«　WEEK 4　DAY 1　»

　　1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

　　Eph. 4:3-6 Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

　　In order to understand the Bible, we must exercise one principle. This principle is that God planned in His economy to make Himself one with man. The basic principle, the main principle, of Christ’s birth is that God came to join Himself to man, to be a man, and to be one with man. This is the basic principle of the Bible.

　　We should keep the principle that the Word of God as the divine revelation shows us that God’s main purpose is to make Himself one with man and to make man one with Him. In John 15 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches… Abide in Me and I in you” (vv. 5, 4). This shows us that God and the believers in Christ are one. We and God were once separate, but one day we, the wild branches, were grafted into Him in Christ (Rom. 11:24). We have been grafted into Christ as the tree, and this grafting has made us one with Him. What is needed now is for us to abide in Him that He may abide in us. Then He and we will be one, having one life, one nature, and one living. (Life-study of the Psalms, pp. 200-201)

　　Eventually, the oneness between God and man will be completed, consummated. All of God’s chosen people will be consummated to be fully one with God to become the constituents of the holy city, the New Jerusalem. Whenever we come to the Psalms, we need to hold this concept; otherwise, we can be misled.

　　I am burdened for us to see the contrast between the human concept in the Psalms and the divine concept in the New Testament. According to our concept, we may feel that the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, tells us mainly that we have to fear God, to take refuge in Him, to trust in Him, to wait on Him, to hope in Him, to praise Him, to thank Him, and to worship Him. This concept, however, is not the divine concept in the New Testament. What the New Testament shows us is God’s economy.

　　In God’s economy, God has only one intention—to gain an organism for Himself. In eternity past God decided to do one , thing in His economy—to create for Himself an organism, the Body of Christ. He created the universe and man for this purpose. Then man became fallen, but God promised man that He would come through a woman to be a man, to join Himself with man, and to become one with man (Gen. 3:15). Eventually, He became a man and lived a life on this earth to show people the life of a God-man. Afterward, He went to the cross and died not only for our sins but also to deal with every problem in the universe. Then He was resurrected. In His incarnation He brought God into man, and in His resurrection He brought man into God so that God and man could be one.

　　Although this is the revelation of the New Testament, not many see this revelation. Instead, most Christians still hold a natural and religious concept of trying to do good. Most Christians would say that they need to improve their conduct. Because they know that they are weak and the temptations are strong, they ask God to help them and try to trust in God. But they do not see the central line of God’s economy to make God and man, man and God, one entity, with the two having one living by one life with one nature. Such a revelation is missing among Christians today. (Life-study of the Psalms, pp. 201, 207-208)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of the Psalms, msg. 16; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Ten Great Critical ’‘Ones’ for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 1