We have seen that, in the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, the believers experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately by entering into the kingdom of God and by living in the church. The believers experience the divine dispensing corporately also by living in the Body of Christ.
In order to experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately, the believers need to take three steps. First, we need to enter into the kingdom and live a kingdom life. Second, by living the kingdom life we may live in the church. Third, by living in the church we need to live in the Body of Christ. The sequence of these three matters is the kingdom, the church, and the Body of Christ. According to the sequence of the New Testament revelation, the kingdom comes first and the church follows. The issue of the kingdom and the church is the Body of Christ. This New Testament revelation indicates that no one can live in the Body of Christ without first living in the kingdom and in the church. This has been fully proved and confirmed by our experience.
If the kingdom, the church, and the Body of Christ were taken away from the New Testament, very little would be left. Taking away the kingdom, the church, and the Body from the New Testament would be like taking away the skeleton and the intrinsic life element from the human body. The kingdom, the church, and the Body of Christ are both the framework and the intrinsic elements of our Christian life. Without the kingdom, the church, and the Body, God’s New Testament economy would have neither a framework nor the organic life essence, an essence that corresponds to what God is. Both the framework of God’s New Testament economy and its organic life essence are wrapped up with the three crucial matters of the kingdom, the church, and the Body.
In the New Testament the first one to speak of the kingdom was John the Baptist. In Matthew 3:2 John said, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” The Lord Jesus repeated the word of John the Baptist (Matt. 4:17) and then went on to speak concerning the church. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord said, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” Immediately, the Lord went on to speak again concerning the kingdom, saying to Peter, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall be what has been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall be what has been loosed in the heavens” (v. 19). Here the Lord was indicating that He would give to Peter the keys of the kingdom of the heavens so that he might open the door for people to come into the kingdom in order that the Lord may build them into the church. First we come into the kingdom. Then we are made ready, qualified, and available for the Lord to put us into His church.
The book of Acts has much to say concerning the kingdom and the church. The kingdom is mentioned first. Acts 1:3 tells us that to the apostles the Lord Jesus “presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, through a period of forty days, appearing to them and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God.” This indicates strongly that the kingdom of God would be the main subject of the apostles’ preaching in their coming commission after Pentecost. Before the Lord Jesus ascended to the heavens and poured out Himself as the all-inclusive Spirit to establish the church, He taught His disciples about the kingdom. If they did not have any knowledge or realization concerning the kingdom, it would be difficult for the Lord Jesus to bring them into the church. Therefore, in the first chapter of Acts the kingdom was taught thoroughly.
Home | First | Prev | Next