Note: These are the notes I wrote down as I read through this book. Sometimes the notes are a word-for-word transcription from the book. Other times it’s my paraphrase of what was written. These notes are not intended to fully explain what Watchman Nee wrote. If something is confusing or requires more clarity, you can reference this book for more information.
According to the finished work of the cross, we have died and have been resurrected already. Our responsibility is to die to self and live to God. But carnal believers don’t do this in practice. These believers are abnormal.
Spiritual Christians are not at all extraordinary; they are normal. It’s the fleshly who are out of the ordinary. They are abnormal.
Biblical regeneration is a birth by which the innermost part of man’s being, the deeply hidden spirit, is renewed, resurrected, and indwelt by the Spirit of God. It requires time for the power of this new life to reach the outside. That is, to be extended from the inward center of man’s being to the outward circumference.
A spiritual person is one whom the Holy Spirit has full control.
Question we need to ask ourselves: How much do you truly know from life or is it merely a product of the mind?
Any sectarian boasting—I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Christ—is but the babbling of a babe.
The sinners of the world are men of flesh. Unregenerated, they are under the rule of their body and soul. For a believer to be fleshly signifies that he too is behaving like an ordinary man.
To be fleshly or carnal means to behave like “ordinary men.”
The Sins of the Flesh
What Paul experienced in Romans 7 was a war against sin which resided in his body.
The needs of the human body can be classified as: 1) nourishment; 2) reproduction; and 3) defense. A carnal Christian is dominated by 1, 2, or 3 of these.
The Things of the Flesh
No one can see the complete worthlessness, wickedness, and defilement of the flesh as viewed by God unless he is shown by the Holy Spirit.
Only when God, by His Spirit, has revealed to man the true condition of the flesh as God sees it will man then deal with his flesh.
Only after he has had this experience of unsuccessful battles with the flesh will the believer realize that the flesh is irredeemable and his method futile. That’s when he will seek another salvation.
We cannot repair, regulate, educate, or discipline the flesh. None of these methods can alter in the slightest the nature of the flesh. What then can be done? The flesh must die.
We would prefer to tame the flesh by striving, by changing it, by exercising the will, or by innumerable other means. But God’s prescription is death.
Since we became flesh by being born of the flesh, it naturally follows that we shall be freed from it if the flesh dies. Crucifixion is the one and only way. As Paul said, “For he who died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7).
The flesh is most defiled (2 Peter 2:10-22). God does not attempt to change it. There is no method of deliverance other than death.
The blood of Jesus washes our sins. But it does not wash our flesh. The flesh must be crucified by the power of the Holy Spirit.
