When you read the Bible, you’ll notice that the Holy Spirit is mentioned in numerous verses. This, of course, is the divine Spirit of God. Many verses also mention the human spirit. As we saw in a previous post, our spirit, the deepest part of our being, was specially created by God with the ability to contact and receive Him.

In the post, we’ll look at three key verses in the New Testament that mention the two spirits—the Holy Spirit and the human spirit—together. We’ll also read notes in the New Testament Recovery Version to see what these verses reveal to us about our Christian experience.

1. Born of the Spirit in our spirit

John 3:6 says:

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

In this verse, the Spirit with an uppercase “S” refers to the Spirit of God, and the spirit with a lowercase “s” refers to our human spirit. Both are involved when we’re regenerated, or born again.

Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version explains what happens at our new birth:

“The first Spirit mentioned here is the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and the second spirit is the human spirit, the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God with God’s life, the uncreated eternal life. Thus, to be regenerated is to have the divine, eternal life (in addition to the human, natural life) as the new source and new element of a new person.”

When we believed in Jesus, something took place inside us: our spirit was born of the Spirit! This resulted in a revolutionary change in our inward being. Because we were born again of the Spirit, the divine, eternal life is now our new source and new element of our new person.

The birth of a child is certainly a wonderful, blessed event, but it’s just the beginning of the child’s life. Daily the child needs to grow and develop until it reaches maturity.

In the same way, being born again is our first experience of the divine Spirit and our human spirit. That new birth initiated our Christian life. From that time on, we need to grow in the life of God by experiencing and living by His life in us.

2. Worshiping God in spirit

The next crucial verse on the two spirits is John 4:24, which says:

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”

Here, the two spirits are related to the worship of God. Let’s take a look at the context of this verse.

In John 4 Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well. In verses 13-14, He told her:

“Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.”

The woman came to the well to draw physical water, but she was a deeply dissatisfied person: she had already had five husbands, and she was living with a man who wasn’t her husband. Jesus knew this; He also knew that she needed to drink Him as the living water. Only He could truly satisfy her and quench her inner thirst.

During the course of their conversation, the Samaritan woman brought up the matter of worship. Even though she was immoral, she had particular concepts about how and where people should worship God. She said to Jesus in verse 20:

“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet You say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship.”

But in verse 24, Jesus said:

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”

 What did the Lord mean here? Let’s read note 2 on this verse in the Recovery Version:

“Spirit here refers to the nature of the complete Triune God; it does not refer merely to the Lord Spirit. To worship God, who is Spirit, we must worship with our spirit, which is of the same nature as He is.”

Jesus revealed to her that God is Spirit, so we must worship Him with our spirit. The worship God wants isn’t in a certain physical place but in the realm of the spirit.

Note 3 helps us to see more concerning worshiping God the Spirit with our spirit:

“This word was given to instruct the Samaritan woman regarding her need to exercise her spirit to contact God the Spirit. To contact God the Spirit with the spirit is to drink of the living water, and to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God.”

Our spirit is both the realm where we must worship God and the way we worship Him. Our God-created spirit has the wonderful capacity to contact and receive God. So to worship God, we must use our spirit to contact God, who is Spirit. This is how we drink of Him as the living water.

Not only so, drinking the Lord as the living water is how we render true worship to God.

The real need of every human being, including believers, is to enjoy the Lord as the living water. Only He can fully satisfy us and quench all our inner thirst.

This is true for the course of our whole Christian life. Just as we physically drink water several times every day, God wants us to drink Him daily as the living water that never runs dry. We drink this living water by exercising our spirit to contact God, who is Spirit.

One of the simplest ways we can exercise our spirit is by calling upon the name of the Lord. Jesus is the name of the living and resurrected Lord, so anytime, anywhere, we can turn our heart to Him and contact Him by calling, “Oh, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus.” When we contact Him, He refreshes us, revives us, and quenches our thirst.

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3. The Spirit witnessing with our spirit

Romans 8:16 says:

“The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.”

The experience of the two spirits revealed in this verse is very sweet and comforting. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, as discussed above, we were reborn with God’s divine life and became His children. God as the Spirit entered into our spirit. Since then, He as the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. This reassures us that our salvation is real.

We can continue to experience the witnessing of the Spirit with our spirit throughout our Christian life. From this verse, we see it’s not just the Spirit alone who witnesses. Note 1 in the Recovery Version highlights the role our spirit plays:

“It is not only that the Spirit witnesses and our spirit witnesses also. Rather, it is that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. This indicates that our spirit must take the initiative to witness first; then the Spirit will witness with our spirit.”

We don’t need to wait for the Spirit to witness first. In fact, when we take the initiative by exercising our spirit, the Spirit will then witness with our spirit. We can do this by testifying of the spiritual facts. For instance, we can declare something like this:

“Lord Jesus, You are my Savior and Lord. Thank You, I have been born of the Spirit in my spirit! I have the life of God. I am a child of God!”

As we make such a declaration, the Spirit within us witnesses with our spirit that we are indeed children of God. We have a sweet sensation that God is our dear, loving Father, that we are born of Him and have His life.

When we’re going through difficult times, we can exercise our spirit and declare something to the Lord. For example, we can declare, “Lord, You are with me in my spirit! Thank you for being with me.”

Though we may be feeling down, when we exercise our spirit this way, we’ll experience the comfort of the Spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are indeed children of God.

How is it possible for the Spirit to witness with our spirit this way? Let’s read note 2 on the phrase our spirit in Romans 8:16:

“This reveals that the Spirit of God today, the all-inclusive Spirit of the Triune God, dwells in our regenerated human spirit and works in our spirit. These two spirits are one; they live together, work together, and exist together as one mingled spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).”

When we were regenerated, the Spirit of God came to dwell in our spirit. He’s not separate from us, only living far away in the heavens. The Spirit of God is actually dwelling, living, and abiding in our regenerated spirit.

First Corinthians 6:17, referenced at the end of this note, says:

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

This tells us the two spirits are mingled as one. This is how the Spirit can witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

The importance of knowing these three verses

These three crucial verses show us what God desires. God doesn’t want us to know Him merely in an objective way as One who lives outside of and apart from us. Instead, the Spirit and our human spirit are intimately involved with each other.

Our Christian life begins when we’re born of the Spirit in our spirit with God’s life, and it continues as we live by His life within us. Daily we can worship God, who is Spirit, in our spirit by contacting Him and drinking Him as the living water. And because our spirit and the Spirit are mingled as one, we can be reassured and comforted by the witnessing of the Spirit with our spirit that we are beloved children of God.

