Many people move around in the course of their lifetime, but the Lord Jesus lived thirty-three and a half years altogether in the small area of Palestine. This is very meaningful. To live in a place under a certain kind of environment makes you a particular person. After living on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, God became very particular. He lived with a lot of odd people. These odd people were around Him all the time. He talked to these odd people and dealt with them. Peter and the other disciples were odd. Are we not odd also? I believe that all these odd people helped to "remodel" Him. We cannot deny that after living on earth for thirty-three and a half years, He spontaneously added another element to Himself, the element of human living. For God to live on earth among the odd people for thirty-three and a half years is a great thing.

After passing through human living, He entered into death. Death was a short part of the long tunnel of His process, but He accomplished much in this short part. He solved our problem of sin (Heb. 9:26) and sins (v. 28). He terminated our old man (Rom. 6:6), our flesh (Gal. 5:24), the entire old creation (Col. 1:20), Satan (Heb. 2:14), the world (John 12:31), and the ordinances (Eph. 2:15). There are many ordinances in the human race. The Japanese, the Chinese, and the Americans all have their particular ordinances, or customs. These ordinances are forms or ways of living and worship. These customs also include the accent of the language. Even today many dear brothers who are from Texas cannot avoid speaking in a Texan southern accent. The first time I heard "y'all" was when I made my first visit to Texas. Moreover, in the United States, people in the South refer to those in the North as Yankees. This is an example of the ordinances among people. Of course, today by the Lord's grace and also by the Lord's sovereignty, we all are here in the United States. The United States is famous as a "melting pot." But many people have been here for years, and the United States has not been successful in "melting" them.

Thank the Lord that among us in the recovery the feeling of discrimination does not exist that much. But I dare not to say that this is entirely gone from among us. It is a shame for there to be any distinction of culture or race among us. Paul told us in Colossians 3:10-11 that there is no room for any natural person in the new man, but Christ is all and in all. There are no Japanese, Americans, Greeks, Jews, Chinese, etc., in the new man. Paul's word in Colossians 3 means that there is no room for any natural person to exist in the new man. But we may still keep some rooms in our thinking for Yankees, for Texans, for Japanese, or for Chinese.

Even today among us we may categorize the brothers. In our mind there are many rooms for natural persons. We may think one brother is a Texan, another brother is a Yankee, another brother is from the Midwest, and another brother is from the Northwest. Other brothers to us are Californians, and in California there are the northern Californians, from the Bay Area, and the southern Californians. This attitude and feeling to categorize the brothers is wrong. According to Ephesians 2:15, Christ has abolished all the ordinances through His death.