In this message we shall continue to consider the New Testament and God’s New Testament economy. We have seen that the New Testament is related to the Old Testament, that it is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, that it is the development and the reaping of the seed sown in the Old Testament, and that it is the completion of the divine revelation. Now we shall go on to see that the New Testament is the revelation of God’s New Testament economy (Col. 1:26-27).
The New Testament is the revelation of God’s New Testament economy. This revelation unveils seven major items: God, Christ, the Spirit, the believers, the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem. These seven items are seven persons. God is a person, and Christ and the Spirit also are persons. The believers may be considered a corporate person; likewise, the church is a corporate person. Some, however, may have a problem regarding the kingdom as a person. Nevertheless, we strongly say that the kingdom is a person.
We need to consider in more detail the kingdom being a person. Let us use the animal kingdom as an illustration. What is the animal kingdom? The animal kingdom is a totality of all the animals. Hence, the animal kingdom is all the animals. If there were not any animals, there would not be an animal kingdom. The principle is the same with the plant kingdom. The plant kingdom consists of plants. If there were no plants, there would not be a plant kingdom. Likewise, the human kingdom consists of mankind. If we see into the depths of the teaching of the Bible concerning the kingdom, we shall realize that the kingdom of God is actually Christ Himself developed and enlarged into a kingdom. The kingdom of God is the Savior, the Lord Jesus, as the seed of life sown into His believers, God’s chosen people (Mark 4:3, 26), and developing into a realm which God may rule as His kingdom in the divine life. Therefore, the kingdom truly is a person. This is clearly proved in Daniel 2:34-35 by the stone cut out without hands, signifying the God-prepared Christ, which, after smiting the great image upon its feet to break all the parts of the great image, all the worldly powers, becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth, signifying the coming kingdom of God (Rev. 11:15). This indicates that the Christ prepared by God, as a stone, will develop, at His coming back, into the kingdom of God, as a great mountain, that fills the whole earth.
The kingdom is actually another aspect of the church. We should not think that the church is one thing and that the kingdom is another, that the church is one person and that the kingdom is another person. Actually, the church and the kingdom are one person in two aspects.
Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” This verse is a strong proof that the church in the church age is the kingdom of God because the context here deals with the church life in the present age. John 3:3 and 5 reveal that regeneration is the present entrance into the kingdom of God. Acts is a book concerning the spreading of the gospel and the establishing of the church, yet in Acts 1:3 the Lord Jesus spoke with His disciples for forty days concerning the kingdom of God to prepare them for this work. Following this, in Acts 8:12; 20:25; 28:23-31, the disciples preached the kingdom of God along with their preaching of Jesus Christ for the establishing of the churches. Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 5:21; and Ephesians 5:5 Paul, according to the context, considers the kingdom of God equivalent to the church. He and his co-workers were working for the church, yet in Colossians 4:11 he says that they were laboring for the kingdom of God. The word of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16:18-19 also reveals clearly that the kingdom is the church. In Revelation 1:9 John indicates that he and the other believers were already in the kingdom. If we consider Romans 14:17 in the context of the whole book of Romans, we shall see that the kingdom of God in this verse certainly refers to the church.
The church today is the kingdom of God. Since the church is a corporate person and the church is the kingdom, it would not be logical to say that the kingdom is not a person. The church is a corporate person, and the kingdom is also a corporate person.
Like the church and the kingdom, the New Jerusalem is a person. When some hear that the New Jerusalem is a person, they may say, “The New Jerusalem is a city. How can you say that the city is a person?” The Bible indicates that the New Jerusalem is a person in Revelation 21, where we are told that the New Jerusalem is “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (v. 2) and that she is “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (v. 9). Is not a wife a person? Since the New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb and the wife is a person, then the New Jerusalem is a person, a corporate person.
The seven major items unveiled in the revelation of God’s New Testament economy are all persons. God, Christ, and the Spirit are individual persons, whereas the believers, the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem are corporate persons.
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