It’s entirely through the Holy Spirit and our human spirit that we can subjectively experience God as our life, our true satisfaction, and our comfort. We hope you enjoyed these three important verses pointing out the two spirits, and that they will encourage you in your Christian life. If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version to read all the notes on the verses mentioned in this post.

We probably all have some ideas about how Christians should live in order to please God. We may think we need to try our best to do the right thing, do good works, or live up to some kind of moral or ethical standard.

Actually, our own assumptions hinder us from seeing God’s true desire for us.

So how does God want Christians to live?

In Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 3, Watchman Nee provides some tremendous help. In chapter one, “Two Principles of Living–the Principle of Life or the Principle of Right and Wrong,” Nee explains the principle God wants us to live by, as revealed in the Bible.

In this post, we include some enlightening excerpts from this chapter to help us see how we should live as believers in Christ.

Back to the beginning

To understand how God wants Christians to live, we have to go back to the beginning. After God created the first man, Adam, He placed him in the garden of Eden, which had two particular trees in it. Genesis 2:9 says:

“And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

The tree of life represents God as life in the form of food. God wanted Adam, representing all mankind, to eat of this tree. By eating of the tree of life, man would receive God’s life.

On the other hand, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents Satan, God’s enemy, who is the source of death. God warned Adam that to eat of that tree would result in death.

Notice that the Bible doesn’t call these two trees “the tree of life and good” and “the tree of the knowledge of evil.” The tree that represents God is simply the tree of life. The other tree is the knowledge of both good and evil. One tree results in life, and the other results in death.

The function of man's conscience

As we know, Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan to disobey God and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead of living by God’s life and enjoying a loving relationship with Him, Adam and Eve had to be separated from God because they had become sinful.

Being separated from God is one of the many consequences of Adam’s fall, which affected all mankind. Instead of being under God’s direct rule, man had to come under the rule of his conscience.

The conscience is the part of our being created by God that alerts us when we’ve done something wrong, something God doesn’t approve of. It’s tremendously important for people to take heed and listen to their conscience in order to be preserved from ruinous evil for God’s salvation and purpose.

God also gave the ten commandments with all their ordinances through Moses. These commandments recorded in the Old Testament show us what kind of God He is and also how sinful mankind is. Seeing what God approves of and what He condemns enlightens man’s conscience.

It’s certainly vitally important for parents to teach their children what’s right and what’s wrong, and to help them to know good from evil. When parents encourage and teach their children to listen to their conscience, the children can learn to have healthy relationships with others and grow up to be law-abiding citizens and contributing members of society. This is all necessary for human civilization to continue in a proper way, and shouldn’t be discounted.

But in addition to this, when we’re saved, we receive the life of God. So after we’re saved, God wants us to live by something even higher than our conscience: His divine life.

Two principles of living

The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil represent not only two different sources but two diametrically opposing ways of living. One way is to live by taking God as life, and the other is to live according to the knowledge of good and evil—that is, to do what we think is good and right and avoid what’s evil or wrong.

In Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 3, Nee points out that these two ways are two principles of living. On page 9, he explains why it’s critical for us as believers to know about these two principles:

“Christianity teaches life, not right and wrong. There are many young brothers and sisters here this morning. I would like to tell you that after you received the Lord Jesus and gained a new life, you gained something marvelous inwardly. You obtained another principle of living. But if you do not know about it, you will set the principle of life aside and begin to follow the principle of right and wrong.”

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We have the life of God in us

From the time God created man until now, God’s intention has never changed. He still wants us to receive His life. And He wants us to live and do everything by the principle of life.

So how can we live by the principle of life? The first requirement is that we receive the divine life of God. This happened when we believed in Jesus Christ and were born again of the Spirit in our spirit. We now have the life of God in our spirit!

Now God wants us to live each day by this life, not by an outward moral code of doing what we think is good and right.

We can see this clearly in John chapter 3. Nicodemus, a good, moral man, came to the Lord Jesus. Instead of teaching Nicodemus or exhorting him to be a better person, Jesus emphatically told him, “You must be born anew.” No matter how good Nicodemus was, he needed to be born again in order to receive the life of God and live by it.

On page 10, Nee strongly emphasizes this point:

“Please remember, God’s Word tells us that our Christian living is based on an inner life, not an outward standard of right and wrong. Many worldly people, who are not saved, live according to the best standard of living they can attain: the principle of right and wrong. If you or I also live by the principle of right or wrong, we are the same as worldly people. Christians are different from non-Christians because we do not live by an outward standard or law.”

Once we’re saved we have an inner life, the life of God. This makes us different from unsaved people. So we should live differently from unsaved people, not living by an outward standard but by the life of God in our spirit.

Of course, we shouldn’t misunderstand the point being made. It’s never okay to do evil or wrong things, and God would never lead us to do anything sinful or immoral. We should always still listen to the voice of our conscience, which absolutely corresponds with God, who is holy and righteous.

But the point is that God ultimately wants us to live by the principle of life, which was His original intention when He created mankind. We have to realize again and again that God wants us—His believers who possess His life—to live, walk, and do everything by His life.

The divine life of God transcends any human standard. So when we live and act by the life of God, our living actually far surpasses the highest moral or ethical standard. Then our relatives, coworkers, friends, and others in our lives see something much higher than an ethical life; they see the expression of God Himself in our living.

How we know what principle we're living by

God wants His children, who are all born of His life, to live, walk, and do everything by His life. But practically speaking, how can we know if we’re living by the principle of life? Nee gives some indicators of how we can tell on page 14:

“Please remember that life does not make decisions according to outward standards of right and wrong. Matters should be decided according to the sense of God's life or the sense of death. Decisions should be made according to God’s life as it rises up or recedes within us. No Christian should say that he can do something because it is good or right. We must ask the Lord within us. What is the inner feeling that the Lord gives? Do we feel joyful inwardly about this matter? Do we have spiritual happiness and peace? These are the matters that decide our spiritual path.”

Here Watchman Nee speaks of deciding things by “the sense of God's life or the sense of death.” In other words, we know what source we’re living by not by an outward sign but by an inner sense, or feeling, we have. That feeling is either one of life or one of death.

If we’re doing things according to life, we will sense joy, happiness, and peace. And those feelings aren’t something we can manufacture. On the other hand, if we have a sensation of God’s life receding in us, that’s a sense of death. So no matter how good a certain thing we do may be, if we have a sense or feeling of spiritual death, we need to stop and turn back to the Lord to contact Him in our spirit.

