Scripture Reading: Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 5:5, 16, 18, 25; 6:8, 15-16
Ⅰ
The Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God—Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 5:5, 16, 18, 25; 6:8:
A
The New Testament reveals that our God is the processed and consummated Triune God, the One who has passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection—John 1:14; 6:57a; Heb. 9:14; Rom. 1:3-4:
１
Processed refers to the steps through which the Triune God has passed in the divine economy; consummated indicates that the process has been completed.
２
Although God is eternal and unchanging in His nature and substance, He has passed through a process in His economy—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
３
Before His incarnation God was unprocessed, having only the divine nature, but through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Triune God was processed and consummated to become the Spirit—John 7:39.
B
The processed and consummated Triune God is the Spirit—Gal. 3:2, 5, 14:
１
We all need to receive a vision of the Spirit—the compound of the Triune God, the man Jesus, His human living, His death, and His resurrection— John 7:39; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:10-11; Phil. 1:19; Gal. 3:14.
２
The Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection—John 7:39.
３
Having passed through all the steps of the process, the Triune God is now the consummated Spirit as the blessing of God's New Testament economy— Gen. 1:1-2; Gal. 3:14.
４
The Christian life is the living of the processed Triune God as the con-summated Spirit in the believers; to live the Christian life is to live the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit—vv. 2, 5, 14; 5:16, 18, 25; 6:8; Phil. 1:19-21a.
Ⅱ
By experiencing the Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God, we become a new creation and the Israel of God—Gal. 6:15-16:
A
The new creation is a corporate, divine sonship (4:5, 7) brought forth through Christ's redemption, the Spirit's regeneration, and God's dispensing of Himself into us and through our entering collectively as the new man into an organic union with the Triune God (6:15; 3:27-29):
１
The new creation is the masterpiece of life with the divine nature—2 Cor. 5:17:
ａ
The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, constituted of the believers, who are born again of God, does— John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4.
ｂ
The new creation is the one new man, where there is no room for our natural being, our natural disposition, and our natural character—Gal. 3:27-29; Col. 3:10-11.
２
The main issue in Galatians is that we are the new creation and that we should live by the new creation through an organic union with the Triune God; the new creation fulfills God's eternal purpose, which is to express Him-self in His sonship—4:5; Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29.
３
Christ, the Spirit, the new creation, and our spirit are the four basic things revealed in the book of Galatians as the underlying thought of God's economy:
ａ
Christ is the center of God's economy, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ; when Christ is realized through the Spirit in our spirit, we be-come the new creation—1:16; 2:20; 4:19; 3:2-3, 14; 5:16, 25; 6:15, 18.
ｂ
Our spirit is vital for us to live the life of the new creation for the fulfilling of God's purpose—v. 18.
B
The Israel of God (v. 16) 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 (Gal. 3:7, 29), who are the household of the faith (6:10), and who are those in the new creation (v. 15):
１
The real Israel, the spiritual Israel, is the church—v. 16; 1:2.
２
Our destiny is not only to be sons of God; it is to be kings reigning in the kingdom of God; 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:
ａ
God's New Testament economy is not only to make us sons of God but also to make us the Israel of God; we need to be such an Israel, a prince, to execute God's government on earth—Eph. 1:5; Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:14, 19; Gal. 3:26; 4:6-7; 6:16; Matt. 6:9-10.
ｂ
In God's New Testament economy our destiny is to be sons of God expressing God and also kings reigning in the kingdom of God—Gal. 3:26; 6:16; Rev. 21:7; 22:5b; 12:5a.
ｃ
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.
３
The church as the Israel of God is a miniature of the coming New Jeru-salem, which will be the ultimate consummation of the Israel of God—21:2.