As a believer in Christ, do you sometimes feel as if Christ is far away from you? You love Him as your wonderful Savior, and you appreciate all He’s done for you. But does it seem as if your relationship with Him is objective rather than intimately personal? Do you wonder how you can have a closer relationship with the Lord?
To answer this question, we first need to see the nature of our relationship with the Lord Jesus. When we repented of our sins and believed in Jesus as our Savior, something remarkable took place in us that made our relationship with Christ profoundly personal and subjective. And it had everything to do with our human spirit and the divine Spirit being united together. As we’ll see, this union between us and the Lord is what makes Christ real, near, and available to us all the time.
Since this is such a great matter in the Bible, we can only discuss it briefly in this post. We’ll read crucial verses and insightful notes in the New Testament Recovery Version to help us see our union with the Lord and its significance for our Christian life.
The human spirit
Let’s begin with the human spirit. The fact that the human spirit is mentioned numerous times throughout the Bible indicates its great significance in God’s plan for humanity.
According to the Bible, God created us with a spirit, a soul, and a body. Our body is the outermost part of our being, and our soul is within our body. Our spirit is the innermost part of our being, even deeper than our soul.
Zechariah 12:1 is a remarkable verse:
“Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.”
The Word of God ranks the spirit of man with the creation of the heavens and the earth, showing us how meaningful it is in God’s eyes.
So why is our human spirit so important?
This God-created organ is endowed with abilities unique to human beings. It can contact God, who, according to John 4:24, is Spirit. It can receive God, which is how God can come into us when we’re regenerated. And it can contain God so that God can live in us. This is why our human spirit is so important. With our spirit, we can know and experience God inwardly and subjectively.
But until we were saved, our spirit was in a deadened state, a consequence of Adam’s disobedience in the garden of Eden. Through Adam, the entire human race became fallen, utterly sinful, and separated from God.
Yet God didn’t give up on His plan. Instead, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world to die for fallen sinners. Jesus Christ accomplished a wonderful redemption through His death on the cross so that all who believe in Him can be saved from eternal judgment and be brought back to God.
The life-giving Spirit
Of course, Jesus’ death on the cross wasn’t the end, in the same way that being redeemed isn’t the end of our relationship with Him. On the third day, He resurrected from the dead. And in His resurrection, something momentous occurred.
First Corinthians 15:45 says:
“So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul’; the last Adam [Christ] became a life-giving Spirit.”
In His resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit. Note 1 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version sheds light on what this means for us. Let’s read the first part:
“Through creation Adam became a living soul with a soulish body. Through resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit with a spiritual body. Adam as a living soul is natural; Christ as a life-giving Spirit is resurrected. First, in incarnation He became flesh for redemption (John 1:14, 29); then, in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit for the imparting of life (John 10:10b). Through incarnation He had a soulish body, as Adam had; through resurrection He has a spiritual body. His soulish body has become a spiritual one through resurrection.”
We fallen human beings have a twofold need: we need to be redeemed, and we need to obtain divine life, as God planned for us. As the note explains, in incarnation, Christ took the monumental step of becoming a man of flesh and blood in order to redeem us. Then in resurrection, Christ took another step and became a life-giving Spirit in order to impart life to us.
Now let’s read the second part of this note to see what happened when we believed in Christ:
“Now He [Christ] is a life-giving Spirit in resurrection, with a spiritual body, ready to be received by His believers. When we believe into Him, He enters our spirit, and we are joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit. Hence, we become one spirit with Him (6:17). Our spirit is made alive and is resurrected with Him. Eventually, our present soulish body will become a spiritual body in resurrection, just like His (vv. 52-54; Phil. 3:21).”
Before His death and resurrection, Christ could only be among and with His followers. He couldn’t be in them. But as the life-giving Spirit, He can enter into all who repent and believe in Him. Specifically, when we were saved, He entered into our human spirit, the part of our being that can receive Him.
[[Free Study Bible]]
Joined to the Lord
Let’s read this statement from the note again:
“When we believe into Him, He enters our spirit, and we are joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit. Hence, we become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).”
The verse reference for this statement is 1 Corinthians 6:17, which says:
“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
Let’s take a closer look at the words joined and one spirit.
First, what does it mean to be joined to the Lord? Note 1 in the New Testament Recovery Version explains:
“This refers to the believers’ organic union with the Lord through believing into Him (John 3:15-16). This union is illustrated by that of the branches with the vine (John 15:4-5). It is a matter not only of life but in life (the divine life). Such a union with the resurrected Lord can only be in our spirit.”
The word organic refers to living things, things related to life. Here the note points out that our union with the Lord is organic because it’s in and of the divine life. Our organic union with the Lord is illustrated by branches with the vine. Branches, of course, aren’t joined to a vine with glue or nails; that wouldn’t be organic. Instead, the branches and the vine are one with each other by sharing the same life.
In John 15, the Lord Jesus said that He is the vine and we, His believers, are the branches. When we believed in the Lord, we were joined to Him in the divine life. Now, we share that life in an organic union with the Lord.
This union with the Lord can only be in our spirit, since it’s the result of the Spirit coming into our spirit. By believing in Christ, we’re joined to Him in the deepest part of our being. This is the nature of our relationship with Him.
One spirit with the Lord
Now, what does one spirit mean? Note 2 on this phrase in 1 Corinthians 6:17 explains:
“This indicates the mingling of the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. Our spirit has been regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:6), who is now in us (v. 19) and is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). This is the realization of the Lord, who became the life-giving Spirit through resurrection (15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) and who is now with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This mingled spirit is often referred to in Paul’s Epistles, e.g., in Rom. 8:4-6.”
Once we receive Him, we and the Lord are no longer separate, but one spirit. This is the result of the Lord as the Spirit being mingled with our spirit.
To illustrate this mingling, we can use the example of hot water and a tea bag. They’re two separate things, but when they come together, a mingling takes place. The water and the tea bag are mingled together to produce tea.
Similarly, when we believed in Jesus Christ, His Spirit and our spirit were mingled together, resulting in one spirit. We’re no longer two separate entities, but we’re joined to Him as one.
Our Christian life
Knowing that the Lord as the Spirit and our human spirit are mingled as one is crucial for us to live the Christian life. God wants us to live in this union with Him.
Note 2 on 1 Corinthians 6:17, which we just read, references Romans 8:4-6. Romans 8:4 says:
“That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”
Let’s read note 3 on spirit:
“It is difficult to discern the word spirit used in this chapter, in Gal. 5, and in other places in the New Testament, unless it is clearly designated to denote God’s Holy Spirit or our regenerated human spirit, as in v. 9 and v. 16 of this chapter. According to the usage in the New Testament, the word spirit, as used in this verse, denotes our regenerated human spirit indwelt by and mingled with the Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God (v. 9). This corresponds with 1 Cor. 6:17, ‘He who is joined to the Lord [who is the Spirit—2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45] is one spirit’—one mingled spirit.”
