Message Four

The Gospel of the Grace of God

Scripture Reading: Acts 20:24, 32; Eph. 3:2; 4:29;
2 Cor. 13:14; 12:9; Gal. 6:18; Rev. 22:21

1. Grace is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit given to us, gained by us, and enjoyed by us; the gospel of the grace of God is the stewardship of grace to dispense God into people for their enjoyment—John 1:17; Acts 20:24; Eph. 3:2:
   1. The grace given to us in Christ was bestowed on us before the world began—2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 2:11.
   2. God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time as grace for man to receive, possess, and enjoy, making God contactable, touchable, receivable, experienceable, enterable, and enjoyable—John 1:1, 14, 16-17.
   3. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the bountiful supply of the Triune God (who is embodied in the Son and realized as the life-giving Spirit) enjoyed by us through the exercise of our human spirit—Gal. 6:18.
   4. Day by day a marvelous divine transmission should be taking place: God is supplying the Spirit of grace bountifully, and we should be receiving and dispensing the Spirit of grace continually—John 1:16; Heb. 10:29b; Gal. 3:2-5; Eph. 3:2; 4:29.
   5. The way to daily receive grace so that we may flow out grace is to turn to the spirit, exercise the spirit, and enthrone the Lord—Hymns, #770:
      1. The throne of grace is in our spirit, and we need to receive the abundance of grace into our inward parts so that grace may reign within us for us to reign in life over Satan, sin, and death—Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:17, 21; cf. Rev. 4:2.
      2. Whenever we come to the throne of grace by turning to our spirit and calling on the name of the Lord, we should enthrone the Lord, giving Him the headship, the kingship, and the lordship within us—Col. 1:18b; Rev. 2:4-5; Eph. 6:24.
      3. God’s throne is the source of the flowing grace; whenever we fail to enthrone the Lord, dethroning Him, the flow of grace stops—Rev. 22:1.
      4. If we enthrone the Lord Jesus within us, the Spirit as rivers of living water will flow out from the throne of grace to supply us; in this way we shall receive grace, enjoy grace, and minister grace to others—John 7:37-39a; Acts 6:4.
   6. The way to daily receive grace so that we may dispense grace is through the blood, the word, the Spirit, and the church:
      1. The redeeming blood, the blood of the covenant, God’s own blood, brings sinful, corrupted people into the eternal enjoyment of God—20:28; Matt. 26:28; Lev. 16:11-16; Heb. 10:19-20; 1 John 1:7, 9.
      2. The word of God can be eaten by us to become the word of His grace as the gladness and joy of our heart—Acts 20:32; Jer. 15:16; John 6:63; Eph. 6:17-18.
      3. The Spirit of grace as the bountiful supply of the processed and consummated God is the oil of exultant joy with which we are anointed as the partners of Christ—Heb. 1:9; 10:29b; Zech. 12:10a.
      4. The church of God experiences the fresh and refreshing grace of God as the descending dew, which comes to us from the heavens through God’s compassions to water and transform us—Psa. 133:3; Lam. 3:22-23; 2 Cor. 13:14; Acts 11:23.
2. Paul, in his ministry, solemnly testified of the gospel of the grace of God to minister God into people; in his writings Paul unveils to us what the grace of God is—20:24, 32:
   1. Grace is God’s visitation to stay in man, to be born in man, and to be one with man—Luke 1:28, 30; Matt. 1:18; 2 Tim. 4:22.
   2. The Christian living must be the living of grace, the experience of grace, so that we may carry out our stewardship of grace, the dispensing of grace—2 Cor. 12:9; 2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 3:2:
      1. Our word should convey grace to the hearers—Luke 4:22; Eph. 4:29; Isa. 50:4-5.
      2. In the church life, when we have grace upon us, the church will be built up and the grace we receive will be visible—Acts 4:33; 11:23.
   3. The practical life and building up of the Body of Christ comes forth out of the inward enjoyment of Christ as the grace of God—1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 13:14:
      1. The enjoyment of Christ solves all the problems in the church through the work of the cross—1 Cor. 1:13a, 18, 23-24; 2:2.
      2. The enjoyment of Christ issues in the growth in life to produce us as the precious materials for the building up of the church—3:6, 9-14.
      3. The enjoyment of Christ develops our gifts by the growth in life—12:1-11.
   4. The new covenant ministers enjoy Christ as their all-sufficient grace through sufferings, and the ministry of the new covenant is produced by revelation plus suffering—2 Cor. 12:7; 1:3-4, 8-10:
      1. Christ as grace becomes power tabernacling over the new covenant ministers, overshadowing them in their weaknesses to become their dwelling place to sustain, support, maintain, protect, and keep them—12:9b.
      2. We need the grace of God in Christ applied to us as the strength and power for our move and our protection—Ezek. 1:6b, 9a; Exo. 19:4; Isa. 40:28-31; 2 Cor. 4:7; 1:12; 12:9; 1 Cor. 15:10; Psa. 17:8; 57:1; 63:7; 91:4.
   5. Christ as the grace of God is the good land for us to enter into, enjoy, experience, partake of, and possess—2 Cor. 1:12; 12:9; 13:14; Col. 1:12; 2:6-7a; cf. Exo. 3:8.
   6. Grace is the Divine Trinity transmitted into us for our enjoyment, the manifestation of the Triune God in His embodiment in three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27; Psa. 36:8-9:
      1. The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation—2 Cor. 13:14.
      2. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 the grace of the Lord is mentioned first because this book is on the grace of Christ—1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9.
      3. The Holy Spirit as the circulation, the transmission, of the grace of Christ with the love of the Father is the supply in our Christian life and church life:
         1. The entire church life depends upon 2 Corinthians 13:14.
         2. The current of the Divine Trinity within us as revealed in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is our spiritual pulse.
   7. The product of the grace of God in God’s economy is the church as the poem of the Triune God to exhibit the surpassing riches of His grace with His infinite wisdom and divine design—Eph. 1:6-8; 2:10, 7.
3. The grace of the Lord Jesus dispensed into His chosen ones throughout the New Testament age consummates in the New Jerusalem, in which the processed and consummated Triune God will be the grace enjoyed by all the believers for eternity—Rev. 22:21.