Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:10, 17, 21; 14:17-18; Mark 4:26-29; Luke 17:21; Matt. 24:14
Ⅰ
The genuine Christian life is the life of an overcomer, and all the overcomers in the New Testament should be kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life—Rom. 5:17:
A
As the God-ordained prophets and priests, we are also kings to allow God to rule in us and through us over all His enemies; the believers in the New Testament should be the fulfillment of the typology of the kings, priests, and prophets in God’s economy:
１
In the New Testament all the believers are saved to be kings and priests; when the priests speak for God, they become God’s spokesmen, God’s mouthpiece, and these are the prophets—1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 20:6; 22:3-5; 1 Cor. 14:12, 24-25, 31.
２
Prophesying (speaking Christ into people) makes us overcomers; prophesying is the function of the overcomers—v. 4b; 1 Pet. 4:10-11; Acts 5:20 and footnote 2.
B
If we have not reached the level of a king in our Christian life, we are still below the proper standard; we may say that we enjoy Christ, but to what degree, to what extent, do we enjoy Christ?
C
Our enjoyment of Christ may be only “one-inch high,” but Christ is unlimited; our enjoyment of Christ should come up to the kingship level; we need to receive grace upon grace to such an extent that grace reigns in us so that we can be good stewards of the varied grace of God—Phil. 3:13; John 1:16; Rom. 5:21; 1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 3:2.
D
God’s complete salvation is for us to be saved in the life of Christ to reign in this life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:10, 17, 21); the gift of righteousness is God’s judicial redemption applied to us in a practical way; grace is God Himself as our all-sufficient supply for our organic salvation.
Ⅱ
Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is a book concerning the overcomers; in chapters 2 and 3, the Lord gives a sevenfold call to us, His believers, the spiritual descendants of our great father Abraham to be His overcomers (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21), those who conquer all the satanic chaos (cf. Col. 1:17b, 18b, 10) and triumph in the divine economy (Rom. 8:37; 2 Cor. 2:14):
A
From God’s viewpoint there are four major races of people: the race of Adam, the race of Abraham according to the flesh (Gen. 13:16), the race of Abraham according to the Spirit (15:5; Gal. 3:7, 29), and the race of the overcomers; we should declare by exercising our spirit of faith that we belong to the race of the overcomers (2 Cor. 4:13).
B
The book of Revelation shows us that without the overcomers Christ has no way to come back; we know that Christ is our way (John 14:6a), but from deep within His heart, Christ would tell the overcomers that they are His way; the overcomers are the very way for Christ to come back (Rev. 19:7-9; Psa. 45:13-14).
C
Let God bless you to make you an overcomer today, living a life that is the life to reign; this unique blessing is the eternal blessing of the Triune God dispensing Himself into us for our enjoyment—Num. 6:22-27; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 1:3; Gal. 3:14.
Ⅲ
In order for us to reign in life to be the Lord’s overcomers, we need to see that we have been regenerated with a divine, spiritual, heavenly, kingly, and royal life; the Lord said, “So is the kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth”—Mark 4:26; 1 John 3:9:
A
This seed is the seed of the divine life (v. 9; 1 Pet. 1:23) sown into the believers, indicating that the kingdom of God, which is the issue and goal of the Lord’s gospel, and the church in this age (Rom. 14:17) are a matter of life, the life of God, which sprouts, grows, bears fruit, matures, and produces a harvest (1 Cor. 3:6-9; Rev. 14:4, 15-16).
B
The kingdom of God is Christ Himself (Luke 17:21); as the Triune God in humanity (Col. 2:9), He is the seed, “the gene,” of the kingdom of God to be sown into God’s chosen people that He might grow in them, live in them, and be expressed from within them to develop into God’s ruling realm (Mark 4:26-29; 1 Cor. 3:9).
C
The intrinsic element of the entire teaching of the New Testament is that the Triune God has been incarnated in order to be sown into His chosen people and develop within them into a kingdom; God’s goal is the full development of the kingdom of God:
１
In the Gospels we have the sowing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—Mark 4:3, 14; Matt. 9:35.
