THE SECOND PART: THE BIRDVIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Preface—The Subjects of the Books of the New Testament
A. Matthew The Gospel of the Kingdom—Proving that Jesus Christ Is the King-Savior
B. Mark The Gospel of God—Proving that Jesus Christ Is the Slave-Savior
C. Luke The Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sins—Proving that Jesus Christ Is the Man-Savior
D. John The Gospel of Life—Proving that Jesus Christ Is God the Savior Coming as Life to Propagate Himself
E. Acts The Propagation of the Resurrected Christ in His Ascension, by the Spirit, through the Disciples, for the Producing of the Churches—The Kingdom of God
F. Romans The Gospel of God—to Make Sinners Sons of God to Constitute the Body of Christ, Which Is Expressed as the Local Churches
G. 1 Corinthians Christ and His Cross as the Solution to All Problems in the Church
H. 2 Corinthians The New Covenant Ministry and Its Ministers
I. Galatians Christ Replacing the Law and Being versus Religion and Tradition
J. Ephesians The Church—The Mystery of Christ, the Body of Christ as the Fullness of Christ, Becoming the Fullness of God
K. Philippians Experiencing Christ—Taking Christ as Our Living, Pattern, Goal, Power, and Secret
L. Colossians Christ—The All-inclusive One, Having the First Place in All Things as the Mystery and Embodiment of God, as the Head and Constituent of the Church, as the Allotted Portion, Life, Constituent, and Hope of the Saints, and as the Body of All Positive Things
M. 1 Thessalonians A Holy Life for the Church Life—Serving the Living God, Conducting Ourselves in a Holy Manner, and Waiting for the Lord’s Coming
N. 2 Thessalonians Encouragement and Correction concerning the Holy Life for the Church Life
O. 1 Timothy God’s Economy concerning the Church
P. 2 Timothy Inoculation against the Decline of the Church
Q. Titus The Maintenance of Order in the Church
R. Philemon An Illustration of the Believers’ Equal Status in the New Man
S. Hebrews Christ Being Superior to Judaism and Everything Related to It, and the New Covenant Which He Consummated Being Better than the Old Covenant
T. James Practical Christian Perfection
U. 1 Peter The Christian Life under the Government of God
V. 2 Peter The Divine Provision and the Divine Government
W. 1 John The Fellowship of the Divine Life
X. 2 John Prohibition against Participation in Heresy
Y. 3 John Encouragement to the Fellow Workers in the Truth
Z. Jude Contending for the Faith
AA.Revelation Christ as the Center of God’s Administration according to God’s Eternal Economy
Ministry Excerpts:
THE BIRDVIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
In the Old Testament Christ is portrayed as the coming One. In the New Testament, the One whose coming was predicted has come. These two testaments are actually one, revealing one Person who is our life.
In the Old Testament, God spoke in the prophets, in men borne by His Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). In the New Testament, He speaks in the Son, in the person of the Son. The Son is God Himself (v. 8), God expressed. God the Father is hidden; God the Son is expressed. No one has ever seen God; the Son, as the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13) and the speaking of God, has declared Him with a full expression, explanation, and definition of Him (John 1:18). (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Heb. 1:2, footnote 2)
THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Gospel Books and Acts—the Gospel According to Matthew,
the Gospel According to Mark, the Gospel According to Luke,
the Gospel According to John, the Acts of the Apostles
The Gospel Books and Acts: The New Testament at its beginning presents four biographies to portray the four main aspects of this all-inclusive Christ. The Gospel of Matthew testifies that He is the King, the Christ of God prophesied in the Old Testament, who brings the kingdom of the heavens to the earth. The Gospel of Mark tells us that He is the Servant of God, laboring for God faithfully. Mark’s account is most simple, for a servant does not warrant a detailed record. The Gospel of Luke presents a full picture of Him as the only proper and normal man who ever lived on this earth; as such a man, He is the Savior of mankind. The Gospel of John unveils Him as the Son of God, the very God Himself, who is life to God’s people. Subject of Acts: The Propagation of the Resurrected Christ in His Ascension, by the Spirit, through the Disciples, for the Producing of the Churches—The Kingdom of God. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Matt. 1:1, footnote 1; Subject of Acts)
The Epistles of Paul—the Epistle of Paul to the Romans,
the First and Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians,
the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians,
the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians,
the First and Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians,
the First and Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, the Epistle of Paul to Titus,
the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, the Epistle to the Hebrews
The Epistles of Paul: In Romans is the Christ who is our righteousness for justification. The books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians form a cluster of Epistles that make up the heart of the divine revelation in the New Testament. The essential subject of these four books is Christ and the church. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 8; Life-Study of Hebrews, msg. 1; Holy Bible Recovery Version, Gal. 1:1, footnote 1)
The First and Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians reveals the three aspects of a holy life for the Church Life—serving the living God, conducting ourselves in a holy manner, and waiting for the Lord’s coming. The first Epistle is for encouragement and comfort; the second is for correction and balance. If we put this Epistle together with 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, we shall know how to have a proper local church life, and preserve the church to be the proper expression of Christ. The Epistle to the Hebrews reveals Christ being superior to Judaism and everything related to it, and the new covenant which He consummated being better than the old covenant.(Holy Bible Recovery Version, Subject of 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thes. 1:3, footnote 1; Life-Study of 1 Timothy, msg. 1; Holy Bible Recovery Version, Subject of Hebrews )
