There is a great difference between sanctification and behavior. In sanctification we do things without trying on purpose to do them. They are the spontaneous expression of our taking Christ as our life and our person. When Christ is our life and our person, He lives within us. It is He who is loving and submissive. To submit because of the indwelling Christ is one thing, but to submit because of behavior or outward correction is an altogether different matter.
The leading ones in the churches should not tell others what to do. Instead, we all must be able to testify that we live, not according to outward teachings, but according to the Christ who dwells in us to be our life and our person. Our aim is not to behave in a particular way, but simply to take Christ as our life and our person. Then what we do will be the outflow of the inner life. Spontaneously, the wives will submit to their husbands, the husbands will love their wives, and the children will be obedient to their parents. However, this kind of living will not be deliberate; it will be the issue of being filled in spirit with the Triune God.
When the young people are helped by a message, they may say that they will never be the same. But even this may be religious, for the young people may unconsciously try to improve themselves. They may try by their own effort to do what they heard in that message. Striving to make ourselves different is not sanctification.
In order to be sanctified in a genuine way, we simply need to contact the Lord and take Him as our life and our person. We need to pray, “Lord Jesus, You are my life and my person. Lord, take me, occupy me, and possess me. O Lord, come into every corner of my heart, fill my heart with Yourself, and make Your home in my heart. Lord, I don’t care whether or not I’ll be different, and I’m not concerned about behavior. I care only that You fill me and come out through me.” If you contact the Lord in this way, He will gradually and spontaneously be added into your being. This addition of Christ will sanctify you.
Subjective sanctification does not take place by teaching, but takes place by the inward working of the living Christ. This is the reason we emphasize the fact that in the Lord’s recovery we care little for doctrine in letters, but very much for the experience of Christ as our life and our person. I cannot express how heavy is the burden on my heart concerning this matter. If I can help the saints realize what sanctification is, I believe that this burden will be discharged. Please be impressed that sanctification definitely is not a matter of outward behavior or improvement. God desires to daily dispense the element of Christ into our being. It is this element alone that causes us to be sanctified.
In subjective sanctification something of Christ is added to us, but in cleansing something of us, especially our natural disposition, is subtracted. As we are cleansed, our natural disposition is washed away. Disposition is the most inward aspect of our constitution; it is the very root of our being. We were born with a certain disposition. Disposition, therefore, is altogether inward. However, character, a combination of disposition, custom, and habit, is partly inward and partly outward, whereas behavior is wholly outward. The Lord Jesus cares little about our behavior, more about our character, but very much about our disposition. As Christ is adding His element into us, He is also cleansing us and subtracting our natural disposition. His cleansing washes away the natural element from the depths of our being.
We have pointed out that the Lord will wash the church from all wrinkles. Wrinkles are caused by our natural disposition. Hence, the only way these wrinkles can be removed is for the element of our natural disposition to be cleansed away.
With the young people it is easy to point out what their disposition is. However, if the Apostle Paul were with us, it would be difficult to discern his disposition, because he has been so deeply cleansed and purified. His old, natural disposition has been washed away by the element of Christ.
The washing away of our natural disposition cannot be accomplished by teaching, but can be accomplished only by the impartation of the element of Christ into our being. At the same time the element of Christ is being added, something of ourselves is being carried away. Therefore, on the one hand, we have the addition of Christ, but, on the other hand, we have the subtraction of the natural disposition. Gradually, Christ is being added into our being, and our natural disposition is being subtracted. The result of this process is transformation, a metabolic change in which the new element is constituted into us and the old element is carried away.