By Liu Jing
Previously, when I saw the scriptures recorded in the Bible, “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Behold, your disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath day” (Matthew 12:1-2), I thought to myself: Why did the Lord Jesus lead His disciples to go outside on the Sabbath, since He clearly knew the Pharisees kept the laws and rules? Wouldn’t it be easy for the Pharisees to get a handle and attack and judge Him? Then why did the Lord Jesus do so? These questions had been preying on my mind.
One day, I saw God’s words, “When the Lord Jesus came, He used His practical actions to tell the people that God had departed the Age of Law and had begun new work, and that this new work did not require the observation of the Sabbath. God’s coming out from the confines of the Sabbath day was just a foretaste of His new work; the real and great work was still to come. When the Lord Jesus began His work, He had already left behind the ‘shackles’ of the Age of Law, and had broken through the regulations and principles of that age. In Him, there was no trace of anything related to the law; He had cast it off entirely and no longer observed it, and He no longer required mankind to observe it. So here you see the Lord Jesus went through the corn fields on the Sabbath, and that the Lord did not rest; He was outside working, and not resting. This action of His was a shock to people’s notions and it communicated to them that He no longer lived under the law, and that He had left the confines of the Sabbath and appeared before mankind and in their midst in a new image, with a new way of working. This action of His told people that He had brought with Him new work, work that began with emerging from being under the law, and departing from the Sabbath. When God carried out His new work, He no longer clung to the past, and He was no longer concerned about the regulations of the Age of Law. Neither was He affected by His work in the previous age, but instead worked on the Sabbath just as He did on every other day, and when His disciples were hungry on the Sabbath, they could pick ears of corn to eat. This was all very normal in God’s eyes. For God, it is permissible to have a new beginning for much of the new work He wants to do and the new words He wants to say. When He begins something new, He neither mentions His previous work nor continues to carry it out. Because God has His principles in His work, when He wants to begin new work, it is when He wants to bring mankind into a new stage of His work, and when His work will enter a higher phase. If people continue to act according to the old sayings or regulations or continue to hold fast to them, He will not remember or approve that. This is because He has already brought new work, and has entered a new phase of His work. When He initiates new work, He appears to mankind with a completely new image, from a completely new angle, and in a completely new way so that people can see different aspects of His disposition and what He has and is. This is one of His goals in His new work. God does not cling to old things or walk the well-trodden path; when He works and speaks, He is not as prohibitive as people imagine. In God, all is free and liberated, and there is no prohibition, no constraints—what He brings to mankind is freedom and liberation. … No matter what people say and no matter how they see or assess His new work, He will carry out His work without a qualm. He will not worry about anyone’s notions or finger-pointing as concerns His work and words, or even their strong opposition and resistance to His new work. No one among all of creation can use human reason, or human imagination, knowledge, or morality to measure or define what God does, to discredit, disrupt or sabotage His work. There is no prohibition in His work and what He does; it will not be constrained by any man, event, or thing, neither will it be disrupted by any hostile forces. As far as His new work is concerned, He is an ever-victorious King, and any hostile forces and all the heresies and fallacies of mankind are trampled under His footstool. No matter which new stage of His work He is carrying out, it will surely be developed and expanded in mankind’s midst, and it will surely be carried out unhindered throughout the entire universe until His great work has been completed. This is God’s almightiness and wisdom, His authority and power. Thus, the Lord Jesus could openly go out and work on the Sabbath because in His heart there were no rules, no knowledge or doctrine that originated from mankind. What He had was God’s new work and God’s way. His work was the way to free mankind, to release people, to allow them to exist in the light and to live.”
