THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The All-inclusive Christ
Message Seven—A Panoramic View of Christ in the New Testament
Scriptures Reading: Matt. 1:1; Rev. 22:21; Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4
I. The first name and the last name in the New Testament is Jesus, proving that Jesus Christ is the subject and content of the New Testament—Matt. 1:1; Rev. 22:21:
A. The Bible is a book of life, and this life is a living person, the wonderful and all-inclusive Christ.
B. The Old Testament gives a portrait, in types and prophecies, of this wonderful person as the Coming One; now, in the New Testament, this wonderful person has come.
II. Christ, as the wonderful center of the entire Bible, is all-inclusive, having many aspects; the New Testament at its beginning presents four biographies to portray the four main aspects of this all-inclusive Christ:
A. 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.
B. 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.
C. 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.
D. The Gospel of John unveils Him as the Son of God, the very God Himself, who is life to God’s people.
III. The four faces of the living creatures in Ezekiel 1:10 also portray the life of Christ as depicted in the four Gospels:
A. Matthew shows Christ as a lion, the King of God’s kingdom; we need to be one with Christ to have the face of a lion, indicating that in relation to sin, the world, and Satan we are bold, strong, victorious, and reigning—Rev. 5:5; Rom. 5:17.
B. Mark portrays Him as an ox, the Servant of God; we need to be one with Christ to have the face of an ox, indicating that we are willing to bear the burden, to labor, and even to sacrifice ourselves—1 Cor. 15:10, 58; Acts 20:24; Phil. 2:30.
C. Luke depicts Him as a man, the Man-Savior; we need to be one with Christ to have the face of a man, indicating that we live in a proper humanity, the humanity of Jesus—cf. Eph. 4:20-21.
D. John shows Him as an eagle, the very God; we need to be one with Christ to have the face of an eagle, indicating that we are transcendent, buoyant, and powerful in the life of God—6:15; Phil. 4:12-13.
IV. The New Testament portrays the person of Christ in the following aspects:
A. In the Gospels is the Christ who lived on the earth and died on the cross for the accomplishment of redemption.
B. In the Acts is the resurrected and ascended Christ propagated and ministered to men.
C. In Romans is the Christ who is our righteousness for justification and our life for sanctification, transformation, conformation, glorification, and building up.
D. In Galatians is the Christ who enables us to live a life that is versus the law, religion, tradition, and forms.
E. In Philippians is the Christ who is lived out of His members.
F. In Ephesians and Colossians is the Christ who is the life, the content, and the Head of the Body, the church.
G. In 1 and 2 Corinthians is the Christ who is everything in the practical church life.
H. In 1 and 2 Thessalonians is the Christ who is our holiness for His coming back.
I. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus is the Christ who is God’s economy, enabling us to know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God.
J. In Hebrews is the present Christ, who is now in the heavens as our Minister and our High Priest, ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth; He is the Christ now, the Christ today, and the Christ on the throne in the heavens, who is our daily salvation and moment-by-moment supply—8:2; 4:14-15; 7:26.
K. In the Epistles of Peter is the Christ who enables us to take God’s governmental dealings administered through sufferings.
L. In the Epistles of John is the Christ who is the life and fellowship of the children of God in God’s family.
M. In Revelation is the Christ who is walking among the churches in this age, ruling over the world in the kingdom in the coming age, and expressing God in full glory in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
V. The apostles’ teaching is the unique teaching of God’s New Testament economy concerning the full ministry of Christ in three stages—Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4:
A. In the first stage of incarnation in the four Gospels—Matt. 14:19, 23; John 1:14; 10:30; Rom. 3:24-25:
1. To bring the infinite God into the finite man.
2. To unite, mingle, and incorporate the Triune God with the tripartite man.
3. To express in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues.
4. To accomplish His all-inclusive judicial redemption.
B. In the second stage of inclusion in the Epistles—1 Cor. 15:45b; Phil. 1:19; Acts 13:33; 2:28:
1. To be begotten as God’s firstborn Son.
2. To become the life-giving Spirit.
3. To regenerate the believers for His Body.
C. In the third stage of intensification in Revelation—Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 17; 19:7-9; 21:2:
1. To intensify His organic salvation.
2. To produce the overcomers.
3. To consummate the New Jerusalem.
Ministry Excerpts:
JESUS CHRIST BEING THE SUBJECT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The first name and the last name (Rev. 22:21) in the New Testament is Jesus, proving that Jesus Christ is the subject and content of the New Testament.
The Bible is a book of life, and this life is a living person, the wonderful and all-inclusive Christ. The Old Testament gives a portrait, in types and prophecies, of this wonderful person as the Coming One. Now, in the New Testament, this wonderful person has come. The first page of the New Testament, in recommending this wonderful person to us, gives us His genealogy. This genealogy can be considered an abstract of the Old Testament, which in itself is the detailed genealogy of Christ. To understand the genealogy in Matthew, we need to trace the origin and history of every incident.
Christ, as the wonderful center of the entire Bible, is all-inclusive, having many aspects. 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. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, Matt. 1:1, footnote 1)
THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES
BEING A FOURFOLD EXPRESSION OF CHRIST
These four faces—the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle—portray the life of Christ. These four faces correspond to the four Gospels, which may be regarded as four biographies of the Lord Jesus, with each presenting a certain aspect of Christ. Luke shows Him as a man, Matthew shows Him as a lion, Mark shows Him as an ox, and John shows Him as an eagle. This fourfold life is the life of Christ. (Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 5)
THE FULL MINISTRY OF CHRIST
The full ministry of Christ includes all the works of Christ’s accomplishments. Christ accomplishes so much by His ministry, His service, from His incarnation to the consummation of the New Jerusalem. The New Testament begins with Christ’s incarnation and ends with the New Jerusalem. Matthew presents the birth of Christ, His incarnation, and Revelation presents the New Jerusalem, the holy city.