In this verse, we see our mingled spirit, our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit. Here, the apostle Paul says that we are to walk, that is, to live, do, say things, and conduct ourselves according to the spirit, referring to our mingled spirit.
We should live our Christian life in oneness with the Lord by walking according to our mingled spirit. Since this is the case, our mingled spirit should be the focal point of our relationship with the Lord.
Our life with the Lord
Because we’re joined to the Lord, Christ is near, subjective, and always available to us. We can experience and enjoy Him by contacting Him in our spirit anytime, anywhere, in any situation. He’s one with us, and we’re one with Him!
No matter what kind of situation we’re in, Christ is one with us, and we can experience and enjoy Him being everything to us. By turning to Him and contacting Him in our spirit, we can experience Him living in us, and even for us, at any given moment. If we need patience, He’s the patient One in our mingled spirit. If we need love, endurance, or wisdom, He can meet all our needs from right within us.
Because Christ is joined to us, we can know and enjoy His presence with us all the time in the most personal way. The more we enjoy Christ this way, the more we’ll express Him to people around us.
The Bible reveals that our relationship with Christ is an organic union, the mingling of His Spirit with ours. He’s not far away from us at all! On the contrary, He’s nearer to us than we could have ever imagined. We simply need to practice contacting Him in our spirit to experience Him in our daily life. We have such a precious relationship with the Lord in our mingled spirit!
The union and mingling of the divine Spirit with our human spirit is a profound fact that we can, and must, experience daily. We’ve only been able to touch on this subject briefly, but if you live in the US we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version so you can read all the notes on the verses in this post.
People all over the world have heard the story of Jesus’ birth. But have you ever wondered whether there’s more to the familiar story? The Bible records the birth of Jesus in detail, so this event must be deeply meaningful.
In this post, we’ll use verses and notes from the New Testament Recovery Version to take a closer look at Jesus’ birth. Catching even a glimpse of its significance will increase our love for Jesus and uplift our worship of Him.
Prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament
About seven hundred years before Christ, a prophecy concerning Jesus’ birth was recorded in the Old Testament. Isaiah 7:14 says:
“Therefore The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.”
The New Testament opens with the account of Jesus’ birth. In the first chapter of Matthew, verse 18 tells us how the virgin birth prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled:
“Now the origin of Jesus Christ was in this way: His mother, Mary, after she had been engaged to Joseph, before they came together, was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.”
Note 1 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version speaks of the profound meaning of Mary being with child of the Holy Spirit:
“Although Christ was born of Mary (v. 16), He was a child of the Holy Spirit. The birth of Christ was directly of the Holy Spirit (v. 20). His source was the Holy Spirit and His element was divine. Through the virgin Mary He put on flesh and blood, the human nature, taking the likeness of the flesh (Rom. 8:3), the likeness of men (Phil. 2:7).”
Though Jesus was born as a child with flesh and blood, His source was the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:20 tells us more about Jesus' origin:
“But while he [Joseph] pondered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
Note 1 on this verse explains:
“God was first born into Mary through His Spirit; after the conception was completed, He, with the human nature, was born to be a God-man, possessing both divinity and humanity. This is the origin of Christ.”
These two verses, Matthew 1:18 and 20, show us that the birth of Jesus Christ was by no means the ordinary birth of an ordinary man; it was the extraordinary incarnation of God Himself. The birth of Jesus was the birth of a God-man, a wonderful Person who was both divine and human.
[[Free Study Bible]]
Jesus and Emmanuel
Matthew 1:21-23 tell us two names of this precious, unique Person: Jesus and Emmanuel:
“And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins. Now all this has happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel’ (which is translated, God with us).”
The two excellent names of Jesus and Emmanuel are full of significance for us. Let’s explore these names with the help of the notes in the Recovery Version.
Note 1 on Jesus in verse 21 tells us:
“Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Joshua (Num. 13:16), which means Jehovah the Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. Hence, Jesus is not only a man but Jehovah, and not only Jehovah but Jehovah becoming our salvation. Thus, He is our Savior. He is also our Joshua, the One who brings us into rest (Heb. 4:8; Matt. 11:28-29), which is Himself as the good land to us.”
Because of the fall of man, all human beings need a Savior. This Savior is Jesus, who is Jehovah, the very God Himself. The God-man Jesus is the only one who saves us from our sins. Not only so, but even after we first believe in Him we can continue to enjoy being saved from the negative things in our lives, such as our temper, anxiety, or discouragement. Whenever we call upon the name of Jesus, we’re saved. How precious the name of Jesus is!
Notes 2 and 3 on the name Emmanuel in verse 23 say this:
“Jesus was the name given by God, whereas Emmanuel, meaning God with us, was the name by which man called Him. Jesus the Savior is God with us. He is God, and He is also God incarnated to dwell among us (John 1:14). He is not only God but God with us.” “Christ as the very Emmanuel not only was with us when He was on earth, but also is with us, since His ascension, whenever we are gathered into His name (18:20). Moreover, He will be with us all the days until the consummation of the age (28:20).”
Our Savior Jesus is Emmanuel; He is God with us all the time. How comforting and encouraging this is! He's always with us, everywhere and in every situation.
Saving us and being with us forever
To save us, God did an amazing thing. The eternal God became an approachable man, Jesus, and lived a perfect, sinless life on earth among fallen humanity. What a mysterious and yet wondrous fact! As the God-man, Jesus reached mankind with His love, mercy, and kindness. He spoke words of righteousness and truth to bring people out of darkness and into light. Then in His body of flesh and blood, Jesus suffered death on the cross for our sins. He accomplished redemption for us, and by believing in Him, we’re cleansed from our sins and delivered from eternal judgment.
But that’s not all. Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead. In resurrection, Christ became the life-giving Spirit so He could enter into us. When we believe in Christ, we receive we receive Him, and He comes into us to live in us and be with us always as part of His plan to fulfill His eternal purpose.
If you haven’t yet received the Savior, you don’t have to wait any longer. Just pray this prayer with a sincere heart:
“Lord Jesus, I believe You are the true God and a perfect man. Thank You for being born and becoming a real man with both divinity and humanity. Thank You for saving me from my sins by dying for me. Lord, I receive You right now. Come into me and live in me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, You are Emmanuel, God with me all the time. Amen.”
To read more about Jesus and what He did for us, we encourage you to read this post. And if you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here to read all the notes on the verses mentioned in this post.
To give thanks seems like such a simple matter. From the time they’re little, we teach our children to say “Thank you” to someone who gives them something or does something for them.