By paying attention to whether we have a sense of life or a sense of death, we’ll gradually learn how to live by the principle of life. We’ll live and act according to the life of God in our spirit instead of by evaluating whether things are simply right or wrong, good or evil.

Two facts we should remember

The Lord is a living Person who now lives within us. If we’re attentive to Him, He’ll let us know if we're not living by the principle of life.

On page 20 Nee points out two important facts we should remember:

“In every matter when we seek God's speaking within us, spontaneously there will be the shining of inward light. Please remember that our regeneration is a fact. It is also a fact that God is living in us through the Lord Jesus. The Lord is constantly expressing Himself within us. We hope that each of us would be able to say to God, ‘Grace me so that I live by the tree of life, not by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I want to constantly pay attention to life. I want to ask, “What is the sense of life?”’ If we live by this principle, we will see a great change in our Christian life.”

How wonderful it is that we’ve been born of God, and that He’s living in us today. May we really see that God wants us to live by the principle of life. And as a result, may we seek God's speaking in every matter, pay attention to life, and be responsive to the sense of life within us.

In this chapter, Watchman Nee gives many examples from his own experience to make the point clear concerning how God wants us to live. These practical situations are very helpful in learning how to live by the principle of life. We encourage you to read all of chapter 1 by downloading a free copy of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 3 here.

If you live in the US, you can also order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.

The world today is full of troubles—wars, environmental crises, senseless violence, economic uncertainty, troubling new viruses, social upheaval. When you look at the chaos around the globe it can make you wonder, Does God have a plan? Why did He create everything? And if He does have a plan, how do we fit into it?

In this post, we’ll look at verses from both the Old and New Testaments, along with some key notes from the Recovery Version, to find the answers to these pressing questions.

God is a God of purpose

The Bible shows us that God never does anything aimlessly. He always acts intentionally, with a plan in mind. For instance, Revelation 4:11 says:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for You have created all things, and because of Your will they were, and were created.”

This verse makes it clear not only that God has a will, but that He created all things because of His will.

Now let’s read Ephesians 1:11:

“In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

Here the words purpose, counsel, and will indicate to us that God is a God of purpose.

From just these two verses, we can see that God wants something. And to obtain what He desires, God has a plan and works everything according to the counsel of His will.

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God’s creation of man

Now that we’ve seen that God created everything because of His will, let’s consider God’s creation, especially His creation of man.

Genesis 1 tells us that when God created the heavens and the earth, He simply spoke. God said, “Let there be,” and things came into being, including light, dry land, plants, light-bearers (the sun, moon, and stars), sea creatures, birds, and animals. God was happy with what He created. The Bible tells us God saw it was good.

Then God came to the peak of His work of creation: man. In Genesis 1:26, the Bible records for the first time God’s thought concerning the man He would create:

“And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

God wanted to make man in a unique way: in His image and according to His likeness. Since God has a mind, emotion, and will, He wanted man to have a mind, emotion, and will.

He also wanted to make man according to His likeness, that is, to resemble Him. For example, when you look at a photograph of a person, you see the likeness of that person. God wanted man to be according to His own likeness.

Then, instead of simply saying, “Let there be man,” God created man in a very intentional way. Genesis 2:7 says:

“Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

In addition to creating man in His own image and according to His likeness, God also made man with a distinctive feature: the human spirit. Zechariah 12:1 says:

“Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.”

The human spirit is so special that God’s Word places it on the same level as the creation of the heavens and the earth! That’s because the spirit of man enables man to contact, receive, and contain God.

No wonder after God created the heavens, the earth, and finally man, Genesis 1:31 says this:

“And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.”

Only after man was created did God look upon all His creation as not just good but very good. God was happy with all He created, especially man.

God's plan for mankind

God already had myriads of angels to worship and serve Him. What was in His heart for mankind was something different.

In God’s heart was the deep desire to enter into the human beings that He created with such thought and care. He wanted us to receive Him so He could be joined to us. God wanted to share His life with us and live in us. In such an intimate relationship, God would be everything to us. He would live together with us, and we would be one with Him.

And because we were created in God’s image and according to His likeness, by being filled with Him, God would be manifested and expressed through us and with us. Simply put, this is God’s plan.

The fall of mankind

We’ve seen how God created man according to His plan in a wonderful way. But in this universe, God has an enemy, Satan. Satan hates God, and he hates man because man will fulfill God’s desire. So Satan seized the opportunity and tempted man into disobeying God. Instead of receiving the life of God as God intended, man took in the evil nature of Satan. Because of that, all mankind was polluted by sin and separated from God. This corruption has been the source of all the vicious evil in the world throughout all of human history.

But nothing can deter God from carrying out His plan with mankind! In His wisdom, God Himself became a man, Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world. He took care of the problem between the righteous God and sinful mankind. Because the redemption Jesus accomplished is thoroughly effective, God’s plan can be fulfilled with everyone who believes in Jesus.

God’s plan and our life as believers

As believers in Jesus Christ, when we received Him as our Savior a number of wonderful things happened to us. We were forgiven of our sins and saved from eternal judgment. And what’s more, Christ came to live in our spirit, our deepest part.

Now the Savior who loves us and died for us is no longer outside of us. First Corinthians 6:17 says:

“But He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

Note 2 in the New Testament Recovery Version on one spirit explains the amazing meaning of this verse:

“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.”

First Corinthians 15:45, referenced above, says:

“So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul’; the last Adam [Christ] became a life-giving Spirit.”

Now as the Spirit the Lord is more than near to us. His Spirit and our spirit are mingled as one. This brings us into the most intimate relationship with the Lord.

God’s great plan for every one of us is that we would know Him not merely objectively as our Creator God, but subjectively as the One who saved us and came to live in us.

It’s because He lives within us that we can know Him in a personal and experiential way. He can speak to us inwardly and we can fellowship with Him. We can enjoy Him as He walks with us, supplies us, comforts us, and supports us all the time. At any moment, we can contact and experience Him in our spirit.

God wants to spread in us

It’s an astounding fact that the Lord is now living in our spirit, and we can experience Him at any time. But He doesn’t want to stay confined to our spirit. He wants to spread out from our spirit into our whole being. As He fills us with Himself, He can be expressed through us.

We see this in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:

“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Our being is composed of our spirit, our soul, and our body. God wants to sanctify us wholly, that is, in every part.

