«　WEEK 1　DAY 1　»

　　Eph. 2:7 That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

　　1 Cor. 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.

　　The grace of God is a matter of tremendous significance… If we would understand what the grace of God is as revealed in the New Testament, we need a clear view of the New Testament as a whole. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 102)

　　The New Testament is a history of God’s grace, and grace is the incarnated Triune God. In the first step the Triune God became a man in the flesh through His birth by a human virgin as grace coming to be among men for the accomplishment of redemption. In the second step the last Adam, as the embodiment of the Triune God, became the life-giving Spirit through His death and resurrection as grace entering into man for the impartation of the processed and consummated Triune God into the believers, to be the source, element, and essence of the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the glorious enlargement and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in eternity. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 463-464)

　　When I was young, I was taught that grace means that we do nothing and that God does everything for us. According to this teaching, anything we do is work, not grace, but whatever God does for us is grace. However, according to the New Testament, grace is actually what God is to us for our enjoyment (John 1:16-17; 2 Cor. 12:9). Grace is actually God in Christ dispensed into our being for our enjoyment in our experience.

　　Grace is mainly not the work God does for us; grace is the Triune God Himself dispensed into our being and experienced as our enjoyment. In brief, grace is the Triune God experienced and enjoyed by us. The New Testament reveals that grace is nothing less than God in Christ dispensed into our being for our enjoyment.

　　John 1:17 says that grace came through Jesus Christ. This indicates that grace is somewhat like a person. The personification of grace is God Himself. Paul realized this when he said, “Not I, but the grace of God…with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). For Paul, grace was a living person. In Paul this person became the very grace by which he labored. Therefore, grace is God Himself; it is what God is to us for our enjoyment. When God is enjoyed by us, that is grace. Grace is the very God in His Son Jesus Christ to be our portion so that we may enjoy all He is.

　　We need to emphasize the fact that grace is God as our enjoyment. When God becomes our portion for us to enjoy, that is grace. Do not consider grace as something less than God. Grace is nothing less than the Triune God enjoyed by us in a practical way as our portion. Grace is God not in doctrine, but in our experience, for grace is God in Christ with all He is for our enjoyment. This includes life, strength, comfort, rest, light, righteousness, holiness, power, and the other divine attributes. When we enjoy God and participate in Him, that is grace. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 102-103)

　　In the accomplishment of His eternal economy, God commenced it in His incarnation by coming to be a man as the grace to the believers. God came in the way of incarnation to us as grace. Hence, grace is the Triune God in His incarnation to be dispensed to the believers by the Father as the source, by the Son as the element, and by the Spirit as the application (2 Cor. 13:14). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” p. 403)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 10