Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26, 28; 32:28; 35:10; Gal. 6:15-16
Ⅰ
The Israel of God is the real Israel (Rom. 9:6b; 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3), including all the Gentile and Jewish believers in Christ, who are the true sons of Abraham, who are the household of the faith, and who are those in the new creation—Gal. 6:15-16, 10; 3:7, 29:
A
The real Israel, the spiritual Israel, is the church—6:16; Matt. 16:18.
B
In God's New Testament economy we have been made both the sons of God and the Israel of God—Gal. 3:26; 6:16.
１
We are sons of God, members of God's family, for His expression—v. 10.
２
We are kings-to-be, those destined to be kings; kingship is related to the Israel of God—Rev. 5:10.
３
Our destiny is to be sons of God expressing God and also kings reigning in the kingdom of God—21:7; 22:5b; 12:5a:
ａ
As the sons of God, the new creation, we need to be loving, joyful, peaceful, faithful, and meek—Gal. 3:26; 5:22-23.
ｂ
As the Israel of God, princes and victors, we need to walk according to the elementary rules of God's New Testament economy—v. 25; 6:16.
C
Paul's word about the Israel of God implies that we need to live in a kingly way with a kingly walk—Rom. 5:17, 21.
D
As the Israel of God, we represent God, exercise His authority, and carry out His administration on earth for the fulfillment of His purpose—Gen. 1:26, 28; Luke 10:19; Rev. 12:5, 7-11.
Ⅱ
In order to be the Israel of God representing God, we need to pay attention to the following matters—Gen. 32:28; 35:10; Gal. 6:16:
A
In Christ we "were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ"—Col. 2:11:
１
The spiritual meaning of circumcision is to put off the flesh, to put off the self and the old man, through the crucifixion of Christ—Gen. 17:10-14; Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4a; Rom. 2:28-29.
２
Because we reject our flesh altogether and have no confidence in the flesh, we are the real circumcision—Phil. 3:3.
B
We should "walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham"—Rom. 4:12:
１
Abraham obeyed God's calling by faith—Heb. 11:8.
２
Abraham was justified by faith—Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:2-3.
３
Abraham lived by faith, living the life of the altar and the tent and believing in God as the One who calls the things not being as being and who gives life to the dead—Heb. 11:9; Gen. 12:7-8; Rom. 4:17.
C
We need to "walk by this rule"—the rule of being a new creation, of having the Triune God as our life and living—Gal. 6:15-16:
１
The meaning of the new creation is that the processed and consummated Triune God mingles Himself with us and constitutes us with Himself to make us new—Eph. 4:4-6, 24; Col. 3:10-11.
２
To live the new creation is to walk by the divine life and divine nature as a governing principle—Gal. 6:15-16.
D
"Those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ"—Rom. 5:17b:
１
We were regenerated with a divine, spiritual, kingly, and royal life; this life enthrones us to reign as kings over all things—John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5.
２
To reign in life is to conquer, subdue, and rule over Satan, the world, sin, the flesh, the self, and all the environmental circumstances and to subdue all kinds of insubordination—Rom. 8:2, 35, 37; 5:17-18.
３
We need to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life—Matt. 8:9; 2 Cor. 2:14-15; Prov. 21:1.
E
"Truly I say to you that whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says happens, he will have it"—Mark 11:23:
１
This is to pray not in a begging way but in an executing way—praying for executing God's will according to His economy by faith—Matt. 21:21-22.
２
The praying one is in union with God, is one with God, and is mingled with God, and God becomes his faith—Mark 11:22.
３
We have to pray according to God's will for the fulfillment of His purpose; then we have the assurance that we have received what we pray for—v. 24.
F
"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion…over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth"—Gen. 1:26:
１
God wants His creature man to deal with His creature Satan in order to bring the earth back to God—Psa. 149:7-9.
２
God needs man to do the work of God—to reign over His creation, to proclaim His triumph, and to cause Satan to suffer loss—Gen. 1:26.
３
Satan never will be moved by us if self is preserved; when we are dealing with Satan, self must be utterly abandoned—Rev. 12:11.
４
May God open our eyes to see that His purpose demands that we be wholly and absolutely for Him.
G
"May the Lord Jesus, who has risen from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, sustain us and lead us by His own mighty power that we may henceforth and forever belong to Him, forever consecrate to Him, forever serve Him, and forever go His way. May the Lord be gracious to us now and to eternity. Amen" (Watchman Nee, The Glorious Church, p. 151).