THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

The All-inclusive Christ
Message Nine—Experiencing, Enjoying, and Ministering Christ in the Stage of Inclusion

Scriptures Reading: Exo. 30:22-25; Acts 13:33; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 5:10; Psa. 23

I. The second stage of Christ’s full ministry is the stage of inclusion, from His resurrection to the degradation of the church:

A. The stage of incarnation was the stage of Christ’s first “becoming”—the stage of His becoming flesh—John 1:14.

B. The stage of inclusion is the stage of Christ’s second “becoming”—the stage of His becoming the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b.

C. Our use of the word inclusion is based on our use of the word inclusive; for Christ, as the last Adam, to become the life-giving Spirit was for Him to become the all-inclusive Spirit—Phil. 1:19; Exo. 30:22-25; cf. Gen. 17:1.

II. Christ’s ministry in the stage of inclusion is His ministry in resurrection as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit; resurrection is the life pulse and lifeline of the divine economy—1 Cor. 15:12-19, 31-36, 45-49, 54-58:

A. If there were no resurrection, God would be the God of the dead, not of the living—Matt. 22:32.

B. If there were no resurrection, Christ would not have been raised from the dead; He would be a dead Savior, not a living One who lives forever (Rev. 1:18) and is able to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25; Rom. 5:10).

C. If there were no resurrection, there would be no living proof of our being justified by His death (4:25), no imparting of life (John 12:24), no regeneration (3:5), no renewing (Titus 3:5), no transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and no conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).

D. If there were no resurrection, there would be no members of Christ (12:5), no Body of Christ as His fullness (Eph. 1:20-23), no church as Christ’s bride (John 3:29), and therefore no new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11).

E. If there were no resurrection, God’s New Testament economy would altogether collapse, and God’s eternal purpose would be nullified—Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Col. 1:18.

III. We need to see and enter into the unveiled truth of Christ’s resurrection in the stage of inclusion for the ultimate goal of God’s economy:

A. In resurrection Christ was born to be the firstborn Son of God—Acts 13:33:

1. From eternity past without beginning, Christ was God’s only begotten Son, possessing only divinity, without humanity and not having passed through death into resurrection—John 1:18.

2. 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.

3. Through death and resurrection Christ in the flesh as the seed of David was designated to be the firstborn Son of God—Rom. 1:3-4:

a. In death His humanity was crucified—1 Pet. 3:18.

b. 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—Rom. 8:29.

B. In resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b:

1. The life-giving Spirit “was not yet” before the resurrection of Christ—the glorification of Christ—John 7:39.

2. Christ, the Son of God as the second of the Divine Trinity, after completing His ministry on the earth, became (was transfigured into) the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection to release the divine life that was confined in the shell of His humanity and to dispense it into His believers, making them the many members which constitute His Body—12:24; cf. 19:34.

3. This life-giving Spirit, who is the pneumatic Christ, is also called:

a. The Spirit of life—Rom. 8:2.

b. The Spirit of Jesus—Acts 16:7.

c. The Spirit of Christ—Rom. 8:9.

d. The Spirit of Jesus Christ—Phil. 1:19.

e. The Lord Spirit—2 Cor. 3:18.

C. In resurrection we, God’s chosen ones, were regenerated—1 Pet. 1:3:

1. The pneumatic Christ became the firstborn Son of God and the life-giving Spirit for the regenerating of the believers, making them the many sons of God born of God with Him in one great universal delivery.

2. This great birth of the firstborn Son of God and of the many sons of God in Christ’s resurrection was for the composition of the house of God and for 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—Eph. 1:23; 3:19; Rev. 21:10-11.

3. In the one Spirit all the believers of Christ have been baptized into the one Body of Christ and have been given to drink this Spirit—1 Cor. 12:13.

4. The Christ in resurrection gives Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit without measure through His speaking of the words of God—John 3:34.

5. All the believers in Christ are built up into a dwelling place of God in their spirit indwelt by Him as the Spirit (Eph. 2:22) through the process of His organic salvation (Rom. 5:10)—through dispositional sanctification (15:16), renewing (Titus 3:5), transformation (2 Cor. 3:18), and conformation (Rom. 8:29) unto glorification (Phil. 3:21).

IV. We need to establish and shepherd the churches by the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit, with His organic salvation:

A. The Lord Jesus has incorporated the apostolic ministry with His heavenly ministry to take care of God’s flock, which is the church, issuing in the Body of Christ—John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2; 1 Cor. 15:58; cf. Gen. 48:15-16a.

