THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Ministry of Paul
Message Two—The Central Vision of Paul’s Completing Ministry
Scripture Reading: Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4; Rom. 9:21, 23; Phil. 2:13; Col. 1:12; Rom. 12:5
I. The central vision of Paul’s completing ministry concerns Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 1:25-27; 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4); this is the great mystery of Christ and the church (5:32):
A. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to express Him (Col. 2:9), is the mystery of God.
B. Christ also is a mystery, and the church, as the Body of Christ to express Him, is the mystery of Christ.
C. This mystery is God’s economy, which is to dispense Christ, as the embodiment of God, into God’s chosen people in order to produce a Body to be the increase of God’s embodiment in Christ, that God may have a corporate expression—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 3:8-9.
II. The central vision of Paul’s completing ministry is God in us as our contents, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ:
A. Man is a vessel to contain God—Gen. 2:7-9; Acts 9:15; Rom. 9:21-24; 2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:20-21:
1. We must learn to turn away from all considerations of our behavior and care only to be filled with God.
2. God is illustrated in the Bible as food, water, and breath; we must take Him in and be filled with Him, just as we take in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe—John 6:35, 57; 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; 20:22; Lam. 3:55-56.
3. Ephesians 4:6 reveals that the Father is not only over us and through us but also in us; God is housing Himself in us.
4. Ephesians 3:19 says, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God”:
a. To be filled unto all God’s fullness means to be filled unto all that God is; the fullness of God implies that the riches of what He is become His expression.
b. All that God is should be our contents; we should be so filled with Him that we become His fullness, His expression—vv. 14-19.
B. The mystery of God is Christ as the embodiment and manifestation of God, making God so real and enjoyable to us—Col. 2:2, 9; Rom. 9:5:
1. Christ is everything to the believers—1 Cor. 1:9; 15:45b; Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 4:6-7; John 8:58:
a. Christ is the God-allotted portion to the saints—Col. 1:12; 2:6; 1 Cor. 1:2.
b. Christ is our life—John 14:6a; Col. 3:4; Rom. 8:2, 4, 6.
c. Christ is the hope of glory—Col. 1:27; Eph. 1:18b; 4:4b; Rom. 8:19, 23-25.
d. Christ is our necessities and our enjoyment—John 8:12; 6:51, 57b; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 20:22; Gal. 3:27; John 15:7a; Col. 2:16-17; Matt. 11:28.
e. Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom to us—1 Cor. 1:24, 30.
2. Christ is everything to the church:
a. Christ is the Head of the Body—Col. 1:18.
b. Christ is the Body of the Head—1 Cor. 12:12.
c. Christ is the foundation stone—Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11.
d. Christ is the living stone, the cornerstone, and the topstone—1 Pet. 2:4, 6-7; Eph. 2:20; Zech. 3:9; 4:7.
e. Christ is all the members of the new man—Col. 3:10-11.
3. God wants us to realize that in Christ the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has passed through a process involving incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—John 1:14; 14:9-11; Col. 1:15; 1 Pet. 1:3; Acts 2:33, 36; John 1:8; 2:4.
4. As the life-giving Spirit, the Lord is waiting for people to receive Him by believing into Him—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 1:12-13; 3:15.
C. The mystery of Christ is that the Triune God through death and in resurrection is mingling Himself with us, making us the living members of His organic Body:
1. The central vision is the vision that Christ, the expression of God, has become the life-giving Spirit so that He may impart Himself into us as our life to make us the living members of His Body to express Him organically—1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 12:5.
2. The Lord is recovering Christ as life and everything to us and the church as His Body, His fullness—Col. 3:4, 11, 16; 2:19.
3. The Lord wants a church composed of believers who are infused, filled, and saturated with Himself to be His Body for His expression; eventually, this living Body will become Christ’s loving bride, who will prepare the way for His coming back—Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 19:7-9.
