2003春季长老
总题:认识身体(三)
Message Two The Content of the Vision of the Age
Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 3:16;1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 21:3, 22
I. "The summarized content of the whole Scripture is God at the beginning and the New Jerusalem at the end" (The Triune God's Revelation and His Move, p. 2):
A. The Bible begins with God: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"—Gen. 1:1.
1. At the beginning of the Bible, God is mentioned.
2. In Hebrew God in Genesis 1:1 is Elohim, a plural noun, but the verb created is singular; this reveals that God is triune.
B. "The concluding verse [in the Bible] is based upon the revelation of the New Jerusalem" (The Triune God's Revelation and His Move, p. 2): "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen" (Rev. 22:21 and note 211 and 213):
1. Grace is the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God.
2. The saints are the chosen, called, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and ultimately glorified people of God, who participate in His economy for the fulfillment of His eternal economy.
3. The New Jerusalem is the fulfillment of God's eternal economy, consummated through the enjoyment of grace by the saints.
C. "The entire Bible presents a picture that in the universe there is One who is. This One is God. He is triune, and He has been speaking throughout the generations. He has moved and is still moving in and according to His speaking. This move will consummate in the New Jerusalem. In its essence the Bible speaks about the Triune God and the New Jerusalem. This is simple but all-inclusive. The Bible begins with the Triune God, and it consummates with the New Jerusalem" (The Triune God's Revelation and His Move, p. 11).
II. Particularly, the Scriptures reveal that God operates in His eternal economy as:
A. The single, but triune, God from eternity past in the Old Testament:
1. To create man in His image and after His likeness for His expression— Gen. 1—2.
2. To call out a nation from which He could come forth as the God-man to accomplish His economy.
3. To indicate by way of the Old Testament types, shadows, and figures how His economy will be accomplished through Christ.
B. The incarnated God in the four Gospels (The Triune God's Revelation and His Move, p. 66-67):
1. To bring God into man, mingling God with man to make God one with man in the divine life and divine nature (but not in the Godhead) and in the human life and human nature—John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16.
2. To express God in man through His divine attributes expressed in His human virtues.
3. To terminate the old creation with its involvement.
4. To release the divine life into His redeemed chosen people so that He may be their life and everything.
5. To produce a group of redeemed persons for the church.
C. The compounded and inclusive God in the Acts and the Epistles (The Triune God's Revelation and His Move, pp. 67-68):
1. To designate (uplift) His humanity into the divine sonship, producing Him to be the firstborn Son of God—Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33.
2. To make Him the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ—1 Cor. 15:45b.
3. To regenerate all the people chosen by God, making them the children (sons) of God, members of Christ for the constitution of the organic Body of Christ—1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12; Rom. 8:16; 12:4-5.
4. To produce the church as His expression.
D. The intensified God in Revelation 1—20 (Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensi-fication, pp. 18-20):
1. To become the sevenfold intensified Spirit—Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6.
2. To deal with the degradation of the church.
3. To produce the overcomers so that the Body of Christ may be produced.
4. To consummate the New Jerusalem.
E. The corporate God in eternity future in Revelation 21—22 in the New Jerusalem (How to Be a Co-Worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations, pp. 49-52; Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification, pp. 35-36):
1. A mystical and organic constitution of Himself as the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, built-up, conformed, and glorified people.
2. His bride, His wife, and His counterpart.
3. The tabernacle as His eternal dwelling place (Rev. 21:3) and the temple as an eternal dwelling place for His glorified saints (Rev. 21:22b).
4. The eternal expansion and enlargement of the processed and consummated Triune God in the regenerated, transformed, and glorified humanity.
III. Thus, the central revelation of God and the Lord's recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem (The Divine and Mystical Realm, pp. 17-18).