GOD’S ECONOMY
SERIES THIRTEEN
GOD’S ECONOMY IN ALL THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
God’s Economy as Revealed in the New Testament
Message Seven
God’s Economy as Revealed in Romans
Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:3-4, 8:4-6, 9-11, 14-16, 26-39, 9:21, 23, 10:13, 12:2, 4-5
I. According to the revelation of the entire New Testament, God’s economy is to produce sons by dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people; Christ’s redemption brings us into the sonship of God—Eph. 1:5, 7, 10, 3:9, Rom. 8:11, 14: (2009 WT, msg. 9)
A. God’s economy is to make us sons of God, inheriting the blessing of God’s promise, which was given for His eternal purpose to have sons for His corporate expression—Heb. 2:10, Rom. 8:29. (2009 WT, msg. 9)
B. The central thought of the book of Romans is that in His salvation God is making sinners His sons with His life and nature so that they may become constituents of the Body of Christ for His corporate expression—3:23, 8:14, 29, 12:4-5. (2009 WT, msg. 9)
II. The deep thought in Romans is that God became man so that, in God’s complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ—3:24, 5:10, 8:14, 29-30, 12:2, 5: (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
A. God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and condemned sin in the flesh so that sinners—serpentine beings, children of the devil—could be reconciled to God and justified by Him in order to receive eternal life and thus become children of God—8:3, 16. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
B. Jesus Christ our Lord, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, was designated the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead—1:3-4. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
C. The firstborn Son of God, the first God-man, is the prototype for the production of many God-men who, as members of the Body of Christ, are exactly the same as the firstborn Son—8:14, 29. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
D. The purpose of God’s salvation is to have Christ reproduced in millions of believers so that they may become the members of His Body—12:4-5. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
E. Through God’s organic salvation, carried out by the divine dispensing of the Triune God as life to the tripartite man, the children of God are growing in life to become sons of God led by the Spirit—5:10, 8:2, 6, 10-11. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
F. The sons of God, the many brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, are the members of the Body of Christ—12:4-5. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
G. We are one Body in the organic union with Christ—v. 4-5. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
III. The divine intention, as conveyed in the deep, divine thought in Romans, is carried out by the divine dispensing of the Triune God as life into the tripartite man—1:14, 2:21: (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
A. The Triune God created a tripartite man to be a living vessel to contain Him as life so that He may express Himself in humanity—Gen. 1:26, 2:7, Rom. 9:21, 23: (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
1. Man was created in the image of God to receive God as life and contain God as life for the reproduction, the duplication, of God in life—Gen. 1:26, 2:7, 9, John 12:24. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
2. The basic teaching of the Scriptures is that we are vessels created in the image of God to receive and contain God as our unique content—Gen. 2:7, 2 Cor. 4:7, Rom. 9:21, 23. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
B. Romans 8 unveils to us how the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—dispenses Himself as life into our tripartite being—spirit, soul, and body—to make us His sons for the constituting of the Body of Christ—v. 10-11: (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
1. In verse 11 we have the Triune God, the process required for His dispensing, and the dispensing of Himself as life into the believers. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
2. Through the dispensing of the Triune God as life, our spirit is life—v. 10. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
3. Through the dispensing of the Triune God as life, our soul (represented by the mind) becomes life—v. 6. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
4. Through the dispensing of the Triune God as life, the indwelling Spirit gives life ot our mortal bodies—v. 11. (2013 FTTA-Spring, msg. 6)
IV. In His salvation God is making sinners the sons of God to be constituted the Body of Christ for the expression of Christ—8:14, 12:4-5: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. Sons are the children of God who are in the stage of the transformation of their souls; they are growing in the divine life and also are living and walking by being led by the Spirit of God—8:14, 16, 12:2. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. In order to be the members of the Body of Christ, we need to be conformed to the image of Christ as the first-born Son of God—8:29, 12:4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
V. The will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness, His expression—Rev. 4:11, Eph. 1:5, 9, Rom. 12:2, 4-5: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. In Romans 12 the will of God is that we whom God has chosen, redeemed, justified, sanctified, and conformed unto glorification may be members one of another to have the living of the Body of Christ—8:29-30. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. To live the Body life is to “prove what the will of God is”—12:2, 4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
C. If we are proper members of the Body, acting and functioning in the church life, we will be persons in the will of God—1 Cor. 1:1-2, Eph. 1:1, 5:17. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