Note 5 in the New Testament Recovery Version on this verse is enlightening and includes references to some key verses, which we encourage you to read. The note helps us see how God works to sanctify us wholly. The first section of the note defines our spirit, soul, and body:

“This word strongly indicates that man is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. The spirit as our inmost part is the inner organ, possessing God-consciousness, that we may contact God (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9). The soul is our very self (cf. Matt. 16:26; Luke 9:25), a medium between our spirit and our body, possessing self-consciousness, that we may have our personality. The body as our external part is the outer organ, possessing world-consciousness, that we may contact the material world. The body contains the soul, and the soul is the vessel that contains the spirit. In the spirit, God as the Spirit dwells; in the soul, our self dwells; and in the body, the physical senses dwell.”

Then the second section explains how God sanctifies each part:

“God sanctifies us, first, by taking possession of our spirit through regeneration (John 3:5-6); second, by spreading Himself as the life-giving Spirit from our spirit into our soul to saturate and transform our soul (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18); and last, by enlivening our mortal body through our soul (Rom. 8:11, 13) and transfiguring our body by His life power (Phil. 3:21).”

Our daily Christian life

Our life as believers in Christ is one of experiencing and enjoying the Lord who dwells in our spirit. In a loving and intimate relationship with Christ, we can know Him and experience Him as everything to us.

We can maintain our fellowship with the Lord by praying to Him, feeding on His Word, obeying Him when He speaks to us about any matter in our daily life, and confessing any sin He makes us aware of. As we do this, He has the opportunity to grow in us and spread from our spirit into every part of our soul; eventually, He’ll even enliven our body.

But we also need to see that this isn’t just for us as individual believers. God wants all His redeemed and regenerated people to be fully saturated with Him. Then together they will be the church, the Body of Christ, to express Him in this universe, all for God’s glory.

This is why God created all things, and this is His plan for every human being. God desires all men to be saved so they can be part of His wonderful plan.

Seeing God’s plan will revolutionize the way we view the world and humanity. Nothing is happening in a random way. His enemy is still at work inciting chaos and trying to keep people away from God. But God, who is far greater, is operating in many ways to save people and bring them back to His original plan. This view will be a solid foundation for our Christian life and even help us tell others about God’s plan for them.

The subject of God’s purpose and plan is great and profound and has many aspects. We’ve only touched upon it briefly in this post. For a more detailed view, you can download The Economy of God here and start by reading chapter 1.

And 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 New Testament verses we mentioned in this post and their accompanying notes and verse references.

In the New Testament, each of the Gospels gives an account of the crucifixion of Jesus. But John 19 records details that don’t appear in the other three accounts. This chapter tells us that the legs of the thieves being crucified next to Jesus were broken by the Roman soldiers in order to hasten their deaths. Then John 19:33-34 says:

“But coming to Jesus, when they saw that He had already died, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.”

Why is the Gospel of John unique in recording these details of Jesus’ side being pierced and blood and water flowing out? Is there some special significance?

The subject of the Gospel of John

To answer this question, we first need to see the subject of John’s Gospel.

The New Testament Recovery Version provides the subject for every book. This includes the four Gospels, each of which presents a different aspect of the Lord Jesus:

• Matthew: The Gospel of the Kingdom—Proving That Jesus Christ Is the King-Savior

• Mark: The Gospel of God—Proving that Jesus Christ Is the Slave-Savior

• Luke: The Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sins—Proving that Jesus Christ Is the Man-Savior

• John: The Gospel of Life—Proving that Jesus Christ Is God the Savior Coming as Life to Propagate Himself

The emphasis of the Gospel of John is life. When we consider the details in John’s account of the Lord’s crucifixion, we have to keep that emphasis in mind.

Figures in John

Spiritual realities are profound and hard to understand. So the Gospel of John includes signs, or figures, such as the Lamb of God, the living water, and the vine to communicate profound spiritual realities to us. These figures impress us in a way that words alone can’t.

This is also true of the blood and the water that came out from Jesus’ side.

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The figure of blood and water

So what spiritual reality does the blood and water from the Lord’s pierced side reveal?

Note 1 on blood and water in John 19:34 in the New Testament Recovery Version gives us great insight. Let’s look at some portions of this lengthy note.

The first section says:

“Two substances came out of the Lord’s pierced side: blood and water. Blood is for redemption, to deal with sins (1:29; Heb. 9:22) for the purchasing of the church (Acts 20:28). Water is for imparting life, to deal with death (12:24; 3:14-15) for the producing of the church (Eph. 5:29-30). The Lord’s death, on the negative side, takes away our sins, and on the positive side, imparts life into us. Hence, it has two aspects: the redemptive aspect and the life-imparting aspect. The redemptive aspect is for the life-imparting aspect. The record of the other three Gospels portrays only the redemptive aspect of the Lord’s death; John’s record portrays not only the redemptive aspect but also the life-imparting aspect.”

Every single human being needs both redemption—signified by the blood—and life—signified by the water—because before God, we’re not only sinful but also dead.

We need the forgiveness of our sins, and we also need the divine life of God. Through Jesus' death on the cross, we can have both.

Because Jesus shed His blood for us, we can be forgiven of all our sins. We can never praise and thank Him enough for the redemptive aspect of His death. But His redemption was for the purpose of imparting His divine life into us.

Jesus’ death also released the divine life

Let’s read another section of the same note:

“But the flowing water and the unbroken bone mentioned by John in vv. 34 and 36 are signs that relate to the life-imparting aspect of the Lord’s death (see note 26¹). This death that imparts life released the Lord’s divine life from within Him for the producing of the church, which is composed of all His believers, into whom His divine life has been imparted.”

Let’s first focus on this sentence from the note: This death that imparts life released the Lord’s divine life from within Him.

To understand what this means, let’s read what Jesus said in John 12:24:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

In this verse, Jesus likened Himself to a grain of wheat that would fall into the ground and die. A grain of wheat is a seed. Inside the shell of a seed is a life force, a life element. But as long as the seed remains whole, the life within it is confined to that single seed. It must fall into the ground and “die” so its outer shell can be broken open. This is how the life in the seed is released so that it can bear fruit for its propagation, or increase.

In the same way, the divine Son of God became a man of flesh and blood named Jesus. Jesus was both divine and human, but His divine life was confined within the “shell” of His humanity.

According to His original intention for mankind, God desires us to receive His life. For this to happen, the divine life in Jesus had to be released from within the shell of His humanity, which occurred when Jesus died on the cross. Through His death, divine life was released!

Now that divine life can be imparted to all who believe in Jesus. When we’re saved, we who were dead sinners experience the blood and the water: we’re cleansed of our sins and we receive the divine life.

