Scripture Reading: Psa. 119
Ⅰ
God's intention is to have an expression of Himself through man—Gen. 1:26:
A
The testimony of God is the expression of God.
B
God's intention is to work Himself into man that He may be expressed through man and thereby have a testimony.
Ⅱ
The law was called the testimony (Exo. 25:16) because it testifies of God; it testifies what kind of God He is—that He is righteous and holy and that He is love and light—Eph. 4:24; 1 John 4:8; 1:5:
A
As the testimony of God, the law, the Ten Commandments, is a portrait of God—Exo. 20:1-17.
B
The law as the testimony of God, the expression of God, is the revelation of who God is—34:28.
C
God regards the Ten Commandments as ten words (Deut. 4:13; 10:4); this is a further indication that the law is a revelation of God Himself, since the words a person speaks are a revelation of that person.
D
The law is linked to God's economy because the law was given as God's portrait, God's picture, and God's testimony.
Ⅲ
As God's testimony, the law is a type of Christ, who, being the image of God, is God's portrait, picture, and testimony—Col. 1:15; John 1:1, 14, 17-18; Rev. 1:5; 3:14:
A
The law is a type of Christ as God's testimony, the One who describes God and expresses Him in a full and adequate way—John 1:18.
B
As the law is the ten words of God which reveal God to His people, so Christ is the Word of God revealing God to us—vv. 1, 14.
C
When Christ came, the testimony of God became a living person—v. 17.
D
Whatever the Lord Jesus did and said expressed God; for this reason He is called the faithful Witness—14:10; Rev. 1:5; 3:14.
Ⅳ
In typology, to keep the law is to express God; thus, for the children of Israel to keep the law was to live God and express God:
A
Keeping the law to express God is the living of a God-man—Phil. 1:21a.
B
Those who live the life of a God-man bear the image of God; they are the portrait of God and even the duplication of God—2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29.
C
We need to live the life of a God-man—a life of denying ourselves and being crucified to live Christ for God's expression—Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
D
We should not try in ourselves to keep the law; instead, we should let Christ live Himself out from within us that we may become the testimony of God, the expansion and enlargement of God's expression—Gal. 2:16, 20; Rom. 8:4.
Ⅴ
The law of God functions as the living word of God to infuse His substance into His loving seekers to make them His testimony for the fulfillment of His eternal economy—Psa. 119:
A
The law is spiritual, the same in essence, nature, and substance as God, who is Spirit—Rom. 7:14; John 4:24.
B
The law as God's ten words are His breath to convey His element into the ones who receive His words—2 Tim. 3:16.
C
The highest and most intrinsic function of the law as God's living word is to impart God's substance into us to make us God in life, in nature, and in expression but not in the Godhead.
D
The function of the word of God is the function, the operation, of God Himself—1 Thes. 2:13; Phil. 2:13:
１
Through the function of the word of God, God's loving seekers receive the blessing of light becoming life—Psa. 19:8b; 119:130, 105, 25, 50.
２
Through the function of the word of God, God's loving seekers receive the blessing of inhaling God—2 Tim. 3:16.
３
Through the function of the word of God, God's loving seekers receive the blessing of enjoying God as their portion—Psa. 119:57a; 73:26.
４
Through the function of the word of God, God's loving seekers receive the blessing of enjoying God's countenance and the shining of His face—119:58a, 135a; 24:6; 105:4; Num. 6:25-26; 2 Cor. 4:6; 3:18.
Ⅵ
The law of God is a type of Christ as the inward law of life—Rom. 8:2:
A
In essence, the law of life is God in Christ as the Spirit, and in function, the law of life has the capacity to make us God and to constitute us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions—12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27.
B
As the law of life operates within us, it infuses the divine nature and attributes into our being, conforming us to the image of God that we may express Him and represent Him—Gen. 1:26-27.
C
The law of life functions to infuse into us the elements of the firstborn Son of God as the prototype, making us His reproduction that God might have a corporate expression to fulfill His eternal purpose—Rom. 8:28-29.
D
As the inward law of life works Christ into every part of our being, Christ is formed in us—Heb. 8:10; Gal. 4:19:
１
Eventually, God will be wrought into man, and man will be mingled with God.
２
God and man will thus become one entity; this is the most secret mystery in the universe.