２
In the Acts we have the propagation and spreading of this sowing by thousands of sowers who had received the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—6:7; 12:24; 19:20.
３
In the Epistles we see the growing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—1 Cor. 3:6, 9b; 2 Pet. 1:3, 11.
４
The harvest of this seed is found in the book of Revelation with the reaping of the first-fruits and the harvest—14:4, 15-16; Mark 4:29; Matt. 13:39.
５
The millennial kingdom will be the uttermost development of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom with the Son as the King and all the overcomers as His co-kings, the “kingdom-gene people”—Rev. 20:6.
６
The New Jerusalem, God’s eternal kingdom, is the fullest development of the kingdom seed, the gene, sown by Jesus the Nazarene in the four Gospels—Rev. 21:2; 22:1, 3, 5; 5:10; 3:12; 11:15; 19:6; 20:6; Psa. 146:10.
７
We need to be one with the Lord to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth for the propagation and development of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom to consummate this age—Matt. 24:14.
Ⅳ
In experience, to reign in life means to be under the ruling of the divine life:
A
Christ is a pattern of reigning in life by being under the ruling of the divine life of the Father—cf. 8:5-13.
B
Paul is an example of one who, in his life and ministry, was under the ruling of the divine life—2 Cor. 2:12-14.
C
There is the need for all the believers who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life; a life under the kingdom’s rule is a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit; to live in this way is to serve Christ as a slave, and such a life is well pleasing to God and approved by men—Rom. 14:17-18; cf. 1 Cor. 12:3.
Ⅴ
Deuteronomy reveals that a proper king first had to be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God (17:14-15, 18-20); this principle should be the same with the elders in the churches and with all of us who aspire to reign in life (2 Tim. 3:14-17):
A
In order to administrate, to manage, the church, the elders must be reconstituted with the word of God (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17); as a result, they will be under God’s government, under God’s rule and control.
B
Then spontaneously, God will be in their decisions, and the elders will represent God to manage the affairs of the church; this kind of management is theocracy.
C
Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, the returned people of Israel were collectively reconstituted by and with God through His word to be a nation as God’s testimony; to reconstitute the people of God is to educate them by putting them into the Word of God that they may be saturated with the word—Neh. 8:1-18.
D
The word of God is one with the Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17); through our daily reading of the divine Word, the word of God works within us, and the Spirit, through the word, spontaneously dispenses God’s nature with God’s element into our being, causing us to be constituted with God.
Ⅵ
In order to reign in life, we also need to be under the rulership of the Spirit; the record of Joseph’s life is a revelation of the rulership of the Spirit, for the rulership of the Spirit is the reigning aspect of a mature saint; it is a life of reigning in life, being under the restriction and limitation of the divine life in the reality of God’s kingdom, and it is higher than any other aspect of the Spirit—Rom. 5:17, 21; 14:17-18; 1 Cor. 2:15-16; 2 Cor. 2:13-14; 3:17-18; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rev. 4:1-3:
A
Joseph, a “master of dreams” (Gen. 37:19), dreamed that according to God’s view, His people are sheaves of wheat full of life and heavenly bodies full of light (vv. 5-11); Joseph’s two dreams (vv. 7, 9), both from God, unveiled to him God’s divine view concerning the nature, position, function, and goal of God’s people on earth.
B
Joseph’s dreams controlled his life and directed his behavior; he behaved so excellently and marvelously because he was directed by the vision that he saw in his dreams (cf. Acts 26:19); his brothers vented their anger (Gen. 37:18-31) and indulged in their lust (38:15-18), but Joseph subdued his anger and conquered his lust (39:7-23), behaving as a sheaf full of life and conducting himself like a heavenly star shining in the darkness.
C
Joseph’s life under the heavenly vision was the life of the kingdom of the heavens described in Matthew 5—7; by living such a life, he was fully prepared to reign as a king; according to the constitution of the heavenly kingdom revealed in these chapters in Matthew, our anger must be subdued, and our lust must be conquered (5:21-32).
