Scripture Reading: Matt. 5:1; 28:19; 2 Cor. 6:14-16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Pet. 4:16
Ⅰ
We are disciples of Christ, those who are following and learning Christ according to the reality that is in Jesus, which is the actual condition of the God-man living of Jesus recorded in the four Gospels; this is to experience Christ in His experiences so that we might become His organic reproduction and duplication for Him to have a corporate expression of Himself for His glory in the church and in the New Jerusalem—Matt. 5:1; 28:19; Eph. 4:20-24; 3:21; Isa. 43:7; Rev. 21:11:
A
We are being discipled from being a natural man to being a God-man, living the divine life by denying our natural life according to the model of Christ as the first God-man; this is to learn Christ and be taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus, to be renewed in the spirit of our mind by the word of God so that we may become a new and corporate God-man—Eph. 4:23; Deut. 17:18-20:
１
“If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”—John 8:31-32, 36; 15:7.
２
By the prayerful reading of the Scriptures and by having an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches through the ministry of the word, we are being discipled by the Lord through being transformed by the renewing of our mind—Eph. 6:17-18; Rev. 2:7; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23.
３
For us to be renewed in our mind is to get rid of all the old concepts concerning the things of the human life through receiving the new thoughts of God by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit—Psa. 119:105, 130.
４
In order to be the Lord’s disciples who are being saved in Christ Himself as life to reign in life over Satan, sin, and death, we must be reconstituted with the holy word of God so that we may be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God—Rom. 5:10, 17; Deut. 17:18-20; 2 Tim. 3:15-17.
B
To learn Christ is for us to be replaced with Christ by eating Christ; the reality that is in Jesus (the God-man living of the individual Jesus) becomes the reality of the Body of Christ (the God-man living of the corporate Christ) by our eating Christ to enjoy Christ as our supplying, energizing, empowering, and enabling supply, so that we may choose and carry out the will of God for His glory in the church—John 6:57; Isa. 7:14-15; John 17:4; Heb. 5:8; Phil. 2:8; John 6:63; Jer. 15:16; Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:5, 17; 12:2; 2 Cor. 5:14; Eph. 3:20-21.
C
We are learning Christ by being awakened by Him morning by morning so that we can have the ear and tongue of an instructed one to sustain the weary with a word; as the Lord’s disciples, His instructed ones, we should rely on Him, trust in His name, and not generate our own light—Isa. 50:4-5, 10-11.
D
We are learning Christ as the One who is meek and lowly in heart, as the One whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, and as the One who gives us Himself as rest (perfect peace and full satisfaction) for our souls—Matt. 11:28-30.
E
We are learning Christ as our indwelling secret of sufficiency to express God’s attributes in Christ’s human virtues, living Him for His magnification in every kind of environment, situation, and circumstance—Phil. 4:5-13.
F
We are learning Christ as the One who desires mercy according to His loving and forgiving heart and His shepherding and seeking spirit—Matt. 9:12-13.
G
The disciples who followed the Lord for three and a half years saw what He did, how He behaved, and how He spoke; the Spirit of life and of reality who was breathed into them (John 20:22) would guide them into all the reality of what they had observed of the Lord (16:13).
H
The Lord Jesus was a person living a human life in resurrection, not by Himself but by another source, that is, His Father; when we live in our humanity by another life, by the Christ who indwells us, this kind of living makes us the Lord’s genuine disciples.
I
The disciples of the Lord have the real presence of the Triune God as their exceeding joy to make them persons who are “Jesusly human,” those who are sweet, charming, and attractive to those whom they contact, without any deception or hypocrisy—Matt. 1:23; Psa. 43:4; Rom. 14:17; Neh. 8:10; Phil. 1:25; 4:5, 8-9; 1 Tim. 4:15-16.
J
The followers of Christ were discipled through Christ’s human living on the earth, as the model of a God-man—living God by denying Himself in humanity (John 5:19, 30), revolutionizing their concept concerning man (Phil. 3:10; 1:21a).
K
“I was in the recovery observing how Brother Watchman Nee acted for eighteen years. All that I observed in him became things discipling me” (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” p. 76).