A. The Accomplishments of Christ in the Stage of His Incarnation
1. Bringing the Infinite God into the Finite Man
The first thing Christ accomplished in His incarnation was to bring the infinite God into the finite man.
2. Uniting and Mingling the Triune God with the Tripartite Man
God is triune and man is tripartite. Christ in His incarnation united and mingled these two parties—the wonderful God, who is triune, and the excellent man, who is tripartite.
3. Expressing in His Humanity the Bountiful God
in His Rich Attributes through His Aromatic Virtues
Christ in His incarnation came to earth not only to bring the infinite God into the finite man and to unite and mingle the Triune God with the tripartite man, but also to express the bountiful God in His humanity, His human living. God is bountiful in His rich and many attributes. The attributes of God are what God is. He is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. God’s attributes were expressed in Christ as a man to be Christ’s virtues. Christ expressed the bountiful God in His human living, mainly expressing God in His rich attributes, that is, in the unsearchable riches of what God is.
4. Finishing His All-inclusive Judicial Redemption
Finally, He went to the cross to finish His all-inclusive judicial redemption. Christ died on the cross to terminate all things of the old creation. He also redeemed all the things created by God and fallen in sin (Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20). On the cross He created (conceived) the new man with His divine element. Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ created in Himself both the Jews and Gentiles into one new man. Every conception requires a certain element. In Himself means in Himself as the divine element for this conceiving. In His redeeming death He also released His divine life from the shell of His humanity (John 12:24). (The Vital Groups, msg. 12)
B. The Accomplishments of Christ in the Stage of His Inclusion from His Resurrection to the Degradation of the Church
The degradation of the church began at the end of the early apostles’ ministry. In Paul’s second Epistle to Timothy we can see this degradation. We need to see the three major things which Christ accomplished in the stage of His inclusion from His resurrection to the degradation of the church. In Christ’s resurrection He was begotten as God’s firstborn Son, He became the life-giving Spirit, and He regenerated the believers for His Body.
1. To Be Begotten as God’s Firstborn Son
From eternity past without beginning, Christ was God’s only begotten Son, possessing only divinity, without humanity. At that time He had not passed through death into resurrection. In incarnation the only begotten Son of God became flesh to be a God-man, a man possessing both the divine nature and the human nature. Through death and resurrection, Christ in the flesh as the seed of David was designated to be the firstborn Son of God. In death His humanity was crucified. In resurrection His crucified humanity was made alive by the Spirit of His divinity and was uplifted into the sonship of the only begotten Son of God. Thus, He was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God.
2. To Become the Life-giving Spirit
First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam [Christ in the flesh] became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam was the last man. Christ’s crucifixion was the end of man. In His resurrection Christ, the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit for dispensing life. This life-giving Spirit who is the pneumatic Christ is also called the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), and the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ.
3. To Regenerate the Believers for His Body
First Peter 1:3 reveals that Christ regenerated all of us who believe in Him in His resurrection. With God there is no time element. According to our human perspective, we were regenerated at a certain time, but in God’s view all of His many sons were regenerated through the resurrection of Christ. The purpose of Christ’s being begotten to be the firstborn Son of God and becoming the life-giving Spirit was for the regenerating of the believers, making them the many sons of God born of God with Him in the one universally big delivery. Christ’s resurrection was a big delivery of Himself as the firstborn Son and the believers as His many brothers, His millions of “twins.” This was for the composition of the house of God, even the household of God, and the constitution of the Body of Christ to be His fullness, His expression and expansion, to consummate the eternal expression and expansion of the processed and consummated Triune God. (The Vital Groups, msg. 13)
C. The Accomplishments of Christ in the Stage of His Intensification
1. To Intensify His Organic Salvation
For His ministry in the stage of His inclusion, Christ became the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, to carry out His organic salvation for the producing of the church and the building up of His Body to consummate the New Jerusalem. On the way of Christ’s ministry in the stage of His inclusion, the church became degraded to frustrate the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy. Hence, Christ as the one life-giving Spirit became the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 3:1). These are not seven individual Spirits, but the one Spirit who is intensified sevenfold. This is to intensify the organic salvation of Christ sevenfold for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate God’s eternal goal—the New Jerusalem.
2. To Produce the Overcomers
Through the degradation of the church nearly all the believers in Christ became defeated in their old man by Satan, sin, the world, and their flesh. In His seven epistles to the degraded churches, Christ calls the defeated believers to be His overcomers by Himself as the sevenfold intensified Spirit for their experience of His organic salvation in His sevenfold intensification.
3. To Consummate the New Jerusalem
According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, the unique goal of the Christian work should be the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy. The degradation of the church is mainly due to the fact that nearly all the Christian workers are distracted to take many things other than the New Jerusalem as their goal. Hence, under the degradation of the church, to be an overcomer answering the Lord’s call needs us to overcome not only the negative things but even more the positive things which replace the New Jerusalem as the goal. An overcomer’s goal should be uniquely and ultimately the goal of God’s eternal economy, that is, the New Jerusalem. (The Vital Groups, msg. 14)