D
As the representative of the reigning aspect of the mature life, Joseph enjoyed the presence of the Lord and with it the Lord’s authority, prosperity, and blessing—Gen. 39:2-5, 21, 23; Acts 7:9.
E
Although Joseph was full of human feelings and sentiments toward his brothers, he kept himself with all his feelings under the rulership of the Spirit; he denied himself and placed himself absolutely under God’s sovereign leading, conducting himself wholly for the interest of God and His people—Gen. 42:9, 24; 43:30-31; 45:1-2, 24.
F
Joseph is a living illustration of what is revealed in the New Testament; he was a self-denying person who had no self-interest, self-enjoyment, self-feeling, self-ambition, or self-goal; everything was for God and for God’s people; Joseph’s self-denial, his restriction under God’s sovereign hand, was the key to the practice of the kingdom life—Gen. 45:24; Matt. 16:24; 2 Chron. 1:10; Isa. 30:15a; Phil. 1:9; 1 Tim. 5:1-2; 1 Thes. 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thes. 1:3; Rom. 12:10; 1 John 4:9; Heb. 13:1.
G
Joseph’s realization was that it was God who sent him to Egypt; in Genesis 50:20 he said to his brothers, “Even though you intended evil against me, God intended it for good” (45:5, 7; 50:19-21; cf. 41:51-52); this is the reality of Paul’s word in Romans 8:28-29; Joseph received as from God all that his brothers had done to him, and he comforted those who had offended him (Gen. 45:5-8; 50:15-21); what grace, and what an excellent spirit, he had!
H
We have to use the “divine telescope” to see through time and behold the New Jerusalem, where there is nothing but sheaves full of life and stars full of light; the more mature in life we become, the less we will speak negatively concerning the saints or the church—cf. 38:27-30; Matt. 7:1-5; 1 Pet. 3:8-9.
Ⅶ
We need to see and arrive at the goal of reigning in life; when we are reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, the issue is the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life—Rom. 12:1-4, 9-12, 15-18; 14:1-9; 15:1-13:
A
As those who have believed into Christ, we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, and in the church life, love prevails (Col. 1:12-13); the Body builds itself up in love (1 Cor. 8:1; Eph. 1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2), and love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and do anything for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:31b; 13:4-8a).
B
If we do not have Christ as love, all our speaking is like “sounding brass” and a “clanging cymbal,” which give sounds without life—v. 1.
C
The church life is not a police station or a law court but a loving home to raise up spiritual children, a hospital to heal and recover the sick ones, and a school to teach others in love—Matt. 9:12; 2 Cor. 11:29a; John 8:7, 10-11; 1 Cor. 9:22; Luke 15:1-7.
Ⅷ
When we are reigning in life, we are allowing the indwelling Christ as grace to reign within us “unto eternal life”; this is the consummation of reigning in life—Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:17, 21:
A
John 4:14b says, “The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.”
B
Into (unto in Romans 5:21) speaks of destination; the eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God; into also means “to become” or “to be.”
C
By enjoying the flowing Triune God—the Father as the fountain of life, the Son as the spring of life, and the Spirit as the river of life—we are receiving the abundance of grace to become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the life of God, the city of life; thus, the issue and consummation of our reigning in life should be uniquely and ultimately the goal of God’s eternal economy—the New Jerusalem.
