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With the divine history there is the new creation—the new man with a new heart, a new spirit, a new life, a new nature, a new history, and a new consummation—Hymns, #16; Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 3:16; Matt. 5:8; Titus 3:5:
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The divine history, the history of God in man, was from Christ’s incarnation through His ascension to become the life-giving Spirit and then continues with His indwelling us through God’s organic salvation of regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification to bring us into the full reality of the one new man and to make us the glorious bride of Christ—Eph. 4:22-24; Rom. 5:10; Rev. 19:7-9.
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Now we need to ask ourselves this question: Are we living in the divine history, or are we living merely in the human history?
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We all were born in the human history, but we have been reborn, regenerated, in the divine history; if our living is in the world, we are living in the human history; but if we are living in the church as the reality of the one new man, we are living in the divine history; in the church life God’s history is our history; now two parties—God and we—have one history, the divine history.
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We praise the Lord that we are in the divine history, experiencing and enjoying the mysterious, divine things for our organic salvation and for His spreading through the preaching of the gospel of peace to the whole inhabited earth (Eph. 2:14-17; 6:15; cf. Matt. 24:14) so that we may become the one new man in reality to be His overcoming bride.
Morning Nourishment
Ezek. 36:26 I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…Matt. 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Eph. 2:17 And coming, He announced peace as the gospel…
We all were born in the human history, but we have been reborn, regenerated, in the divine history. Now we need to ask ourselves this question: Are we living in the divine history, or are we living merely in the human history? If our living is in the world, we are living in the human history. But if we are living in the church, we are living in the divine history. In the church life God’s history is our history. Now two parties—God and we—have one history, the divine history.
With the divine history there is the new creation—the new man with a new heart, a new spirit, a new life, a new nature, a new history, and a new consummation. We praise the Lord that we are in the divine history, experiencing and enjoying the mysterious, divine things. (Life-study of Joel, p. 36)
Today’s Reading
According to Ephesians 2, Christ… came to preach the gospel of peace. This indicates the coming of the ascended Christ. When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the churches, he did not realize that what he was persecuting was related to the heavens, that the church on earth was related to the ascended Christ. The Lord Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus, and spontaneously, even in his ignorance, Saul called upon His name, saying, “Who are You, Lord?” [Acts 9:5]. Because Saul opened himself to the Lord and called on Him, the Lord with the divine fullness could enter into him and then proceed to constitute him into a gift to the Body. In this way the one who persecuted the churches became one who could perfect the saints. Paul became such a gift not through education, but by being saturated with the divine fullness. Therefore, Saul of Tarsus eventually became the apostle Paul who could feed the saints, preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and minister Christ to his fellow believers so that they would be nourished, grow, be perfected, and come into their function.If we would be perfected, …we need to be constituted with Christ…. We need to take Him into us more and more until we are saturated with Him. In this way we shall become functioning members of the Body, gifts constituted by the Christ who has been crucified and resurrected and who has ascended and descended.
By His death Christ conquered all the enemies and solved all the problems…. Through His resurrection He released all the divine riches, and…through His ascension He received God’s chosen people with the divine fullness. From the time of His ascension, Christ has been working to constitute the vanquished foes into gifts for His Body. First, He comes to these vanquished foes and gets into them. Then He gradually fills them and saturates them with Himself. Eventually, those who once were His enemies are transformed and constituted into useful gifts that can be presented to the Body. These gifts will not merely teach others, but will transfuse Christ into them. In this way the members of the Body receive nourishment and are cherished. Then they will be sanctified, purified, and transformed to become functioning members. As a result, the whole Body will be fitly framed together and compacted by every joint of supply and through the operation in the measure of every part. This will make growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
The more we grow by being nourished and cherished, the more we shall function properly in the church life. If the saints are absolute with the Lord, in a relatively short time many will come into function. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 771-773)
Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 25, 92