C
God gave Noah an all-inclusive revelation, the revelation to build the ark, which was the way that God would terminate the corrupted generation and bring in a new age; his work was a work that changed the age—1 Cor. 2:9; 2 Cor. 6:1; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:12:
１
The ark is a type of Christ (1 Pet. 3:20-21), not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the church, which is the Body of Christ and the new man to consummate in the New Jerusalem (Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:15-16; Col. 3:10-11; Rev. 21:2).
２
To build up the ark is to build up Christ as grace in our experience for the building up of the corporate Christ, the church, as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:11-16); this is to work out our own salvation so that we may be saved from God's judgment on this crooked and perverted generation and be ushered into a new age, the age of the millennium (Phil. 2:12-16; Heb. 11:7; Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27).
Ⅲ
The consummate and ultimate product of the grace of God in His economy is the Body of Christ as God's poem to be the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God's righteousness in the new heavens and new earth; the riches of God Himself for our enjoyment surpass every limit and will be publicly displayed for eternity—Eph. 2:7-10; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 22:21.
Morning Nourishment
Heb. 11:7 By faith Noah, having been divinely instructed concerning things not yet seen and being moved by pious fear, prepared an ark for the salvation of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.Phil. 2:12 …As you have always obeyed,…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
The product of the grace in God’s economy is a poem (Eph. 2:10a). The heavens, the earth, and man, which were created by God, are not God’s poem. Rather, the church, the Body of Christ, is God’s poem.
The product of the grace in God’s economy is a poem to exhibit the surpassing riches of the grace in God’s economy (v. 7)…Grace is rich, abounding, multiplying, and increasing. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” p. 342)
Today’s Reading
What [Noah] worked on and entered into was just God’s salvation, the ark (Gen. 7:7). The ark was a type of the practical and present Christ…According to the picture that we see with Noah, we should have a present and practical Christ whom we can enter into, not just a historical Christ or a Christ of distance. And we should work together with God on Christ. Christ is our ark, and in the local churches we are building up this ark… As today’s Noahs, we also should build up Christ.Today we are saved, but we still need to work on Christ. Noah also was saved before he began working on the ark… By the time God came and charged Noah to build the ark, he was already walking with God and in the eyes of God was a righteous man in that age (6:9)… Since he was already saved, why did he need to build the ark? He needed further salvation from the corrupted world.
Paul told us in Philippians 2:12 that we need to be obedient and to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Although we have been saved, we still need to work out our salvation. God’s salvation is not so short or so brief or so simple. God’s salvation has a long span. We have to enter into God’s salvation and to go through from one end of God’s salvation to the other end. Today we are in the passage of God’s salvation… Now we are going through this passage, and our going through is our working…The more [Noah] built the ark, the more he passed through God’s salvation. Eventually, he entered into what he worked out (Gen. 7:7)… [The] Christ whom we are building up will become our future salvation. One day under God’s sovereignty we will enter into the very Christ whom we have built up.
If you spend from Monday through Saturday loving the Lord, fellowshipping with Him, living by Him, and walking together with Him, surely on the Lord’s DAY you would have the deep sensation that you are in Christ. You would have a practical and present Christ for you to abide in. But if, on the other hand, you spent from Monday through Saturday not loving the Lord and not fellowshipping with Him, not living in Him, and not walking with Him, even if you wanted to abide in Him today, you would feel that He is absent. In your experience He is not with you. You have Him in doctrine, but you do not have Him in experience. Although you might desire to abide in Him, it seems that you do not know where He is. This would mean that for the past week you did not build Christ. You did not work on the ark. So when the flood came, you had no ark to enter into. But when you love Him and fellowship with Him and live by Him and walk with Him day after day and hour after hour, you build Him up in your experience. You build up a Christ in your experience for you to enter into as your salvation. (CWWL, 1983, vol. 2, “The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity,” pp. 179-181)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” ch. 4; CWWL, 1983, vol. 2, “The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity,” chs. 2-3