Yet at certain times in our lives, giving thanks to the Lord can be hard for us. In this post, we’ll see the secret from the Bible of giving thanks in all things, and how giving thanks is a crucial part of our Christian experience.
Paul exhorts us to give thanks
The Bible has a lot to say about giving thanks. The word thank appears in some form a multitude of times throughout both the Old and New Testaments.
In the New Testament alone, the apostle Paul wrote about giving thanks at least 46 times. Surely this indicates that giving thanks to God is something important.
Perhaps Paul’s most challenging charge to believers is in 1 Thessalonians 5:18:
“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
“In everything”—this is the challenge. When we “count our blessings,” it’s easy for us to happily give thanks for the things the Lord has done for us or supplied us with. But it’s harder for us to thank Him when it seems as if the blessings have run out, or when our situation doesn’t look very positive. When confronted with difficulties, we may not feel thankful. Instead we may bemoan our situation and complain about it to God and to everyone else.
Yet Paul says giving thanks in everything is God’s will for us. Was Paul speaking only in theory, or from his personal experience?
Paul’s experience
We know from reading the book of Acts that Paul’s life was far from being trouble free. He was imprisoned, persecuted, beaten, and shipwrecked. Yet even while suffering such difficult circumstances, Paul was full of thanks.
So when Paul said in everything give thanks, he wasn’t speaking theoretically; he was talking about something he actually practiced, even in the most awful of situations. He gave genuine thanks to the Lord amid the most trying conditions.
How did Paul do it? Was he some kind of “super Christian”? Actually, from Ephesians 3:8, we know that Paul considered himself “less than the least of all saints.” So how was Paul able to give thanks in everything?
[[Free Study Bible]]
Giving thanks in the name of the Lord
Paul’s secret for giving thanks in any situation can be found in a short phrase in Ephesians 5:20:
“Giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father.”
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—this is the secret to giving thanks to God not only in good times but at all times, not only for good things but for all things.
Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version helps us understand what this means:
“The reality of the name of the Lord is His person. To be in the Lord’s name is to be in His person, in Himself. This implies that we should be one with the Lord in giving thanks to God.”
Now let’s also read Colossians 3:17, a sister verse to Ephesians 5:20:
“And whatever you do in word or in deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
And note 1 on this verse says:
“The name denotes the person. The Lord’s person is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17a). To do things in the name of the Lord is to act in the Spirit. This is to live Christ.”
What it means to live Christ
In Philippians 1:21, Paul said:
“For to me, to live is Christ.”
Note 1 on this verse is extremely helpful in seeing what it means to live Christ:
“Paul’s life was to live Christ. To him, to live was Christ, not the law or circumcision. He would not live the law but would live Christ, not be found in the law but be found in Christ (3:9). Christ was not only his life but also his living. He lived Christ because Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). He was one with Christ in both life and living. He and Christ had one life and one living. They lived together as one person. Christ lived within Paul as Paul’s life, and Paul lived Christ without as Christ’s living. The normal experience of Christ is to live Him, and to live Him is to magnify Him always, regardless of the circumstances.”
In ourselves, we have no ability to genuinely thank God for everything, including the distressing, troubling, and unpleasant things. But when we live Christ, who lives in us, we can thank God for all things just like Paul did. This kind of living isn’t reserved for “super Christians”; it’s how God wants every believer to live.
We can give thanks in everything
Practically speaking, to live Christ we simply need to contact Him in our spirit by praying and calling on His name. When we contact Him in this way, we enjoy having one life and one living with Him. And spontaneously, our prayers will be filled with praise and thanks to God for all things.
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here to read all the verses mentioned in this post, together with their eye-opening commentary.
God truly loves us. The Bible tells us that He took some tremendous steps in order to save us. As God’s children, we experience His help when we have difficulties and can come to Him with all our cares.
But knowing this, it’s possible for all our prayers to revolve around ourselves. We ask God for things we need, and even when it comes to God’s will, our prayer is usually, “God, what is Your will for me?” Somehow, we always end up at the center.
If we stop to consider that God is the One who created the heavens and earth and all mankind, we have to wonder why He did it. Could God have a goal in mind beyond simply caring for the details of our personal welfare?
The idea that God might want something for Himself may never have crossed our minds. After all, God is Almighty; He doesn’t lack anything.
Have you ever thought to ask God, “Is there something You want for Yourself?” In this post, we’ll read some key verses from Ephesians together with notes in the New Testament Recovery Version to help us find the answer to this question.
How we know God wants something for Himself
First, let’s just consider ourselves. We human beings seek joy, and we make plans and take steps to get what we desire. No one had to teach us to feel or think that way. You could say our desire for joy and satisfaction is a reflection of God’s desire for joy and satisfaction. This shouldn’t surprise us, since Genesis 1:26 tells us God made us in His own image. So this should be a clear indicator to us that God also has a desire, something that will bring Him joy.
But most importantly, the Bible tells us directly that God does indeed want something for Himself, that He has a desire in His heart that must be fulfilled.
Ephesians 1:9 says:
“Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.”
In this verse, we read the words will, good pleasure, and purposed. These words show us that God has something in His heart that He wants. The word pleasure refers to a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment. God has a good pleasure, something that will make Him happy and satisfy His heart. He purposed this good pleasure in Himself, and His will is according to that good pleasure.
Now let’s read Ephesians 1:5, another verse where good pleasure appears:
“Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”
This verse reveals that God’s good pleasure has something to do with our sonship. But what does this mean?
Let’s read the first part of note 2 from the New Testament Recovery Version:
“God’s marking us out beforehand was to destine us unto sonship. We were predestinated to be sons of God even before we were created. Hence, as God’s creatures we need to be regenerated by Him that we may participate in His life to be His sons. Sonship implies having not only the life but also the position of a son.”
God marked us out and predestinated us unto sonship. This means our destiny is sonship. And our sonship isn’t just for our benefit; it’s so God can obtain His good pleasure and heart’s desire!
We received the life of God when we were born again, making us His sons. Now by sharing His divine life, we can participate in and grow in His life. The more we grow in His life—eventually becoming full-grown sons—the more God gains His expression in us. This is why He redeemed us, regenerated us, and is working in us day by day.
And there’s more: God doesn’t want just individual sons. God wants all His sons together to be a living entity, full of His life, that can express Him to the entire universe. What is this living entity?
God wants the church
This living entity that God wants is the church.
The apostle Paul ends Ephesians chapter 1 with writing about the church in verses 22 and 23.
Verse 22 says:
“And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.”
Note 4 on church explains:
“Here this book uses the term church for the first time, pointing out the main subject of this book. The Greek word for church is ekklesia, meaning the called-out congregation. This indicates that the church is a gathering of those who have been called out of the world by God. As such, the church is composed of all the believers in Christ.”