B. The shepherding of the pneumatic Christ is in five stages—Psa. 23:

1. The enjoyment of Christ as the green pastures and of the Spirit as the waters of rest—v. 2.

2. The revival and transformation on the paths of righteousness—v. 3.

3. The experience of the resurrected pneumatic Christ while walking through the valley of the shadow of death—v. 4.

4. The deeper and higher enjoyment of the resurrected Christ in fighting against the adversaries—v. 5.

5. The lifelong enjoyment of the divine goodness and lovingkindness in the house of Jehovah as the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy—v. 6.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

REBUTTAL TO “NO RESURRECTION”

Resurrection is the life pulse and lifeline of the divine economy. If there were no resurrection, God would be the God of the dead, not the God of the living (Matt. 22:32). If there were no resurrection, Christ would not have been raised from the dead. He would be a dead Savior, not the One who lives forever (Rev. 1:18) and is able to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). If there is no resurrection, there would be no living proof of justification by His death (Rom. 4:25), no imparting of life (John 12:24), no regeneration (John 3:5), no renewing (Titus 3:5), no transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and no conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). If there were no resurrection, there would be no members of Christ (Rom. 12:5), no Body of Christ as His fullness (Eph. 1:20-23), and no church as Christ’s bride (John 3:29) and the new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11). If there were no resurrection, God’s New Testament economy would altogether collapse and God’s eternal purpose would be nullified.

In verse 12 Paul refers to the preaching that Christ has been raised from among the dead. This indicates clearly that the apostles preached the resurrection of Christ. According to the book of Acts, the preaching of the gospel was mainly the preaching of Christ’s resurrection. Although the apostles emphasized the resurrection of Christ, today’s Christian preaching stresses the crucifixion much more than the resurrection. We, however, must follow the apostles to emphasize resurrection as well as crucifixion.

Verse 13 continues, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.” This is the first point of Paul’s rebuttal. It is a fact that Christ has been raised from among the dead. How, then, could some say that there is no resurrection? If there were no resurrection, then Christ could not have been raised from among the dead.

In verse 14 Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, then is our preaching vain; your faith also is vain.” The Greek word rendered vain means empty, void. Without the living Christ in resurrection, both the preaching of the gospel and our faith in it would be empty and void, having no reality. Preaching the death of Christ without preaching His resurrection would be vain. The resurrection of Christ is what causes our preaching to become vital and prevailing. Such a preaching would never be in vain. Furthermore, apart from Christ’s resurrection, our faith would also be vain. Without the resurrection of Christ, both our preaching and our believing become vain. This is a very serious matter.

In verse 15 Paul goes on to say, “And we are found also false witnesses of God, because we witnessed concerning God that He raised Christ, Whom He did not raise if indeed the dead are not raised.” This is another strong point in Paul’s rebuttal.

In verse 16 Paul says, “For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised.” Then verse 17 says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” The Greek word rendered futile means fruitless, worthless. Without Christ resurrected to live in us as our life and as everything to us, our faith in Him is fruitless, worthless, and without any issue like the impartation of life, freedom from sin, victory over Satan, and growth in life. The word futile used here is even stronger than the word vain found in verse 14. Something that is vain is empty. But the word futile indicates labor without result, work without any gain. If there is no resurrection, we may still believe, but eventually nothing results from our believing. Hence, our faith becomes futile.

Furthermore, according to verse 17, if Christ has not been raised, we are still in our sins. Christ’s death saves us from the condemnation of our sins, not from the power of sin. It is His resurrection life that delivers us from the power of sin (Rom. 8:2). If Christ were not resurrected, we would still remain in sins and under the power of sin.

In verse 17, Paul does not write in a philosophical way or in a theoretical manner. He appeals to the experience of those who argue against resurrection and then uses their experience to defeat them. In other words, Paul’s rebuttal is very practical. Should anyone say that there is no resurrection, then Christ has not been resurrected. Then what shall we do concerning the power of sin? For this, we need resurrection.

In verse 18 Paul continues his rebuttal: “Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” Those who have fallen asleep are dead (1 Thes. 4:13-16). Here the word perished means never to be resurrected, but to remain in death forever. If Christ has not been raised from among the dead, then those believers in Christ who have died have perished. They believed in Christ in order to be saved. But if Christ has not been raised, they will not be resurrected either. On the contrary, they will remain in death and perish. This is Paul’s argument. By this we see once again that he argued concerning resurrection in a practical way.

Verse 19 says, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” If there is no resurrection, we shall have no future and no hope for the future, such as Christ as our hope of glory (Col. 1:27), the lot of our eternal blessing (Dan. 12:13), the reign with Christ in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6), and the reward of the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14). Once again, Paul’s argument is very practical.

Paul then inserts, in a parenthetical way, something concerning the history of resurrection in verses 20 through 28. He again argues concerning resurrection in a practical way in verses 29 through 32. In verse 32 he says, “If after the manner of men I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Paul was willing to suffer by the resurrection life and for resurrection. He knew that there will be a day of resurrection, and that in resurrection there will be a reward. (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, msg. 66)

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.

