In chapter five we saw the crucial need in the Lord’s recovery for perfecting the saints unto the work of the ministry and the patterns of perfecting. In this chapter we want to see the desperation and diligence required to practice the biblical way to serve and to meet.
From eternity past God has had a plan, which in the New Testament is called God’s economy. In the new testament age, God has brought His economy to us, and He has called us into this economy. Now we need to consider how God called us into His economy. We may realize that God is full of mercy, love, grace, and forgiveness. This may be our simplified concept of the gospel. In the beginning of the New Testament, however, the first word of the preaching of the gospel is: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). The kingdom is a matter of God’s requirements. God’s economy is based upon the requirements of His righteousness, holiness, and glory.
The kingdom is revealed in the Gospel of Matthew, and life is revealed in the Gospel of John. First, the kingdom comes as a requirement. Second, life comes as a supply. When God requires, He supplies. God does not require us to do something without supplying us with what He is to meet what He demands. If God’s requirements are high, His supply is high. He requires righteousness, and He is righteousness to us. He requires holiness of us, and He is holiness to us. He requires that we meet the standard of His glory, but all have sinned and come short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). We cannot make it in ourselves, but Christ is the very glory of God to us. The New Testament principle is that the requirements come first and the supply always follows. We should not be disappointed or fearful concerning the Lord’s requirements because when we heed His requirements, He is there to supply us.
Many believers like to begin their study of the New Testament with the Gospel of John, but the divine arrangement of the Scriptures has Matthew as the first Gospel. Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, which is difficult to understand, but John begins in a simpler way—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (v. 1). Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,” and verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace....” We may not fully understand these verses, but these words are sweet and precious to us. Even the Gospel of John, however, brings us into the thought of the kingdom. Chapter three says that unless we are born again, born of water and the Spirit, we cannot see the kingdom of God (vv. 3, 5). We like the thought of grace more than the thought of the kingdom, but according to the principle of the New Testament, the kingdom comes first and grace follows. The requirements of God are followed by His grace, which is God Himself as our enjoyment that we may live with Him, in Him, and by Him.
In the previous chapter I admonished us to make a vow before the Lord according to the truth in Leviticus 27. Leviticus is a book on the enjoyment of Christ. It begins with our enjoyment of Christ as all the offerings—the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. We have sin and trespasses, but Christ as the sin offering takes care of our sin, and Christ as the trespass offering takes care of our offenses, mistakes, transgressions, trespasses, and wrongdoings. Eventually, the book of Leviticus reveals that our condition is leprous and that what comes out of us is unclean and contagious, but this kind of exposing is to prepare us to enter into the enjoyment of Christ more and more deeply. Leviticus then brings us to the festivals, where we have daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly enjoyment. In Leviticus 25 we are brought into the enjoyment of the jubilee. Then in Leviticus 27, the final chapter of the book, God proposes to us that we devote all that we are and all that we have to Him with a vow. In such a book of the enjoyment of Christ, a vow is proposed. We have to make a vow to devote ourselves with all of our possessions to Him.
Now we need to see the truth in the New Testament concerning devoting ourselves with a vow to God. In the first eleven chapters of the book of Romans are God’s grace, redemption, justification, and reconciliation. Chapter nine says that we have been chosen by Him. He chose us to be His enjoyers. We have been predestinated to be forgiven and to be justified, so we do not need to endeavor in this matter. This is our destiny. Chapter eleven of Romans says that God’s choosing, His selection, can never be changed. Then in chapter twelve Paul says, “I beg you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies....” (v. 1). Paul tells us “to present.” To present means to give God a gift. A gift must be something precious that makes the receiver happy. We are the very objects of God’s favor. We are so precious to Him. We are no longer God’s enemies. Through God’s mercy and grace in His redemption, we have become presents to Him.
Through God’s compassions, we should present ourselves to God. In the New Testament, God first presented Himself to us as a gift. We have received Him as a present to us. In return we have to present ourselves to Him, and this is a New Testament vow. A vow is something that should not be altered or changed. If I say that we need to make a vow, this may frighten us, but what about presenting ourselves to God? Since God loves us and we love Him, we should present ourselves to Him. In the New Testament, to present ourselves to God is to make a vow to God. From the day that we present ourselves to God, we belong to God.
One day we may have been touched by the Lord to kneel down and pray, “O Lord Jesus, You are so gracious. I present myself to You.” To present yourself is to give yourself to Him. If we give someone a gift, it is not right for us to ask him to return it later. Once we give someone a gift, it is no longer ours but his. This is a vow. We may not enjoy Christ that much because we altered our vow. If we do not keep the presentation of ourselves to God, we will be out of the enjoyment of Christ. In 1963 I began to speak in the United States on the enjoyment of Christ. I also wrote the hymn “Let us exhibit Christ” (Hymns, #864). The saints were excited about this fellowship at that time. If we do not have the enjoyment of Christ, we will not exhibit Christ. Many of us who have been in the Lord’s recovery for years should ask ourselves if we have been enjoying Christ all the time. We do not enjoy Christ continually because we have annulled our presentation of ourselves to Him. This is like a person giving a watch to someone and then stealing it back from him later. In principle, this may be our situation with the Lord.