Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:4; Jude 3; Matt. 16:16; Col. 2:9; 2 Cor. 13:14
Ⅰ
The church needs to be recovered from the divisive and apostate ground with its deviations from the truths concerning the Triune God and the person of Christ—2 Cor. 13:14; Matt. 16:16.
Ⅱ
The church needs to be recovered to the truth of the New Testa-ment faith and God's economy—Jude 3; 1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:9; 3:9:
A
God's economy is His household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people so that He may have a house, a household, to express Himself, which household is the church, the Body of Christ— 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 1:22-23:
１
The apostle's ministry was centered on this economy of God, whereas the differing teachings of the dissenting ones were used by the enemy to distract God's people from this economy—Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17.
２
God's economy is a matter in faith—1 Tim. 1:4:
ａ
The dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God into us is altogether in the sphere and element of the faith—2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:17.
ｂ
God's economy, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen peo-ple, is not in the natural realm nor in the work of law but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 3:23-26.
B
Jude 3 speaks of earnestly contending for "the faith once for all delivered to the saints":
１
This faith is "the common faith," the faith that is common to all believers—Titus 1:4.
２
The faith is not subjective faith as our believing but objective faith as our belief—Jude 3:
ａ
The faith refers to the things that we believe in, the contents of the New Testament as our faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13), in which we believe for our common salvation, the general salvation, common to and held by all believers.
ｂ
This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to all the saints; for this faith we should contend—1 Tim. 6:12.
Ⅲ
The church needs to be recovered to the truth concerning the per-son and work of Christ—Matt. 16:16; John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9:
A
Christ in incarnation is the entire God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—manifested in the flesh—John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9; 1 Tim. 3:16:
１
The God, who the Word is, is not a partial God; rather, He is the entire Triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit—John 1:1, 14; 14:9-10, 15-18.
２
In the incarnation of Christ, God was manifested in the flesh, not as the Son only but as the entire God—1 Tim. 3:16.
３
In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily—Col. 2:9:
ａ
All the fullness of the Godhead refers to the entire Godhead; thus, this is the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
ｂ
That all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily means that the Triune God is embodied in Him.
B
Christ is God incarnated to be a God-man, who is both divine and hu-man—John 1:1, 14; Luke 1:31-32, 35.
C
In His redemptive work Christ died on the cross for our sins and for us sinners, and then He was resurrected so that He could impart Himself into us as the divine life—1 Cor. 15:3-4, 20, 45b.
Ⅳ
The church needs to be recovered to the truth concerning the per-son and dispensing of the Triune God—2 Cor. 13:14:
A
The trinity of the Godhead is revealed in the New Testament for the dis-pensing of God Himself in His Trinity into His chosen and redeemed peo-ple—1 Pet. 1:2; Matt. 28:19.
B
In the dispensing of the Triune God, the love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God, for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God—2 Cor. 13:14.
C
The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is transfigured to be the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reaching of the Divine Trinity to us:
１
All the riches of the Godhead reach us in the Spirit—Gal. 3:14.
２
Because we are organically united to the Spirit, that is, organically united to the processed and consummated Triune God, whatever He is and has is now our portion as our reality—1 Cor. 6:17; John 16:13.