be another word to express this aspect of the church. Charter refers to the rules, regulations, and bylaws of the church. Today every Christian organization of a certain size has its rules, regulations, and bylaws, but we must come back to the Scriptures to see the charter ordained by God. If we read the New Testament carefully, repeatedly, and purposefully, we will see that it is hard to find rules, regulations, and bylaws for the church. Strictly speaking, there are no such items in the New Testament. From the account of the formation of the church on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 to the end of the New Testament, there are not any rules, regulations, and bylaws for the church. In the first few chapters of Acts, we cannot find such matters in the church in Jerusalem. Peter, John, and the other early apostles did not lay down any rules in order to form the church.
We must speak of the charter of the church because many saints have the thought that if we are going to practice the church life, we must have certain rules, regulations, and bylaws. Some have said that we do not have written bylaws, but we have understood ones. However, not only should we have no written rules, but we should also have no understood rules. In fact, we should have no kind of outward rules, regulations, and bylaws for the church. Rather, we should have a spiritual charter of the church, the spiritual rules and regulations for the church.
The first spiritual regulation of the church is the cross. The church comes into being by Christ, but the cross of Christ is the very means through which and by which Christ brings the church into being. The New Testament speaks mainly of Christ, the cross, the church, and the kingdom. Christ accomplished His work on the cross, Christ brought the church into being through the cross, and the church brings in the kingdom. Without Christ there is no cross, without the cross the church cannot be brought into being, and without the church there is no possibility for the kingdom to come. Therefore, Christ is first, the cross is second, the church is third, and the kingdom is fourth. Without Christ there is no source of the church, and without the cross there is no means for the church to be brought into being. Therefore, the cross is the rule and regulation of the church.
Now we must consider how Christ brought the church into being through the cross. Christ brought all negative things, including sin, sins, the soul, the flesh, the self, Satan, the evil world, and death, to the cross. The cross has dealt with and put away all these negative things. Sin, sins, the self, the flesh, world, and Satan cannot pass through the cross. Therefore, the church does not come before the cross; it comes after the cross. The cross is a test and a checkpoint, and after crossing the checkpoint we come to the church.
When foreigners come into this country, they must first pass a checkpoint so that everything they have can be examined. Before I entered this country for the third time, some friends in the Philippines gave me some mangos to enjoy and share with others in this country. However, the checkpoint at the airport did not allow me to bring in these wonderful items. They told me that I could not pass through with them. We have to follow the regulations at the checkpoint, or we will not be allowed to enter the country. Similarly, outside the door of the church there is a checkpoint, which is the cross. When we come to the church, we have to put our “mangos” on the cross and leave them there. This means that we must put our sins, our self, our flesh, the worldly things, Satan, and all things of death on the cross. The cross must check us, and we must pass through this checkpoint in order to come to the church.
Have you been checked at the cross? Before coming to the church, have you been regulated by the cross? I can never forget a message given by Brother Watchman Nee in which he said that at the entrance of the church there is the cross. When we come to the church, we must pass through the cross. If we come into the church without being checked at the cross, we will be a danger to the church. This means that we have not been regulated, that there is no rule with us, and we are coming to the church in a wild and natural way, a way that is not ruled and regulated. The rule and regulation is the cross. The cross must check, regulate, and rule us.
We do not have an outward charter, but we do have a spiritual charter, the first item of which is the cross. To pass the cross is the first regulation, the first item of the spiritual charter of the church. When a brother comes to the elders’ meeting to suggest something or to raise a point, he must first pass through the first item of the spiritual charter of the church, that is, the cross. He must pass the cross and be checked by the cross. He must check, “Is my flesh, my self, my personal desire, my will, my mind, my idea, and my thought on the cross?” If one is not checked by the cross and comes to the elders’ meeting in a natural way, he will be a damage to the elders’ meeting and to the entire church.
From my past experience I can testify that nearly every time the responsible brothers of the church have come together, we first have knelt down to pray, “Lord, before we discuss anything about the church, check us with the cross.” Then when a brother brings something to the meeting, the cross checks him and he asks, “Is this something worldly? Can it pass the cross?” If he checks in this way, he will immediately be clear. He may say, “Lord, this is something worldly. Forgive me. I must put it on the cross.” I can never forget how in a certain elders’ meeting a problem was raised, and a brother began to quarrel. After speaking two sentences, he said, “Brothers, I will stop here. Please forgive me because I spoke in my self and in the flesh.” This is the regulation of the cross. If we want to practice the real church life, we must pass through the cross and be checked by the cross. The cross is the very means by which the Lord has dealt with all negative things. We cannot pass through the cross with anything negative.
From my past experiences I can tell you that it is not simple to practice the church life with the saints. In the church life there is every kind of person. We cannot say why there are so many peculiar people among us Christians. What can we do? A number of times I was forced to tell someone, “In what you are speaking, have you passed through the cross?” This is the best way to stop people from speaking in a fleshly way. If we ask the brothers in this way, they will realize in their conscience that they have not passed through the cross.
However, we must be careful when we ask people this. In order to check with people in this way, we must first check whether we ourselves have passed through the cross. In my hometown in North China around 1937, the responsible brothers were still young. Once in the meeting of the responsible brothers a brother spoke something from his flesh. I asked him, “Do you think that you are in the spirit and that you have passed through the cross to say this?” He replied, “Brother Lee, do you think that you are in the spirit and have passed through the cross to check with me?” After this, I did not say anything, and my tears nearly dropped. The next morning, that brother came to me with tears, saying that he had been unable to sleep for the entire night. He said that he had been in the flesh, and he asked me to forgive him. In the next meeting of the responsible brothers, he was the first one to speak. He asked all the brothers to forgive him for what he had done, and we consoled him. To be sure, by this we can see what the regulation in the church is. The first item of regulation is the cross.
Home | First | Prev | Next