The Epistle of James
The subject of the Epistle of James is practical Christian perfection. The many virtues he covers in this book are related to this perfection. (Life-Study of James, msg. 1)
The Epistles of Peter and Jude
The Epistles of Peter and Jude’s basic structure is the Triune God operating to accomplish a threefold salvation so that we may be regenerated, that we may feed on His word, and that we may grow, be transformed, and be built up in order that He may have a dwelling place and that we may express Him. (Life-Study of Jude, msg. 5)
The Epistle of John—the First, Second
and Third Epistle of John and Revelation
John’s ministry was not only to mend the broken ministry of Paul but also to consummate the entire divine revelation of both the Old Testament and the New Testament, of both the Gospels and the Epistles. In such a ministry, the focus is the mysteries of the divine life. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 1 John 1:1, footnote 1)
THE NEW TESTAMENT—
THE PRACTICAL FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S ETERNAL ECONOMY
We have seen that the Old Testament is a figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy. The New Testament is the practical fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. The Old Testament is a portrait, and the New Testament is a fulfillment. A portrait is a picture, a photo. People may say that they have seen someone on a videotape, but actually they have not seen that person. They have seen his photo, his portrait. Later they may be glad to see the real person whom they saw on the video. The Old Testament is like a video. The New Testament is the real thing. It is not a portrait, but a fulfillment. The person in the fulfillment is exactly the same as his photo. There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament in three sections: the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles. The Gospels are of four books; the Acts is one book; and the Epistles are of twenty-two books.
Matthew to John
Some Christians would say in general that the four Gospels tell us the detailed history of Christ, including His being born of a virgin, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. Others may say that the Gospels reveal Christ in a fourfold way: in Matthew as a king, in Mark as a slave, in Luke as a man, and in John as God. Although this thought is very high, we want to go further to see the central, intrinsic revelation of the four Gospels. This revelation from Matthew to John is that the Triune God has been processed and consummated to be the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The Triune God has been processed through incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. He was also consummated to be a life-giving Spirit. At the end of the four Gospels, on the day of His resurrection, He came back to His disciples, breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). After His resurrection, Christ is in us as the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul said that the last Adam, the embodied God, God embodied in a man, became the life-giving Spirit. Some opposers have argued that this does not mean that Jesus Christ is the Spirit. They said that 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, not the life-giving Spirit. But whether the article is definite or indefinite does not matter. If I say, “Here is a man,” or, “Here is the man,” a man is still a man. There is no difference. There is not another Spirit who gives life besides the Holy Spirit.
The Triune God has been processed through His incarnation to become the God-man, through His human living to live the God-man’s life, through His all-inclusive death to redeem His lost creation and to release His divine life, and through His resurrection to dispense Himself into His redeemed chosen people as their life and everything. Thus, the processed, consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is dispensed into His chosen, redeemed people to be their life and everything. The general teaching in today’s Christianity says only that Christ is the Redeemer, not that Christ is our life and everything.
Acts
Acts unveils the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit spreading Himself as the reality of Christ, who is the embodiment of God, for the producing of the churches of God. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him into us as the Spirit. Actually that Spirit is Christ, the reality of Christ.
Romans to Revelation
Now we come to the last section of the New Testament, the twenty-two Epistles from Romans to Revelation.
In the four Gospels the church is mentioned only twice, in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17, but the Body of Christ is not mentioned. Acts speaks of the churches, but also does not mention the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is mentioned only in the Epistles. Actually, the first twenty-one Epistles unveil the Body of Christ, whereas Revelation reveals the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the Body of Christ. Romans 12:5 is the first verse in the entire New Testament that mentions the Body of Christ. This indicates that all the Epistles are for the Body of Christ. Other Epistles that speak of the Body of Christ are 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. These four books—Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians—are the master books of the New Testament. If these books were taken away, the New Testament would become empty.
Romans to Revelation unveil the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit building up the churches into the organism of the consummated Triune God as the Body of Christ, by transforming them into the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal enlargement and expression of the consummated Triune God.
When we tell people what the New Testament unveils we should tell them what we have spoken of above concerning its three sections as the practical fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. It would be very good if we were able to recite the three definitions of these three sections. (The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move, msg. 3)