Ministry Excerpts:
COMPLETING THE WORD OF GOD
Very few Christians have seen Paul’s completing ministry. This term, the completing ministry, is based upon Colossians 1:25, where Paul says he was commissioned “to complete the word of God.” To complete the word of God means to complete the revelation of God. No doubt the King James Version’s rendering of “complete the word of God” as “fulfil the word of God” has somewhat obscured the real meaning.
Without Paul’s writings the revelation of God is not complete. If his fourteen Epistles, from Romans through Hebrews, were taken from the Bible, it would no doubt still be a marvelous book. Think how wonderful Genesis is! How great a book Exodus is! Yet without Paul’s Epistles we could not have had the wonderful Life-studies on Genesis and Exodus. Why? Though Genesis and Exodus are admirable, without Paul’s writings they lack completion.
THE MYSTERY OF GOD
Notice the two verses which follow Colossians 1:25 about the completing of the word of God: “The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now has been manifested to His saints; to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (vv. 26-27). Grammatically speaking, “the mystery” is in apposition with “to complete the word of God.” The completion of the word of God is the mystery. This mystery, which was hidden but is now manifested, concerns “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Well, you may wonder, does not Matthew tell us about Christ? And is Christ not the subject of the other Gospels? Surely every book of the New Testament is about Christ. None of these books except Paul’s, however, say that Christ is God’s mystery. Matthew deals with the mystery of the kingdom of God, but does not present Christ as God’s mystery. Mark and Luke make no mention of this matter. Even in John’s Gospel the word mystery is not to be found. It does occur in his Revelation, but it is not as clearly mentioned as in Paul’s Epistles. Only Paul uses the word mystery for Christ and for His Body.
THE SOURCE AND ISSUE OF THIS MYSTERY
Christ is a mystery. What is the source of Christ as a mystery? It is surely God. Both the Jews and the Moslems claim to know God. They are of a similar origin, in that their faith is based on the Old Testament. (The Moslem Bible, the Koran, is largely an imitation of the Old Testament, with some changes.) The God in whom the Jews and Moslems believe is the God of the Old Testament. In the New Testament our God is the God in Christ and through Christ. To be a Christian is to come into Christ and through Him into God. God is embodied in this Christ. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9). God’s entire being is embodied in Christ. My body is the embodiment of me; if you want to find where I am, you will find me in this body. Similarly, our Christ is the embodiment of God. If anyone has a God who is apart from Christ, he must be like a Jew or a Moslem. God, then, is the source of this mystery.
What is the issue of this mystery? This mystery comes out of God and issues in the church, including all the believers of Christ. In the whole universe this is the mystery! Without such a word the Bible is not complete. This completion of the word is this great mystery: Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ. These two comprise the mystery of the ages. They are unfolded to us in Paul’s completing ministry. (The Completing Ministry of Paul, msg. 10)
CLEAVING TO THE CENTRAL VISION
The central vision of the Apostle Paul’s completing ministry is: God in us as our contents, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ. We must lay aside our natural concepts whether religious, ethical, devotional, or spiritual, holy, or pious. Even the concept of having a good meeting or a strong service must not be our goal. The meetings and the service must come from the source; the church life is the issue.
The Lord’s recovery is the central vision. In 1970, after the successful migrations, we began to pay attention to the spread of the recovery and became somewhat negligent of the central vision. The recovery was off, for which I have very much repented to the Lord. By His mercy He cleared things up and brought us back to the right track. The Lord has rebuked me and charged me not to do much to encourage the spreading of the recovery or to gain an increase in numbers. I am not opposed to these, but I have been charged not to be concerned about them. Let the recovery grow in life. Spontaneously there will be a spreading and a proper increase, both issuing from life, not from our doing. “Little one,” the Lord pointed out, “when I was on the earth, I didn’t do anything to spread my work. All I did was to sow Myself as life into a small number. Eventually in Acts 1 I had only one hundred twenty. Not many.” It seems unbelievable that after the Lord’s labors for three and a half years all that He reaped was a mere one hundred twenty. The Lord asked me, “From all your efforts to spread and increase, where are the one hundred twenty? After you go, where are the one hundred twenty? Who will carry on the Lord’s recovery on the right track? Without the one hundred twenty, as soon as you go, everything will be off. The recovery will become a part of the pitiful history of Christianity, a repetition of its doing so many things that are scriptural and spiritual yet without Christ. If you could gain the whole world as your increase, what would that mean?”