As the note also points out, this life that’s imparted into us is for the producing of the church. The church is an entity of life. It’s composed of all the believers in Christ into whom the divine life has been imparted.

Two fountains

Now let’s read the last section of the note:

“The Lord’s pierced side was prefigured by Adam’s opened side, out from which Eve was produced (Gen. 2:21-23). The blood was typified by the blood of the passover lamb (Exo. 12:7, 22; Rev. 12:11), and the water was typified by the water that flowed out of the smitten rock (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4). The blood formed a fountain for the washing away of sin (Zech. 13:1), and the water became the fountain of life (Psa. 36:9; Rev. 21:6).”

Jesus’ death opened two fountains to meet all our needs: a fountain for washing away our sins and a fountain of life.

Zechariah 13:1 says:

“In that day there will be an opened fountain for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.”

And Psalm 36:9 says:

“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.”

We can be washed at the fountain for sin by confessing any sin we commit. And we can receive the divine life by continually coming to the Lord as the fountain of life to drink of Him. We can forever enjoy the provision of these two fountains.

Praise the Lord for His redeeming and life-imparting death, for the blood and the water!

We could only briefly discuss here the profound meaning of the blood and water that came out of the Lord’s pierced side. And the note we looked at today includes another section on the redemptive aspect of the Lord’s death.

We strongly encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version if you live in the United States. You can read the entire note with its reference verses to gain a deeper understanding of this marvelous sign.

As Christians, it's crucial to know the central items of our faith. One of these key beliefs is the following:

God is eternally one, and this one God is eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; yet the three, being distinct, are not separate.

This statement about the eternally one God being the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is profound. It’s impossible to cover this subject comprehensively in a single blog post. But since it’s essential for us to have a basic understanding of who God is, we’ll point out some important verses related to this crucial truth.

The Bible reveals that God is one

Let’s take that statement of our faith one phrase at a time, starting with “God is eternally one.”

The Bible is God’s own speaking, so if we want to know God, we must rely on what it tells us about Him. The Bible says that in the universe, only one God exists; there is no other. This revelation is plain in a number of verses throughout the Old and New Testaments. Here are just a few.

Deuteronomy 4:35:

“You were shown these things that you might know that it is Jehovah who is God; there is no other besides Him.”

Isaiah 45:5 and 21:

“I am Jehovah and there is no one else; besides Me there is no God.”“And there is no other God besides Me.”

1 Corinthians 8:4:

“There is no God but one.”

1 Timothy 2:5:

“For there is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

These and other verses tell us that God is uniquely one.

God is one yet three

Now let’s look at the next section of the statement: “This one God is eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.”

We’ve seen that God is one. Yet He’s also the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So is He one or three? The answer is He’s both.

The adjective triune is derived from Latin and is composed of two parts: “tri,” meaning three, and “une,” meaning one. Triune literally means three-one. The eternal God is one, yet at the same time, He’s three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God is triune. Although the word triune isn’t in the Bible, the fact that God is triune is revealed in many verses.

For example, in the following verses, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all mentioned. But the fact that the Father, the Son, and Spirit are all mentioned absolutely doesn't mean there are three Gods. We just read a number of verses in the previous section that declare God is one. Putting those together with the verses below, we see that God is one yet three, three yet one.

Matthew 3:16-17:

“And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And behold a voice out of the heavens saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight.”

2 Corinthians 13:14:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Matthew 28:19 particularly shows us God is three yet one:

“Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

In this verse, the Lord Jesus told the disciples to baptize people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Notice that the Lord used name (singular) and not names (plural). The singular name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit reveals that God is triune, or three-one.

How is this possible? We simply can’t explain how God can be three and yet one, yet we can’t deny that this is what the Bible reveals to us concerning God. We’re blessed when we accept the divine revelation as it’s presented. Although we don’t know how this can be, we do know that it is because God’s Word tells us so.

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God is three yet one

In John 10:30 and 14:9, Jesus declared:

“I and the Father are one.”

“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

The Father and the Son are one, so to see the Son was to see the Father.

Then we see something more in John 14:11, where the Lord Jesus said:

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.”

In this verse, we see that the Son and the Father even dwell in one another; They are inseparable.

Yet verses like Matthew 3:16-17 show us the three of the Triune God are distinct.

How can all of this be? It’s beyond our ability to grasp with our mind. We must simply accept what the Bible tells us: our God is one; He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; yet the three, being distinct, are not separate.

We can enjoy the Triune God

By now it should be obvious that when it comes to understanding the Triune God, the human mind is limited. We can’t fully comprehend or explain this deep and mysterious matter of God being three yet one.

But we need to realize that the Triune God isn’t merely a subject for a cold analysis. He’s a wonderful, living Person who loves us and whom we love. The moment we believed in Jesus Christ, we were born again and this mysterious Triune God came to live in our spirit. Now He wants us to enjoy and experience Him. He lives in us to be our life and everything to us.

Let’s look again at 2 Corinthians 13:14. This verse especially shows us that the Triune God wants us to enjoy Him:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Here the apostle Paul didn’t simply say, “The Lord Jesus Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit be with you all.” He linked grace with the Lord Jesus, love with God, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Grace, love, and fellowship are for our experience and enjoyment, and they are of the Triune God Himself.

So while we can’t mentally grasp the mystery of God being triune, surely we can all testify that we’ve experienced the precious grace of Christ, the eternal love of God our Father, and the intimate fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Day by day, we can enjoy the Triune God because He’s with us all the time. What a wonderful Triune God we have!

As we’ve seen in this post, the truth concerning the Triune God is profound. Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 have extensive and enlightening notes on this matter in the New Testament Recovery Version. We encourage you to read them to gain a fuller view of the Triune God. If you live in the US, you can order a free copy here.

In Philippians 4:6, Paul exhorted the believers to do something that seems to be impossible:

“In nothing be anxious.”

The world today is full of large-scale catastrophic events—war, pandemics, economic uncertainty, senseless violence, and social unrest. Things we never thought would happen have suddenly come upon us, affecting all of us. And there’s no escape—constant updates are delivered to us on a conveyor belt of 24-hour news coverage. How can we not be anxious? Is Paul’s word in Philippians 4:6 unreasonable for us today?

Let’s take a close look at Philippians 4:6-7 with notes from the New Testament Recovery Version to see how we can be saved from anxiety.

God’s Word never changes

The Word of God is unchanging, no matter what the  circumstances may be. So we believers have to take everything in the Bible seriously, including this verse about not being anxious. But how did Paul have the boldness to say “in nothing be anxious”?

