We have to realize that our circumstances and our environment are altogether not up to us. They are like the weather. Whether it is raining or whether the sky is clear is up to God, the Creator. He arranges all things, both big and small. This is why Paul said that all things work together for our good so that we can be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:28-29). Everything works for our good under God's arrangement through the killing of Christ's death. All day long we are under this killing. On the one hand, we are enjoying Christ, and on the other hand, we are under the killing of Christ's death. This is the Christian life.

Thus, our outer man is being consumed, but our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). As our outer man is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inner man, that is, our regenerated spirit with the inward parts of our being, is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of the resurrection life. This is what it means to live and walk under the killing of Jesus, the crucifixion of Christ. The real Christian life is a life under the killing of Christ's death.

We may feel that no one would want to believe in the Lord Jesus if they realized that the Christian life is a life under such a killing. But our believing in the Lord Jesus is not up to us. If it had been up to us, none of us would have believed. The Lord is sovereign, and He managed everything in our life to bring us to believe in Him.

David said to the Lord, "My times are in Your hand" (Psa. 31:15a). My times means my things. Our birth, our believing in the Lord Jesus, and all the things through which we pass are not up to us. All of our things are in His hand. Actually, they are within Christ. This does not mean that we are so willing, but it does mean that He is sovereign. He arranges all things.

I was saved by the Lord after hearing a message in a large gospel meeting. While I was walking home from that meeting, I offered myself to God. I told Him that I would give up the whole world for Him and that I would be willing to travel throughout the villages to preach the gospel. Eventually, the Lord did not allow me to travel to the villages. Instead, I was brought to the big cities all the time.

Later, I had the intention of evangelizing the people of Inner Mongolia. Eventually, however, I did not end up in Inner Mongolia but in California. I surely realize that my times, my things, are not up to me. I never thought that I would be in the United States for the Lord's recovery. If our times were up to us, we would never be killed. The Lord's sovereignty is operating to put us under the killing of Christ's death.

Everything related to us is under the Lord's sovereign arrangement. What kind of job we have and whom we marry are altogether not up to us. A brother may choose a sister to be his wife, but later this brother may think that he made a mistake. This is why the Lord charges the husbands to love their wives (Eph. 5:25). Under the Lord's sovereign arrangement, we are like lambs brought to the slaughter every day (Rom. 8:36). Every day we are being slaughtered. Every day we are under the killing of Christ's death that His life may be manifested in our body in the renewing of our inner man.