Through all the Life-studies of the New Testament we have completed during the past ten years, the Lord has laid a basic foundation that will enable us to see something further at this time concerning the ministry of the New Testament. There is need of such a solid foundational work to see the ministry of the New Testament in the four Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles of Paul, the Epistles of Peter, the Epistles of John, and finally, the book of Revelation.
When we finish the Life-study of the entire New Testament, probably within one more year, I am burdened to have one full ten-day training with thirty messages to review all of the Life-studies of the New Testament. However, I consider that this is a golden opportunity to open up within these few chapters something of what is on my heart along this line. To get into the depths of these matters in a solid way, to get into the intrinsic essence of them, it is necessary to have this basic foundational work and also necessary to have a pure situation, a pure oracle for the Lord to speak. I believe we do have such a situation among us, and I therefore have no hindrance or reservation within me to keep me from pouring out something of what has been on my heart for a long time. It would take at least thirty messages to cover what is on my heart; nevertheless, within these few chapters we can touch some crucial points.
In the four Gospels, there are actually only two unique ministers—John the Baptist and Jesus the Savior. The ministry of John was the initiation of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, and the ministry of the Lord Jesus was the main ministry in the four Gospels. Needless to say, we should neither despise nor even neglect John’s ministry since it was a very solid initiation of the New Testament ministry. We need to consider these matters carefully in the light of the depth of the truth, not merely according to the letters in black and white.
The ministry of John was a termination of the old creation, the old culture, the old religion, the old ordinances, and the old practices. We all need a deep realization that the intrinsic element, even the intrinsic essence, of John’s ministry was altogether a termination of all things which existed prior to and until his time. When John opened his mouth to begin his ministry, it was God’s intention to use that ministry to terminate everything that was in existence up to that time except Himself. The only One that could never be terminated and that never would need to be terminated was the Triune God Himself. When John stood up to minister, his ministry terminated whatever God had created, whatever had come into being.
The best way to terminate anything is to bury it, not merely to get rid of it. Such a termination through burial was the intrinsic essence of the initiation of the New Testament ministry. The main reason why we cannot take the way of the majority of today’s Christians is that their way is not to terminate the things of the old creation, but rather to cultivate and even nurture and foster the things of the old creation.
John’s ministry was a termination that led to a new beginning. God had no intention merely to terminate things. Our God is a God full of purpose; only one with no purpose would have terminated things for the sake of termination. God terminated the things with the definite purpose that the termination would lead to a new beginning.
That new beginning was there with the second minister in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus was initiated and ushered into His ministry by John’s baptism. It initiated Jesus into His post to accomplish His ministry. While John was ministering to terminate everything, Jesus came into John’s ministry, not to take over that ministry but to enter into it. The way Jesus entered into John’s ministry was by accepting John’s baptism; even He accepted the termination at that time.
We need to consider carefully the reason Jesus accepted such a termination. Jesus was the God-man. The divine conception of Jesus was one of the Holy Spirit, with the divine essence mingled with the human essence to produce this unique person—a person who is the complete God and the perfect Man. In the past four thousand years of human history, there had never been such a wonderful One, One who was conceived of the Holy Spirit with the divine essence mingled with the human essence to produce a God-man, One who was completely God and perfectly man. He was unique. He was a God-man. Nevertheless, we need to have a deep realization within us that in His constitution there was the essence of the old creation. In its essence His humanity belonged to the old creation. He was a man, a genuine human being, with a human will, with human emotions, and with a human mind. He was not some kind of phantom as the Docetists falsely taught (see note 31 in 1 John 4).
Jesus was a real man, and that man was called, in the Bible, flesh. “In the beginning was the Word,...and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). We need to take special note that John 1:14 does not say that this Word became a man, but rather says that this Word became flesh. Not only did flesh belong to the old creation, but it belonged to the fallen creation. Such a statement may cause you to ask whether the Word which was God became something fallen. We need to exercise much carefulness in answering such a question. Paul gives the answer to this question in Romans 8:3: “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” He uses three things to compose one explanation: the likeness, the flesh, and sin. Of course, flesh here is the central item, the basic item. Attached to it is sin, and related to it is likeness. Jesus became flesh, and flesh had become fallen by that time. However, He took only the likeness of the flesh of sin, the likeness without sin. Jesus took the form, the likeness, yet it was the form of something that belonged to sin. This crucial point is neglected by many. The flesh is of sin, and the Son of God did indeed become flesh (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:16). However, He was only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and had no participation in the sin of the flesh (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). This was typified by the brass serpent lifted up by Moses for the sinful Israelites (Num. 21:9; John 3:14). The brass serpent was in the form, the likeness, of the actual serpent, without its poison. The Lord Jesus was typified by a serpent in form, but only in form. There was no serpentine nature in that brass serpent.
It was such a Jesus who came into God’s terminating ministry which was being carried out by John. He came into that ministry, and He accepted the termination. He was buried in that death water. It was not until that juncture that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. Before the descending of the Spirit upon Him, He had already been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Holy Spirit. He possessed the mingling of the divine essence with the human essence by the Holy Spirit. He was conceived in this way, He was born in this way, and He was born to be such a being. However, at this point, when He accepted the termination ordained by God, the Holy Spirit came upon Him to anoint Him. Right away He became One who was a mingling of divinity with the terminated humanity and anointed with the Holy Spirit. It is quite meaningful that incarnation gave the Lord Jesus humanity and brought Him into humanity, but John’s ministry terminated that humanity. The purpose of this termination was to lead to a new beginning in resurrection. After His baptism the Lord Jesus was a resurrected person. According to the Old Testament type in Exodus, the holy ointment should not be poured upon any flesh (30:32). Immediately after His baptism the Holy Spirit as the holy ointment descended upon Him, that is, it was poured upon Him because His flesh was terminated, and He became a resurrected man. In other words, His humanity had been terminated and resurrected.