For us to not be anxious is simply not possible. In fact, the more we try to be free of anxiety, the more anxious we get, and the more this verse is impossible to us.

But one important principle of studying the Bible is to never isolate a verse and interpret it on its own. Context is important. We need to look at what comes before and after what he said concerning not being anxious.

What precedes “In nothing be anxious” in Philippians 4:6 in verse 5 is one of the most comforting assurances in the entire Bible:

“The Lord is near.”

While this fact certainly applies to the Lord’s return, it also applies to His presence with us today. The Lord is near us right now. In fact, He’s as near as He can be because He’s within us, living in our human spirit. This means that we can readily contact Him at any moment, under any circumstance.

Prayer and petition with thanksgiving

So preceding the exhortation not to be anxious, we have the assurance that the Lord is near and ready to help us.

Now let's see what follows the word about being anxious in the rest of Philippians 4:6:

“In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

In everything—in every matter, every circumstance, no matter how distressing it may be—we can pray and petition with thanksgiving to the Lord who is so near to us, and let our requests be made known to Him.

Notes 2 and 3 in the New Testament Recovery Version help us see how to apply this verse. Note 2 on prayer says:

“Prayer is general, having worship and fellowship as its essence; petition is special, being for particular needs.”

And note 3 on with thanksgiving says:

“Not and but with. Both our prayer and our petition should be accompanied by our giving thanks to the Lord.”

The Lord is near us and ready to help. So by prayer we can fellowship with Him and simply tell Him what we’re going through. We can also petition Him and make specific requests for particular needs. But both our prayer and our petition should be with thanksgiving. No matter what we're going through, we can thank Him for always being with us and listening to our prayers.

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Passing our burdens on to the Lord

Since the Lord is living within us, there’s no need for us to carry our burdens by ourselves.

Watchman Nee, a Bible teacher and author, once used the illustration of three construction workers passing tiles up a ladder. The first man passes tiles from the ground up to the one on the ladder, who passes them to the worker on top, at the highest level. All goes smoothly as long as the tiles keep moving. But if the second man stops passing his tiles along and holds onto them, he’ll soon be crushed by the increasing weight of the load.

We’re often like that second man. All day long cares, troubles, and burdens come to us. Instead of holding onto them and being overwhelmed by the weight of anxiety, we should pass them on to the “higher level.”

How can we do this? The end of verse 6 tells us how:

“Let your requests be made known to God.”

Note 4 on to God in the Recovery Version is very enlightening:

“The Greek word is often translated with (John 1:1; Mark 9:19; 2 Cor. 5:8; 1 John 1:2). It denotes motion toward, in the sense of a living union and communion, implying fellowship. Hence, the sense of to God here is in the fellowship with God.”

This means we can come to God and in fellowship with Him we can let our requests be known to Him. We don’t have to be crushed by the weight of our burdens. We can unload them by turning to the Lord in prayer at any time. We can tell Him our cares, and He’ll receive our burdens. What a wonderful provision!

The promise of peace

The very next verse, verse 7, tells us what issues from our prayer and petition with thanksgiving and making our requests known to God:

“And the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”

Note 1 on peace in this verse helps us see how we can experience this peace that surpasses all understanding:

“The result of practicing fellowship with God in prayer is that we enjoy the peace of God. The peace of God is actually God as peace (v. 9) infused into us through our fellowship with Him by prayer, as the counterpoise to troubles and the antidote to anxiety (John 16:33).”

A counterpoise is a factor, force, or influence that balances or neutralizes another. And an antidote is a medicine that counteracts a particular poison. Our troubles and cares certainly exert an influence on us, and our worries are like a harmful poison to us. But the peace of God, God Himself as our peace, is the counterpoise to all our troubles and the antidote to our anxiety.

But we can only experience this peace of God as the counterpoise and antidote if we fellowship with God in prayer. In this fellowship with God, something wonderful happens. It’s not just that we’re telling God our problems and unburdening our cares. It’s as we pray to Him that He infuses Himself into us as peace. This is the wonderful promise given to us, and this is how we can be saved from anxiety.

The peace of God guards our hearts

The peace of God is not only a counterpoise and antidote, it even acts as a guard. Verse 7 says:

“The peace of God...will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”

Note 2 explains what guard means:

“Or, mount guard over. The God of peace patrols before our hearts and thoughts in Christ, keeping us calm and tranquil.”

As we bring our concerns and burdens to God in prayer, we enjoy fellowship with Him. The result of our communing with Him is that the peace of God is imparted into us, quieting all our anxiety. His peace even patrols before us, standing like a guard over our hearts and thoughts.

Though the distressing circumstances that provoke anxiety may not improve, we’re comforted and assured that the Lord is near, living right within us. We can make our requests known to God at any time through prayer and petition with thanksgiving.

As we do this, the peace of God is infused into us. Even in the midst of trials and tribulations, His peace will guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus and deliver us from anxiety.

If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version and read all the notes in this wonderful section in Philippians 4.

Have you ever felt discouraged after you experienced a failure in your Christian life? Maybe you wondered why God let you fail, especially since He could have prevented you from making that mistake. After all, doesn’t God want us to have a good testimony as Christians?

In this post, we’ll explore why God sometimes lets us fail, and how our failures can actually help us grow in our Christian life.

The Christian life is a matter of living Christ

First, it’s helpful to understand what happened when we were saved and how that affects the rest of our Christian life. We know we were forgiven of our sins and saved from eternal judgment; the Lord’s marvelous salvation took care of our past and assured our future.

But what’s more, we were born again, and Christ came to live in us. This Christ who lives in us is now our life. Colossians 3:4 says:

“When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.”

In the New Testament Recovery Version, note 1 on Christ in this verse explains:

“That Christ is our life is a strong indication that we are to take Him as life and live by Him, that we are to live Him in our daily life in order to experience the universally extensive Christ revealed in this book [Colossians], so that all He is and has attained and obtained will not remain objective but will become our subjective experience.”

This note helps us realize the Lord isn’t focused on whether we’re perfect and make no mistakes. He’s focused on whether we take Him as our life and live by Him. He wants us not just to know that He lives in us but to subjectively experience Him as our life.

Now that Christ is our life, He wants us to take Him as our life and live by Him in all the circumstances of our daily life. When we live this way, we experience and enjoy Him. Then spontaneously, we express Him to everyone around us. This is the Christian life.