In a book that speaks of God’s good pleasure and purpose, the main subject is the church. This shows us that the church is the desire of God’s heart.
What is the church? According to the Bible, the church isn’t a physical building or a religious organization; the church is the called-out congregation. This congregation is composed of all the believers in Christ who are regenerated sons of God. Together, these sons of God are the church that can satisfy God’s heart’s desire.
The church is the Body of Christ
So the church revealed in the Bible is a living entity composed of all the believers who have God’s life! The church is God’s good pleasure.
Paul continued in Ephesians 1:23:
“[the church,] which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.”
This verse shows us that the church isn’t just the called-out congregation; the church is the Body of Christ, who is the Head.
Now let’s read note 1 on Body in verse 23:
“The Body of Christ is not an organization but an organism constituted of all the regenerated believers for the expression and activities of the Head. The Body of Christ is the issue of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, who has come into the church. By means of the ascended Christ’s heavenly transmission, we are made one with Him, and thus His Body is produced.”
Just as our physical body is an organism, a living entity, and not a lifeless organization, the church is the Body of Christ. Christ is the living Head, and all He is and has is transmitted to the church, which is His living Body.
[[Free Study Bible]]
The church is the fullness of Christ
Verse 23 further reveals that the church, the Body, is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. What does that mean?
Note 2 on fullness explains:
“The Body of Christ is His fullness. The fullness of Christ issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (3:8). Through the enjoyment of Christ’s riches, we become His fullness to express Him.”
The more we enjoy Christ and His riches, the more we as His Body become His fullness.
Then the first paragraph of note 3 on the word fills explains:
“Christ, who is the infinite God without any limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression.”
No wonder God longs to have the church. It’s through the church that He can be fully expressed! And His plan for gaining the church includes each one of us. God created us, saved us, and regenerated us for this. Today He’s mingling Himself more with us and working Himself into us for this.
We’ve seen that the book of Ephesians reveals God has a heart’s desire that He purposed in Himself. Our sonship is part of this desire, and ultimately, God wants a full expression of Himself through the church, the Body of Christ.
In future posts we’ll delve further into the matter of the church. The church as revealed in the Bible, and especially in the book of Ephesians, is what God wants. For now, let’s prayerfully consider before the Lord the verses cited in this post to see that God’s desire is the church. We can pray something like this:
“Lord, open my eyes and give me revelation to see the church is Your heart’s desire. Show me what the church is according to Your Word.”
Ephesians chapter 1 is incredibly profound; it reveals that the desire of God’s heart is the church, the Body of Christ. We could only touch on this matter briefly in this post. If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here so you can read all the verses with their notes in this marvelous chapter. In addition, The Glorious Church is a wonderful book that provides an overview of God’s plan as it relates to the church. You can download it for free here from anywhere in the world.
When we first repented to God and received Jesus Christ as our Savior, we were forgiven of all our sins and saved from judgment. We were filled with joy and peace!
But though we’re saved, we still commit sins. The fact that we sin after we’re saved doesn’t mean our salvation isn’t real or eternally secure. The Bible assures us that it is, so we don’t need to be saved all over again.
But then what should we do when we sin? On God’s side, He can’t simply overlook or ignore the sins we commit. And on our side, we’re weighed down with guilt after we do something that offends God. In this post, we’ll read key passages from the Bible that show us how we can apply God’s provision for us when we sin after we’re saved.
Why do we sin after we're saved?
First, let’s talk about why we sin even after we receive the Lord.
God created human beings with a spirit, soul, and body. God’s original intention for Adam, representing all mankind, was for him to receive God’s divine life by eating the tree of life in the garden of Eden. But instead, Adam disobeyed God and took in the evil nature of Satan by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The terrible consequences of Adam’s disobedience are still with us today. One consequence was that the pure body God created was polluted and became the flesh, full of lusts and inclined to sin.
When we were born again, we received the divine life of God in our spirit. But our fallen body is still the sinful flesh.
Galatians 5:16 says:
“But I say, Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Paul wrote these words to believers in Galatia. This shows us that we still have the fallen flesh with its lusts even after we’re saved, which explains why we sin.
What should we do when we sin?
The Bible clearly tells us what we should do when we sin: we must confess our sins to the Lord.
First John 1:9, which was written to believers, says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Confessing our sins to God is indispensable in our Christian life. Now, let's look into confessing our sins in some detail.
Why we need to confess our sins
God wants to have a loving relationship with us. But when we sin, a barrier arises between us and God, interrupting our fellowship with Him. This is because God is holy and righteous; He can’t overlook sin.
We’ve all experienced a similar interruption in our human relationships. Let’s say you speak to your friend in a hurtful way, but you never apologize. You both feel a barrier has risen between you. The passing of time doesn’t help. Unless you clear the air by apologizing, neither party can be at ease in each other’s presence.
When it comes to our relationship with the Lord, this is even more the case. We enjoy free and open fellowship with the Lord, but when we sin, our conscience tells us we’ve offended Him. The ease and sweetness in our relationship is lost; our sin is now a barrier between us. We can’t enjoy fellowship with Him as we did before.
The only way our fellowship with the Lord can be restored is by confessing our sins to Him.
What it means to confess our sins
To confess our sins means we admit and acknowledge our sins to God. We don’t cover them up, act as if we did nothing wrong, or hope that after some time passes, everything will be okay.
The writer of Psalm 32 said in verse 5:
“I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Jehovah. Then You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
So we must acknowledge our sins to the Lord and admit we’ve sinned by confessing them to Him.
But how do we know when we’ve sinned? What should we confess?
First John 1:5 says, “God is light.” When God shines on us, He exposes our sins and failures, and we become conscious of them. The resulting sense of guilt in our conscience is uncompromising. It can’t be subdued by any reasoning or excuse on our side.
In response, we agree with God’s light and His judgment on our sin by saying, “Yes, Lord, that is sin.”
But we don’t need to search ourselves or fret over whether or not we've done something wrong. God’s light exposes our sins. And the Lord’s shining isn’t vague but very specific. He shines on things like a lie we told, the way we spoke to someone, or our disobedience.
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How to confess our sins to the Lord
We confess our sins directly to God by prayer. Whether it’s a small transgression or a serious one, as soon as we become aware of it, we must immediately admit our sin to God and ask for His forgiveness.
To do this, we don’t need to go to a certain place, tell a special person, or wait for a particular time. No matter where we are, as soon as we know we’ve sinned and offended the Lord, God wants us to confess to Him in prayer. Since He’s living in our spirit, we can confess our sins to Him anywhere, any time.
The result of confession: forgiveness and cleansing
Let’s return to 1 John 1:9 to see the result of our confession:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The result of confessing our sins is that we’re forgiven and cleansed. The Lord’s blood was shed so that we could be forgiven.
Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version explains what it means for God to be faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins:
“God is faithful in His word (v. 10) and righteous in the blood of Jesus His Son (v. 7). His word is the word of the truth of His gospel (Eph. 1:13), which tells us that He will forgive us our sins because of Christ (Acts 10:43); and the blood of Christ has fulfilled His righteous requirements that He might forgive us our sins (Matt. 26:28). If we confess our sins, He, according to His word and based on the redemption through the blood of Jesus, forgives us because He must be faithful in His word and righteous in the blood of Jesus; otherwise, He would be unfaithful and unrighteous. Our confession is needed for His forgiveness. Such forgiveness of God, which is for the restoration of our fellowship with Him, is conditional; it depends on our confession.”
Though our being forgiven and cleansed is based upon God’s faithfulness and righteousness, it requires our confession.
Note 3 on the same verse explains what being cleansed from all unrighteousness means:
“To forgive us is to release us from the offense of our sins, whereas to cleanse us is to wash us from the stain of our unrighteousness.”
So not only are we forgiven, but we’re even cleansed from the stain of our unrighteousness when we confess! This is how our fellowship with the Lord is restored.
Some practical examples
Let’s say your workplace has a stock of notepads and pens. Since they’re just the kind you like, you help yourself to a few for personal use at home. Later on, as you’re spending time with the Lord, He shines on you and convicts you in your conscience that you’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to you.
You could reason, “The office has plenty; they’ll never be missed.” Or, you could agree with the feeling of conviction and guilt in your conscience and acknowledge what you did was wrong.
When you decide to go along with the Lord, you can immediately admit you sinned and say, “Yes, Lord, You’re right; I’ve sinned. I confess I took those things. I’m sorry. Forgive me, Lord. Thank You for shedding Your precious blood to take away my sin. Lord, cleanse me of this sin.”
What’s required isn’t a promise to do better but an acknowledgement of your sin. After you confess, you should also make things right when necessary. In this case, you should return the items to your workplace.
As another example, let’s say you lose your temper with a family member and storm out of the room in anger. Then, later, the Lord shines on you and you realize you were wrong. You can immediately confess to the Lord: “Lord, I’m sorry I lost my temper. Please forgive me. Wash me in Your precious blood right now.” God immediately forgives you, and the barrier to your fellowship is removed.
Since you offended not just the Lord but also your family member, you also need to apologize to that person.
We might think some sins seem too small to be of concern. But we should confess whatever sins the Lord Jesus shines upon—big or small. They all matter. If we let small sins pile up, we’ll eventually find it easy to let a big sin remain unconfessed. And any sin interrupts our fellowship with God.
Confessing our sins in our daily life
Confessing our sins should be a daily matter.
Just as it’s impossible for us not to get our hands dirty in our daily lives, it’s impossible for us to go through a day and not sin in some way. We wash our hands throughout the day, whenever we notice that they’ve gotten dirty. We don’t just let the dirt accumulate. In the same way, it’s best for us to confess our sins as soon as we’re aware of them and not let them accumulate. We can experience being forgiven and cleansed several times a day.
This is how we can have a close, loving relationship with the Lord and continue to grow in Him. We encourage you to read chapter 3 in Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1 to learn more about God’s provision for our sins. You can download this free e-book from anywhere in the world for free here.
You can also read the verses and the notes from the New Testament Recovery Version mentioned in this post. If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of this outstanding study Bible here.
As you may know, Bibles for America (BfA) gives away free copies of the New Testament Recovery Version to US residents. This special study version includes extensive notes, outlines, and cross-references, all of which were prepared by Witness Lee.
Witness Lee and Watchman Nee are also the authors of the free e-books that can be downloaded on our site from anywhere in the world.
BfA chose to give away the New Testament Recovery Version and these particular books because they’ve helped thousands of believers to experience Christ as life and to know God’s eternal purpose.
You may not be that familiar with these two faithful servants of God. Although we can’t present a complete biography in a blog post, we want to give you some idea of their background and their lives with the Lord.
In another post we presented a brief biography of Watchman Nee. In this post, we want to focus on Witness Lee.
Background and salvation
Witness Lee was born in 1905 into a Christian family in northern China. His mother made great financial sacrifices so he could attend a Southern Baptist Chinese school and, later, the Presbyterian English Mission College. He received an excellent education, but he was not saved during that time.
After one of Lee’s sisters was saved, she began to pray for her brother. She also started bringing him to church meetings in their hometown of Chefoo. At one of those meetings, Lee was deeply touched by the gospel preaching of a sister in the Lord and received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at the age of 19.
Previously, Lee had had lofty ambitions for his future. But after he was saved, he rejected what the world had to offer and consecrated himself to serve the Lord for his entire life.
From the very beginning of Lee’s Christian life, he loved the Bible. He became a serious student of God’s Word, collecting and reading numerous Bible expositions and Christian writings, including those of Watchman Nee.
Lee received particular help from Nee’s writings concerning the divine life of God and began corresponding with Nee about the Bible. Around that time, Lee also began to meet with the Brethren Assembly in Chefoo to learn from their extensive expounding of biblical truths.
A great turn from knowledge to life
Eventually, Lee realized that though he’d amassed a great deal of learning and scriptural knowledge, he had experienced very little of the divine life. He was deeply convicted of his spiritual deadness. Climbing to the top of a small mountain near his home each morning, Lee cried out to the Lord, wept, and confessed his deadness and fruitlessness to Him. He continued to pray in this way for several months.
In 1932, Lee and other believers in Chefoo invited Watchman Nee to visit them. They had much fellowship, and Nee emphasized to Lee the importance of experiencing the divine life.
In Lee’s biography of Nee entitled Watchman Nee—A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age, Lee recounts the effect this fellowship had on him:
“My time with Watchman during those days deeply impressed me with the sweetness, loveliness, attractiveness, and newness of the Lord. Those days provided a new start for me in following the Lord and caused me to have a basic turn from knowledge to life. Because of those days with Watchman Nee, I began to have fellowship with the Lord in a more intimate way. The Lord became more precious to me. That experience was even greater than my experience of salvation. Those days with Watchman affected my pathway in the Lord throughout all the following fifty-nine years, since 1932. For eternity I can never forget those days! What a mercy and grace it was to me.” (pp. 288-289)
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Called to serve the Lord
Shortly after his time with Watchman Nee, Lee began to sense the Lord Jesus calling him to quit his job in order to serve Him with all of his time. After much inward struggle and prayer, Lee obeyed the Lord and in faith, he resigned from his job. His decision to serve the Lord in this way was confirmed afterward by other brothers and by a letter from Watchman Nee concerning the matter. Lee remained faithful to this calling for the rest of his life.
