Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Isa. 55:1-11; Acts 13:33-35; Rev. 3:7-8
Ⅰ
The seed of David becoming the Son of God for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God is the totality of God's eternal economy—2 Sam. 7:12-14a:
A
The Lord of David in His divinity, the Root of David, was incarnated to become the son of David, the Offspring of David, in His humanity, to be the last Adam; and the last Adam, the son of David, was resurrected to become the firstborn Son of God and the life-giving Spirit, a transfigured descendent of David, dis-pensed into us to make us the many sons of God—Matt. 22:41-46; Rev. 22:16; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 12:24; Rom. 8:28-29; Acts 13:33.
B
The life-giving Spirit is the resurrected Christ as the greater Solomon in us, and this greater Solomon is the sure mercies of God shown to David as the reality of God's eternal covenant for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God—Matt. 12:42; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Acts 13:33-34; Isa. 55:3; 42:6.
C
The Lord of David became the son of David to accomplish God's judicial redemp-tion; the son of David (the seed of David), became the firstborn Son of God as the life-giving Spirit to carry out God's organic salvation:
１
The Lord of David was incarnated to become the son of David to reconcile us to God through His death; the son of David was resurrected to become the firstborn Son of God as the life-giving Spirit to save us in His life— Rom. 5:10.
２
We are being saved in His life to be deified for the expression of God, and we are reigning in life to be victorious for the dominion of God—vv. 10, 17.
３
Such an organic salvation is in the Body for the building up of the Body in the local churches to consummate the New Jerusalem as the city of life and the ultimate consummation of God becoming man that man might become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 21:2.
Ⅱ
Christ as the seed of David was begotten through His resurrection to become the firstborn Son of God and the life-giving Spirit as God's sure mercies shown to David—Acts 13:33-35; Isa. 55:3-4:
A
In Acts 13:34 Paul interprets God's sure mercies (Heb. chesed) in Isaiah 55:3 as "the holy things of David, the faithful things," and in Acts 13:33 and 35 he indicates that these things are the resurrected Christ Himself as the firstborn Son of God and as the Holy One.
B
This is also confirmed by Isaiah 55:4 which reveals that the sure mercies are Christ Himself as the Witness, Leader, and Commander to the peoples.
C
The resurrected Christ as the seed of David (Rom. 1:3-4) is God's sure mercies shown to David through his descendant Mary, the mother of Christ (Matt. 1:16), for the dispensing of Himself into all His believers (1 Cor. 15:45b).
D
He is the mercies and blessings, "the holy and faithful things," that God gives to us as a great gift, the eternal covenant with all His unsearchable riches, to be our all-inclusive grace—Isa. 42:6; 1 Cor. 1:9; cf. Acts 13:43.
Ⅲ
When Christ as the seed of David became the firstborn Son of God as the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, He became God's sure mercies, God's eternal covenant; although we "have no money," we can come to the Lord to "buy" from Him and enjoy all that He is—Isa. 55:1:
A
This shows that the price for enjoying the Lord is not what we have but what we are; we have to give ourselves to the Lord—v. 3; Rev. 3:18-20.
B
When we realize that we are bankrupt in every way, that we are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing, and are worse than nothing, then we will return to our God for His abundant compassion and pardon and give ourselves to Him, seeking Him and calling upon Him, in order to drink of Him as the living water, the new wine, and the spiritual milk, to eat of Him as our spiritual bread, and to enjoy His word as the heavenly rain and snow—Isa. 55:1-11.
C
In Psalm 51:1 David prayed, "Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness (Heb. chesed); / According to the greatness of Your compassions blot out my transgressions"—vv. 2, 6-12, 17-18; cf. 59:16-17:
１
To enjoy Christ as God's sure mercies is to enjoy Him as the fountain of blood for sin and for impurity and as the fountain of living waters for deification and for purification—Zech. 13:1; Isa. 55:1, 7; Jer. 2:13.
２
We can hide in the crucified Christ (the real David), typified by the burnt offering altar, the absolute Christ as our refuge, and we can rest in Him as the resurrected and ascended Christ (the greater Solomon), the praying Christ as our home, typified by the incense altar, for the interests of God's economy to usher us into the Holy of Holies for us to become the holy city— Psa. 84:3; 43:4a; S. S. 2:8-9, 14; 1 Kings 8:48; Rev. 21:2.