If we don’t realize this, we’ll spend our time trying—and failing—to live what we think is a God-pleasing life by our own effort. Even if we were to somehow succeed, this isn’t what the Lord wants. He’s our life, so He wants us to live by Him.

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Failures actually help us

This is where failures come in. It’s not that the Lord wants us to fail. But He knows our failures can help us realize what our real need is.

For this reason, the Lord faithfully provides the perfect environment to uncover our inadequacies. We may think we’re spiritually strong, but He arranges the necessary circumstances to show us how weak we really are, and how much we need Him.

For instance, we might think we’re loving, kind, and patient. But then the Lord brings someone into our life that taxes our love, making it evident it’s not that deep or lasting. Given the right circumstances, we’re not even that kind. And on top of it, this person strains our patience. Before we know it, we blow up in anger.

This failure shows us we’re not the “good Christian” we thought we were. But this isn’t a negative thing! It helps us realize again that Jesus Christ is the only One who can live a proper Christian life. It reminds us that He came into us to be our life, and that we need to live by Him.

Our failures bring in light

Through our failures, the Lord is able to shine on us to expose our real inner situation before Him. His light reduces the high estimation we have of ourselves. He shines so we can recognize how short we are of living by Christ in our experience. This causes us to turn to Him, to call on Him, and to even cry out to Him in prayer. It’s when we fall that we begin to grasp our need to take Christ as our life and truly experience Him with every person and matter in our lives.

Under the Lord’s light we’re humbled, our self-assurance is broken, and we become fearful of relying on ourselves. Consequently, we’re much more open to Him than when we thought we were doing fine. The Lord needs this kind of openness in order to grow in us.

Furthermore, when our shortcomings are laid bare by the Lord’s light, we aren’t quite so trusting in our own ability or goodness. We see that our goodness means nothing, and we’re more willing to let Christ live in us and through us. All of the Lord’s shining on us when we fail makes us more willing to turn to Him and behold Him, and to be refreshed in our love for Him.

Not being discouraged

None of this means we should deliberately fail or think it’s okay to be careless with sin. To maintain our relationship with the Lord, we need to care for the condition of our heart and heed the voice of our conscience. And when the Lord makes us aware of sins we’ve committed, we need to confess those sins to Him to receive His forgiveness and cleansing. These are all healthy and necessary spiritual practices we need to take care of to have a normal Christian life.

But we will fail, and when we do, we can view these failures as helpful and necessary instead of being discouraged. Through our failures, Christ has the opportunity to shine on us and cause us to turn and open to Him. We’re reminded that Christ is our life, and we must live by Him.

If we have this understanding, we won’t be overcome by discouragement and disappointment when we fail. Instead, we’ll turn more quickly to Christ and even thank Him for His wisdom in dealing with us. We’ll open to Him in a deeper way so that we can learn to truly take Him as our life.

In this post, we only quoted note 1 of Colossians 3:4; note 2 sheds more light on Christ being our life and points out how Colossians reveals the riches of Christ for our experience and enjoyment. If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here to read these and other notes that will help you enter into a deeper experience of Christ.

Human beings need each other for camaraderie and mutual protection. The same is true for us believers; we need the support and companionship of other Christians. Whether we’re a new believer or we've been a Christian for a while, we all need spiritual companions.

The principle of spiritual companionship in the Bible

The principle of spiritual companionship is clearly present throughout the Bible. For example, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says:

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor; for if they fall, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls and does not have another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone? And while a man may prevail against the one, the two will withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

No matter how strong we think we are in our faith, none of us are perfect. We all fall and fail the Lord. When we do, it’s easy to be discouraged by our sins or failures, and we may find it hard to go on in our Christian life. We need others to lift us when we fall, encourage us when we fail, and help us turn back to the Lord. And we can also do the same for them.

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Spiritual companions are different from friends

Sheep in a field have a particular characteristic: they always flock together. It’s in their nature. That’s why it’s rare to see a single sheep all alone, far away from the flock. They naturally want to be together.

In the Lord’s eyes, we believers are His sheep. When we were saved, we were regenerated with the life of God. All believers in Christ share that same life. Now we as God’s sheep have an inherent need and desire to be with other believers for our mutual protection and benefit.

This is why spiritual companions aren’t the same as friends. No matter how close we may be to our friends who aren’t saved yet, the relationship we have with our spiritual companions is different. It’s much deeper because it’s based on our faith in Jesus and sharing the life of God.

We may still spend time with our friends, but our intention shouldn’t be to engage in the old things of our former way of life, some of which were sinful. Our goal should be to share with them how we got saved and how good Jesus is. We may find that a friend is receptive and will pray with us to receive the Lord Jesus.

And if we have spiritual companions, we can pray for our friends together. We can also fellowship about the best way to be with our friends and how to talk with them about the Lord.

The apostle Paul's spiritual companions

The apostle Paul was strong in the Lord and in his faith. It might be easy to think he didn’t need any companions. But the book of Acts and Paul’s epistles show us something different.

Acts 16 records the journey of Paul and Silas as they traveled together to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. When they arrived at Philippi, they spoke to people about the Lord Jesus and were thrown into prison as a result. Verses 25 and 26 tell us what happened next:

“And about midnight Paul and Silas, while praying, sang hymns of praise to God; and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken. And instantly all the doors were opened and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.”

Even Paul might have felt hopeless if Silas, his companion, hadn’t been with him. But together, they prayed and sang hymns of praise to the Lord, despite their desperate situation. The prisoners and the jailer heard them singing and praising.

Paul also traveled to share the gospel with Barnabas, Titus, Luke, Timothy, and other brothers in the Lord. He wrote many of his epistles with one or more of his companions at his side and included their names in his greetings to the churches. These brothers were his spiritual companions, and they fellowshipped, prayed, and preached the gospel together.

Paul's instruction to Timothy

Paul knew how important having spiritual companions was from his own experience. So in 2 Timothy 2:22, Paul instructed Timothy, a young brother:

“But flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Here, Paul didn’t tell Timothy to withstand lusts by himself to prove how strong he was. Instead, he told Timothy to flee youthful lusts with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. By being with such companions, Timothy could not only flee lusts but also pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

Pray for spiritual companions

The Lord neither expects nor wants us to live the Christian life all by ourselves. Whether we’re a new believer or one who’s been saved for a while, we all need spiritual companionship.

We can fellowship and read the Bible with our spiritual companions. We can pray for one another and bear each other’s burdens. In this way, we help each other rise up and go on even in difficult situations. If we’re floundering, our companions can strengthen us and encourage us to turn to the Lord.