Through the revelations of God’s words, I came to understand that the reason why the Lord Jesus did not keep the Sabbath and chose to go out and work on that day, was because He wanted to tell those who lived under the law that He had ended the old age and brought with Him new work. When God initiates the work of a new age, God will not hold fast to the old sayings or regulations, nor will He allow people to cling to them. Meanwhile, He also, in such a way, makes man understand His disposition and know that He is always new and never old. He never follows any doctrine or takes the beaten path. He does His work in accordance with His own plan and mankind’s present needs, not the slightest bit constrained or hindered by various regulations and man’s notions and imaginations. Thus, the Lord Jesus did not worry at all about how man would see His new work, nor did He worry about criticism. He still did the work of His plan as usual. In Him, all is free and liberated. It could be said that this action of the Lord Jesus is the true expression and revelation of God’s inherent disposition as well as the manifestation of the wisdom in His work. It was just because the Pharisees did not realize that God is an ever-new and never-old God, as well as a God of wisdom and wonder, that they limited God to the old rules and doctrines, and did their utmost to search for flaws of the Lord Jesus, and moreover, nailed the innocent Lord Jesus to the cross on the charge of Him not following the law of the Old Testament. As a consequence, they received God’s righteous punishment and curse. It is clear that if man does not know God’s disposition or His working principles, but rather always checks God’s new work against His former work, and limits God’s work to old regulations and doctrines as well as to his own notions and imaginations, then he will easily make the mistake of delineating and resisting God, and what ultimately awaits him will only be God’s wrath and punishment.
Similarly, as required by the need of corrupt mankind, today the incarnate God has done a deepened and uplifted work on the basis of the Lord Jesus’ work, expressing words to judge, chastise, and purify man, as well as showing man the path to achieve dispositional change. When some religious leaders hear of Almighty God’s work of the last days, they do not treat it with an attitude of seeking and investigating, but instead they measure Almighty God’s work by each and every word of the Bible. If it matches the words in the Bible, then they will accept it; if not, then they will oppose and reject it. In their own conceptions and imaginations, if God comes but is not called Jesus, then He is not the returned Lord; if God comes but does not bestow His boundless grace and blessings upon man with His merciful and loving disposition, then He is absolutely not the returned Lord. Therefore, man defines God’s work in their notions and imaginations once again, ultimately walking the path of the Pharisees. Nevertheless, God’s new work is not affected by this in the least. Those who truly believe in God, seek God and thirst for God’s appearance, all come out from their own notions and imaginations and finally meet the coming of the Lord with a seeking and obedient attitude.
From the facts of God’s work, it can be seen that God has been doing His work according to His own plan and His wisdom all the time. In addition, regardless of in what manner God does His work, it’s all for better saving man, and also for man to be liberated by the truth, which is most beneficial to man. Therefore, we should not define God by our notions or restrict God with our own thoughts. Instead, we should put aside our own conceptions to seek God’s appearance, only through which can we keep up with God’s footsteps and obtain God’s salvation. This is the sense and the reverence for God that should be, at the very least, possessed by a created being.
God’s words say, “Man should not define the work of God; moreover, man cannot define the work of God. In the eyes of God, man is as insignificant as an ant; so how can man fathom God’s work? Those who like to spout, ‘God does not work in this or that way,’ or ‘God is like this or that’—are they not speaking arrogantly? We should all know that man, who is of the flesh, has been corrupted by Satan. Mankind’s very nature is to oppose God. Mankind cannot be on par with God, much less can mankind hope to advise the work of God. As for how God guides man, this is the work of God Himself. It is fitting that man should submit, without professing this or that view, for man is but dust. Since it is our intent to seek God, we should not superimpose our notions onto His work for God’s consideration, still less should we employ our corrupt disposition to its utmost to deliberately oppose the work of God. Would that not make us antichrists? How could such people believe in God? Since we believe that there is a God, and since we wish to satisfy Him and to see Him, we should seek the way of truth, and should look for a way to be compatible with God. We should not stand in stiff-necked opposition to Him. What good could possibly come of such actions?” “God makes His own choices and His own plans when He does His work; moreover, He has His own objectives and His own methods. Whatever work He does, He has no need to discuss it with man or seek his advice, much less to notify each and every person of His work. This is the disposition of God, which should, moreover, be recognized by everyone. If you desire to witness the appearance of God, to follow God’s footsteps, then you must first walk away from your own notions. You must not demand that God do this or that, much less should you place Him within your own confines and limit Him to your own notions. Instead, you should ask how you are to seek God’s footprints, how you are to accept God’s appearance, and how you are to submit to the new work of God: This is what man should do. Since man is not the truth, and is not possessed of the truth, he should seek, accept, and obey.”
