THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Truth
Message Four—The Central Line of the Bible
Scripture Reading: Ezek. 28:13; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 12:12-13; Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Tim. 1:4; Rev. 21:2-3
I. The Word of God can be compared to a jigsaw puzzle; originally, all the pieces of a puzzle are scattered, and the picture they represent is not clear; someone needs to spend the time to pick up piece after piece, consider them carefully, and fit them together—Isa. 28:13: (CWWL, 1971, vol. 3, “Being Saved in Christ’s Life and Walking According to the Spirit for the Building Up of the Body of Christ”, ch. 3)
A. After all the pieces are put together, a full picture emerges; it is mysterious and very meaningful that God has arranged His Word in this way; Isaiah 28:13 says that God’s word is “rule upon rule, rule upon rule; / Line upon line, line upon line; / Here a little, there a little.” (CWWL, 1971, vol. 3, “Being Saved in Christ’s Life and Walking According to the Spirit for the Building Up of the Body of Christ”, ch. 3)
B. We must spend time to consider each verse and learn what other verses it is related to; the word conveys a clear picture to us. (CWWL, 1971, vol. 3, “Being Saved in Christ’s Life and Walking According to the Spirit for the Building Up of the Body of Christ”, ch. 3)
II. The divine revelation in the Bible advances continually; God does not reveal anything fully in just one book of the Bible; the divine revelation advances from one stage to another stage, from one level to another level, from one point to another point; only when we reach the last chapter of the Bible do we have a complete view of God’s revelation—Gen. 2:7-14, 18-24; Rev. 21:1-22:2: (Life-Study of Leviticus, msg. 1)
A. The entire Old Testament, are a revelation of God Himself, and the four Gospels are a revelation of Christ; the Acts and the Epistles, which mainly are a revelation of Christ as the Spirit; following this, the church is revealed; thus, there are four main sections of the divine revelation in the Bible: the section of God, the section of Christ, the section of the Spirit, and the section of the church—Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 12:12-13; Eph. 1:23. (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 7)
B. God is embodied in Christ, Christ is realized and experienced as the Spirit who imparts life to us, and the Spirit issues in the churches; when we experience and realize Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the issue is the church life—Col. 2:9; Rom. 8:9-11; Acts 1:8; 2:41; Rom. 14:17. (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 7)
III. We need a Bird’s-Eye View of a Chapter, of a Book, and of the Entire Bible—2 Tim. 1:13; Eph. 3:4: (Elders’ Training, Book 03, The Way to Carry Out the Vision, ch. 1)
A. To become rich, we need to pick up the points, we need to have a bird’s-eye view of a chapter or of a section, and we also need a bird’s-eye view of the entire book. (Elders’ Training, Book 03, The Way to Carry Out the Vision, ch. 1)
B. We need to progress from the single items of the truth to knowing the outline of a section or of a chapter; from this we need to see the outline or the bird’s-eye view of an entire book. (Elders’ Training, Book 03, The Way to Carry Out the Vision, ch. 1)
C. Finally, from the outline of a book we must have a bird’s-eye view of the entire sixty-six books of the Bible; when you reach this point, a good foundation will have been laid with all the basic principles.(Elders’ Training, Book 03: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, ch. 1)
IV. Identifying the central and peripheral in the Bible; some things in the Bible can be compared to the roots of a tree and others to the leaves; a tree has roots and a trunk, but it also has branches and leaves—1 Tim. 1:4; Col. 3:4; Gen. 2:9; Rev. 21:2-3: (How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 18)
A. The central matter in the bible—God in the son coming to be life to man—Col. 3:4; Gen. 2:9. (How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 18)
B. Four Peripheral matters in the bible: (How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 18)
1. The first category—consolation in sufferings; God’s central goal is not to heal our sicknesses or to remove our sufferings; His central goal is to enter into us to be our life; because we have sufferings, sicknesses, He comforts and heals by the promises. (How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 18)
2. The second category—building up morality; when God enters into man to be His life, He cannot allow man to remain an evil person; as a vessel, man must be upright and proper in order to match God so that God can become his life; for this reason, the Bible speaks much concerning morality; these things are absolutely not the center of the Bible. (How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 18)
3. The third category—guidance for human living; how should we live as human beings on earth? How should we handle human relationships? How should we behave as parents and as children? How should we relate to our spouse? How do we make friends? Things like these peripheral matters, like skin and feathers. (How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 18)
4. The fourth category—religious zeal; every Christian has a zeal to serve God, to be dedicated to Him, to love Him, and to be faithful to Him; these are not bad things; they are all good, but they are religious concepts; they are peripheral matters that have nothing to do with the central point of the Bible. (How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 18)
V. The central line of the divine revelation of the entire Holy Scriptures—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9, 16-17a; Rev. 21:2-3: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
A. The Word of God—John 1:1; 1 John 1:1: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
1. While in this universe God is the primary thing, it is the Word of God that tells us about God. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
2. In order to know the living Christ, we must have the written Word—John 5:39; Luke 24:27. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
3. John 1 stresses the relationship between God and His Word. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
4. We must stress the preeminence of the Word of God and make it the basis of all our understanding of the truth—Acts 17:11. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
B. The Triune God—Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
1. He is self-existing and ever-existing—Exo. 3:14. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
2. He is eternally one God—Psa. 86:10; Isa. 45:5; 1 Cor. 8:4; 1 Tim. 2:5. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
3. He is eternally three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—Matt. 28:19. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
4. The Three are never separate in being or action, but mutually coinhere and mutually indwell one another—John 10:38; 14:10-11; 17:21. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
5. We must get fully into the Triune God, both in our understanding and in our experience of Him—2 Cor. 13:14. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
C. The economy of God—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
1. God’s economy is His arrangement to fulfill His purpose. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
2. His economy is according to His heart’s desire. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
3. The economy of God takes the all-inclusive Christ as its center. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
D. The all-inclusive Christ—John 1:1, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
1. He is the Christ of the four Gospels, God become flesh—John 1:1, 14. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
2. He became the life-giving Spirit of the Epistles; hence, He is the pneumatic Christ—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
3. His full ministry is in three stages: incarnation, inclusion, and intensification. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
E. The life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
1. The Spirit is Christ’s realization; hence, He is called the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ—Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9-11; Phil. 1:19. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
2. The Spirit of Christ brings forth the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:4; 1 Cor. 12:13. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
F. The Body of Christ—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
1. The twenty-two books from Romans through Revelation (all can be considered Epistles) are concerned with the pneumatic Christ as the life-giving Spirit for His reproduction, the Body of Christ. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
2. In God’s economy Christ is the center, the Body is the line, and the New Jerusalem is the goal. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
3. The all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit has been intensified as the sevenfold intensified Spirit to counteract the degradation of the church for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
G. The New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2: (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
1. The New Jerusalem is the eternal goal of God’s economy. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
2. The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of all the visions and revelations of the Bible. (2011 ITEROS, msg. 1)
3. The New Jerusalem is the organism of the Triune God, an organic constitution of the processed and consummated Triune God and the regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect. (2011 ITERO-S, msg. 1)