Morning Nourishment
Rev. 1:6 And made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.Rom. 5:17 For if, by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
In the type of Israel there is a great part concerning the kings. The kings are the representatives of Israel and the top ones... [The Israelites] had everything of their living from the source of the good land,... [and the kings] were enjoying the good land on the top level... These kings are types of the New Testament believers because all the New Testament believers were saved by God to be kings [and priests] (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:12). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” p. 181)
Today’s Reading
God entrusted to the priests not only the speaking part of His deputy authority but also the ruling part. Thus, the priests were the speakers and also the kings. God, however, does not want a king to replace Him. He just wants His authority to be exercised. So at the beginning of Israel’s history with the priests, there was no king, but they did have the Urim and the Thummim. The Urim and the Thummim were a deputy authority for both God’s speaking and God’s ruling (Exo. 28:30; Lev. 8:8).In the New Testament all the believers were saved to be... kings, priests, and prophets. We can be such kings... by being men regenerated with God and transformed with God as the element... We were God’s created people who became fallen. Now we are God’s redeemed people based upon His choosing of us, and we are also God’s regenerated and transformed people who have been transformed with God’s element to make us God-men. Now we are here in resurrection. To be in resurrection means to deny everything old to become something new and live by the element of newness, which is the divine life, God Himself. In resurrection we have become God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This new creation is God’s re-created, regenerated, transformed people. This is also the church in localities and the Body of Christ universally.
In the age of typology, the overcomers were the prophets. The prophets took care of God’s oracle first. Based upon their oracle, they did exercise, to some extent, God’s authority. A number of kings listened to the prophets... Thus, all the genuine prophets were overcomers.
This is fulfilled in Revelation... [where] the Lord repeated the following word seven times: he who overcomes... (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). These overcomers are the fulfillment of the typology of the prophets. Therefore, when the apostle Paul speaks of how the church should meet, he stresses and uplifts prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-6, 24, 31, 39). Prophesying makes you an overcomer. Speaking Christ into people is prophesying. Prophesying is the function of the overcomers.
All the overcomers of the New Testament are kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life [Rom. 5:17]. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 181-183, 175, 177)
God’s complete salvation is for us to reign in life by the abundance of grace (God Himself as our all-sufficient supply for our organic salvation) and of the gift of righteousness (God’s judicial redemption applied to us in a practical way). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” p. 445)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” chs. 4-5
Morning Nourishment
Rev. 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.19:7 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.
The Bible is a book concerning God with man. In between God and man there is a third party, Satan. Satan always makes trouble, and all the trouble is the chaos. The Lord needs a [particular] group of people, the overcomers, who will be one with Him to conquer all the destructive chaos and triumph in His unique constructive economy. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation,” p. 245)
Today’s Reading
In the first ten and a half chapters of Genesis, God was dealing with man as the Adamic race. But after these chapters of the Bible, God shifted to another group of people... composed of the descendants of one father, Abraham. God shifted from the Adamic race to the Abrahamic race... The Old Testament covers the race of Adam and the physical descendants of Abraham.In the New Testament economy, God had a serious, vital shift to another group of people. He shifted from Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh to Abraham’s descendants according to the Spirit... All the believers in Christ, regardless of their race, are the spiritual descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7, 29). Regretfully, however, most of the spiritual descendants of Abraham also fail God. Then to whom can God go in order to carry out His purpose?
At the beginning of the last book of the Bible, the Lord Jesus as the High Priest walking among the golden lampstands gives a call to another group of people, the overcomers,... “to him who overcomes”... (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). This is a sevenfold call to us, His believers, the spiritual descendants of our great father, Abraham... The overcomers are the fourth race.
The New Testament age is approaching two thousand years of history... There have been two thousand years for the Adamic race, two thousand years for the Abrahamic race according to the flesh, and almost two thousand years for the Abrahamic race according to the Spirit. What the Lord needs is the race of overcomers to conquer all the satanic chaos and triumph in the divine economy.
The book of Revelation is a book on the overcomers... The overcoming race brings in the success to God for His economy. We need to consider where we are today... We may say that we are in the New Testament, but this in itself is not adequate. We must be in the last nineteen chapters of the Bible, from Revelation 4 through 22, from the throne to the New Jerusalem,... those who belong to the overcoming race.
According to God’s economy, there are only four races on this earth—the race of Adam, the race of Abraham according to the flesh, the race of Abraham according to the Spirit, and the race of the overcomers. We should declare by faith that we belong to the race of the overcomers.
