THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Truth Message One—The Divine Truth and the Divine Reality
Scripture Reading: John 1:14; 8:32; 14:6, 16-17; 15:26; 16:13-15; 1 John 5:6, 20
I. The divine truth, the divine reality, is the Triune God and His word—1 John 5:6:
A. Reality is the element of God realized by us in the Son—John 1:14.
B. The divine reality is God, who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things—1 John 1:5; 4:8; John 1:1, 14.
C. The divine reality is Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, as the reality of God and man, the types, figures, and shadows in the Old Testament, and all the divine and spiritual things—Col. 2:9, 16-17; John 1:18, 51; 11:25; 14:6:
1. Because Christ the Son is the embodiment of God, He is the reality of what God is—Col. 2:9.
2. The truth is the reality of the divine things, and this reality is Christ Himself—John 8:32.
3. The reality of the divine things came through Christ and becomes the realization of God to us—14:6.
D. The divine reality is the Spirit, who is Christ transfigured, as the reality of Christ and of the divine revelation; hence, the Spirit is the reality—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13-15; 1 John 5:6.
E. The divine reality is the Word of God as the divine revelation, which not only reveals but also conveys the reality of God and Christ and of all the divine and spiritual things; hence, the Word of God also is reality—John 17:17.
F. God, Christ, and the Spirit—the Divine Trinity—are essentially one; hence, these three, being the basic elements of the substance of the divine reality, are actually one reality—1:1, 14; 14:6; 1 John 5:6: 1 John 5:6:
1. This one divine reality is the substance of the Word of God as the divine revelation.
2. The divine reality thus becomes the revealed divine reality in the divine Word and makes the divine Word the reality—John 17:17.
3. The divine Word conveys this one divine reality as the contents of the faith, and the contents of the faith are the substance of the gospel revealed in the entire New Testament as its reality, which is the divine reality of the Divine Trinity—Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5.
G. The divine reality is versus the lie, the vanity of the old creation, and the idolatrous substitutes of the true God—John 8:44; Eccl. 1:2; 1 John 5:20-21:
1. The devil’s nature is a lie and brings in death and darkness—John 8:44.
2. No matter how good, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful a thing may be, as long as it is of the old creation, it is part of the vanity of vanities under the sun—Eccl. 1:2-3; 2 Cor. 5:17.
3. Anything that replaces, or is a substitute for, the divine reality is an idol, and we should garrison ourselves against it—1 John 5:20-21.
II. We may know the divine truth, the divine reality, by being in the true One—v. 20:
A. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, has come and has given us an understanding that we might know the genuine and real God—John 1:14, 18; 1 John 5:20:
1. This understanding is the faculty of our mind enlightened and empowered by the Spirit of reality to apprehend the divine reality in our regenerated spirit—Eph. 4:23; John 16:12-15.
2. Know in 1 John 5:20 is the ability of the divine life to know the true God in our regenerated spirit through our renewed mind, enlightened by the Spirit of reality—John 17:3; Eph. 1:17.
3. Because as believers we have been born of the divine life, we are able to know the true God and the things of God—John 1:12-13; 3:6, 15; 17:3.
B. First John 5:20 twice speaks of Him who is true, the true One, the True:
1. The term the true One refers to God becoming subjective to us, to the God who is objective becoming the true One in our life and experience.
2. This verse indicates that the divine reality, which is God Himself, has become our reality in our experience; the God who was once objective to us has become our subjective reality—v. 6.
C. To be in the true One is to be in His Son Jesus Christ—v. 20.
D. The word this in verse 20 refers to the God who has come through incarnation and has given us an understanding to know Him as the genuine God and to be one with Him organically in His Son Jesus Christ.
E. By being in the True, we know the divine reality intrinsically and experientially—v. 20; John 17:3.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE FIRST FIVE POINTS REFERING TO THE SAME
REALITY IN ESSENCE
The Greek word means reality (the opposite of vanity), verity, veracity, genuineness, sincerity. It is John’s highly individual terminology, and it is one of the profound words in the New Testament, denoting all the realities of the divine economy as the content of the divine revelation, conveyed and disclosed by the holy Word as follows:
(1) God, who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things, such as the divine life, the divine nature, the divine power, and the divine glory, for us to possess, that we may enjoy Him as grace, as revealed in John’s Gospel (John 1:1, 4, 14-17).
