Outline

«　WEEK 10　DAY 2　»

　　Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

　　Matt. 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

　　Christ’s death is a mold to which we are conformed in much the same way that dough is put into a cake mold and conformed to it. God has put us into the mold of Christ’s death, and day by day God is molding us to conform us to this death (Rom. 6:3-4). We should be conformed to such a mold by our dying to our human life to live the divine life. If we put to death our natural life, we will have the consciousness that we have another life, the divine life, within us; this life will be released, and then in our experience we will be conformed to Christ’s death (John 10:10; 1 John 5:11-12). In the mold of Christ’s death, the natural life is killed, the old man is crucified, and the self is nullified (2 Cor. 4:16; Rom. 6:6; Matt. 16:24). If we allow our circumstances to press us into this mold, our daily life will be molded into the form of Christ’s death (Rom. 8:28-29).

　　Being conformed to the death of Christ is the condition for knowing and experiencing Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. Being conformed to the death of Christ is the base of the experience of Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 3508)

　　Unless we are conformed to Christ’s death, we cannot be conformed to the image of Christ. Christ’s death is the mold in which we are being conformed to His image, the image of the firstborn Son of God. As we experience the process of transformation and conformation, we are being conformed to the death of Christ.

　　The death of Christ was present in Him throughout His whole life. As He was living, He was also dying…When He told His disciples that He would suffer and be crucified, they had no ears to hear. DAY after day Christ died to the old creation so that He might live in the new creation.

　　Being conformed to Christ’s death should be our daily experience as believers. The more our natural life is put to death, the more the divine life in us will be released. Then in our experience we will be conformed to Christ’s death.

　　The cross [Matt. 16:24] is not merely a suffering; it is primarily a killing. It kills and terminates the criminal. Christ bore the cross and then was crucified. As He was bearing the cross, He was under a killing rather than a suffering. The believers in Christ are crucified with Him and then bear the cross. Bearing the cross means to remain in the killing of the death of Christ for the terminating of our self, natural life, and old man.

　　For us to bear the cross, we must realize that we have already been crucified. We have been crucified together with Christ on the cross; our own life, the natural life, the old man, and our entire being have been killed. Now we must remain under the killing. This is the meaning of bearing the cross.

　　The meaning of bearing the cross is that we bear about in our body the death of Christ, allowing the death of Christ to work continuously on us for the putting to death of our self. To bear the cross is also to remain in the death of Christ. The death of Christ is our destiny and our goal. If we want to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ the Firstborn, we need to remain in His death, taking His death as our dwelling place. Hence, the meaning of bearing the cross is to join ourselves to the crucified Christ and remain with Him in His death. If we do not remain in Christ’s death, we are forsaking His cross; if we remain in His death, we are bearing the cross. This is to be conformed to the death of Christ. (Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 3, pp. 51-53)

　　Further Reading: Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 3, lsn. 45