Regardless of our stage in life, we all need companions so we can pray, fellowship, and pursue Christ together. If we don’t yet have a companion, we can ask the Lord to help us find at least one. The Lord will surely answer this prayer.

If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here to discover more light and life supply in God’s Word.

In previous posts, we discussed the meaning of consecration, the basis and motivation for consecrating ourselves to God, and how to consecrate ourselves to the Lord.

In this post, we’ll take a look at a moving story of consecration recorded in the Bible about someone who loved the Lord Jesus and gave her all to Him. We’ll also read some notes in the New Testament Recovery Version to help us see how this story relates to us today.

Ointment of great value was poured out on the Lord

Let’s read the beginning of this story in Matthew 26:6-7:

“Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him, having an alabaster flask of ointment of great value, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at table.”

The ointment the woman poured on the Lord’s head was something precious and costly. Made by compounding oil with aromatic resins and spices, such ointments were used in cosmetics, as medicine, and to anoint the body of a deceased person for burial. Because ointment was so costly, it was stored very carefully in a special flask made of alabaster.

That ointment must have been the most valuable thing the woman owned, and she had been keeping it in reserve. Yet she came and poured her treasured possession on the Lord’s head lavishly, freely, and unreservedly.

The Lord hadn’t asked the woman to pour out the ointment on Him. So why did she do it?

She received a revelation

Prior to this, the Lord Jesus had spoken of His imminent death and resurrection on four different occasions in the book of Matthew. He told those who were with Him that He would suffer many things from the chief priests, elders, and scribes; be condemned to death by them; and be delivered to the Gentiles. He said that the Gentiles would mock Him, scourge Him, and ultimately crucify Him. And He also told them that after these things, He would be raised on the third day.

After hearing the Lord speak these things, the woman came and anointed Jesus. Note 1 in the New Testament Recovery Version on Matthew 26:12 explains what prompted the woman (identified as Mary in John 12) to pour her ointment on the Lord:

“Mary received the revelation of the Lord’s death by the Lord’s words in [Matthew] 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; and v. 2 of this chapter. Hence, she grasped the opportunity to pour upon the Lord the best that she had. To love the Lord with our best requires a revelation concerning Him.”

From His speaking, Mary realized that the Lord Jesus, the One who loved sinners, was going to die for them. Not only that, His death would be through the unspeakable suffering of crucifixion. In response, she loved Him and expressed her love with her best.

To her, nothing was more precious than the Lord Himself, so she poured out her most prized possession on Him. By doing so, she testified that Jesus was worthy of her love and all she had.

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She expressed her love in a timely way

The fourth and final time Jesus spoke of His death to His disciples was right before Mary anointed Him. In Matthew 26:2, He told His followers exactly when His crucifixion would take place:

“You know that after two days the Passover takes place, and the Son of Man is being delivered up to be crucified.”

Mary understood from these words that the Lord’s death was soon, just days away.

But since ointment was customarily used to anoint the dead for burial, why didn’t she save her ointment for after He died? Why did she anoint the Lord before He died? She chose to anoint the Lord Jesus before He was taken away and crucified to show her love for Him, while there was still time.

By contrast, Mark 16 tells us that after Jesus was crucified, some women came to His tomb to anoint His body. But they were too late; Jesus had already resurrected.

So Mary not only loved the Lord with the best that she had, but she also showed her love in a timely way. She gave her best to anoint the Lord in love when she had the chance.

The disciples' reaction

Matthew 26:8 and 9 tell us how the disciples reacted to what Mary did:

“But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste? For this could have been sold for much and given to the poor.”

The disciples thought Mary's pouring out of the ointment was an extravagant waste. They had been with the Lord, and they also had heard Him speak of His approaching arrest, suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection. But they hadn’t yet seen the preciousness of the Lord and His death like Mary had.

A wonderful note on the word waste in verse 8 in the Recovery Version says:

“The disciples considered Mary’s love offering to the Lord a waste. Throughout the past twenty centuries thousands of precious lives, heart treasures, high positions, and golden futures have been ‘wasted’ upon the Lord Jesus. To those who love Him in such a way He is altogether lovely and worthy of their offering. What they have poured upon Him is not a waste but a fragrant testimony of His sweetness.”

Mary’s act of pouring out her precious ointment on the Lord wasn’t a waste. It was a fragrant testimony of the Lord’s sweetness.

Over the past centuries, countless believers in Jesus have given up their lives as martyrs. Others have left their homes and everything they knew, traveling to foreign countries to tell people about Jesus and His salvation. Why? What made them do it? They were motivated by the Lord’s immense love shown in His dying on the cross for them, and they loved Him in return with their all.

Today, our family members, friends, work colleagues, and schoolmates who aren’t saved yet may think that loving Jesus with all we have is a waste of our time, talents, and energy.

But we can only respond by saying that the Lord Jesus, the most lovely and loving One in the universe, gave His life on the cross for us. What love He showed us! Only Jesus is worthy of all our love, all we have, and all we are. And now is the best time for us to unreservedly pour out in consecration our hearts, our lives, our futures—our all—on Him.

The Lord's appraisal of what she did

We've seen the disciples' reaction to what the woman did. But did the Lord also think it was a waste? In the last part of the story, Matthew 26:10-13 tells us how the Lord appraised what she did:

“But Jesus, knowing it, said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a noble deed to Me. For the poor you have with you always, but you do not always have Me. For in pouring out this ointment on My body, she has done it for My burial. Truly I say to you, Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial of her.”

The Lord Jesus didn’t commend the disciples for suggesting that the ointment could have been sold to give to the poor. Instead, He appraised the woman’s act of pouring out her precious ointment on Him as a noble deed. And He recognized that she did this ahead of time for His burial.

Even more, the Lord said that wherever the gospel is preached, what this woman did would be told as a memorial to her. Note 2 on verse 13 explains what that means:

“The story of the gospel is that the Lord loved us, and the story of Mary is that she loved the Lord. We must preach both—the Lord’s loving us and our loving the Lord. One is for our salvation, and the other is for our consecration.”

When we see the Lord’s great love manifested on the cross, how can we help but love Him utterly and give our best to Him? And the more we see Him, the more we love Him and want to yield ourselves to Him in consecration.

May we all testify of the sweetness and preciousness of the Lord by consecrating ourselves to Him in love while we still have time.

If you live in the United States, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version and spend some time reading this story in Matthew 26 with all the commentary.

We also recommend this hymn on consecration; you can read the lyrics and hear the tune here.