Co-laboring with Watchman Nee
Lee then spent several months with Nee in Shanghai. During that time, they had much fellowship concerning a number of important matters: knowing Christ as life, the Lord’s work in China from the time of Watchman Nee’s salvation, church history, and knowing the Bible in the way of life. In 1934, Lee moved to Shanghai to be with Nee, and Nee entrusted him with overseeing the ministry publication work.
From that point on, Witness Lee and Watchman Nee worked closely together in China, traveling throughout the country to minister God’s Word through spoken messages and written publications. As a result of the labor of these two brothers, more than 400 churches were established in over 30 provinces in China.
Watchman Nee’s commission to Witness Lee
With the Communist takeover of China in 1949, Watchman Nee foresaw that Christians would begin to be persecuted by the new government. Realizing this persecution would imperil the spread of the truths they’d seen in God’s Word, Nee commissioned Lee to go to Taiwan to continue their ministry. Nee wanted to ensure that all the scriptural truths and spiritual principles the Lord had shown them would not be lost, but would continue to nourish and edify believers outside of China.
Witness Lee moved to Taiwan in 1949. Through his labor and the Lord’s blessing, the small number of believers present in 1949 increased rapidly, reaching over 40,000 in the next six years. Lee also continued the publication work in Taiwan, as Nee had commissioned him to do.
In the late 1950s, Lee was invited to minister in London and Copenhagen. He also made several visits to the United States, and he became deeply concerned for the many Christians he met who were hungry for the truths of the Word of God. Then, in 1962, the Lord led Lee to immigrate to the US.
Witness Lee’s ministry in the United States
Witness Lee settled in Southern California and gave his first conference in Los Angeles in December 1962. The messages from this conference now comprise the book The All-inclusive Christ, one of the titles we give away.
Lee began traveling throughout the US, ministering to a number of Christian groups who invited him to visit them. He also traveled to minister in Europe, the Far East, South America, Australia, and New Zealand.
Lee continued to publish books in the US, as he had in China and Taiwan.
At almost 70 years of age, Witness Lee undertook two major endeavors. One was a new translation of the Bible from the original Greek manuscripts, the Recovery Version, which included his outlines for each book and rich, insightful notes, as well as extensive cross-references.
The other endeavor can be considered his life’s work, the Life-study of the Bible. This book-by-book exposition of the Bible focuses on the experience of Christ as life as revealed in the Word of God. The entire Life-study took twenty years to complete.
During this time, Lee continued to travel and speak thousands of messages on the Christian life, service, and the church, many of which have been collected and published. His ministry emphasized the experience of Christ as life and the practical oneness of the believers as the Body of Christ.
Lee spoke publicly for the last time at a conference in 1997, just months before his death. At the age of 91, God’s faithful servant went to be with the Lord.
More information
Today, over 2,300 churches have been established globally, and tens of thousands of Christians have come to know Christ as life through the ministries of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee.
Witness Lee’s biography of Watchman Nee, Watchman Nee—A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age, is published by Living Stream Ministry, as well as Lee’s entire body of work. For a more detailed biography of Witness Lee, visit witnesslee.org.
In addition, Bibles for America is currently giving away free hard copies of The Knowledge of Life. This book provides a foundation for the genuine experience of Christ. It will help you know and experience the eternal, divine life of God, which has been made available to us through Christ’s death and resurrection. If you live in the US, you can order your book here. It is also available to download as an e-book here from anywhere in the world.
It seems increasingly rare to hear the word conscience nowadays. People simply decide what’s good and what’s bad according to their own views, and the conscience doesn’t seem to factor in at all. But God doesn’t want us to live that way, especially once we’re saved. After all, He created us with a conscience, which has a very important role in our lives both before and after we receive the Lord.
So it’s important for us to see what the Bible reveals about the conscience, and why having a good conscience is so crucial when it comes to our relationship with the Lord.
In this blog post, we’ll read some key verses and study notes from the Recovery Version on this important subject.
What is the conscience?
First, let’s talk about what the conscience is. Many verses in the Bible speak of the conscience. Every human being, whether they’re saved or unsaved, and regardless of their culture, ethnicity, or background, has a conscience. God created us with a conscience so that we would know right from wrong, what He approves of and what He judges.
Romans 2:14 and 15 say:
“For when Gentiles, who have no law, do by nature the things of the law, though they have no law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness with it and their reasonings, one with the other, accusing or even excusing them.”
In verse 14, note 1 on by nature in the New Testament Recovery Version says:
“The nature of man, as created by God, was originally good and corresponded with God and with His law. Although it was poisoned by the fall, this good nature remains within man. Hence, if anyone lives according to his nature and does by his nature the things of the law, the evil in him will be restricted.”
Now let’s read note 1 in verse 15 on conscience, which explains the relationship of this God-created nature with the conscience:
“Man’s conscience corresponds with the God-created human nature and enables man to know what God justifies and what He condemns.”
By their conscience, people can perceive what God justifies, or approves of, and what He condemns. Even without knowing God or the Bible, their conscience enables them to know right from wrong.
This is how a person can know he’s a sinner.
When we were still unsaved, at some point we heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through those words, our conscience convicted us that we were sinful and needed to be saved. So we repented to God and accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Our conscience after we're saved
When we repented and received the Lord Jesus, He came to live in us, and our conscience became more sensitive and active than before.
It’s important to know that although we’re saved, we still have our sinful flesh and fallen nature. This means we still commit sins despite our best intentions. Our conscience lets us know when we’ve offended God by sinning or disobeying Him.
To illustrate, our conscience is like a smoke detector installed in a building. If there’s a fire in the building, the detector sounds an alarm. But if all is well, it remains quiet. In the same way, our conscience alerts us when we’ve done something wrong and remains quiet when God has no problem with us.
We’ve all experienced these “alerts” from our conscience whenever we do something that doesn’t correspond with God’s holy and righteous nature. For instance, if we lose our temper or say something unkind to someone, our conscience fulfills its role to sound the alarm. And no matter how we try to reason it away, our conscience persists in condemning us.
This is actually a good thing! Without our conscience alerting us, we’d be like a burning building without a smoke detector. We’d be unaware when we’ve incurred God’s disapproval, and our relationship with the Lord would suffer.
Just like we need to take action when we hear a smoke detector, we need to respond to, not ignore, the alert from our conscience when we’ve done something wrong.
A good conscience
How we respond to the feeling from our conscience determines whether or not we have a good conscience.
The phrase a good conscience is used in 1 Timothy 1:5:
“But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of unfeigned faith.”
Part of note 3 on this verse in the Recovery Version explains what a good conscience is:
“A good conscience is a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16).”
This note references Acts 24:16, which is part of the apostle Paul’s testimony when he was brought before Felix the governor. Paul declared:
“Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”
So a good conscience is a conscience without offense, that is, one that doesn’t condemn us for offending God.
