On the positive side, through the death of the Lord Jesus, the divine life was released. In that divine life the very Jesus who had died was resurrected. Some of the things that were dealt with through His death could never come back again, including sin and sins, Satan and the world, and the ordinances, habits, and customs, but the old man and the old creation were resurrected. The Gospels of John and Luke do give us a sign concerning this matter. However, we need to realize that it is not easy to study the Bible properly and to understand it properly and adequately. On the morning of the resurrection, Mary and the other sisters and Peter and John went to the tomb. The man Jesus was gone, but the grave clothes were left there (John 20:5-7; Luke 24:12) representing all the things that were not related to the person of the Lord Jesus. The old man and the old creation, however, were very much related to what the Lord Jesus was in His humanity. Therefore, that part was resurrected, but the rest that was buried was left in the tomb.
In the Life-study of Colossians we pointed out that God was busy when the Lord Jesus was dying on the cross (Message 23, p. 191). All the demons were busy, the evil angels were busy, and Satan was busy because it was not only Jesus that was crucified there on the cross. Jesus carried many things to the cross. He carried our sin and our sins, Satan and his world, and the ordinances, including the human culture, to the cross. Moreover, He carried the old man which was a part of His very being to the cross, and was related to the old creation. In His resurrection, though, He brought the old man and the old creation with Him.
For this reason, in God’s germination there is the new man and the new heaven and the new earth. There is no such thing as a new Satan. There is no such thing as new sin or new ordinances. But out of the tomb there was brought forth a new man and a new creation! The rest was left in the tomb. On the morning of resurrection the disciples saw the grave clothes left in the tomb. Eventually, Mary the Magdalene saw this resurrected Man related to God’s new creation.
In such a life Jesus became the life-giving Spirit. Now you can understand how He became the life-giving Spirit and also why He needed to become such a Spirit. Just as He needed to be incarnated to live a human life, in order that by this human life He could die to accomplish God’s all-inclusive redemption, so also it was necessary at this time for Him to become such a life-giving Spirit.
All the old things were terminated at the cross of the Lord Jesus, and all the new things were germinated in His resurrection. Now in His resurrection He is the life-giving Spirit, and, as such a Spirit, He comes to germinate everyone chosen and predestinated by God according to Ephesians 1:4-5. He comes to germinate the chosen ones based upon His death and based upon His redemption, to make them the reproduction of Jesus in the same sense that Peter became another person, a reproduction of Jesus, in Acts 2. This is to produce the church, and this is the ministry of the New Testament in the section of the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
In the case of messages such as these, we need much desperate prayer and fellowship that we might be brought into the depths of these truths and have the reality of them constituted into our very being. What I am sharing with you is what has been constituted into my own being over a period of many years. I am eager to pour out what has accumulated within me when there is opportunity. We hope to have a concluding training of the New Testament to review all these matters, but we expect that out of your prayer and exercise over these messages all of you would see something further concerning the New Testament ministry and something would be constituted within you. Among the majority of today’s Christians, the concept of ministry is far short of what we are touching here, and their way of speaking about ministry is too superficial. If we mean business with the Lord, we should bear some part of the genuine ministry.
In this light concerning the New Testament ministry you could see where you should be, what you should be, and what you should do. As far as the ministry of the New Testament is concerned, you should not trust in your ability to speak, your ability to present doctrinal truth, your ability to write, or any of your other abilities. You should not think that you are qualified in those areas and therefore there is no problem with you. With some of you there is a definite problem. You should not think that any of your abilities qualify you for some part of the New Testament ministry. On that basis you are not qualified, for your abilities are not a part of the New Testament ministry and have nothing to do with the New Testament ministry.
Especially in the present situation I am very much burdened that we could see the intrinsic essence of God’s New Testament ministry. I would caution the younger ones among us in particular that they have no standing to be proud of how much they know. There are some with us from the Far East who have been under my training for more than ten years; yet, from what I call the weather reports that have come to me, there are signs to indicate the danger of storms approaching. These weather reports have been the words that I have heard out of your own mouths. The same kind of weather reports have also come to me from different parts of this country in recent months. It was based on this pressing need that the decision was made to call these meetings for urgent fellowship to present these messages to you. Therefore, I would not consider this training an ordinary one, but rather something related to the urgent need. In these days we are very much in need of the Lord’s mercy that we might see the very inner essence of the New Testament ministry. The Lord’s recovery is much more than a matter of teaching the Bible, presenting doctrines, and even helping people to grow a little bit or holding conferences to edify others. All of these things are too superficial.
None of you have the standing to be proud of what you know. You may not realize how little you know, even how little has been wrought into you from the training we have had together. There are some among us who are off the track; whether you stay where you are or go to another place, you are off. Some of us have been in the Lord’s recovery more than twenty years. There is the danger that we would become old and that we would become persons who feel that they are full. This is something of Laodicea. In some cases, these things may have happened already. What I have released to you is a small part of what is on my heart, a small portion to show you what God’s New Testament ministry is.
In carrying out God’s New Testament ministry, the Lord Jesus told us that He never did anything out of Himself (John 5:19), He did not do His own work (John 4:34; 17:4), He did not speak His own word (John 14:10, 24), He did everything not by His own will (John 5:30), and He did not seek His own glory (John 7:18). If you use these few points as a standard to measure all the Christian work today, you can see that nearly all the Christian works fall short according to this yardstick. Who can say that they do not do anything in the Lord’s work out of themselves? Who can say that they do not do their own work or speak their own words? Also, who can say that they do not do anything by their own will and that they do not do anything to seek their own glory? If we can answer these five points positively, I believe we are also in the New Testament ministry of God. If not, we are off.
This is the section of the Lord Jesus in God’s New Testament ministry, and it is this that produces the church, edifies the saints, and builds up the Body. If you are short of these five points, whatever you do will be divisive and will cause division. Therefore, we need to see that there is a big difference with a terminated person who is not doing a work out of himself, not doing his own work, not speaking his own word, and who is not doing things by his own will and not seeking his own glory. This is not only a section of God’s New Testament ministry, but our pattern, a pattern of such a person with such a life. May the Lord make our vision clear concerning these matters.