(2) Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9), as the reality of (a) God and man (John 1:18, 51; 1 Tim. 2:5); (b) all the types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament (Col. 2:16-17; John 4:23, 24 and notes 4 and 5); and (c) all the divine and spiritual things, such as the divine life and resurrection (John 11:25; 14:6), the divine light (John 8:12; 9:5), the divine way (John 14:6), wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Hence, Christ is the reality (John 14:6; Eph. 4:21).
(3) The Spirit, who is Christ transfigured (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), as the reality of Christ (John 14:16-17; 15:26) and of the divine revelation (John 16:13-15). Hence, the Spirit is the reality (5:6).
(4) The Word of God as the divine revelation, which not only reveals but also conveys the reality of God and Christ and of all the divine and spiritual things. Hence, the Word of God also is reality (John 17:17 and note 3).
(5) The contents of the faith (belief), which are the substantial elements of what we believe, as the reality of the full gospel (Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5); these are revealed throughout the New Testament (2 Cor. 4:2; 13:8; Gal. 5:7; 1 Tim. 1:1 and note 1, points 1 and 2; 2:4 and note 2; 2:7b; 3:15 and note 5; 4:3; 6:5; 2 Tim. 2:15, 18, 25; 3:7, 8; 4:4; Titus 1:1, 14; 2 Thes. 2:10, 12; Heb. 10:26; James 5:19; 1 Pet. 1:22; 2 Pet. 1:12).
WHEN THIS DIVINE REALITY IS PARTAKEN OF AND ENJOYED BY US, IT BECOMES OUR GENUINENESS, SINCERITY, HONESTY, AND TRUSTWORTHINESS
(6) The reality concerning God, the universe, man, man’s relationship with God and with his fellow man, and man’s obligation to God, as revealed through creation and the Scriptures (Rom. 1:18-20; 2:2, 8, 20).
(7) The genuineness, truthfulness, sincerity, honesty, trustworthiness, and faithfulness of God as a divine virtue (Rom. 3:7; 15:8) and of man as a human virtue (Mark 12:14; 2 Cor. 11:10; Phil. 1:18; 1 John 3:18), and as an issue of the divine reality (John 4:23-24; 2 John 1a; 3 John 1).
(8) Things that are true or real, the true or real state of affairs (facts), reality, veracity, as the opposite of falsehood, deception, dissimulation, hypocrisy, and error (Mark 5:33; 12:32; Luke 4:25; John 16:7; Acts 4:27; 10:34; 26:25; Rom. 1:25; 9:1; 2 Cor. 6:7; 7:14; 12:6; Col. 1:6; 1 Tim. 2:7a).
The eight points listed above, the first five refer to the same reality in essence. God, Christ, and the Spirit—the Divine Trinity—are essentially one. Hence, these three, being the basic elements of the substance of the divine reality, are actually one reality. This one divine reality is the substance of the Word of God as the divine revelation. Hence, it becomes the revealed divine reality in the divine Word and makes the divine Word the reality. The divine Word conveys this one divine reality as the contents of the faith, and the contents of Word and makes the divine Word the reality. The divine Word conveys this one divine reality as the contents of the faith, and the contents of the faith are the substance of the gospel revealed in the entire New Testament as its reality, which is just the divine reality of the Divine Trinity. When this divine reality is partaken of and enjoyed by us, it becomes our genuineness, sincerity, honesty, and trustworthiness as an excellent virtue in our behavior that enables us to express God, the God of reality, by whom we live; and we become persons living a life of truth, without any falsehood or hypocrisy, a life that corresponds with the truth revealed through creation and the Scripture. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 1 John 1:6, footnote 6)
THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH LIFE
It Being Our Desire to Accept and Proclaim the Whole Word of God
It is our desire to accept and proclaim the whole Word of God. We covet to be able to say with Paul, “I did not shrink from declaring to you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). We seek to follow the leading of God’s Spirit, but at the same time we seek to pay attention to the examples shown us in His Word. Circumstances may differ and cases may differ, but in principle the will and ways of God are just the same today as they were in the days of the Acts.