The book of Revelation shows us that without the overcomers Christ has no way to come back. We know that Christ is our way (John 14:6a). But from deep within His heart, Christ would tell us that the overcomers are His way. Without Christ we do not have a way, but today without the overcomers Christ has no way. The overcomers are the very way for Christ to come back. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation,” pp. 245-247, 254)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “Salvation in Life in the Book of Romans,” ch. 7; CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The Overcomers,” chs. 1, 6
Morning Nourishment
Mark 4:26-29 And He said, So is the kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth, and sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and lengthens—how, he does not know. The earth bears fruit by itself: first a blade, then an ear, then full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he sends forth the sickle, because the harvest has come.The seed of the divine life (1 John 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:23) sown into the Slave-Savior’s believers indicates that the kingdom of God, which is the issue and goal of the Slave-Savior’s gospel, and the church in this age (Rom. 14:17) are a matter of life, the life of God, which sprouts, grows, bears fruit, matures, and produces a harvest. (Mark 4:26, footnote 3)
The kingdom of God is actually God Himself sown into human beings and developing in them into a kingdom. We need to be impressed with the fact that the kingdom of God is not a matter of teaching, activity, or organization. On the contrary, the kingdom of God is the Triune God in His incarnation sown into His chosen people to grow and develop in them into a kingdom. (Life-study of Mark, pp. 133-134)
Today’s Reading
The intrinsic element of the entire teaching of the New Testament... [is] that the Triune God has been incarnated in order to be sown into His chosen people and then develop within them into a kingdom. The four Gospels reveal the Triune God incarnated. This God-man eventually came forth to sow Himself into God’s chosen people by preaching and teaching. When those who had been chosen by God heard His word and received it, they received the seed, the gene, of the kingdom. This seed, this gene, is the incarnated God, the Triune God in humanity. In the Gospels we have the sowing of this seed of the kingdom.In the Acts we have the propagation and spreading of this sowing... In Acts hundreds and even thousands of sowers were raised up. All these sowers were those who received the seed, the gene. By receiving the seed they became those who could then sow it into others. In this way we have the propagation of the sowing and of the seed. In the Epistles we see the growing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom... In 1 Corinthians 3:9b Paul says, “You are God’s cultivated land.” Elsewhere in the same chapter Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth” (v. 6). Here in this chapter we have the growth, the development, of the seed.
The harvest of this seed is found in the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation. According to Revelation 14, we first have the firstfruits and then the harvest. Revelation 14:4 speaks of those who “were purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.” Then in verse 15 we see that the “harvest of the earth is ripe.” Those who are the firstfruits spoken of in Revelation 14 will be among those who will be co-kings with Christ in the millennium. The millennium, the thousand years, will be the full development of the gene of the kingdom. During the millennium many of those who have received the kingdom gene will be co-kings with Christ. In the new heaven and the new earth God will have an eternal kingdom with the New Jerusalem as the capital. The New Jerusalem will be a composition of kings, and these kings will rule over the fully restored nations. Then God will have an eternal kingdom as the full development of the gene sown in the Gospels by Jesus the Nazarene, who was the Triune God in humanity.
How wonderful is the kingdom gene that was sown in the Gospels! Eventually this gene will develop into the millennial kingdom spoken of in Revelation 20 and into God’s eternal kingdom in Revelation 21 and 22. Praise the Lord for this picture of the kingdom gene and its development! (Life-study of Mark, pp. 134-137)
Further Reading: Life-study of Mark, msgs. 14-16
Morning Nourishment
Deut. 17:18 And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write out for himself a copy of this law in a book...20 So that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers and he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left; that he and his sons may extend their days over their kingdom in the midst of Israel.
To reign in life is to be under the ruling of the divine life... The Lord Jesus as the God-man in His humanity on the earth... was absolutely under the ruling of the divine life of the Father. Everything He did was under the Father’s ruling. As a man, He rejected His natural humanity and lived a human life under the restriction of the divine life of His heavenly Father. By practically being under the ruling of the divine life of the Father, He was reigning in life. This is the pattern that we should follow.
