Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:8-9; Rom. 8:28-29; Phil. 3:10-11; 2 Cor. 4:16; 1 John 1:3; Rom. 5:17, 21
Ⅰ
In order to live in the resurrection life, we must see the unveiled truth concern-ing Christ's resurrection:
A
Christ in His humanity was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God—Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29b.
B
All the believers of Christ were regenerated by God the Father through the resurrec-tion of Christ for the producing of the church as His Body, His reproduction—1 Pet. 1:3; John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17.
C
Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit—15:45b.
D
Without these major items of the Lord's resurrection (the firstborn Son of God, the many sons of God, and the life-giving Spirit), there would be no church, no Body of Christ, and no economy of God—cf. Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:4.
Ⅱ
In order to be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ for God's building in life:
A
The church is absolutely of the element of Christ, absolutely in resurrection, and abso-lutely in the heavenlies—1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; cf. Gen. 2:21-24.
B
When we do not live by our natural life but live by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection; the issue of this is the Body of Christ—Phil. 3:10-11:
１
We all need to be discipled by the Lord to be divine and mystical persons, living the divine life by denying our natural life—cf. John 3:8.
２
Anything that is carried out even scripturally but in the natural life is not the reality of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 3:12.
Ⅲ
In order to live in resurrection, we must know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection for God's building in life—2 Cor. 1:8-9:
A
God is working through the cross to terminate us, to bring us to an end, so that we will no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection—v. 9.
B
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—4:16:
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.
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
The primary purpose of suffering in the 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. 4:16.
５
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 Jeru-salem—Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rev. 21:2.
C
In order to live in resurrection, we must be renewed day by day by being nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life—2 Cor. 4:16:
１
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.
２
In order to receive the renewing capacity of the divine life in resurrection, we need to contact God, open ourselves up to Him, and let Him come into us to be a new addition in us day by day—Phil. 2:13; 3:10-11:
ａ
We are renewed by the cross, the Holy Spirit, our mingled spirit, and the word of God—2 Cor. 4:10; Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:23; 5:26.
ｂ
We need to be revived every morning—Matt. 13:43; Prov. 4:18.
ｃ
We should come to the Lord's table in the principle of newness by forgiving others and seeking to be forgiven—Matt. 26:29; 5:23-24; 18:21-22, 35.
３
The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life; this daily killing is for the release of the divine life in resurrection—2 Cor. 4:10-12.
Ⅳ
The fellowship of life is the reality of living in the Body of Christ for God's build-ing in life:
A
Fellowship is the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life—1 John 1:3; cf. Rev. 22:1.
B
We need to enter into the vertical aspect of the divine fellowship by the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14; 2 Tim. 4:22:
１
The vertical aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with the Triune God— 1 John 1:3, 6.
２
It is in this fellowship that we participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us; that is, we enjoy the love of the Father and the grace of the Son by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14.
C
We need to enter into the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship by the human spirit— Phil. 2:1; Rev. 1:10:
１
The horizontal aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with one another—1 John 1:2-3, 7.
２
If we are going to have real fellowship horizontally with one another, we need to exercise our spirit; real fellowship is by our spirit—cf. Eph. 4:29-30; 2 Cor. 6:6.
D
The one divine fellowship is an interwoven fellowship—the horizontal fellowship is inter-woven with the vertical fellowship:
１
The initial experience of the apostles was the vertical fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship—1 John 1:2-3; cf. Acts 2:42.
２
Our horizontal fellowship with the saints brings us into vertical fellowship with the Lord; then our vertical fellowship with the Lord brings us into horizontal fellowship with the saints.
３
We must maintain both the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship in order to be healthy spiritually—cf. 1 John 1:7, 9.
４
If we do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with our fellow believers; in the same way, if we do not have the proper fellowship with our fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellowship with the Lord.
E
Fellowship indicates a putting away of private interests and joining with others for a common purpose; hence, to be in the divine fellowship is to put aside our private inter-ests and join with the apostles and the Triune God for the carrying out of God's pur-pose—v. 3.
F
The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life:
１
When fellowship disappears, God also disappears; God comes as the fellowship—cf. Rev. 22:1.
２
In this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us; this interweaving is the min-gling of God and man—cf. Lev. 2:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:17.
３
The divine fellowship molds us and even reconstitutes us, bringing the divine con-stituent into our spiritual being for our growth and transformation in life.
４
The divine fellowship blends us, tempers us, adjusts us, harmonizes us, and mingles us together into one Body—12:24-25.
Ⅴ
The believers need to reign in life with grace over all things unto eternal life—Rom. 5:17, 21:
A
God's complete salvation is for us to reign in life by the abundance of grace (for us to experience God's organic salvation) and of the gift of righteousness (for God's judicial redemption); reigning in life is the full experience of the organic salvation of God.
B
We have been regenerated with a divine, spiritual, heavenly, kingly, and royal life—Mark 4:26; 1 John 3:9.
C
Reigning in life is the key to everything in Romans 6—16; if we reign in life, we are in all the matters presented in these chapters.
D
In experience to reign in life means to be under the ruling of the divine life:
１
Christ is a pattern of reigning in life by being under the ruling of the divine life of the Father—Matt. 8:9.
２
Paul is an example of one who, in his life and ministry, was under the ruling of the divine life—2 Cor. 2:12-14.
３
There is the need for all the believers who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life—Ezek. 1:22, 26; 47:1-5; 2 Cor. 2:10.
４
Each item of the living of the Body life in Romans 12—13 requires us to be ruled by the divine life—12:1-5.
５
We need to live a life of the highest virtues for the Body life by reigning in life— vv. 9-12, 15, 18.
E
Reigning in life is "unto eternal life"—5:21:
１
Into (unto in Romans 5:21) speaks of the destination and also means "to become" or "to be"; the New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine life, the totality of the life of God—cf. John 4:14b; Rev. 22:1-2.
２
The issue and goal of our reigning in life are the New Jerusalem, the universal in-corporation of the union and mingling of divinity with humanity.