We Must Return to What God Has Set forth As Our Example in the Beginning
Acts is the “genesis” of the Church’s history, and the Church in the time of Paul is the “genesis” of the Spirit’s work. God said to the Israelites, “Moses, because of your hardness of heart, allowed you to divorce your wives” (Matt. 19:8), but the Lord Jesus said, “What God has yoked together, let man not separate” (Matt. 19:6). Is there not a discrepancy here? No! “Moses, because of your hardness of heart, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so” (Matt. 19:8). It is not that in the beginning it was permissible, and later it became forbidden, and still later became permissible again, as though God were a changeable God. No, the Lord said, “From the beginning it has not been so” showing that God’s will had never altered. From the beginning right on until today it is just the same. Here is a most important principle. If we want to know the mind of God, we must look at His commands in Genesis and not look at His permissions later on, because every later permission has this explanation, “because of your hardness of heart.” It is God’s directive will we want to discover, not His permissive will. Conditions in the Church today are vastly different from what they were then, but these present conditions could never be our example, or our authoritative guide. We must return to the beginning. Only what God has set forth as our example in the beginning is the eternal will of God. It is the divine standard and our pattern for all time.
God Has Not Only Revealed the Truths That Concern Our Inner Life; He Has Also Revealed the Truths Relating to the
Outward Expression of That Life
The danger, with those who know little about life and reality, is to emphasize mere outward correctness; but with those to whom life and reality are a matter of supreme importance, the temptation is to throw away the divine pattern of things, thinking it legal and technical. They feel that they have the greater and can therefore well dispense with the lesser. As a result, the more spiritual a man is, the freer he feels to do as he thinks fit. He considers that he himself has authority to decide on outward matters, and rather fancies that to ignore God’s commands regarding them is an indication that he has been delivered from legality and is walking in the liberty of the Spirit. But God has not only revealed the truths that concern our inner life; He has also revealed the truths relating to the outward expression of that life. God prizes the inner reality, but He does not ignore its outward expression. God has given us Ephesians, Romans, and Colossians, but He has also given us Acts, the Epistles to Timothy, and the Epistles to the Corinthians. We may think it sufficient for God to instruct us through Romans, Ephesians, and Colossians as to our life in Christ, but He has considered it necessary to instruct us through Acts, Corinthians, and Timothy, how to do His work and how to organize His Church. God has left nothing to human imagination or human will. Man is afraid to use a thoughtless servant, but God does not care to use an over-thoughtful one; all He requires of man is simple obedience. “Who has become His counselor?” asked Paul (Rom. 11:34). Man would fain occupy the post, but God has no need of a counselor. It is not our place to suggest how we think divine work should be done, but rather to ask in everything, “What is the will of the Lord?”
Everything That Is of God—Whether Outward or Inward—
If in the Spirit Is Life
The Pharisees cleansed the outside of the platter, but left the inside full of impurity. Our Lord rebuked them for setting so much store on outward things, and ignoring the inward; and many of God’s people conclude from the Lord’s rebuke that, providing we stress the inner side of spiritual truth, all is well. But God demands both inward and outward purity. To have the outer without the inner is spiritual death, but to have the inner without the outer is only spiritualized life. And spiritualization is not spirituality. Our Lord said, “These you should have done and not neglected the others” (Matt. 23:23). No matter how insignificant any divine command may seem, it is an expression of the will of God; therefore, we never dare treat it lightly. We cannot neglect the least of His commands with impunity. The importance of His requirements may vary, but everything that is of God has eternal purpose and eternal worth. Of course, the mere observance of outward forms of service has no spiritual value whatever. All spiritual truths, whether pertaining to the inner or the outer life, are liable to be legalized. Everything that is of God—whether outward or inward—if in the Spirit is life; if in the letter it is death. So the question is not whether it is outward or inward, but whether it is in the Spirit or in the letter. (The Normal Christian Church Life, Preface)