«　WEEK 3　DAY 3　»

　　Eph. 1:6-8 To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace, which He caused to abound to us…

　　22-23 And He…gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

　　The consummation of the believers’ experience of the grace of God in His economy is the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:6-8, 22-23). How is the Body of Christ produced? We were fallen sinners, but Christ came and shed His blood to redeem us back into Himself. Christ is the sphere and element of our salvation. The precious blood of Christ redeemed us back into Himself as the sphere and element. In Christ we enjoy His element, and with His element we have been made God’s precious possession. Ephesians 1:22-23 shows us that the power that God caused to operate in Christ raised Him from the dead so that He might transcend the world and ascend to the heavenlies, being seated at the right hand of God, crushing the enemy, having all things subjected under His feet, and thus being given to be the Head over all things. Such power is “to the church,” that is, transmitted to the church…Since the Head has this power, the Body also receives the transmission of this power. It is in this way that the Body of Christ is produced. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” pp. 335-336)

　　Every part of the organic Body of Christ is an issue of the grace in the economy of God. Grace is the enjoyment of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—as the enjoyment of life, and the life of God is with God the Father as the substance, God the Son as the element, and God the Spirit as the essence.

　　First, the organic Body of Christ takes God the Father in His nature as its substance, as pure gold (Rev. 21:18b; 1 Cor. 3:12). Gold signifies the divine nature of God the Father as the source with all its attributes.

　　Second, the organic Body of Christ takes God the Son in His redemption as its element, as pearls (Rev. 21:21a; cf. 1 Cor. 3:12). Pearls signify Christ the Son in His overcoming death and life-imparting resurrection with all the virtues and attributes.

　　Third, the organic Body of Christ takes God the Spirit in His transforming work as its essence, as precious stones (Rev. 21:18a, 19-20; 1 Cor. 3:12). Precious stones signify the transforming work of the Spirit with all its attributes. Gold, silver, and precious stones signify the believers’ various enjoyments and experiences of Christ in the virtues and attributes of the Triune God. All these precious materials are the products of our participation in and enjoyment of Christ in our spirit through the Holy Spirit. Only these are good for God’s building.

　　To the apostle Paul, all things were like refuse, and grace was God in Christ. It was by grace, the Lord whom he experienced, that he labored for the Lord more abundantly than all the apostles. Like Paul, we should take the processed and consummated Triune God as grace in our living and work today… In such a living we take only life as the principle. Whatever is of life, that is what God wants; whatever is not of life, that is what God rejects. This life is the rich grace with God the Father as the substance, God the Son as the element, and God the Spirit as the essence; this life is God coming to be our grace. This is the living that we should have. May the Lord be merciful to us and bless us that we may live such a life so that eventually we can experience the consummation of the grace of God in His economy. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” pp. 338-339, 343)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” ch. 4