In the previous chapter we learned the definitions of the terms God’s economy and godliness. We need to review the definitions of these terms not only in church meetings but also in smaller times of fellowship and even in family conversations. Such spontaneous fellowship will be a great help to us. We should not think that it is enough to hear or read a message one time. We first need to study the content of the message; then the Spirit will bring us into the experience of the message. The Lord has given us much new light in His recovery. Because the teachings in the Lord’s recovery are not ordinary shallow Christian teachings, we need to pay our full attention to them in order to fully understand and experience them. We need to be bathed in all the terms and healthy teachings in the Lord’s recovery by making them the topic of our daily conversations. Rather than talking about low, worthless things, we should speak to one another about what we have read in the Life-study messages and other ministry books. This will enrich our Christian life and uplift the standard of the Lord’s testimony among us.
Chapter 3 of this book is entitled “The Lord’s Recovery Being the Recovery of Christ.” In the Lord’s recovery we do not have various ways, activities, organizations, or dissenting, divisive teachings and doctrines; rather, we have only Christ. These words may be easy to understand and repeat, but we need to be able to illustrate what it means practically that the Lord’s recovery is nothing but Christ. We need to spend time to enter into these matters.
Chapter 2 concerns the content of the word and the Spirit. The content of both the word of God in the Bible and the Spirit is Christ, His death, and His resurrection. We should be able to explain that all the words in the Bible either cross us out with Christ’s death or enliven us with His resurrection. Therefore, the word is our spiritual food that contains all the elements needed to kill the germs in our body and to supply us with life and strength. Every time we take the word of the Bible into us, we receive Christ, His death, and His resurrection. Then the word works within us, killing us and strengthening us.
We all need to fellowship about all these matters. Although these chapters are in simple words, they are quite profound and rich. As we fellowship concerning these matters, the Holy Spirit will work to bring us into the depths of all these truths. Then these truths will gradually be wrought into our being. These truths are rich food. Every time we read these chapters, we will receive something new, fresh, and refreshing because they contain the deep truths from the Word of God. Therefore, we need to fellowship concerning these matters until we fully enter into them and they are wrought into our being.
Romans 6:14 says, “For you are not under the law but under grace.” This verse does not mean that we are fully liberated to do anything we want; grace does not make us lawless. The law referred to in this verse is the Old Testament law, the law given through Moses. Although we certainly are not under that law today, this does not mean that God has no law toward us. God is not a lawless God. In the New Testament God has imparted His law upon our hearts (Heb. 10:16). In the Old Testament it may have been possible to disregard the Ten Commandments, which were written on tablets of stone, but today God’s law has been written into our hearts. We cannot disregard this subjective law within us. Furthermore, the law of the New Testament is stricter than the law of Moses. What God does is always advancing and going higher. Romans 6:14 does not mean that today we are not under any law; rather, it means that we are not under the Old Testament law, the objective law written on tablets of stone. Today we are under a law that is stricter and more subjective to us; it is written upon our hearts.