«　WEEK 7　DAY 1　»

　　2 Cor. 5:17 So then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.

　　Gal. 6:15 For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.

　　God moved with men and among men in the Old Testament, but He never moved in man.

　　It was not until the age of the New Testament that God came to move on this earth in man. His first step to move in the New Testament age was to enter into man. God took a definite step to enter into man, and this laid a foundation for His move in man throughout the New Testament. God entered into the womb of a human virgin and stayed there for nine months to be born of that virgin.

　　When the New Testament age came, God’s entire way changed. He was in the Old Testament working all the time with men and among men but outside of men….The New Testament is different from the Old Testament in the one fact that God entered into man. God was born of man. Matthew 1:20 says that what was begotten in Mary was of the Holy Spirit. God was born in Mary. One day God came out of eternity with His divinity and entered into a human virgin’s womb to be born there. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 1, “The Move of God in Man,” p. 398)

　　Beginning from His incarnation, God moved mainly in man. In the New Testament whatever God did was mainly in man. The small preposition in may be considered as the greatest word in the New Testament. If you take this preposition away, the New Testament becomes empty. This is like taking the switch away from an electrical appliance. Without the switch, it will not work, because the electricity cannot flow into it. The phrase in Christ is repeated frequently in the New Testament. If we were not in Christ and Christ were not in us, there would be no Christian life or church life.

　　God moved in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy with Moses. Then God moved in the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel. Then He moved to a certain extent with all the kings of Israel and the prophets. But that was not God’s direct move to carry out His eternal economy for Christ and the church.

　　God’s move with men and among men was just the indirect move in His old creation for the preparation of His direct move in His new creation for His eternal economy. This is why the church is not mentioned in the Old Testament. The church was a hidden mystery. God’s eternal economy was never directly touched in the Old Testament. God’s economy in the New Testament is absolutely unique. In the Old Testament you cannot see God’s move for His eternal economy directly. God did a lot indirectly to prepare for the day when He could come to do the direct work. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 1, “The Move of God in Man,” p. 400)

　　God created man and wanted man to take Him as life that man might express Him, be transformed into precious materials for His building, and be built up to be His counterpart to match Him (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:9-12, 18-24). God took a rib out of Adam and built it up into a woman to match Adam to be his counterpart. This is a type showing how God in Christ is the Husband, needing a match, a counterpart. Therefore, in the fulfillment of this type, something came out of Christ—the divine life—to become the church, which is the bride to match Christ.

　　After man became fallen, God promised the fallen man that Christ would come as the seed of woman to destroy the “serpent,” Satan, for man and to redeem and justify man with the shed blood and the coats of the skins of the sacrifice, typifying Christ (3:8-9, 15, 21). These things are a part of God’s relationship with us. (Life-study of Job, pp. 169-170)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1993, vol. 1, “The Move of God in Man,” ch. 1