A Gradual, Experiential Entering into New Jerusalem
Ephesians 4:22-24 exhorts us 1) to put off our former manner of life, even to put off our whole old man, 2) to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and 3) to put on the new man. The putting off is by remaining in the death of Christ and the putting on is by living in His resurrection.
The degree of our putting off, renewing, and putting on is the measure of our entrance into New Jerusalem. We cannot determine the extent of our progress but we can and should pursue this path, knowing that we have not yet arrived.
We all need to ask ourselves how much we are in the New Jerusalem and how much we are still outside the gates. The only way for a further entering into the holy city is by a further staying in the death of Christ. The death of Christ is the right place for you to receive and experience the secretion of life by the resurrected Christ. What I am telling you is not an objective teaching concerning the resurrection, but is altogether concerning our daily experience of the subjective, resurrection life of Christ.*
Paul told us “I do not account of myself to have laid hold” (Phil. 3:13). He was a relatively mature Christian and had received much more divine revelation than we have received. Yet he did not reckon himself to have arrived. Rather “I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward” (3:14).
We too have been called upward. Let us pursue toward a full entering into New Jerusalem while we await our Lord’s glorious manifestation.
* From chapter 33, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.
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Posted by Don on February 6, 2023
