«　WEEK 5　DAY 1　»

　　Heb. 1:1-2 God…has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son…

　　Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles…

　　The apostles’ teaching is the entire speaking of God in the New Testament. The entire New Testament is the apostles’ teaching. It is true that matters such as foot-washing and baptism by immersion are included in this book, but they are not the basic, intrinsic, central, and elementary thing.

　　In the universe there is a marvelous matter—God’s speaking. The first marvelous thing in the universe is God Himself. What a tragedy if there were no God in the universe! However, if there is a God, yet He would not speak, we would be in misery. Without God, the universe is a tragedy, and without the speaking of God, we would be in misery. But, Hallelujah, we have God, and we have God’s speaking. God has spoken, and today God still speaks. There are many matters in God’s speaking.…Today God speaks to us in the Son [Heb. 1:1-2]. He does not speak to us in many portions or in many ways or through the prophets but in the Son. He speaks to us in one person, the Son. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, “The Apostles’ Teaching,” p. 377)

　　The incarnation is recorded in the four Gospels. The Jesus who spoke in the four Gospels was the very Son of God, and the Son of God is God Himself. Thus, we can say that the Lord Jesus’ speaking was God’s speaking in the Son as the man in the four Gospels (John 14:10; 5:24; Matt. 28:19-20). John 14:10 says, “…The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.” The Father and the Son are one (10:30). When the Son spoke, the Father was speaking. The Father spoke in the person of the Son.

　　God’s speaking did not stop in the four Gospels. He also spoke in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles from Acts to Revelation (John 16:12-15; Rev. 2:1, 7; 1 Cor. 4:17b; 7:17b; 2 Pet. 3:15-16; Rev. 1:1-2). While God was speaking in the Son, one day the Son told His disciples, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming…” (John 16:12-15). It is as though the Lord Jesus was saying, “When the Spirit of reality comes, He will bring you into all the reality. Yet even He Himself will not speak anything of Himself. He will receive from Me, and then He will declare to you whatever He receives of Me.” This means that after the four Gospels there would be God’s further speaking.

　　God spoke further in Acts, in the fourteen Epistles of the apostle Paul, in James, in Peter’s two Epistles, in John’s three Epistles, in Jude, and in Revelation. All these are God’s speaking in the Son. First, God’s speaking is in the person of the Son. Second, God’s speaking is in the person of the Spirit. God spoke first in the Son as the man in the four Gospels. In Acts, in the Epistles, and in Revelation, God spoke further, in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles.

　　The teaching of the apostles is the entire speaking of God in the New Testament—first in the Son as a man, then in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles. In the New Testament God cannot depart from the principle of incarnation. He must speak through man. In the four Gospels the man was Jesus. In the succeeding twenty-three books, the men were the apostles. Today we are the men. God speaks in the principle of incarnation. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, “The Apostles’ Teaching,” pp. 378-380)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, “The Apostles’ Teaching,” ch. 1; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “How to Be a Coworker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations,” ch. 3; Life-study of Acts, msg. 12