A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
The death of Adam is terrible, and we loathe it. The death of Christ, however, is precious and lovable, and we all should treasure it (CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” p. 457).
In Philippians 3:10 Paul says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Paul desired to take Christ’s death as the mold of his life. Christ’s death is a mold to which we are conformed in much the same way that dough is put into a cake mold and conformed to it. Paul continually lived a crucified life, a life under the cross, just as Christ did in His human living. Through such a life the resurrection power is experienced and expressed. The mold of Christ’s death refers to the continual putting to death of His human life that He might live by the life of God (John 6:57). Our life should be conformed to such a mold—dying to our human life in order to live the divine life. Being conformed to the death of Christ is the condition for knowing and experiencing Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.
Christ’s death took place throughout His life on earth. As He was living, He was also dying, dying to the old creation in order to live a life in the new creation. This is the meaning of “His death” in Philippians 3:10…If we put to death our natural life, we shall have the consciousness that we have another life, the divine life, within us. Once our outward natural life is put to death, the inner divine life will be released. Then in our experience we shall be conformed to Christ’s death (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1549-1550).
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…The church is cleansed by the laver of the water in the Word.
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.
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. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 458-459)
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