Scripture Reading: Job 1:1; 10:13; 42:5-6
Ⅰ
The book of Job leaves us with a great question of two parts: What is the purpose of God in His creating of man, and what is the purpose of God in His dealing with His chosen people?—1:1, 9; 10:13; 2:13; 13:3-5; 32:8; Psa. 8:4; Eccl. 3:11; Hag. 2:7.
Ⅱ
The great answer to this great question, the mystery hidden in God throughout the ages, is the eternal economy of God, which is God's eternal intention with His heart's desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity into His chosen people to be their life and nature that they may become the same as He is for His expression—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:9, 19; Gen. 1:26; Isa. 43:7; cf. 1 Sam. 4:3, note 1, Recovery Version.
Ⅲ
God's economy is God becoming a man in the flesh through incarnation that man might become God in the Spirit through transformation for the building of God into man and man into God to gain a corporate God-man:
A
The most marvelous, excellent, mysterious, and all-inclusive transformations of the eternal and Triune God in His becoming a man are God's move in man for the accomplishment of His eternal economy—John 1:14, 29; 3:14; 12:24; Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 2:36; 5:31; Heb. 4:14; 9:15; 7:22; 8:2.
B
The transformation of the tripartite man is God's move to deify man, to constitute man with the processed and consummated Triune God, making man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the corporate expression of the Triune God—Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 4:3; 21:11; 22:17a.
Ⅳ
The primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man so that man may gain God to the fullest extent—2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:16:
A
While the living God can perform many acts on man's behalf, the life and nature of the living God are not wrought into man; when the God of resurrection works, His life and nature are wrought into man—v. 16:
１
God is not working to make His might known in external acts but is working to impart and work Himself into man—Gal. 4:19.
２
God uses the environment in order to work His life and nature into us— 2 Cor. 4:7-12; 1 Thes. 3:3; Acts 26:14; cf. 2 Kings 4:1-7.
３
In order to live in resurrection and be constituted with the God of resurrection, we must be conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God through "all things"—Rom. 8:28-29; Heb. 12:10; Jer. 48:11.
４
As we pass through afflictions, there needs to be a continual renewing taking place in us day by day so that God can accomplish His heart's desire to make us the New Jerusalem—Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 4:16; 5:17; Rev. 21:2.
５
The real Christian life is to have the God of resurrection added into us morning and evening and day by day—Col. 2:19; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11.
B
Our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross to become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord—Phil. 3:3; Num. 17:8:
１
After being put aside by God for forty years, Moses learned to serve God according to His leading and trust in Him—Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:22-36; Heb. 11:28.
２
After becoming a complete failure, Peter learned to serve the brothers by faith and with humility—Luke 22:32-33; John 18:15-18, 25-27; Matt. 26:69-75; 1 Pet. 5:5-6; Luke 18:9-14.
Ⅴ
The move of the Triune God to deify man for the fulfillment of His economy to have His corporate expression is altogether in the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled as one with our human spirit—1 Cor. 6:17; 2:9-16; Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:2; cf. Job 12:10; 32:8:
A
We must set our mind on, pay attention to, take care of, our spirit, doing everything according to the Spirit by exercising our spirit— Gal. 5:16, 25; 6:18; Rom. 8:4; Mal. 2:15-16; 1 Tim. 4:7; 1 Thes. 5:17; Eph. 6:18; Jude 19-21.
B
The God whom we look at today is the consummated Spirit, and we can look at Him in our spirit—2 Cor. 2:10; 2 Tim. 4:22:
１
Seeing God transforms us, and seeing God equals gaining God—2 Cor. 3:16, 18; Matt. 5:8; Rev. 22:4.
２
The more we see God and love God, the more we deny ourselves and hate ourselves—Job 42:5-6; Isa. 6:5; Luke 14:26.
C
Only the processed and consummated Triune God living in us as the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit can be an overcomer—1 John 5:4; John 3:6b; 2 Cor. 4:13; Rom. 8:2.
D
As long as we do everything according to the Spirit, we can experience Christ's incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension with the outpouring of the Spirit; this will cause us to be the church of God, the Body of Christ, the new man, and the organism of the Triune God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem—Phil. 1:19; Eph. 4:4.
E
This is the entire New Testament to be the great answer to Job and to the great question concerning God's purpose in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people.