«　WEEK 5　DAY 4　»

　　1 Cor. 6:20 For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body.

　　2 Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died;

　　Rom. 12:1 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

　　God's goal is to work Himself into His redeemed people. God wants to work Himself into His chosen people that He may have a full expression in eternity. This is the goal of God's full salvation. God's dispensation is toward this goal. We must see, not only God's dispensation, but also the goal of God's dispensation, that is, God is working Himself into His chosen people. (Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity)

　　First Corinthians 6:20 says: “Ye were bought with a price.” Our consecration is based on this purchase of God. For instance, you may go to the Gospel Bookroom and see a great number of books on display, but you cannot help yourself to any of them, because you have no basis for doing so. But if you pay three dollars for one of the volumes, then you can demand that the book be turned over to you and claim that it belongs to you. This demanding is based upon your purchase. The basis of consecration is exactly the same…. In Exodus 13:2 we see that after the Passover, God commanded the Israelites, saying, “Sanctify unto me all the first-born.” The reason for this command is that all these first-born were redeemed by God through the death of the lamb.... The basis of consecration, therefore, is God's purchase.

　　If we were to investigate the consecration experiences of Christians, we would discover that most were constrained by the love of the Lord.... But if we were to consecrate ourselves to the Lord only because of the constraint of the Lord's love, would this consecration be sufficiently stable? Experience tells us that it is not. The reason is that love is the story of our heart's mood and desire…. Therefore, if consecration is purely a matter of love, it will not be sufficiently stable. It will be subject to as much change as our unstable mood. When we understand the basis of consecration and realize that consecration is based on the matter of purchase, our consecration will then be stable and secure…. God has already bought us and has the right to own us. Therefore, whether we are happy or not, we must consecrate ourselves.

　　The motive of consecration is the love of God…. This kind of consecration, motivated by the love of God, is mentioned very clearly in two places in the Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 and Romans 12:1.

　　Second Corinthians 5:14-15 says: “For the love of Christ constraineth us (constraineth in the original has the meaning of the rushing of waters)…and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.”…. The dying love of Christ is like the rushing of great waters toward us, impelling us to consecrate ourselves to God and to live for Him beyond our own control.

　　In Romans 12:1 …. the mercies referred to here are the love of God. Therefore, in this place also, Paul is seeking to move our hearts with the love of God. He would cause us to have the motive of love, so that we might consecrate ourselves willingly to God as a living sacrifice.

　　In a normal consecration this motive of love is very necessary. If our consecration rests solely on the basis of consecration, the realization of God's right to us, this consecration will only be based on reason; it will lack sweetness and intensity. But if our consecration has love as its motive, if our feelings have been touched by the love of God, the constraint of this love will cause us to consecrate ourselves willingly to God. This consecration will then be sweet and intense. (The Experience of Life, pp 25-26, 28, 31-32)