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How can we remove offenses in our conscience?
So what should we do when our conscience alerts us that we’ve offended God? How can we remove the offense that triggered the alarm?
Our conscience certainly won’t be quieted by excuses. And making up our mind to be better or doing good deeds can’t outweigh or remove an offense either.
Only one thing can completely expunge that offense and purify our conscience: the precious blood of Christ.
Hebrews 9:14 says:
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Our conscience can only be purified by the blood of Christ. To experience this purifying, we must confess our sins and wrongdoings to God. When we confess, God immediately forgives us, and the blood of Jesus cleanses away the stain of sin. God is satisfied with the blood of Jesus, and we feel peaceful because we have a good conscience once more.
Of course, after we’ve confessed our sin to God, we also need to apologize to anyone we hurt or offended.
Why is having a good conscience so important?
When we’ve offended the Lord, our fellowship with Him is interrupted, and we no longer have peace with God. And if we ignore the voice of our conscience, we have no way to go on in our relationship with the Lord.
In 1 Timothy 1:19, we see the importance of having a good conscience and the serious consequences if we don’t:
“Holding faith and a good conscience, concerning which some, thrusting these away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith.”
Here, the apostle Paul says that we need to hold not just faith but also a good conscience. The first part of note 1 on this verse explains:
“Faith and a good conscience (see note 53) go together. Whenever there is an offense in our conscience, there will be a leakage, and our faith will leak away.”
None of us want our faith to leak away. Since faith and a good conscience go together, the state of our conscience affects our faith. When we allow an offense to remain undealt with, our faith leaks away. This leakage can cause us to eventually lose faith in the Lord, even to such an extent that we become “shipwrecked” regarding our faith.
Note 2 on shipwrecked explains what this means:
“This shows the seriousness of thrusting away faith and a good conscience. To hold faith and a good conscience is a safeguard for our Christian faith and life. The word shipwrecked implies that the Christian life and the church life are like a ship sailing on a stormy sea, needing to be safeguarded by faith and a good conscience.”
The apostle Paul’s use of this vivid imagery of a shipwreck shows us how dire the consequences are of ignoring the feeling from our conscience. We certainly don't want to become shipwrecked regarding our faith. What a sobering word!
So to go on with the Lord in our Christian life, we must maintain a good conscience by being right with God and man. And when we fail, we simply need to confess our sins to be forgiven and cleansed, so that our conscience has nothing to condemn us about.
Thank the Lord for His clear word in the Bible concerning our conscience! Let’s pay attention to our conscience and learn to live our Christian life holding faith and a good conscience.
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here. You can also download The Economy of God for free here from anywhere in the world. We highly recommend reading chapters 8 and 10 to learn more about the importance of maintaining a good conscience and how to do it.
In a previous post, we saw that according to the Bible true Christian transformation isn’t brought about by an improvement in behavior, or by acting in a way we think is more Christ-like. Instead, it’s the result of God’s life operating and growing within us.
Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us we’re being transformed as we behold and reflect the Lord like a mirror. As we behold Him, more of Christ is infused into us, resulting in a spiritual “metabolic” process: our old, natural element is replaced with more of Christ, and we spontaneously live according to Him.
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at 2 Corinthians 3 with help from notes from the Recovery Version to see the things that can hinder us from being able to behold the Lord and how we can deal with them.
The believers are like mirrors
First, let’s read 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
Here, the apostle Paul likened us believers to a mirror. A mirror is a surface that both beholds and reflects what’s in front of it. But if the mirror is covered, or veiled, it can’t behold or reflect anything. It has to be unveiled.
In the same way, if we believers are to behold the glory of the Lord—that is, to see Him and gaze upon His beautiful and glorious Person—we must have an unveiled face. So what does it mean to have an unveiled face?
What is a veil?
To see what it means to have an unveiled face, we first have to see what a veil is. For this, let’s read 2 Corinthians 3:15:
“Indeed unto this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.”
Here, the apostle Paul was speaking of the Jewish people, who revered the writings of Moses in the Old Testament. It wasn’t the writings of Moses themselves, but what the Jewish people thought they knew about them that became a veil on their heart. Because of this, they couldn’t see that the writings of Moses revealed the Lord Jesus.
We know this from the Lord’s own word in Luke 24. This chapter gives the account of the resurrected Jesus meeting and conversing with two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus. Verse 27 says:
“And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He explained to them clearly in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
Jesus made it clear that the writings of Moses and even the entire Old Testament were concerning Himself. These writings revealed not a religion for people to follow but a wonderful Person, Jesus Christ.
Yet the Jewish people couldn’t see this, because Paul said that they had a veil on their heart. Many verses in the Bible reveal that our heart is composed of our mind, emotion, will, and our conscience. Our heart is the organ with which we love God, people, and things. Our heart is also the gateway of our being, determining whether we’re open or closed to particular people and matters.
Our heart is central to our relationship with God, so the condition of our heart is crucial. If we have a veil on our heart, how can we see God? How can He infuse Himself into us? To have a veiled heart is a serious matter.
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What veils do we have?
What about us today? We may think that we know who Jesus is, so Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 3 doesn’t apply to us.
But we need to realize that in principle, a veil can lie on our heart at any time. Sinful things are certainly a problem between us and God, and we need to take care of those things. But from the example Paul used of the Jewish people, we can see that even things related to God and His Word can be a problem to us. Anything that arises from our own preconceived notions or assumptions about the Word is a veil that covers our heart and prevents us from beholding the Lord.
For instance, we may have certain ideas about how we should worship God, how to please God, or how to live the Christian life. These ideas can preoccupy us and prevent us from seeing the Lord.
Not only so, things that seem harmless or unrelated to our Christian walk, such as our personal philosophy or cultural traditions, can also become a veil that covers our heart.
Since this is the case, what can we do? How can we have the veils removed from our heart?
Turning our heart to the Lord
The answer to this question is twofold and involves both our heart and our spirit, our deepest part.
In relation to our heart, 2 Corinthians 3:16 says:
“But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
What an encouraging word! Note 1 on this verse in the Recovery Version tells us:
“This indicates that when their heart is away from the Lord, the veil lies on their heart. When their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Actually, their turned-away heart is the veil. To turn their heart to the Lord is to take away the veil.”
So we need to ask ourselves, is our heart turned away from the Lord or turned to the Lord?
Whenever we sense that we can’t see the Lord, we must turn away from whatever is occupying us and turn our heart to the Lord. We don’t want to hold onto or treasure any of our own concepts or views; we simply want Him, and we want to see Him as He really is.
To turn our hearts to the Lord, we can pray something like this:
“Lord Jesus, I love You. I don’t want to hold onto any of my own thoughts or assumptions about You. I just want You. I want to behold You, Lord. So I turn my heart to You right now.”
