A New Creation in Christ Becoming God's Righteousness (1)

0:00We praise the Lord for thy great land, that we might well be in place may be." Welcome to Life Study of the Bible brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. In 1924, Witnessly was dynamically saved by the Lord as a young man in his native China. And he promptly consecrated the rest of his life to the gospel. He co-labored with Watchman Knee for parts of the next three decades. And in 1962, Witnessly was led by the Lord to come to the United States. During his thirty-five years of service to the Lord in America, he ministered in weekly meetings and weekend conferences, delivering thousands of spoken messages. Much of his speaking has since been published as more than 400 titles, many of which have been translated into numerous foreign languages. He gave his last public conference in February 1997 at the age of 91.

1:02We're happy today to be able to bring you recorded excerpts from his speaking. And encourage you to contact us if you have any further questions or comments. Please send email to radioatlsm.org. Now, let's join today's program. By the end of chapter 4 and 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul was very mature in the Christian life. His being had been largely transformed to the extent that regardless of his outward circumstances, he remained in the peace and rest of the Lord's presence, realizing that through the Spirit within him God was working through all things to form him and shape him according to his eternal plan. Listen to his testimony in verses 16 and 17. Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day, for our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us more and more surpassingly and eternal weight of glory.

2:05Surely this is the testimony of one who is longing to meet the Lord. Yet one thing remained in Paul's spiritual journey, as we will see in chapter 5, his longing to have his earthly body or tabernacle replaced with the heavenly one. The dictator has joined his dick. Welcome back to the program. I've been away for a while, and you and Matt Miller have been carrying on in a number of these programs. Thank you for taking care of things while I was away, and thank you for coming again today. You're welcome, Chris, and it is a joy to be here, and especially to see in this chapter this desire to be closed upon. And that is to be transfigured through the dispensing of Christ of the life-giving spirit to make our entire tripartite being the same as Christ is in life and nature. Dick, I use the word transformed in the introduction. You just use the word transfigured in relationship to Paul's outer body. Let's talk for just a moment about the difference between transformation and transfiguration.

3:05In a sense, the distinction is that transformation is the process we go through, beginning with regeneration. All the way from being born again, we pass through the process of transformation, and you could say the consummation of transformation is transfiguration of our body. Transformation is like our brother has illustrated like ink soaking through pages of a book, and you could say page one with many sub-pages is our spirit. Page two with many, many, many pages is our soul, and the last page to be inkified that is saturated with Christ, to be transformed, which means it's going to change, which would be transfigured, to be a body like his body of glory. That last page is our body. So we want to be those who stay in the experience of Christ as our wonderful organic or life savior to the point where we reach the matter of transfiguration, and we're full of hope, Chris, because Christ is in us as the life-giving spirit, and He has plagued Himself to do this job.

4:22And we'll see this in a couple of minutes. Dick, I've got a couple of verses now to bring forth from chapter five that I think really underscore the point you just made, this matter of our transfiguration being the end result of the full transformation work that has been ongoing, and is ongoing in our being by the spirit as it operates, and Paul mentions both of these things. The first verses in chapter five, verse two says, for also in this we groan longing to be clothed upon with our dwelling place from heaven. Now, in verse five, He says, now He who has wrought for us this very thing is God who has given to us the spirit as a pledge. Amen. I like the word wrought, I like the word spirit, I like the word pledge by the day. Me too. Wrought, spirit, pledge. All right, let's join witness Lee. Up to the end of chapter four, the apostle was really matured.

5:26He was regenerated in his theory, and he was transformed in his soul. His entire being is renewed. The only thing that is not finished is the full redemption of his physical body. His physical body is still there, remaining old, not chained yet, not transfigured. So, in the funny verses, he expresses his aspiration, his longing. Oh, we just desire to be close with a resurrected body, a body of resurrection. These thought covers the first eight verses. God is going to close us with a body of resurrection.

6:29You have to know, to be so close, you need some fortification. Suppose here is a sinner, he expects to be close with a body of resurrection. No, he is not qualified. To put a body of resurrection upon him, this doesn't fit. A sinner is not fading. So, God is working on his sin. To take away his sins, to forgive his offenses, and to put the divine life into him, to regenerate him, and go on further to transform him. This is to save him. How God saved us, we don't. He has routed us for this very thing. This one is God, who has given to us the pledge of this spirit.

7:35The main item with which God shipped us is to put himself as the life-giving spirit in us as a pledge. God has pledged himself that he would do this for us. He has put himself into your spirit as the life-giving spirit to be pledged to guarantee that surely one day he will close you with a body of resurrection because you have been saved. You have been prepared, you have been made for this purpose, and you are qualified. Let's go back and look at this verse again that we read a moment ago in chapter 5, verse 5, and then pick up the points he made here.