We must reign in life to live the church life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” p. 450)
Today’s Reading
Paul set up a pattern of living the church life for the living of the Body life (Rom. 15:14—16:27)... When we are under the ruling of the divine life, we will spontaneously preach the gospel... Paul first preached the gospel to the Gentiles (15:14-24) and then brought them into the fellowship of the Body of Christ with the Jewish churches through their giving in love to provide for the necessities of the saints in Jerusalem (vv. 25-33). This was to bring the two into the fellowship of the one Body.By his recommendations and greetings in 16:1-24, Paul was blending together many saints and many churches under his ministry for the practical living of the Body of Christ in the universal fellowship of the Body... Today there is the need for all the believers who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” p. 451)
The king was to write out for himself a copy of the law in a book, out of that which was before the Levitical priests (Deut. 17:18). The law here refers to the Pentateuch... A proper king among the children of Israel was one who was instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God.
The principle should be the same with the elders in the churches today... In order to administrate, to manage, the church, the elders must be reconstituted with the holy word of God. As a result, they will be under God’s government, under God’s rule and control. Then spontaneously God will be in their decisions, and the elders will represent God to manage the affairs of the church. This kind of management is theocracy. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, p. 121)
God’s intention with Israel was to have on earth a divinely constituted people to be His testimony... In order to be reconstituted, they needed to come back to God by coming back to His law, that is, His word. Under Ezra and Nehemiah the returned people of Israel were collectively constituted by and with God through His word to be a nation as God’s testimony.
In order to reconstitute the people of God, there is the need to educate them with the word that comes out of the mouth of God and which expresses God. To reconstitute the people of God is to educate them by putting them into the Word of God that they may be saturated with the word. The word of God is one with the Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17). Through our daily reading of the divine Word, the word of God works within us, and the Spirit, through the word, spontaneously dispenses God’s nature with God’s element into our being, causing us to be constituted with God. (Neh. 8:1, footnote 1)
Further Reading: Life-study of Deuteronomy, msg. 17; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” ch. 4
Morning Nourishment
Gen. 45:5 And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.50:20 Even though you intended evil against me, God intended it for good...
Rom. 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
The rulership of the Spirit is the topstone, the capstone, of the structure of the teaching of the Spirit. The record of Joseph’s life is a revelation of the rulership of the Spirit, for the rulership of the Spirit is the reigning aspect of a matured saint. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 1469-1470)
Joseph did not need to forgive his brothers, because he did not blame them (cf. Gen. 45:28, footnote 1). He received as from God all that his brothers had done to him, and he comforted those who had offended him (vv. 5-8; 50:15-21). What grace, and what an excellent spirit, he had! (Gen. 45:5, footnote 1)
Today’s Reading
Joseph’s two dreams (Gen. 37:7-9), both from God, unveiled to him God’s divine view concerning the nature, position, function, and goal of God’s people on earth. According to their fallen nature, God’s people are evil and unclean, but in God’s eternal view, His people are sheaves of wheat full of life and heavenly bodies full of light (cf. Num. 23:21; 1 Kings 19:18; Rev. 12:1 and footnote). The reigning aspect of the mature life never condemns God’s people. Rather, it shepherds and appreciates them. Joseph’s dreams controlled and directed his behavior (cf. Acts 26:19). (Gen. 37:5, footnote 1)The life manifested in the story of Joseph... is the resurrection life, the life of God. Although Joseph was in an exciting situation, he did not display any looseness. This is life. With Joseph we see not only life but also the way of life, which is to keep ourselves under control. Never think that Joseph was not human. He was full of human feelings and sentiments, but he kept himself with all his feelings under the rulership of the Spirit. Therefore, in Joseph we see not only the mature life but a reigning life and the way of this reigning life. We all, especially the young people, need such a life and such a way that is the reigning aspect of a mature person. This life is not easily excited, and it does not reveal its glory. Instead, in the midst of excitement it remains calm, controls itself, and conceals its glory. Joseph was a person who denied himself... I do not know of any other person who was offended to the degree Joseph was, yet who had not the slightest desire for revenge.
