Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9; Rom. 1:3-4
Ⅰ
The highest peak of the divine revelation given to us by God is the revelation of the eternal economy of God—God becoming man that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead:
A
The entire Bible, which is the explanation of the eternal economy of God, is the autobiography of the Triune God, seen in the two sections of eternity and on the bridge of time:
１
The Triune God came from eternity into time and with His divinity to enter into humanity to become the incarnated God for His direct move in man, seen in the four Gospels, for the accomplishment of His judicial redemption— John 1:14, 29.
２
In resurrection He became the compounded God, the “processed” God, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, seen in the Acts and the Epistles, for the carrying out of His organic salvation—John 1:32, 42; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Phil. 1:19.
３
In eternity future He will be the corporate God, the New Jerusalem, seen in Revelation 21 and 22.
４
The universal, divine-human incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified believers is the goal of God’s eternal economy—John 1:51; Rev. 21:3, 22.
５
The central revelation of God and the Lord’s recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem.
B
God becoming man that man might become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead is the essence of the entire Bible, the “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible, the eternal economy of God—Gen. 1:26; John 12:24; Rom. 8:29:
１
God became man through incarnation by participating in man’s humanity; man becomes God through transformation by participating in God’s divinity:
ａ
Participating in God’s life—John 3:15; Col. 3:4.
ｂ
Participating in God’s nature—Eph. 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:4.
ｃ
Participating in God’s mind—Eph. 4:23; Phil. 2:5.
ｄ
Participating in God’s being—2 Cor. 3:18b; Eph. 3:8.
ｅ
Participating in God’s image—2 Cor. 3:18a; Rom. 8:29.
ｆ
Participating in God’s glory—v. 30; Heb. 2:10.
ｇ
Participating in God’s sonship—Eph. 1:5; Rom. 8:23.
ｈ
Participating in God’s manifestation—v. 19.
ｉ
To bear God’s likeness—1 John 3:2.
ｊ
To be Godkind—God’s species—John 1:12; Rom. 8:14, 16.
２
This divine-human romance is the subject of the entire Bible, the content of God’s economy, and the secret of the entire universe—S. S. 1:1; 6:13.
Ⅱ
The high peak of the divine revelation—the “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible—is the revelation that in Christ God has become man in order that man might become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:17a:
A
“God becoming man and man becoming God”is the economy of God—1 Tim. 1:4.
B
God’s eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues—Eph. 3:9; 1:10:
１
God’s good pleasure is to be one with man and to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead—vv. 5, 9.
２
God became man in order to have a mass reproduction of Himself and thereby to produce a new kind—God-man kind—John 1:1, 14; 12:24.
C
For the fulfillment of God’s economy, we need God to build Himself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our constitution to make us God in life and nature but not in the Godhead—Eph. 3:17a; Col. 3:4, 10-11.
D
God became man through incarnation; man becomes God through regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification—John 3:5-6; 1:12-13; Rom. 6:19, 22; 12:2; 8:29-30.
Ⅲ
It is only by God’s becoming man to make man God that the Body of Christ can be produced; this point is the high peak of the vision given to us by God—v. 3; 1:3-4; 8:14; 12:4-5:
A
God became man to make man God that He might produce the Body of Christ— the organism of the Triune God, the ultimate manifestation of which is the New Jerusalem—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4-6; Rev. 21:2, 9-10.
B
The Bible shows us how man can become God to have a God-man living and thus become an organism of God—Rom. 1:3-4; 12:4-5:
１
This organism is God joining and mingling Himself with man to make man God.
２
The issue of God becoming man and man becoming God is an organism; this organism is the Body of Christ—the union and mingling of God with man— Eph. 4:4-6, 12.
C
God sent His Son to be a man and to live a God-man life by the divine life; such a living issues in a universal man that is exactly the same as He is—a corporate man living a God-man life by the divine life—Rom. 8:3; 12:4-5.
D
The reality of the Body of Christ is the union and mingling of God with man to live out a corporate God-man—Eph. 4:4-6, 24.