Scripture Reading: Isa. 49:1-9; 42:1-7; 50:4
Ⅰ
Isaiah as the servant of Jehovah typifies Christ as a covenant of the people to restore the land—Isa. 49:1-9; 42:1-7:
A
The good land of Canaan with all of its riches typifies the all-inclusive, unsearchably rich Christ, who has been bequeathed to us as the reality of the new covenant—vv. 5-7; 49:8-9; Col. 1:12; 2:6.
B
In the believers' experience, to restore the land is to have Christ as the land enlarged or expanded; the more we experience Christ as the new covenant and occupy Him as the land, the more we sense that He is expanding within us and the more God's kingdom is established with God's temple as His testimony—v. 19; Phil. 3:8-10; Mark 4:26-27; Eph. 2:21-22.
Ⅱ
In order for Christ to expand within us, we need to enjoy Him as the bequests of the new covenant in its four major aspects:
A
"I will be propitious to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I shall by no means remember anymore"—Heb. 8:12:
１
The precious and all-efficacious blood of Christ resolves all of our problems so that we can remain constantly in fellowship with God to continually enjoy His organic salvation—1 John 1:7-9; 2:1-2; Heb. 9:12, 14; Psa. 51:2.
２
Once God forgives us, He erases our sins from His memory and remembers them no longer:
ａ
No sin that has been repented of, that has been confessed and put under the blood of the Lord Jesus, can ever raise its head at the judgment seat—1 John 1:7, 9; Hymns, #295, #1003, #1008.
ｂ
When God forgives us of our sins, He causes the sins which we have committed to depart from us—Psa. 103:12; Lev. 16:7-10, 15-22; John 3:18; 5:24; cf. Psa. 130:4; Luke 7:47.
B
"I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them"—Heb. 8:10:
１
The law of life, the law of the Spirit of life, is the processed Triune God as the spontaneous power and automatic function of life—Rom. 8:2; Phil. 2:13.
２
The function of the law of life is to free us from the law of sin and of death (Rom. 8:2), to dispense the processed Triune God into us to make us men of life in our entire tripartite being (vv. 10, 6, 11), to shape us into the image of the firstborn Son of God so that we may become His corporate expression (vv. 28-29), and to constitute us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions (Eph. 4:11-12, 16).
C
"I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me"—Heb. 8:10:
１
For God to be our God means that He is our inheritance, and for us to be God's people means that we are His inheritance—Eph. 1:11, 14, 18; 3:21:
ａ
God created man as a vessel to contain Him (Gen. 1:26; Rom. 9:21, 23-24); therefore, God is man's possession, just as the content of a vessel is its possession.
ｂ
It is by having God wrought into us that we are being constituted into God's inheritance—Eph. 1:13; 3:16-21.
２
God is ours and we are His by the divine life's enabling us to participate in the enjoyment of God in fellowship with Him—1 Cor. 1:9.
D
"They shall by no means each teach his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all will know Me from the little one to the great one among them"—Heb. 8:11:
１
In the new covenant we have the privilege of knowing God experientially, inwardly, and personally with His intimate counsel and sweet, satisfying companionship—Psa. 25:14; Exo. 33:11; Phil. 3:10a; 1:19-21a; 2 Cor. 2:10.
２
We can know God subjectively from within by the sense of life, which is the feeling, the consciousness, of the divine life within us—Rom. 8:6.
Ⅲ
In order for Christ to expand within us, we need to enjoy Him as the Servant of Jehovah in the following aspects:
A
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ was never discouraged—Isa. 42:1-4; cf. 53:2.
B
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ was constituted with the Spirit of Jehovah—48:16; 11:2; cf. Matt. 12:18; Luke 4:14-22.
C
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ was the Prophet of Jehovah to be His mouthpiece to speak forth His word—Isa. 49:1-4; Acts 3:22-23; John 3:34; 14:10; cf. 1 Cor. 14:31-32:
１
As typified by Isaiah, Christ's mouth was like a sharp sword, and He was a polished arrow hidden in Jehovah's quiver—Isa. 49:2; Rev. 12:10-11; 6:2; cf. 2 Cor. 2:17; 13:3.
２
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ did not speak His own word, but spoke according to God's instructions—Isa. 50:4; John 14:24; Matt. 12:42; Eph. 6:17-20:
ａ
We should be one with Christ to speak as learners, as trainees, as instructed and taught ones—1 Cor. 2:13; Prov. 25:15, 20.
ｂ
We need to be awakened by the Lord morning by morning, having our ears opened to hear the voice of our Master—Mark 1:35; Exo. 21:1-6.
D
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ did not cry out, lift up His voice, or make His voice heard in the street—Isa. 42:2; Matt. 12:19; 2 Tim. 2:24; Prov. 27:14.
E
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ will not break the bruised ones or quench the smoking ones—Matt. 12:20; Isa. 42:3; cf. 61:1-2; Eph. 4:11-12.
F
We can be one with Christ as the Servant of Jehovah to make God happy in the releasing and raising up of His elect to build up the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God—Matt. 16:18-19; Eph. 4:11-12, 15-16; Rom. 14:17.