8:35There are several that are touched, I think, in this verse. Now, he who has routed us for this very thing is God, who has given to us the spirit as a pledge. First, this word wrought in many of the word studies of the New Testament, point out this word can also be translated as shaped. Help us understand this verse according to that usage of this term. I appreciated what our brother shared in this message, and that is that shaped means that we need to be made fit. The Lord wants to clothe us with Himself as the transfigured body, but He cannot clothe us with Himself in such a way if we are not fit. So I think fit is a very good word. What does this mean? It means that from the bottom up we need Him, and we need all of His working, that is His shaping. That includes, like Bradley mentioned, as sinners, we need forgiveness of our sins, and we need redeemed through His precious blood back to God Himself.

9:38And we need to receive the divine life, which is Christ as the life giving spirit into our spirit. We need regenerated, and now we need the spreading of this wonderful Christ into our heart, and this is the transformation that we have been talking about. So to be fit, to be qualified, to be shaped, to be wrought means we need all of this preparation work, so that Christ, as the life giving spirit, can bring us into the final stage of equipping us, to be permanently with Him and part of Him, and to be the same as He is in His life and nature. And that is to be clothed upon with a body of glory. So transfiguration requires that we be wrought, we be shaped, we be fit, we be qualified. And what does that mean? It means in our daily life every day, we would be people who turn to our spirit where He is, open to Him, love Him, Lord, I love you.

10:40Praise the Lord and joy Him, breathing Him in through His Word, fellowshiping with each other, meeting for His glory and His exaltation. Then He spreads, He transforms us, all of this is His shaping, and eventually the last stage, which Paul is groaning for, we can be clothed upon with Christ as the very body of glory. Dick, according to this verse, He's given us the spirit to do this shaping, fitting, qualifying work, transforming work, but He's also given the spirit as a pledge or as a guarantee. So there's a certainty here, isn't there that God will perform this ultimately to the point of our full transfiguration even? That's right. And when God guarantees, God guarantees, I like the word pledge. My pledge is the job will be done. Hallelujah. I guarantee that you will become the same as I am, and that's because He as the spirit within our spirit is the very pledge.

11:42You know, also, Chris, what I like, pledge also means foretaste. Yes. And every day when we turn to Him and call on His dear name, fellowship with Him, you know what happens? We have a taste of the full taste that our entire being, spirit, soul and body, we would be like Him. Well, Dick, we have the Apostle Paul now who really has come through for the most part this transformation process. He's ready to be clothed upon. He's long and He's groaning. But for the sake of us, the believers, those whom He was caring for, the Lord doesn't bring Him into that stage of glorification just yet. And so now, Paul, in this interim period, we see in verse 9, what is in His heart, what is in His desire, even though for Himself, He'd be better off to go. But yet He remains for our sake, verse 9 says, therefore also we are determined, whether at home or abroad, to gain the honor of being well pleasing to Him. Amen.

12:42For the love of Christ in verse 14 constrains us because we have judged this that one died for all. Therefore, all died. Let's go back to witness later. Read verse 9. For for all though, we are ambitious. We are waiting to be closed with a body of respect and by Him. As we are waiting for this, we are ambitious. Not ambitious to get a degree, not ambitious to get a high promotion, but ambitious to please the Lord. Then from this point, Paul goes on to verse 14. For he says, for again, for is it connecting with, for it gives you the connection, for the love of Christ comes to treat us.

13:45We are ambitious to please the Lord for His love constrains us. The word constrains in Greek means press on from all sides, holding to one end. Very beautiful. This Greek word means what? A wall is built, wall at the back. A wall is built at the right. Another wall is built at the left. And in the front walls are built. Just looking at narrow gates. Where is the way? I am concerned. Do you believe that you love the Lord? You have to say yes. Without all the walls, build up by the Lord. Probably you got away already.

14:46But no need for me to tell you. You knew already. Around you was. No way out. No way out. There is only a narrow way. So I am forced to get out here. Who is here? Jesus is here. This is the only way. The love of Christ constrains me. Prices me from every side, holding to one end, to one goal. Don't think this may choice. If it is up to me, I should have other choices already. Well, it is not up to me. The love of Christ constrains me to live to Him. Dick that is the love of Christ that constrains me.

15:49This is a very experiential section. It seems to me what he was just talking about. We all know this sense of being limited, constrained. And what is creating this constraining limitation is the love of Christ, isn't it? Really so. And I like this first, Chris, where it says, we are determined to gain the honor of being well-pleasing to Him. Right. And I tell you the only way to be well-pleasing to Him is because the love of Christ constrains us. Like Relief said, all of us, if we had our choice, we had gotten away. Right. But thank the Lord for the wall on the left side, behind us, the right side, and just leaving us a little narrow opening, which means we live to Him. So I love the pressing, constraining, love of Christ, which what enables us to actually be well-pleasing to Him. You know, because if we're just left on our own, we'll never be well-pleasing to Him. That's right. So if we really want to be clothed upon with our body of transfiguration, we need in our living to be well-pleasing to Him.

