Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3 NIV)
The new creation is a company, it is a
Body indwelt by the Holy Spirit, actuated by the Holy Spirit, actually made one
by the Holy Spirit. “In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body” (1
Cor. 12:13). The oneness is the oneness of the Holy Spirit. “Giving diligence
to keep the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3), not to make it but to keep it.
A new creation.
Well now, of course that is just the key that
opens the door to everything when you see what new creation Life means. And with
that you introduce the whole matter of the proper order, the proper regulated
order of heavenly Life. Heavenly Life is according to heavenly law. It is not
lawless. Each member of this body is not a law unto himself or herself. We are
bound by this integrating, regulating law, that we are not allowed to be
independent. Here the Holy Spirit forbids it. We are not allowed to take the law
into our own hands. We are not allowed to act as individuals; the Holy Spirit
will not allow it. There is a regulating order with this Life. This Life expresses
itself according to its own laws, as life does in every part of the organic
creation. It follows its own lines. That part of the creation follows the laws
of the life which it possesses, and this is the Life of the Spirit, and you have
not to organize or systematize this. Immediately you begin to do it, you bring
death in. It is as fatal to try and make a New Testament church after the New
Testament pattern as it is to have no pattern at all! It can be deathly to do
that. The thing happens if the Life has its way. We have learned this, yet, much
as we know about the truth, we are still so much governed by our own natural
life, even in our spiritual activities. There is disorder and running before the
Spirit. However, we are all in the school, and we are just stating the laws, the
principles and the truth that here you have no need to go and organize something on
a New Testament basis. It will come about if the Holy Spirit is really having
His way in terms of Life.