Message Twelve

The Genuine, Intrinsic, Highest, and
Fullest Gospel of God’s Economy

Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:16-19;
Rom. 1:1-4; 8:6, 10-11, 28-29; 12:5; 16:20

1. The genuine, intrinsic, highest, and fullest gospel is the gospel of God’s economy—the gospel of sonship for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ by the building of God into man and man into God—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:8-11, 16-19; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29; 12:5; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a:
   1. We must believe that there is a God-created ability within man to receive and understand His gospel—Job 32:8; Zech. 12:1; Eccl. 3:11:
      1. We should not preach a gospel that has been lowered down to what we think is the level of people’s understanding; we should preach an uplifted gospel and never lower the concept—1 Thes. 1:1, 3-4, 10; 5:23; 1 Cor. 2:7-13.
      2. Man was created for God, and within man there is the ability to understand the things of God, and there is a hunger for these things—Acts 17:26-31; Isa. 43:7.
   2. We must present the truth concerning the economy of God item by item according to the entire Bible; this is the Lord’s special commission to us—1 Cor. 1:9; 9:16-17, 23; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 2:7; 4:16; 2 Tim. 1:11; 2:2, 15; Col. 1:28.
2. The gospel of God’s eternal economy is “the gospel of the promise made to the fathers” (Acts 13:32)—the promise that the seed of David would become the Son of God, that is, that a human seed would become a divine Son (vv. 22-23, 33-34; 26:6, 16-19; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Matt. 22:41-45).
3. The seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks of the process of Christ’s being designated the firstborn Son of God by resurrection—Rom. 8:29:
   1. Paul said that he was separated unto the gospel of God concerning God’s Son, which indicates that the gospel of God is the gospel of sonship for the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches—1:1, 3-4; 8:28-30; 12:5; 16:20.
   2. Romans 1:3-4 is the fulfillment of the prophecy in typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a, unveiling the mystery of God becoming man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
   3. By incarnation Christ, the only begotten Son of God in His divinity (John 1:18), put on the flesh, the human nature, which had nothing to do with divinity; in His humanity He was not the Son of God.
   4. In resurrection His humanity was deified, sonized, meaning that He was designated the Son of God, becoming the firstborn Son of God with both divinity and humanity—Rom. 8:29.
   5. Thus, in Christ God was constituted into man, man was constituted into God, and God and man were mingled together to be one entity, the God-man.
   6. God’s gospel and His intention in His economy are to build God into man and man into God; this building is God becoming a man (the seed of David) that man might become God (the Son of God).
   7. This gospel was spoken by the Lord Jesus when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”—John 12:24:
      1. If a seed dies by being buried in the soil, it will eventually sprout, grow, and blossom in resurrection, because the operation of the seed’s life is activated simultaneously with its death—1 Cor. 15:36; 1 Pet. 3:18.
      2. The divinity, the Spirit of holiness, in Christ became operative in His death, and in resurrection He “blossomed” to be the firstborn Son of God and the life-dispensing Spirit, imparting His divine life into us to make us His many brothers—Rom. 1:4; 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
      3. The prototype is the firstborn Son of God, and the reproduction is the many sons of God, the members of the prototype to be His Body, which consummates in the New Jerusalem—Col. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3.
4. The seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks also of the process of our being designated the many sons of God by resurrection—Heb. 2:10-11:
   1. Christ has already been designated the Son of God, but we are still in the process of designation, the process of being sonized, deified—Rom. 8:28-29.
   2. The life of the Son of God has been implanted into our spirit—v. 10:
      1. Now we, like the seed that is sown into the earth, must pass through the process of death and resurrection—John 12:24-26.
      2. This causes the outer man to be consumed, but it enables the inner life to grow, to develop, and ultimately, to blossom from within us; this is resurrection—1 Cor. 15:31, 36; 2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16-18.
   3. In resurrection Christ in His humanity was designated the Son of God, and by means of such a resurrection we also are in the process of being designated sons of God—Rom. 8:11:
      1. The process of our being designated, sonized, deified, is the process of resurrection with four main aspects—sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification—6:22; 12:2; 8:29-30.
      2. The key to the process of designation is resurrection, which is the indwelling Christ as the rising-up Spirit, the designating Spirit, the power of life in our spirit—John 11:25; Rom. 8:10-11; Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:26; 5:4:
         1. We urgently need to learn how to walk according to the spirit, to enjoy and experience the designating Spirit—Rom. 8:4, 6, 14.
         2. The more we touch the Spirit, the more we are sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:12-13; 8:15-16; Gal. 4:6.
   4. The more we grow in life and pass through the metabolic process of transformation, the more we are designated the sons of God—2 Cor. 3:18, 6, 16; 5:4, 9, 14-15; 1:12; 12:7-9:
      1. This metabolic process is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and the house of God by the building of God into man and man into God—Rom. 12:2; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:20-22.
      2. Humanity is designated in divinity, and divinity and humanity are blended as one; today, we, seeds of humanity, are becoming sons of God in divinity through the process of God’s building.
      3. This building will consummate in the New Jerusalem as a great, corporate God-man, the aggregate, the totality, of all the sons of God—Rev. 21:7.
      4. One day this process will be completed, and for eternity we will be the same as Christ, God’s firstborn Son, in our spirit, soul, and body—1 John 3:2; Rom. 8:19, 23; Hymns, #948, stanza 2.
   5. “On God’s side, the Triune God has been incarnated to be a man; on our side, we are being deified, constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God so that we may be made God in life and in nature to be His corporate expression for eternity. This is the highest truth, and this is the highest gospel”—Life-study of Job, p. 122.
5. The genuine and intrinsic gospel is that God intends to work Himself in Christ into us—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:1-4, 9:
   1. Christ builds the church by building Himself into us, making our heart, our intrinsic constitution, His home—Eph. 3:16-19.
   2. If we preach this gospel, we will tell others that they need Christ, the very God Himself, to be wrought into their being—v. 17a; John 14:23.
   3. “Today’s world needs a crusade with the preaching of the highest and fullest gospel”—Life-study of Hebrews, p. 157.