CHAPTER ONE

CHRIST IN THE GOSPELS

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20; John 1:14; 14:9, 10; Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:1, 14; Matt. 27:45, 46; Luke 24:5, 6; John 20:22

OUTLINE

1. Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit of God in the womb of a chaste virgin and born with both the nature of God and of man, being the complete God and perfect Man, a God-man in whom God and man are mingled—Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20.
2. The Triune God, as the Son coming from and with the Father and by the Spirit, became a man of flesh on earth—John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16. This Triune God— the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—coexists and coinheres in this flesh—John 8:29; 14:9, 10. The Son is one with the Father, living by the Father, working with the Father, speaking the Father’s word, and doing the Father’s will—John 10:30; 6:57; 5:19; 14:24; 6:38.
3. The fullness of the Godhead of the Triune God dwells in Him bodily. He is the embodiment of the Triune God—Col. 2:9.
4. As far as God’s essence is concerned, the Spirit of God was in Him at the time of His conception to be His divine element for the existence of this God-man; but as far as God’s economy is concerned, when He was thirty years of age, the Spirit of God descended upon Him to be His power for the work of the Christ, God’s anointed—Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18, 19.
5. He lived and moved according to the Spirit of God and also worked and fought by the Spirit of God—Luke 4:1, 14; Matt. 12:28.
6. The Triune God—the Son as the good shepherd, the Spirit as the fine woman, and the Father as the loving father—works together to seek, save, and receive the repentant sinners who turn to Him—Luke 15:3-32.
7. The Triune God, the Son with the Father and by the Spirit, died and shed His blood for the sinners in the flesh of Jesus’ humanity, accomplishing the eternal redemption—Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Cor. 15:3; Heb. 9:14, 12.
8. When He died on the cross to accomplish redemption for sinners, God forsook Him according to God’s economy (Matt. 27:45, 46), but God went through the death of the cross with Him according to God’s essence. Hence, according to His humanity in the flesh He was put to death; but according to His divinity in the spirit He was made alive—1 Pet. 3:18.
9. The blood of this God-man shed on the cross is the blood of Jesus the Son of God—1 John 1:7. The blood of Jesus is genuine human blood; it is qualified to redeem man from sin. His unlimited divinity made the redeeming efficacy of the blood of Jesus the Son of God both eternal and unlimited.
10. This God-man entered death, passed through death, overcame death, and resurrected from death with His body, making His body a resurrected spiritual body— John 10:18; Acts 2:23, 24; Luke 24:5, 6; 1 Cor. 15:44.
11. This last Adam who died and resurrected passed through death and resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) and is breathed as air into those who believe in Him to be their life and essence— John 20:22. In this way, this Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—who became flesh, passed through death, and entered into resurrection, is in them to be with them forever—John 14:16, 17, 20, 24; Matt. 28:20.

This time in New York I am very happy to see so many scattered countrymen and brothers and sisters who are residing on the east coast of America. It is a rare opportunity for us to meet together and to fellowship in life before the Lord. I truly have a burden and feeling within me to fellowship with all of you concerning the Christ revealed in the New Testament. In the six thousand years of human history, no one has been able to surpass this mysterious Christ. He is the unique and extraordinary One. The more I preach Him, the more I feel that He is so mysterious, yet sweet. Although I cannot explain Him thoroughly, the more I speak of Him, the more I enjoy Him. For this reason, by His grace I will speak about Him during this short period of time in a clear way and with simple words according to the revelation I have received and the light I have accumulated throughout the years. The more clearly and deeply we know Him, the stronger will be our love towards Him. May He grant us a sober mind and an open spirit that we would know Him through the revelation in the spirit.

The central revelation of the Bible, and particularly of the New Testament, is this mysterious Christ. We need four messages to cover the Christ as revealed in the New Testament: the Christ in the Gospels, the Christ in Acts, the Christ in the Epistles, and the Christ in Revelation. In order to strengthen your understanding of the messages, and in order to deepen your realization of the Lord, I have purposely prepared four printed outlines and have given them to you. These four outlines can be considered as the marrow and essence of the whole New Testament. I hope that you can make as many copies of these outlines as possible and send them to your friends and relatives in the Lord so that all of God’s children may have a clearer, richer, and sharper understanding of this mysterious Christ through the revelation in the spirit. By this we will love Him in a deeper and more sincere way from within. The four Gospels speak specifically about Christ. The first outline covers this Christ in the Gospels. There are altogether eleven points. This is the essence of my fifty years of studying and expounding the four Gospels. This outline presents to you the wonderful Person described and revealed in the four Gospels, Jesus Christ the Son of God. I believe after we see these eleven points, we will have a clear picture of this wonderful Person revealed in the four Gospels.