And the Word of God assures us that whenever we turn our heart to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Exercising our spirit
Next, in relation to our spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says:
“And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
In order for us to experience the freedom mentioned here, it’s crucial for us to realize who Christ is today and where He is. This verse tells us that the resurrected Lord, Christ, is the Spirit.
And where is the Spirit of the Lord? Second Timothy 4:22 says:
“The Lord be with your spirit.”
The day we believed in Him, the Lord as the Spirit came into our spirit and now dwells there.
Since the Lord is in our spirit, we must exercise, or use, our spirit to contact Him. This is how we can experience freedom from everything that preoccupies us.
We can exercise our spirit by praying to Him, reading His Word, and calling upon His name.
Beholding and reflecting the Lord
When our heart is turned to Him and our spirit is exercised, we experience what is written in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
Note 3 on unveiled face in the Recovery Version says:
“In contrast to the veiled mind, the veiled heart (vv. 14-15). That our face is unveiled means that our heart has turned to the Lord, so that the veil has been taken away, and the Lord as the Spirit has freed us from the bondage, the veiling, of the law, so that there is no more insulation between us and the Lord.”
How good it is to be unveiled! When we have no veil on our heart and no insulation between us and the Lord, we can behold the Lord.
This verse also speaks of reflecting. Note 4 explains:
“To behold the glory of the Lord is to see the Lord ourselves; to reflect the glory of the Lord is to enable others to see Him through us.”
The result of beholding the Lord
As we behold the Lord, something marvelous happens within us. Note 7 on being transformed in 2 Corinthians 3:18 explains:
“When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; that is, we are being transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. Being transformed indicates that we are in the process of transformation.”
By the Lord infusing us with the elements of what He is and what He’s done, a spiritual metabolic process takes place within us: we’re being transformed into the same glorious image of the Lord. As a result of this ongoing process, we will express God, and God’s plan for us will be fulfilled.
As we take the time to gaze upon the Lord and behold Him, His thoughts, feelings, and intentions will gradually become ours, and we’ll reflect Christ to people around us. Let’s all practice turning our hearts to the Lord, spending time in fellowship with Him and exercising our spirits every day so we can experience this wonderful, life-long process.
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here so you can read all the notes on the verses mentioned in this post.
Did you know that besides offering free copies of the New Testament Recovery Version to US residents, we at Bibles for America also offer a selection of free Christian e-books? These can be downloaded from anywhere in the world.
Bibles for America chose to give away these particular books because they’ve helped us know Christ and God’s purpose. Our ardent desire is that our fellow believers would have the opportunity to benefit from them as we have.
The authors of these books are Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. It’s beyond the scope and ability of a blog post to present a complete biography of each of these two men of God. But in this post, we’ll present a very brief biography of Watchman Nee. We hope it will give you a glimpse of his depth as a believer and the ministry of life in his books.
The backdrop to Watchman Nee’s life
Starting in the early 1800s, God worked in the hearts of many Christians in the West and put in them a strong desire for the people in China to hear the gospel. These believers began to pray earnestly, and eventually, some traveled to China to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ where it hadn’t been proclaimed before. As a result of their prayers and labor, many who had never heard the name of Jesus were brought to Christ to receive Him as their Savior.
In 1900, the violent Boxer Rebellion in China caused great upheaval. Chinese believers and Western missionaries alike were persecuted and even martyred. Yet Christians in the West persevered in offering up fervent prayers for China.
In the 1920s, the Lord began to answer these prayers by calling young people in China to Himself, including many college students. One hundred years of missionary work and sacrifice followed by years of desperate prayer had paved the way for the Lord to raise up a generation of young Chinese Christians. It was from among that generation that the Lord called Watchman Nee.
Watchman Nee’s salvation
Watchman Nee was born into a Christian home in China in 1903. However, as an unsaved, educated young man, he considered Christian preaching to be the lowest occupation on earth. He was very intelligent and capable, and he had big plans for his future.
In 1920, when Watchman Nee was 17 years old, a well-known evangelist came to preach the gospel at his parents’ church. As a result, many in the congregation believed in the Lord and were saved. But although Watchman Nee was in attendance and was moved by the gospel message, he wasn’t immediately saved. He realized that receiving Christ as his Savior also meant receiving Christ as his Lord and would require him to serve the Lord for the rest of his life.
This realization caused him great inner turmoil. Not long after he heard the gospel preached that day, Nee was alone in his room and recognized that he had no peace. Troubled, he was unable to sleep, so he knelt down to pray. One after another, his sins came before him. He saw that he was a sinner. He also saw a wounded Savior on the cross, with open arms waiting to receive him.
Overwhelmed by such love, Nee wept. As he confessed his sinfulness to the Lord, he felt the burden of sin lifted. For the first time in his life he had real peace and joy. His immediate response was to consecrate himself to serve the Lord Jesus for the rest of his life.
Watchman Nee’s testimony
After he was saved, Watchman Nee sought to know the Lord Jesus in the Word of God and through the spiritual writings of other believers. He read voraciously and, blessed with a keen mind, he was able to retain what he read.
In a short time, he began to write on matters related to the Christian life in magazines, tracts, and books. He also translated important Christian works from English into Chinese so other Chinese-speaking believers could benefit from them.
In addition to carrying out his ministry through writing and publishing, Nee also spoke in various places in China. These messages were then printed as books. In 1938, he traveled to Europe and gave messages there that eventually were collected and published as The Normal Christian Life.
It was clearly manifest that Nee was a particular gift from God to the Body of Christ. He ministered from the Word of God in a country that had long been deprived of both the basic and deeper truths revealed in God’s Word.
Through Watchman Nee’s ministry, the Lord raised up thousands of believers and hundreds of churches throughout China.
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Watchman Nee’s imprisonment and martyrdom
In 1952, after the Communist Revolution in China, Nee was arrested by the Communist Chinese government for his faith. After being falsely accused and condemned, Nee was imprisoned. He was never released and died in a labor camp in 1972. Yet during the 20 years of his imprisonment, he remained steadfast in his faith. After Nee’s death, a guard found these words he’d written on a piece of paper in his room:
“Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ.”
Watchman Nee's ministry
Countless believers have received light and spiritual nourishment through Nee’s written ministry. Even today, his writings continue to have a great impact on Christians all over the world.
In 2009, the United States Congress recognized Watchman Nee for his devotion to his faith and his contributions to Christians worldwide.
More information
A biography of Watchman Nee titled Watchman Nee—A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age was written by Witness Lee and published by Living Stream Ministry. For more detailed information on Watchman Nee’s life and ministry, you can visit watchmannee.org.
Bibles for America offers free e-books authored by Nee and Lee, which are available to download here from anywhere in the world.
