Scripture Reading: Luke 15:1-32; 17:20-24; 24:27, 44-47
Ⅵ
We can enjoy Christ, the reality of the jubilee, as a Sheep-finder, as the best robe of righteousness, and as the fattened calf—Luke 15:1-32:
A
The Triune God as our saving love is revealed in Luke 15—the Son as the shepherd who rejoices when he finds his lost sheep (vv. 5-7), the Spirit as the woman who rejoices when she finds her lost coin (vv. 9-10), and the Father as a certain man who rejoices when he finds his lost son (vv. 24, 32)—the entire Triune God treasures the sinner and rejoices at finding him—cf. Gen. 48:15-16; S. S. 5:1.
B
The prodigal son left his father's house, selling his possession and himself:
１
The content of a vessel is its possession, and man is a vessel of God; hence, if man does not have God as his possession and enjoyment, he is empty and poor— Rom. 9:21-23; Eph. 2:12; Psa. 16:5; Rev. 3:17-18; Eccl. 1:2-11, 14.
２
Fallen people have no real dwelling place; they are drifting about and wandering without a home, because God is man's real dwelling place—Psa. 90:1, 8, 10; Gen. 28:17-19; John 15:4; Matt. 11:28; John 16:33.
３
If man does not enjoy God, he cannot have real freedom; freedom means release, to be freed from all bondage, all heavy burden, all oppression, and all enslavement— 8:32, 34, 36; Gal. 5:1; 2 Cor. 3:17.
４
First, Satan captured us; then he came to dwell in us as the inciter, the instigator, of our sins; the result is that he has become our illegal master, and we have become his captives to the extent that we are unable to do good and can only commit sins—Rom. 7:14, 18-23; John 8:34; 1 John 5:19; cf. Rev. 12:10-11.
５
If a man does not have God, whatever he tries to enjoy apart from God is dog food, refuse, and dung—Phil. 3:7-9; cf. 2 Pet. 2:22.
６
Satan is called Beelzebul, which means "the lord of the dunghill," from Beelzebub, meaning "the lord of flies"; Satan specializes in leading sinners to feed like flies on dung—Matt. 10:25; 12:24, 27; 2 Kings 1:2.
C
Christ the Son as the Sheep-finder, through His redeeming death and life-dispensing resurrection, went after us to find us in the wilderness of this world, and He still seeks us whenever we go astray from Him; although we fail the Lord, it is impossible for Him to forget us, forsake us, give up on us, or not love us; He can make us rise up again for His economy—Luke 15:3-7; Mark 16:7; Rom. 14:4, 7-8; Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5; Heb. 13:5; Isa. 49:14-16; Prov. 24:16; cf. Psa. 80:1, 17-19.
D
One day the prodigal son was awakened by the Spirit to return to his possession and his father's house; that was a jubilee, a liberation, and everything became pleasant and satisfying—Luke 15:8-10, 17, 20, 24; 2 Cor. 6:17-18; cf. Lev. 25:10-13:
１
God became a man on the earth so that He might embrace sinners and sinners might cling to Him, causing them to become His loving seekers who live by faith and sing to Him in prayer, in lauding, and in trusting in Him—Hab. 1:1 and footnote 1; 2:4b; 3:1-19; Luke 2:8-14; 19:10; Phil. 3:12.
２
When we return to the Lord, He heals us, binds us up, enlivens us, becomes the reality of the third day to us, and causes us to live in His presence that we might pursue knowing Him as the dawning light and the dripping and flowing down righteousness—Jer. 31:3; Hosea 11:4; 6:1-3; Prov. 4:18; 2 Sam. 23:2-4; Isa. 45:8.
３
To be saved is to gain God for our enjoyment; when we have God, we have everything; without God, we have nothing—Col. 1:12; Eph. 1:13-14.
４
We can be released and have real freedom only by enjoying Christ as the lifegiving Spirit; only those who enjoy God do not commit sin and are really free, living a life of liberty, release, and freedom from bondage—John 8:11-12, 24, 28, 31-36; Rom. 8:2; Psa. 119:133.
５
If we do not enjoy the Lord sufficiently, we will still be in bondage to many things; making up our mind will not work; we must continually come to the Lord to eat and enjoy Him—1 Cor. 1:9; 15:10; Rev. 2:7; Isa. 7:14-15; 55:1-2; John 6:57.
６
We should pray that God would enlarge the border of our enjoyment of Christ; furthermore, our enjoyment of Christ as our good land should be spacious, quiet, and peaceful—1 Chron. 4:9-10, 40.