VI. In order for the Body of Christ to be built up, we need to reign in life, that is, be under the ruling of the divine life—Rom. 5:17, 21, 12:1-16: (2006 ST, msg. 4)
A. Every aspect of the living of the Body life in Romans 12-16 requires us to be ruled by the divine life. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
B. We can live a life of the highest virtues for the Body life only by reigning in life—12:9-12, 15-16, 18. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
C. When we are reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, the issue is the real and practical Body life—5:17, 21, 12:4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
D. Romans begins with the designation of Jesus Christ to be the Son of God for the mass reproduction of the many sons of God as the members of the Body of Christ, and Romans ends with the practice of the local churches as the expression of the Body of Christ—1:3-4, 8:29, 12:4-5. (2006 ST, msg. 4)
VII. We need to cooperate with the inner operating Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life by “switching on” this law in the following ways—8:4-6, 13-15, 23, 31-39: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
A. We need to walk according to the spirit, live in the spirit—v. 4, 16, cf. 1 Cor. 2:14: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
1. The secret of experiencing Christ is to be in Him, the One who empowers us to do all things, and the secret of being in Him is to be in our spirit—Phil. 4:12-13, 23. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
2. The practicality of living in Christ is for us to live in our spirit; in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul stressed that whatever we are (2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (8:10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (1:9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11) must be in our spirit. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
a. In order to live in our spirit, we need to take time to behold the Lord, praying to fellowship with Jesus to bathe in His countenance, to be saturated with His beauty, and to radiate His excellence—2 Cor. 3:15, 18, cf. Mark 1:35, Ma. 14:23. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
b. In order to live in our spirit, we need to pray without ceasing—1 Thes. 5:17, cf. John 20:22, Lam. 3:55-56, Rom. 10:12-13. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
c. In order to live in our spirit, we need to remain in the fellowship of the divine life to walk in the divine light—1 John 1:2-3, 6-7. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
B. We need to mind the things of the Spirit, setting our mind on the spirit—Rom. 8:5-6: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
1. We need to take heed to our spirit, paying attention to the sense of our spirit, in order to not grieve the Spirit and not quench the Spirit—Mal. 2:15-16, Eph. 4:30, 1 Thes. 5:19. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
2. We can set our mind on the spirit by setting our mind on God’s words which are spirit and life—John 6:63. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
3. To set our mind on the spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, is also to be one with the Lord to care for the church with all the saints in the inward parts of Christ Jesus—Phil. 2:21, 1:8. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
C. We need to put to death by the Spirit the practices of our body—Rom. 8:13, Zech. 4:6, Gal. 5:16: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
1. We must allow the Spirit to inhabit and reside in our inward being—Rom. 8:9, 11. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
2. We need to remain in the church life where the God of peace crushes Satan under our feet—16:20. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
D. We need to be led by the Spirit as the sons of God—Gal. 3:26, Rom. 8:14: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
1. To be led by the Spirit is to take care of the inner anointing, the moving and working of the indwelling, compound Spirit—1 John 2:20, 27. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
2. To be led by the Spirit is to care for the rest in our spirit, to be led as a captive in Christ’s triumphal procession —2 Cor. 2:12-14, 7:5-6. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
E. We need to cry to the Father in the spirit of sonship—Gal. 4:6, Rom. 8:15: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
1. When we cry, “Abba, Father!”, “the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God”—v. 15-16. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
2. To cry, “Abba, Father!” expresses the sweetness of our intimate relationship with our God—cf. Matt. 18:3. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
F. We need to groan in the interceding Spirit for our full sonship, which is the redemption of our body—Rom. 8:23, 26-27: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
1. In our groaning the Spirit groans also, interceding for us—v. 26. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
2. The interceding Spirit prays for us that we may be conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God—v. 28-29. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
G. We need to love God and be constrained, restricted, motivated, compelled, impelled, and propelled by the love of Christ to more than conquer in all things—v. 31-39: (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
1. By loving God we participate in all the riches contained in God—1 Cor. 2:9-10, cf. 2 Tim. 3:2-4. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
2. We need to be constrained by the love of Christ to love God and the saints with Christ as our love—2 Cor. 5:14. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)
VIII. Our enjoyment of the indwelling Spirit as the automatic law of the divine life is in the Body of Christ and for the Body of Christ with the goal of making us the same as God is in life, nature, and expression but not in the Godhead—Rom. 8:2, 28-29, 12:1-2, Phil. 1:19-20. (2003 ITERO, msg. 3)