THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Truth
Message Eight—The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures
Scripture Reading: John 14:6; 17:17; 18:37; 1 John 1:5-6, 8
I. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the divine truths as revealed in the Holy Scriptures—John 8:32; 17:17; 18:37: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
A. Truth is the shining of light, the expression of the divine light—8:12, 32; 18:37; 1 John 1:5-6. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
B. In the New Testament truth means “reality,” denoting the real things revealed in the Word, which are mainly Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the Body of Christ—Col. 2:9; Eph. 1:22-23. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
C. The truths as revealed in the Scriptures have been lost, missed, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and wrongly applied throughout the ages; hence, there is the need of the Lord’s recovery—John 8:32; 17:17. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
II. Life and truth are Christ Himself—John 14:6: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
A. Truth is the outward definition and explanation, and life is the inward and intrinsic element. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
B. If we do not understand the truth, we will have no way to enjoy Christ as our life—Col. 1:5-6; 3:4: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
1. The experience of Christ as life is contained in Christ as the truth—John 14:6. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
2. In order to experience and enjoy Christ as life, we need to know the truth—8:32. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
III. The Lord desires to recover the subjective truths in the Holy Scriptures—the subjective aspect of the truth concerning the Triune God and the church—1:14; 14:16-20; 1 Tim. 6:15-16; 2 Tim. 4:22; 3:15-16: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
A. The truths in the Holy Scriptures are always of two aspects—the objective aspect and the subjective aspect—Rom. 8:34, 10; Col. 3:1; 1:27: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
1. The objective doctrines are for the subjective truths, and the subjective truths are for the producing of the church—2 John 1-2, 4; 3 John 3-4, 7-9a. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
2. In the Lord’s recovery we want both the objective doctrines and the subjective experiences—John 8:32; 17:17; Eph. 1:13; 3:17a; Col. 1:5, 27. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
B. The Gospel of John—a book on the subjective truths—reveals that we should have subjective experiences of Christ—4:14; 6:57; 20:22: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
1. The Word became flesh so that the Lord might work Himself into us—1:14; 14:16-17. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
2. Christ became the living water so that we may drink Him, the bread of life so that we may eat Him, and the breath of life so that we may breathe Him—4:10, 14; 6:32-33, 35, 51, 54-57; 20:22. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
3. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches—15:1, 4-5: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
a. The life of the vine is the life of the branches, the substance of the vine is the substance of the branches, and the nature of the vine is the nature of the branches. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
b. In life, nature, substance, and essence the branches are exactly the same as the vine. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
4. The issue of our receiving the Lord into us is that we become constituents of the church—12:24; 20:17; 15:4-5; 3:29-30a. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
C. The subjective truths are linked to the Spirit and life and are constituted with Spirit and life—Rom. 8:2; 2 Cor. 3:6: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
1. The Spirit and life are the substance of the subjective truths; thus, without the Spirit and life we do not have any subjective truths. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
2. When we live by the Spirit and life, we have the experience of the subjective truths, and this issues in the church life—Rom. 8:2, 4; 16:1. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
D. The Lord’s recovery is to recover the subjective experience of Christ for the practice of the church life—Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; 1:2: (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
1. The practical church life is an issue of our experience of the subjective truths; when we experience the subjective truths, the church is spontaneously produced—Rom. 8:10-11; 12:4-5; 16:1, 4-5; 1 Cor. 1:9, 30; 15:45b; 6:17; 1:2; 12:27. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
2. The church, which is the issue of our subjective experience of Christ, is Christ constituted into His believers—Eph. 3:17a. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
3. The subjective experience of Christ is actually Christ Himself entering into us to be our life and the constituent of our being—Col. 3:4, 10-11. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
4. The Christ who died and resurrected has been wrought into us to produce the church, which is His Body—1:27, 18; 2:19; 3:15. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
5. Christ in Himself is the Head, and Christ constituted into us is the Body—Eph. 1:22-23; 3:17a; 4:15-16; Col. 1:18, 27; 3:4; 2:19; 3:15. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)
E. The subjective truths concerning the Triune God and the church as the Body of Christ have been buried, but in the Lord’s recovery they have been resurrected to become recovered, resurrected truths—John 17:17; 18:37. (2005 ICSC, msg. 3)