In this message we shall consider some finer matters related to the believers’ experiencing and enjoying God as the Father in His love.
In 2 Corinthians 13:4b Paul says, “We shall live together with Him by the power of God toward you.” This indicates that God makes the believers live together with Christ by His power. Paul followed the pattern of Christ, willing to be weak in the organic union with Him, that he might live with Him a crucified life. In this way Paul lived together with Christ by the power of God.
We may think that our living together with Christ involves only Christ and us. Actually, our living together with Christ is not by us but by the Father’s power. Because the Father always wants to glorify the Son, to magnify Him, the Father lives in us to enable us to live together with Christ. By His power the Father enables us to live together with Christ.
God the Father reconciles us, as believers living in the natural life, to Him. In 2 Corinthians 5:19 Paul says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not accounting their offenses to them, and putting in us the word of reconciliation.” In verse 20 he goes on to say, speaking to the believers, “On behalf of Christ, then, we are ambassadors, as God entreating through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God.” In verse 19 it is the world that is reconciled to God; in verse 20 it is the believers, who have already been reconciled to God, who need to be reconciled to God further. This clearly indicates that there are two steps for us to be fully reconciled to God. The first step is as sinners to be reconciled to God from sin. For this purpose Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) that they may be forgiven by God. This is the objective aspect of Christ’s death. In this aspect He bore our sins on the cross that they might be judged by God upon Him for us. The second step is as believers living in the natural life to be reconciled to God from the flesh. For this purpose Christ died for us-the persons-that we may live to Him in the resurrection life (2 Cor. 5:14-15). This is the subjective aspect of Christ’s death. In this aspect He was made sin for us so that we might be judged and done away with by God in order that we may become the righteousness of God in Him (v. 21). By these two aspects of His death, He has fully reconciled God’s chosen people to God.
These two steps of reconciliation are clearly portrayed by the two veils of the tabernacle. The first veil is called the screen (Exo. 26:37, lit.). A sinner was brought to God through the reconciliation of the atoning blood to enter into the Holy Place by passing this screen. This typifies the first step of reconciliation. The second veil (Exo. 26:31-35; Heb. 9:3) still separated him from God, who is in the Holy of Holies. This veil needed to be rent that he may be brought to God in the Holy of Holies. This is the second step of reconciliation. As believers we have been reconciled to God, having passed through the first veil and having entered into the Holy Place. Yet, because we still live in the flesh, we need to pass the second veil, which has been rent already (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:20), to enter into the Holy of Holies to live with God in our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). This is what Paul means by saying, “Be reconciled to God.”
In the Old Testament, when a sinner came to God, he first had to come to the altar to have his sins forgiven through the blood of the sin offering. After experiencing the forgiveness of sins, he could enter the Holy Place. This is the first step of reconciliation, the step by which a sinner begins to be reconciled to God. This is the situation of most genuine Christians today. They have been reconciled to God in part through the cross upon which Christ died as our sin offering, where He shed His blood to wash away our sins. When we believed in Him, we were forgiven by God, reconciled to God, and brought back to Him. Formerly we went astray from God, but through repentance we returned to Him and have been reconciled to Him. However, we have been reconciled to God only partly.
Although the believers have been saved and reconciled to God partly, they still live in the flesh; that is, they live in the soul, in the natural life. The veil of the flesh, of the natural man, still separates them from God. This means that their natural being is a separating veil. Therefore, they need the second step of reconciliation, the step in which the separating veil of the flesh is crucified so that the believers may enter into the Holy of Holies.
The blessings of God can be found in the Holy Place, but God Himself is in the Holy of Holies. In order to have God Himself, we need to be reconciled further by Him and come into the Holy of Holies. This is full reconciliation, which brings us not only out of sin but also out of the flesh, the natural man, the natural being. Then we are brought to God and become one with Him.
Part of God the Father’s finer work in us is to reconcile us to Him in the second step. As those who have been reconciled to Him in the first step, we love the Lord and serve Him. However, we may love and serve Him in a natural way. Furthermore, we may be very active in the church life, but our living in the church is natural. This means that we live and have our being in a natural way. Therefore, God the Father works to reconcile us to Him in a fuller, deeper way. He exposes our natural life and unveils our real situation to us so that we may condemn our natural being and apply the cross subjectively. Then as our natural man is crossed out, we experience the second step of reconciliation. In this step the veil of our natural man is rent so that we may be in the Holy of Holies, living in God’s presence.
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