An excellent illustration of Christ’s death and resurrection was given by the Lord when He likened Himself to a grain of wheat falling into the earth to die and to bear much fruit in resurrection. After the grain of wheat is sown into the earth, on the one hand it is dying, but on the other hand it is rising up. The shell is dying, but the life element within the grain is growing. Eventually, a new sprout comes out from the death and resurrection of the grain. According to 1 Peter 3:18, Christ’s resurrection was going on while He was dying on the cross. He was “on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” According to His flesh, He was crucified for our sins, but according to the Spirit He was very active. Resurrection was not a sudden event. Actually, while Christ was dying in the flesh on the cross, He was active, moving, and energized with life to rise up.

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.

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.

According to John 7:39, prior to the glorification of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, “the Spirit was not yet.” This means that the life-giving Spirit “was not yet” before the resurrection of Christ—the glorification of Christ. Before Christ was resurrected, the Spirit of God was not the life-giving Spirit.

Christ, the Son of God as the second of the Divine Trinity, after completing His ministry on the earth, became (was transfigured into) the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection. This life-giving Spirit is signified by the water that flowed out of the pierced side of Jesus on the cross (John 19:34). Through His death and resurrection, Christ released the divine life that was confined in the shell of His humanity and dispensed it into His believers, making them the many members which constitute His Body (John 12:24).

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.

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.

All the believers in Christ are built up into a dwelling place of God in their spirit indwelt by Him as the Spirit (Eph. 2:22) through dispositional sanctification (Rom. 15:16), renewing (Titus 3:5), transformation (2 Cor. 3:18), and conformation (Rom. 8:29). (The Vital Groups, msg. 13)

CHRIST AS THE SHEPHERD IN HIS RESURRECTION

Psalm 23 implies that this Shepherd is the One who became a man, who died for us to redeem us and wash away our sins, and who entered into resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to regenerate us. As such a One, He can change our nature. Since He has taken these three steps—1) incarnation; 2) crucifixion for redemption; and 3) resurrection for regenerating—He is altogether qualified, equipped, and suitable to be our Shepherd. He is not only God but also a man. He is not only divine but also human. He died for our sins, He was resurrected, and in His resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit.

The Lord Jesus today is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). As the life-giving Spirit, He is our Shepherd inwardly. He is not only with us but also within us. We were snakes and scorpions, but we have been redeemed, we have been washed in His blood, and we have been resurrected (Eph. 2:6) and regenerated. As those who have been redeemed, washed, resurrected, and regenerated, we are the sheep of God’s flock, the church. By Jehovah, the Triune God, being incarnated, crucified, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit, He is qualified to be our Shepherd. By His redeeming, washing, resurrecting, and regenerating us, we are qualified to be His flock. He is qualified to be our Shepherd, and we are also qualified to be His flock. Psalm 23 is altogether a psalm on Christ as the Shepherd in His resurrection.

Psalm 23:2b says that Christ as our Shepherd leads us to waters of rest. The waters of rest are the Spirit. The Spirit is the water, and Christ is the pasture. Verse 5 says, “You anoint my head with oil.” Hebrews 1:9 refers to the oil of exultant joy. This oil signifies the Spirit. John 7:39 says that before Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit was not yet. This means that the Spirit was not yet consummated. The Spirit of God has been consummated through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. In Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit of God became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now He is available to us because He has been consummated. In Psalm 23, the Spirit as typified by the waters and the oil signifies the consummated Spirit after Christ’s resurrection.

This psalm also tells us that Christ’s shepherding of us is in five stages. The first stage is of the pastures and the waters of rest (v. 2). Pasture and waters are for our nourishment, including cherishing and enjoyment. The second stage is the stage of the paths of righteousness (v. 3). The paths of righteousness indicate our walk. After we enjoy Christ, are filled up with Christ, and are nourished by Christ, we walk on the paths of righteousness. The third stage is the valley of the shadow of death (v. 4). The valley, the shadow, and death are not pleasant. Christ’s shepherding leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. The fourth stage is the battlefield (v. 5), where we are fighting against the adversaries. At the battlefield a table, a feast, is spread for us. Finally, the last stage is to dwell in the house of God all the days of our life (v. 6).

I would like us to consider what stage we are in among these five stages of Christ’s shepherding. The first stage is the initial stage of enjoyment. This is just like elementary school. In our educational system there are five stages—elementary, junior high, high school, college, and graduate school. This is comparable to the five stages of Christ’s shepherding in Psalm 23. Many of us are in “elementary school” while others are in “high school” in their experience of Christ. A brother who is more mature in the Lord and who has been a seeking Christian for many years may have passed through all five stages of Christ’s shepherding. Now in his present experience, he may say that he experiences all five stages at various times. (Life-study of Psalms, msg. 11)