Scripture Reading: Isa. 40:5-11; John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9
Ⅰ
The last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah can be considered the extract of the real significance of the New Testament; this extract concerns a person—the Lord Jehovah, the One whom we call the Lord Jesus Christ—Isa. 40:10; Phil. 2:11; Rom. 13:14.
Ⅱ
What is covered in Isaiah 40 is the revealing of the Lord Jehovah—v. 9:
A
Revealing means manifesting; the revealing is the manifestation.
B
The revealing of the Lord Jehovah is the appearing of the very God, and this Lord Jehovah, the very God, is the Lord Jesus Christ:
１
Jesus, who is Jehovah, is our God—John 1:1, 14; 8:24, 28, 58.
２
The revealing of Jehovah is the appearing of Jesus—Matt. 1:21.
３
Jehovah is revealed through His speaking; the more we listen to the speaking of the Lord Jesus, the more we see Jehovah—Isa. 40:5; John 1:1.
C
Christ is the complete God manifested in the flesh—1 Tim. 3:16:
１
The Word, who is God, became flesh—John 1:1, 14:
ａ
God, who is the Word, is not a partial God but the entire God—God the Son, God the Father, and God the Spirit.
ｂ
The Word is God's definition, explanation, and expression; hence, the Word who became flesh is God's definition, explanation, and expression in the flesh.
２
In incarnation Christ is God manifested in the flesh—1 Tim. 3:16:
ａ
He was manifested in the flesh not only as the Son but as the entire God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
ｂ
The entire God was incarnated; thus, Christ in incarnation is the entire God manifested in the flesh.
３
In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily—Col. 2:9:
ａ
All the fullness of the Godhead refers to the entire Godhead, the complete God.
ｂ
Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God; the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all embodied in Him.
D
Christ as the glory of Jehovah is the center of the gospel for the new creation—Isa. 40:5; 2 Cor. 4:3-6; 5:17:
１
Since glory signifies the expression of God, to say that God is glorified means that He is expressed—John 17:4.
２
Christ as the image of God is the effulgence of God's glory—Heb. 1:3.
３
The gospel is the gospel of the glory of Christ, which illuminates, radiates, and shines into the heart of man—2 Cor. 4:3-6.
４
Today the glory of Jehovah is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22.
Ⅲ
God's desire in His economy is to have a corporate expression of Himself for His glory; God wants such a corporate expression so that He may be glorified—1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 3:21; Rev. 21:10-11:
A
God's good pleasure, the desire of His heart, is to have many sons for the expression of His Son so that He may be expressed in the Son through the Spirit—Eph. 1:5, 9; Rom. 8:29.
B
First Timothy 3:15-16 indicates not only that Christ Himself as the Head is the manifestation of God in the flesh but also that the church as the Body is the manifestation of God in the flesh—the mystery of godliness:
１
God has manifested Himself in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh—v. 16; John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9.
２
Now God is manifested in the church, the Body of Christ, as the enlarged corporate expression in the flesh—Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Tim. 3:15-16:
ａ
Godliness in verse 16 refers to God as life lived out in the church to be expressed.
ｂ
The manifestation of God in the flesh began with Christ when He was on earth.
ｃ
The manifestation of God in the flesh continues with the church, which is the increase, enlargement, and multiplication of the manifestation of God in the flesh.
C
God is glorified, expressed, in the church—Eph. 3:21:
１
This glory comes to us with God and, after being worked into us, will return to God with us.
２
God's glory is wrought into the church, and He is expressed in the church:
ａ
The dispensing of the Triune God issues in glory—Rom. 8:18, 21.
ｂ
We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory— 2 Cor. 3:18.
ｃ
In the oneness in the divine glory, the believers, their self having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way—John 17:22; cf. 7:18.
D
An outstanding feature of the New Jerusalem is that it has the glory of God, His expression—Rev. 21:10-11:
１
The entire New Jerusalem will bear the glory of God, which is God Himself shining out through the city.
２
The glory of God—God Himself being manifested—will be the content of the New Jerusalem, for the city will be completely filled with His glory.