Often when Christians forgive someone, they say, “Yes, I forgive you, but I also want to remind you of the seriousness of what you have done.” This kind of forgiveness does not mean anything, for actually it is not forgiveness at all. When Joseph forgave his brothers, he comforted them and told them not to be angry with themselves, but to forget what they had done to him. He said that their selling him into slavery was God’s doing to preserve life. Joseph did not blame his brothers for what they had done; rather, he regarded them as God’s helpers. They had helped God to get him to Egypt.
How sweet is the record of Joseph’s life! Because Joseph was fully under God’s guidance, there was no need for him to regret anything he did. Joseph is a living illustration of what is revealed in the New Testament. He was a self-denying person who had no self-interest, self-enjoyment, self-feeling, self-ambition, or self-goal. Everything was for God and for God’s people. Joseph’s self-denial, his restriction under God’s sovereign hand, was the key to the practice of the kingdom life. Thank God for Joseph’s self-denying life. Through such a life God’s purpose was fulfilled, and the kingdom was brought in, realized, and practiced. Through this fulfillment, the children of Israel shared in the enjoyment of the kingdom. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 1479, 1514, 1518, 1520)
Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 112-116, 118-120
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 4:16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.John 4:14 ...The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.
When we are all reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, the issue is the real and practical Body life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” p. 445)
The Body of Christ builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:16). The phrase in love is used repeatedly in the book of Ephesians (1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2). God predestinated us unto sonship before the foundation of the world in love, and the Body of Christ builds itself up in love. The growth in life is in love. In the last few years we have appreciated the Lord’s showing us the high peak of the divine revelation. My concern is that although we may talk about the truths of the high peak, love is absent among us. If this is the case, we are puffed up, not built up. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” p. 124)
Today’s Reading
When the fountain springs up, that is the fountain emerging [John 4:14b]. Then a river flows. The Father is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the river.This flowing Triune God is “into eternal life” [v. 14b]. The Greek preposition translated as “into” is rich in meaning. Here it speaks of the destination. The eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God... The New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine, eternal life... Thus, into eternal life means into the New Jerusalem. We must have something flowing into that divine New Jerusalem in order for us to arrive there. The entire Bible is needed to interpret John 4:14. The Father is the fountain as the source, the Son is the spring, the Spirit is the flowing river, and this flowing issues in the eternal life, which is the New Jerusalem... The New Jerusalem is the totality of God joined with man and man mingled with God.
Eventually, the Triune God becomes the living water, which the Lord Jesus presented to the Samaritan woman in John 4. Jacob’s well in John 4 is physical, but Jacob’s dream is divine and mystical. In this divine, mystical realm there is a real fountain. This fountain is the Father. When this fountain emerges, or springs up, that is the Son. When the spring flows into a river, that is the Spirit. This is into, or for, the New Jerusalem. The first four chapters of John present the Triune God as the flowing water. In chapters 6 and 7 there are two feasts. These two feasts are the issue of the flowing. We fallen men become hungry and thirsty. At the feast we have something to eat to satisfy our hunger and something to drink to quench our thirst. The food is Christ, and the water is also Christ.
We need to see that the Triune God is flowing through the Father, the Son, and the Spirit into us. When we drink of this water, it becomes a fountain in us... This fountain emerges as a spring, and the spring flows out as a river for the New Jerusalem. This is the key to open up the entire Gospel of John. This is the divine speaking, divine spreading, divine dispensing, of the Divine Trinity. The Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the river flow into us. When He flows into us, He flows with us. He will flow us into the New Jerusalem to be the New Jerusalem. The preposition into also means “to become.” Into the New Jerusalem means “to become the New Jerusalem.”... We have to be the New Jerusalem; then we can be in the New Jerusalem. This is the intrinsic significance of the Gospel of John and Revelation. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” pp. 455-457)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 8; CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Experience of Life,” ch. 17