Ⅱ
We are believers in Christ, those who have life and live by the faith of the Son of God; faith annuls us and causes us to live God, to express God, and to minister God into people—2 Cor. 6:14-16; Rom. 1:17; Heb. 11:6; Gal. 2:20:
A
The believers in Christ (John 3:15-16) have been transferred from Adam into Christ (1 Cor. 15:22), they have been regenerated to be a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), they are united with Christ in His eternal life, and they are joined to Christ to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17):
１
As believers in Christ, we have been generated twice; we were generated the first time to be the natural man, but one day we were regenerated to be born anew with the divine, eternal life—John 3:6-7.
２
Our second birth certificate of our spiritual birth is seen in Romans 8:16, which says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God; our divine and mystical birth certificate is a double spirit, the Spirit with our spirit, which has become one spirit with the Lord.
B
When man hears Christ, knows Him, appreciates Him, and treasures Him, He causes faith to be generated in man, enabling man to believe in Him; thus, He becomes the faith in man by which man believes in Him—Heb. 12:2.
C
Faith comes out of the hearing of the word; when we hear Christ and contact Him as the living word of God in the written word of God, He becomes the applied word as the Spirit dispensed into us to be our faith; thus, God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit mingled with our spirit is faith—Rom. 10:17; John 1:1; 5:39-40; 6:63.
D
The hearing of faith awakens our loving appreciation, and the more we love the Lord, the more faith operates to bring us into the riches, the profit, of the all-inclusive Spirit—Gal. 3:2, 5; 5:6.
E
Romans 12:3 says, “Not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith”:
１
To think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think without a sober mind annuls the proper order of the Body life; God gave us the same faith in quality but not in quantity; the matter of quantity depends upon how we grow; if we grow today as the apostle Paul grew, the portion of faith we receive will be greatly enlarged.
２
How much faith God apportions to us depends upon our attitude; if we are not sober-minded (thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, not considering one another more excellent than ourselves, and thinking that we are something when we are nothing), God would not increase His apportioning of faith to us, and He probably would even decrease it—Phil. 2:2-3; Gal. 6:3; 1 Cor. 8:1-3.
F
We believers live by faith in the following relationships with Christ:
１
Christ is the vine, and we are His branches—John 15:1-8.
２
Christ is the Head, and we are His members—1 Cor. 12:27.
３
Christ is the breath of life, the water of life, and the bread of life, and we are His breathers, eaters, and drinkers—John 20:22; 4:10, 14; 7:37-39a; 6:35, 51-63, 68.
４
Christ is the Bridegroom, and we are His bride—3:29; Eph. 5:25-27; Rev. 19:7-9; 2 Cor. 11:2-3.
５
Christ is the Father of the orphans, and we are the orphans who have become His children, enjoying His care and deliverance, which imply His rescue and saving every day—John 14:18; Psa. 68:5-6; Isa. 9:6; 22:19-22; John 1:12-13; 14:10; Psa. 107:1-43; 110:4; Rev. 2:1, 7; Heb. 7:25; Rom. 5:10.
６
Christ is our Physician, and we are His patients, enjoying Him as our Healer to be our forgiveness, enjoyment, joy, satisfaction, and freedom—Exo. 15:23-26; Mark 2:1—3:6.
７
Christ is the light of the world, and we are His followers so that we may have the light of life and be His diffuser to spread the divine light—John 8:12; Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 2:12-16; 1 John 1:5, 7, 9; Rev. 21:23.
Ⅲ
We are saints of God, those who have been separated and made holy unto God—Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2, 30; cf. Num. 6:1-9:
A
We have been sanctified with His redeeming blood positionally—Heb. 13:12.
B
We are being sanctified with His holy nature dispositionally—2 Thes. 2:13; Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:26; 1 Thes. 5:23-24.
Ⅳ
We are Christians, Christ-men, those who are one with Christ, having Christ as our bountifully supplying contents in an organic union with Him to live Him for His magnification in our daily life—Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Pet. 4:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Cor. 4:7; Phil. 1:19-21a:
A
The goal of being a Christian and the destiny that God has ordained for us in His economy is for us to walk by the Spirit in order to live Christ for God’s glory, His expression—Gal. 2:20; 5:16, 25; 6:17; Isa. 43:7; 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31.
B
Every Christian on this earth has a special journey that the Lord has assigned to him as a functioning member of Christ for the building up of His Body; he has to take the journey himself; no one else can replace him, nor can he replace anyone else—Acts 13:22, 25, 36; 20:24; 1 Cor. 9:24; 12:14-22; 2 Tim. 4:7-8.