I recently talked with the brother visiting from Taiwan. From now on, I fellowshipped with him, the work there should not pay much attention to the spreading or the increase. All your efforts must be directed toward getting the one hundred twenty. Otherwise, in ten years everything will be gone, lost because of the increase. There are already a good number in Taiwan, twenty-three thousand in the church in Taipei alone; perhaps on the whole island there are forty thousand. How many of these can be counted among the one hundred twenty? If we do not take care of this, our work will be empty concerning the central lane of God’s economy. Instead of recovering, we shall be drifting back. The more spreading we have, the more we drift back to a repetition of Christianity. I am happy that there are so many, but if they do not see the central vision my happiness is futile.
We need some faithful ones to rise up and say, “Lord, here I am. Show me the central vision as you did with the Apostle Paul.” I hope you younger ones, especially those who are in their twenties, will do this. Then after ten years you will be valuable to the Lord’s recovery. (The Completing Ministry of Paul, msg. 11)
The Body is an organism. We are organic members of this organism, not robots. Read again the description in Ephesians 4:12-16. The Body is built up directly by every member. Verse 16 says, “Out from Whom all the Body, fitted and knit together through every joint of the supply, according to the operation in measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”
You may have an evangelical work but with no intention to build up the Body. You may have a communal life, but that may not be the Body. For the Body to be built up, you must first have a clear vision of the Body. Then as you live in the Body, you will grow. That growth of yours spontaneously builds the Body. Verse 16 says that all the members grow to build up the Body (cf. also Col. 2:19).
When will the Lord gain what He is after? There is a groaning in me about this. Not only is there a lacking of the Body life; even the meaning of the words is misunderstood. Nonetheless, the Lord has His way. The way is organic. It is by life, and life is through death and resurrection. We all need to see this central point of Paul’s completing ministry.
THE BODY IN ROMANS
“For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we being many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another” (Rom. 12:4-5). In Romans 12 what is said about the Body is quite simple. This is because Romans 12 is preceded by Romans 8, which is surely not simple! What do we find in Romans 8? There is death and resurrection. There is the Triune God in death and resurrection all wrapped up with the tripartite man. There is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, then Christ. God, Christ, the Spirit—with His death and resurrection—now indwells us, to make our spirit life (v. 10), to make our mind life (v. 6), and to make even our mortal body life (v. 13). Is this not a mingling? Is this not an organic wrapping up of the Triune God and us, the tripartite man? I tell you, this is the way the members of the Body will be produced.
THE BODY IN FIRST CORINTHIANS
“For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ; for also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit. But now God has set the members, every one of them, in the body, even as He willed. Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor. 12:12-13, 18, 27).
These verses tell us that this organic Body is also Christ, the corporate Christ. All the members have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body. The Body, then, is altogether something in the Spirit.
WHAT THE LORD IS AFTER
In summary I remind you of these three crucial points in Paul’s Epistles: God as our contents, Christ as God’s mystery, and the church as Christ’s mystery. Without these three points, Paul’s writings are an empty shell. These are what the Lord is going to recover. Without them, nothing is meaningful. Our God today is in us to be our contents. The mystery of God is Christ as the embodiment and manifestation of God, making God so real and so enjoyable to us. The mystery of Christ is that the Triune God through death and in resurrection is mingling Himself with us, making us the living members of His organic Body. This vision must direct us. It will keep us in the central lane, walking according to the mingled spirit and being in the Body life. This is what the Lord is after. (The Completing Ministry of Paul, msg. 12)