E
The best robe, replacing the rags of the returned prodigal, typifies Christ as God's righteousness given to the believers to cover them outwardly before God as their objective righteousness; the fattened calf, replacing the hog food of the returned prodigal, typifies Christ as God's righteousness given to the believers as their life supply for them to live out God in Christ as their subjective righteousness—Luke 15:22-23; Psa. 45:13-14; 103:1-4; cf. Micah 7:18-19; Mal. 4:2:
１
We abide in Christ as our best robe, and He abides in us as the fattened calf for the mutual abode of God and man—Luke 15:22-23; Jer. 23:6; Exo. 28:2; 1 Cor. 1:30; Isa. 45:8; 61:10.
２
We also have Christ as the sealing Spirit, typified by the ring on the finger, and Christ as the power of God's salvation to separate us from the dirty earth, typified by the sandals on the feet; both the ring and the sandals were signs of a free man—Luke 15:22; Hag. 2:23; Gen. 41:42 and footnote 1; cf. Esth. 8:7-8.
F
The goal of the Triune God as our saving love in Luke 15 is the enjoyment of God in the house of God (Christ, the church, and the New Jerusalem, all realized in our human spirit), where we will dwell for the length of our days, referring to the present age, the coming age, and eternity—vv. 6, 8, 24; John 1:14; 2:21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Rev. 21:2-3, 22; Eph. 2:22; 2 Tim. 4:22; Psa. 23:6.
Ⅶ
We can enjoy Christ, the reality of the jubilee, as the kingdom of God—Luke 17:20-24; Mark 4:3, 14, 26; 1 John 3:9; Rom. 14:17:
A
The kingdom of God is the ruling presence of Christ as the Lord Spirit within us; human history over the last two thousand years is fully depicted by one sentence in Luke 19—"We do not want this man to reign over us"—v. 14; 2 Cor. 3:18b; Rom. 14:7-9; Ezek. 1:26; cf. 2 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 5:17, 21.
B
The kingdom of God is Christ Himself—Luke 17:21; Matt. 12:28:
１
The Triune God in humanity (Col. 2:9) is the seed, the gene, of the kingdom of God to be sown into God's chosen people so that He might grow in them, live in them, and be expressed from within them to develop into God's ruling realm— Mark 4:26-29; 1 Cor. 3:6-9.
２
The intrinsic element of the entire teaching of the New Testament is that the Triune God has been incarnated in order to be sown into His chosen people and develop within them into a kingdom.
C
God's goal is the full development of the kingdom of God:
１
In the Gospels we have the sowing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—Mark 4:3, 14, 26; Matt. 9:35.
２
In the Acts we have the propagation and spreading of this sowing by thousands of sowers who had received the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—6:7; 12:24; 19:20.
３
In the Epistles we see the growing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—1 Cor. 3:6, 9b; 2 Pet. 1:3-11.
４
The harvest of this seed is found in the book of Revelation with the reaping of the firstfruits and the harvest—14:4, 15-16; Mark 4:29; Matt. 13:39.
５
The millennial kingdom will be the full development of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom with the Son as the King and all the overcomers as His co-kings, the "kingdom-gene people"—Rev. 20:4, 6.
６
The New Jerusalem, God's eternal kingdom, is the fullest development of the kingdom seed, the gene, sown by Jesus the Nazarene in the four Gospels—Rev. 21:2; 22:1, 3, 5b.
D
We need to follow the Lamb wherever He may go (14:4) to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth for the propagation and development of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom to consummate this age (Matt. 24:14).
Ⅷ
We can enjoy Christ, the reality of the jubilee, as the One prophesied in the Old Testament for us to receive through repentance for forgiveness of sins; the entire Old Testament is a revelation of Christ, and He is its center and content—Luke 24:27, 44-47:
A
In the Old Testament Christ was prophesied to be the threefold seed in humanity for the forgiveness of our sins and for God's dispensing of Himself into us to fulfill His economy—Gen. 3:15; Gal. 4:4; Luke 8:5a, 11; John 12:24:
１
Christ as the seed of the woman refers to the incarnated Christ, the complete God becoming a perfect man through the dispensing of Himself into humanity in order to destroy Satan and to save the believers in Christ from sin and death— Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:16, 20-21, 23; Gal. 4:4; John 1:1, 14; Heb. 2:14; 1 Cor. 15:53-57.
２
Christ as the seed of Abraham is for the blessing to all the families of the earth; the unique seed of Abraham as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit, who is the blessing of Abraham (the reality of the good land), for the dispensing of Himself into the believers of Christ to make them the corporate seed of Abraham— Gen. 12:2-3, 7; 17:7-8; Gal. 3:14, 16, 29; John 14:17-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 12:24; Isa. 53:10.
３
Christ as the seed of David refers to the resurrected Christ, who carries out God's New Testament economy for the dispensing of the processed Triune God into the members of His Body so that they may share His kingship in His resurrection in the eternal kingdom—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Rev. 22:16; Acts 2:30-31; Matt. 16:16-18; Rev. 20:4, 6.
B
Through Christ as the threefold seed in humanity the enemies are gone, the blessing is here, and we are in the kingdom; this is the revelation of the entire Bible.