Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 1:1; 12:23, 42; 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:16-17a
Ⅰ
God's New Testament economy is for the processed and consummated Triune God to be wrought into us to become our life and our being— 1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:16-17a; Rom. 8:9-10, 6, 11:
A
The most crucial and mysterious matter revealed in the Bible is that God's ultimate intention is to work Himself into His chosen people—Gal. 4:19; Eph. 4:4-6.
B
God's eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as our life and our everything so that we may take Him as our person, live Him, and express Him; this is the desire of God's heart and the focal point of the Bible—1:9; 3:11; Phil. 1:20-21a.
C
God's economy and goal according to His heart's desire are to build Himself into man and to build man into Him—John 14:20; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17a:
１
God's intention is to have Christ thoroughly worked into our being.
２
God's desire is to work Himself into us and to reconstitute us with Himself so that we may become the temple of God—1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:21-22.
Ⅱ
God's economy is centered on one thing—God's unique work—John 5:17; 4:34; Phil. 1:6; 2:13; 1 Cor. 15:58; 16:10b:
A
God's unique work in the universe and throughout all the ages and generations is to work Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Himself one with them—Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17a.
B
God's purpose is to work Himself into us, making Himself our inward elements—1:9, 11; 3:9-11, 16-17a:
１
This purpose is the center of the universe, and apart from this purpose the Christian life is meaningless—Rev. 4:11.
２
The proper priority is not for us to work for God but for God to work Himself into us—Eph. 2:10; Phil. 2:13.
３
Spiritual progress consists in allowing God to gain ground within us—Col. 2:19; Eph. 3:17a.
C
The governing vision of the Bible is the Triune God working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and life supply in order to saturate their entire being with the Divine Trinity—Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6; Rev. 1:4-5; 22:1-2a:
１
The kernel of the divine revelation is that God created us and redeemed us for the purpose of working Himself into us to be our life, our life supply, and our everything—Gen. 1:26; 2:7; Rom. 8:6, 10-11.
２
The New Testament revelation shows us the Triune God and how He has gone through a process to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit to work Himself into us to become our life, our life supply, and our everything— John 1:14; 7:39; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17a.
３
The entire Bible was written according to the principle of the Triune God wrought into His redeemed people as their enjoyment, their drink, and their fountain of life and light; this principle must govern and direct us in interpreting any portion of the Bible—Psa. 36:8-9.
D
God's intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into our being— Eph. 3:17a:
１
God desires to work Himself in Christ into us, and everything that Christ is and everything that Christ has accomplished are for this one thing— Phil. 2:13; Eph. 3:17a; Col. 3:10-11.
２
We need God to build Himself in Christ into our being, working Himself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our person—Eph. 3:17a.
Ⅲ
The way Christ, the Son of David and the greater Solomon, builds the temple of God is by building Himself into us—Matt. 1:1; 12:23, 42; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:16-17a:
A
In the beginning of the New Testament, Christ is introduced first as the Son of David to fulfill God's covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7—Matt. 1:1; 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9, 15; 22:42, 45.
B
David wanted to build God a house, but God wanted to build Himself into David—2 Sam. 7:2-3, 5, 12-14a, 16.
C
The intrinsic significance of 2 Samuel 7:12-14a is that the Triune God is working Himself in His processed and consummated Trinity into His chosen people; therefore, 2 Samuel 7:12-14a is on the Triune God working Himself into us to make us His dwelling place:
１
We need to let God work Christ as the Spirit into every part of our being so that we will be constituted with Christ—1 Cor. 15:45b; Eph. 3:16-17a.
２
God will have a dwelling place not by our doing or working but by His building—Matt. 16:18:
ａ
Christ builds the church by coming into our spirit and spreading Himself into our mind, emotion, and will—Eph. 2:21-22; 3:16-17a.
ｂ
God in Christ is within us to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being; this is the way Christ builds the temple of God— Matt. 16:18; John 2:19-21; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:16-17a.