16:51But to be well-pleasing to Him, we need the love of Christ to keep constraining us. Otherwise, we just go out on our own. So we cannot thank the Lord enough for this precious constraining love of Christ. And I was just thinking a brother illustrated one time he said, have you ever been to the Amazon River? It's one of the biggest rivers in the world. The mouth of it is about 100 miles wide. And when you're on the river, you look up into the hills. It's such a constraining river. It's almost like it's pulling the water out of the hills and pushing it into the ocean. And this is like the constraining love of Christ, not only walling us in, but pulling us, constraining us to just go in one direction toward Jesus Himself only. Right. So that means the love of Christ is constraining us for what reason. As we'll see, a little more in the broadcast, it's to live to Him. And this is a living that's well-pleasing to Him.

17:54And this qualifies us to be clothed upon with a body of transfiguration. So all these sections really fit together and thank the Lord for this precious section on the constraining love of Christ. And isn't it true, Chris, because of Him loving us, we respond in love to Him. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you for constraining us, pressing us in from all sides that we might live uniquely to you. This thought of living to Christ is probably a new one. I'm considering here listening to this, looking at the verses. Most people think in terms of living maybe for God. Right. But living to Him, and that's literally what we have in verse 15, you just mentioned it. And He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves, but to Him who died for them and has been raised. Amen. Let's hear a little bit more about what it is to live to the Lord as opposed to just doing things for the Lord.

18:58Here's what this thing wants more. According to the thought, to the concept that is conveyed in chapter 5, we, Chris, today, should not live for the Lord, doing things according to our concept for Him. Don't you know today you do a lot of things for the Lord, but not to Him. You do not live to Him. He wants you to put yourself to the death of Jesus, to terminate your natural man, to terminate your active being. You were born so active. You were born so aggressive. He wants you to terminate this aggressive being. But you derives in this by your being aggressive. So this can do for the Lord of funding. And this distracts you from the enjoyment of you.

20:02So you need to be consumed by His love just to live to you. To live to Him means to deny your own man. Now you can see there is a continuation in verse 16. Verse 16 says so. So there. This is a continuation. This is a conclusion of the four going verses. In the four going verses 14 and 15, we are told that we have to live to Christ. And this means don't live by your argument. Don't live by your flesh. You must live by your inward man. You must live by the reason written theory. So verse 16 says so that we shall know up. No, no one according to flesh. We don't know anyone according to our women.

21:03When the life of the church is father. All the living ones and all the serving ones do not know you. According to our women. They know you according to the inward man. According theory. Then verse 17 says so that if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. Now the new creation is brought in. What is the new creation? The new creation is just a man regenerate with the life of God. A man living in the inward man. Not a man living in the outward man. If I remember right at the beginning of this portion he talked about. How it is possible for us to be doing a lot of things for the Lord. But not necessarily living to the Lord.

22:04It reminded me in the gospels where those ones came to him. It said, Lord, Lord, haven't we done many things in your name? And he had to dismiss them because that though they hit so called. Down so many things for him. There really was no living there that was to him. Was there no? And Christ what I'm touched with about living to him as opposed to living for him is that means you are really one with him. And it's like suppose your wife didn't care at all about you as a person. But she did many, many things for you. Events you're not satisfied at all. But what she does for you should come out of living to you. And that means in oneness with you. Then you're really pleased, you're really happy. And it's like the verse we talked about earlier we want to be well pleasing to the Lord. How can we be only by living in oneness with him. And that means not living according to the outward man. But living according to the inward man, living in the new creation. Which means living according to Christ in our spirit.

23:06You know we can either live today as Christians in one of two ways. Either according to the flesh or according to the spirit. According to the flesh is the outward man, the old man, that's just us without Christ. And we may in the outward man do things for him. Yes. This is not well pleasing to him. This is not living to him. On the other hand, we can live to him by always practicing to turn to him and to be one spirit with him and join him as our inward man. The new creation so that everything we do is to him. And this is really well pleasing to him. So I appreciate how this broadcast ends by focusing on the new creation, the new creation. And that we would be those who live not according to the flesh, but according to the inward man, according to the spirit, according to the new creation. That's Christ in our spirit. May we be those who genuinely live to him, are well pleasing to him,

24:06and also enjoy the transfiguration of our body all, because we are practicing to live in our spirit and oneness with this wonderful Christ, who even this moment is constraining us with his love. Well, Dick, this is a sweet experiential and very intimate word, as well as one that I think has some genuine light in terms of opening up the riches in this portion of scripture, and how well they are brought together and developed in the ministry we've enjoyed today. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, brother Dick, is right. Well, we'll point out to you our toll-free number, invite you to contact us about getting the printed life study messages that accompany these programs each day. We're in now volume two. This two volume set for second Corinthians. If you'd like to find out about it, it's just toll-free 1-888 life study. 888-543-3788. Or send email to radioatallism.org.

25:06We'll return tomorrow as we continue on now and are the tail end of our life study on second Corinthians. For Dick Taylor, I'm Chris Will. Thank you very much for listening today. You've been listening to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly, Brought to you by Living Screen Ministry, publisher and distributor of the works of Watchman Knee and Witnessly. If you'd like to contact us, just email radioatlsm.org or call us toll-free at 1-88-543-3788. Thanks for listening.