In this message we need to dwell on the matter of the all-inclusive sanctification of the church. In the church meetings we are nourished inwardly and cherished outwardly. We are also sanctified. Not many of us have been separated unto the Lord simply through our private time with the Lord. On the contrary, most of us have been separated from the world unto God through the help we have received in the church meetings. We need to be nourished and cherished in order to be separated from the world. As we are separated, we are also saturated. It is the nourishment that brings in the saturation. Furthermore, the more we are cherished by the atmosphere in the meetings, the more we are willing to give up the things of the world. By the cherishing we simply lose our taste for those things, for we realize that they are the very things which cause us to be cold toward the Lord. The cherishing also helps us to be saturated with Christ. This saturation spontaneously produces transformation. You may not be conscious of how much you have been transformed, but others are aware of it. They can see the change in your life and in your living.
Transformation does not come through teaching or correction or through chastisement. It comes through the nourishing and the cherishing. If you faithfully come to the meetings to be nourished and cherished, spontaneously you will be separated from the world and saturated with the riches of Christ. Then with you there will be growth, transformation, and building. This is the way the Bride will be prepared for Christ. Eventually, the Bride will be complete, perfect, and grown to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Then the Lord Jesus will come and present this prepared Bride to Himself.
Now we must see the way the Lord sanctifies us. In verse 26 Paul says that Christ sanctifies the church by cleansing her through the washing of the water in the Word. According to the divine concept, water here refers to the flowing life of God typified by flowing water (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 7:38-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17). The washing of such water is different from the washing of the redeeming blood of Christ. The redeeming blood washes away our sins (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14), whereas the water of life washes away the blemishes of the natural life of our old man, such as “spot or wrinkle or any such things” (v. 27). In sanctifying the church, the Lord firstly washes away our sins with His blood (Heb. 13:12) and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. We are now in such a washing process in order that the church may be holy and without blemish.
With Eve in Genesis 2 there was no need of cleansing because in that chapter she had not fallen. Rather, she was pure and without mixture. But because we are fallen, contaminated, and defiled, we today need to be cleansed. Many things in us must be purged away: the flesh, the self, the old man, the natural life. Furthermore, we have many spots and wrinkles from which we need to be cleansed.
If we had the nourishing and the cherishing without the cleansing, our problems would remain with us. The Lord’s nourishing and cherishing always issue in His cleansing. In the process of spiritual metabolism brought about by the cleansing, the “germs” in our being are killed and the negative things are discharged. Through the nourishing and the cherishing with the cleansing, we become healthy and strong. In the meetings the cleansing takes place within us unconsciously. The more we are nourished and cherished in the meetings of the church, the more we are cleansed metabolically.
It is the nourishment that we receive that makes the cleansing possible. If the nourishment ceases, the cleansing will cease also. But if we continually take in the spiritual supply, the elements we absorb into our being will cleanse us inwardly and carry away the old, dead, and unclean things. This metabolic process is taking place day by day in the church life.
The cleansing is the sanctifying. The cleansing by the washing of the water of life is in the Word. This indicates that in the Word there is the water of life, which is typified by the laver between the altar and the tabernacle (Exo. 38:8; 40:7). In Greek the word rendered washing in verse 26 means laver. This Greek word is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word for laver. In the Old Testament, the priests wash themselves from earthly defilement in the laver (Exo. 30:18-21). Now the washing of the water washes us from defilement. Therefore, we are cleansed by the laver of the water in the Word.
In a very real sense, the Word of God is a laver. According to the Old Testament, the priests who served God in the tabernacle had to have their sins dealt with by the blood on the altar, and they had to have their defilement dealt with by washing in the laver. I believe that Paul’s concept here is that the church is cleansed by the laver of the water in the Word. Hallelujah, we have the real laver! The priests had only a type, a material laver made of brass. But we have the real laver, the laver in the Word of God.
As the priests in the Old Testament came firstly to the altar and then to the laver, so we come firstly to the cross to be saved, redeemed, and justified, and then we come to the Word to be cleansed. Day by day, morning and evening, we need to come to the Bible and be cleansed by the laver of water in the Word. By coming to the Word in this way, we are cleansed from the defilement we have accumulated in our contact with the world. Whenever you contact the world in the course of your human living, you need to come to the Word to be cleansed.
In the laver of the Word there is water. This is not the water that quenches our thirst; rather, it is the water that washes us. Here Paul is concerned not about thirst, but about the removal of negative things. These things are washed away by the water in the Word.
One day Brother Nee was speaking about Bible reading. A certain sister told him that she had a poor memory and forgot everything she read in the Word. She asked Brother Nee what was the purpose for her to go on reading the Bible. In his answer, Brother Nee spoke of the way women in China wash rice in a willow basket. They dip the basket in and out of the water a number of times. Every time they take the basket out of the water, all the water flows out of the basket. Nevertheless, although the basket retains no water, both the basket and the rice are washed. He then applied this illustration to the reading of the Word. Although we may not retain anything of what we read, we are washed by it nonetheless, and we are cleansed. Let us be encouraged to come to the Word again and again to be washed. Let us place our basket in the water of the Word and draw it out. The water may flow through the basket, but we shall be cleansed.