Ⅳ
God's eternal covenant, His new covenant, is the resurrected Christ as "the Spirit," the all-inclusive Spirit, the compound Spirit, God's sure mercies, for us to live and magnify Christ for God's building—Isa. 42:6; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8; John 7:37-39; Phil. 1:19-21a; Exo. 30:23-25; Heb. 8:8-12:
A
Our spirit is the "bank account" of all the bequests of the new covenant; by the law of the Spirit of life, all of these bequests are dispensed into us and made real to us—Rom. 8:2, 10, 6, 11, 16; Heb. 8:10; John 16:13:
１
In our spirit we have the presence of God, the speaking of God, the meeting with God, and the dispensing of God through His operation as the law of the divine life to impart Himself into all our inward parts—Heb. 8:10.
２
The Lord makes His covenant known to those who fear Him, and He dispenses Himself as the unsearchable reality of His covenant to those who love Him—Psa. 25:14; Isa. 11:2-3a; 1 Cor. 2:9; Exo. 21:1-6.
３
Christ as the new covenant is our portion, our cup of salvation and our cup of blessing; we can drink Him as our salvation and blessing by calling upon His precious name—Luke 22:20; Psa. 16:5; 23:5; 116:13; 1 Cor. 10:16a.
４
The "waters" in Isaiah 55:1 are the life-giving Spirit as the eternal covenant and the sure mercies shown to David; "waters" reveals that God can be enjoyed not just in one aspect but in many aspects through our continual drinking of Him—1 Cor. 12:13; John 7:38; Jer. 2:13.
B
Psalm 104:15 describes the resurrected Christ as God's sure mercies—His unrivaled love constraining us is our cheering wine (S. S. 1:2; 2 Cor. 5:14), His saturating Spirit filling us is our fuel to make us shine with light (Eph. 5:18; Exo. 27:20; cf. Matt. 25:8-9), and His bread of heaven eaten by us is our sustaining supply to enable us to live a heavenly life on earth (John 6:57-58).
Ⅴ
Christ as the Steward in God's house is the One upon whose shoulder the key of (the treasury of) the house of God (typified by the house of David for the building up of the kingdom of God) is set—Isa. 22:15, 21-22; Rev. 3:7; cf. Luke 11:52; Mal. 2:7-8:
A
God fired Shebna, a steward in the house of the king (Isa. 22:15-19), and replaced him with Eliakim, a type of Christ (vv. 20-24; Rev. 3:7); this reveals that God discharged everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ:
１
When God created us, He hired us, and when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us—Gal. 2:20.
２
On the one hand, we are fired, and on the other hand, we are not expelled, for Christ comes to live in us, with us, by us, and through us—v. 20.
３
Whatever or whoever is not Christ God fires; God has replaced everything in His Old Testament economy with Christ—Mark 1:1-8; Matt. 17:3-5; Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 10:5-10; 11:5-6.
４
The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ, making Christ everything in the church—Col. 3:10-11.
B
Christ is the One who has the key of David, the key of the kingdom, with authority to open and to shut; the Lord, for His move, has given the recovered church an opened door, which no one can shut—Rev. 3:7-8; Matt. 24:14:
１
Christ has the key to control the door of God's treasury, in which are the riches of God in Christ for our enjoyment; we have experienced both His opening and His shutting up of these riches to us—Eph. 4:30; 1 Thes. 5:17; 1 John 1:7, 9; cf. Ezek. 1:22; Deut. 28:23.
２
In order to enjoy His riches as the treasure, we need to remain in the touch with the Lord, staying in contact with the Lord according to the sense of life, being poor in spirit and pure in heart—2 Cor. 2:10; Rom. 8:6; 10:12-13; Col. 3:16; Matt. 5:3, 8.
３
The key of David opens the door for us to be transformed into a white stone and built into the house of God as a pillar with the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the new name of the Lord—Rev. 2:17; 3:12.
４
For us to be built into God, become a constituent of the New Jerusalem, and become a part of the new Christ are humanly impossible, but the law of the Spirit of life within us contains an element that deals with impossi-bility—Rom. 8:2; Rev. 3:7-13; cf. Gen. 28:12-19; John 1:51.
C
In order to enjoy His riches as the treasure, we need to learn to exercise the keys of denying the self, taking up the cross, and losing the soul-life; all of us are "Shebnas," who should be removed and replaced by Christ for Him to be everything in us and to us and to do everything through us and for us—Isa. 22:15-19; Matt. 16:24-25.