Message Seven

The All-inclusive Christ
in His Four Stages according to
God’s New Testament Economy
(3)
In the Stages of His Resurrection and Ascension

Scripture Reading: Isa. 53:10c-12a;
1 Cor. 15:45b; Col. 1:18; Acts 13:33; John 12:24;
Eph. 4:8-12; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15

1. Isaiah 53 speaks of the all-inclusive Christ in the stage of His resurrection—vv. 10c-11b:
   1. The seed and the issue mentioned in Isaiah 53:10c-11b imply a great deal—the various items concerning the produce of Christ’s resurrection revealed in the New Testament:
      1. In His resurrection, as the processed Christ, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17.
      2. In His resurrection Christ, as the preeminent One, the One who has the first place in all things, became the Firstborn from the dead and the Head of the Body—Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5a.
      3. In His resurrection Christ as the God-man, in His humanity, was begotten of God to be the firstborn Son of God—Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29.
      4. In His resurrection Christ as the resurrection life regenerated all His believers—1 Pet. 1:3.
      5. In His resurrection Christ, as the one grain of wheat, produced many grains; the many grains as the increase of Christ are the components of the one bread—the church, the Body of Christ—John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17; Eph. 1:22-23.
   2. Through His life-releasing death and with His life-imparting resurrection, Christ produced a corporate seed as the issue of the travail of His soul, whom He saw in His resurrection and was satisfied—Isa. 53:10c-11b:
      1. As the resurrected Life-giver, the Lord Jesus produced a seed for the building up of His Body as His continuation for Jehovah’s pleasure and Christ’s satisfaction:
         1. The thought of a life-giver is implied in the seed, which is produced by life.
         2. Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is the Life-giver so that He can produce a seed—v. 10b:
            1. 1) In resurrection He produced a seed for His satisfaction and for the Father’s pleasure.
            2. 2) The seed produced by Christ in His resurrection is His believers for the building up of His Body as His continuation—Eph. 4:16.
         3. The corporate seed implies all the many grains, all the members of Christ’s Body, all Christ’s brothers, and all the sons of God—John 20:17; Heb. 2:10.
         4. The Father is pleased with the Body of Christ, which is constituted with the seed brought forth by Christ as the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 12:12-13; 15:45b.
         5. Christ has extended His days by producing a seed to build up His Body, and this Body is still extending—Isa. 53:10c-11:
            1. 1) This seed is Christ’s continuation for the extension of His days—Rev. 1:18a.
            2. 2) Because Christ continues to live by living in us, we are the extension of His days—John 14:19; Gal. 2:20.
      2. This seed is for the pleasure of Jehovah, which will prosper in the hand of the resurrected Christ—Eph. 1:5, 9; Phil. 2:13; Isa. 53:10c.
      3. The resurrected Christ, the righteous One, will make the many righteous (v. 11b; Acts 13:39); this is not merely to justify us objectively but to make us righteous subjectively (2 Cor. 5:21) by living within us as the resurrection life.
      4. Christ will see the issue of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; this issue refers to the many who are justified (made righteous) by knowing Christ, for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ—Isa. 53:11; Rom. 12:4-5.
2. Isaiah 53 speaks of the all-inclusive Christ in the stage of His ascension—v. 12a:
   1. In Christ’s ascension there was a demonstration of Christ’s victory by the sharing of the spoil, the captives, taken in Christ’s victory—v. 12a:
      1. The word spoil in Isaiah 53:12a opens a wide window to us, enabling us to see the invisible scene of a war—Col. 2:15; 1 Pet. 3:18; Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18:
         1. Spoil indicates that there was a war, for spoil signifies prey, and prey denotes captives taken in war—Eph. 4:8.
         2. Spoil indicates that a war was fought and someone won that war, and the winner got the spoil, the prey, the captives.
      2. Christ won the war and then divided the spoil with the Great and the Strong—Isa. 53:12a:
         1. The Great and the Strong refer to God; in the whole universe only God is great and only God is strong.
         2. As the Great, God received the honor from Christ’s ascension, and as the Strong, He gained the victory.
         3. God the Father was the Great and the Strong, and God the Son was the Fighter:
            1. 1) Christ fought the battle on the cross and in His resurrection, and by winning the battle He captured all Satan’s captives as the spoil—Col. 2:15; Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18.
            2. 2) In His ascension Christ, the Fighter, and God, the Great and the Strong, shared the spoil with each other.
      3. Ephesians 4:8-12 reveals that when Christ ascended to the heavens, He led a procession of captives, who were originally the captives of Satan, bringing them to the heavens and presenting them to the Father.
   2. Christ’s ascension consummates in the accomplishment of the work of God for His new creation—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Rev. 21:2:
      1. God is producing His new creation out of His old creation—2 Cor. 5:17:
         1. The new creation is the old creation transformed by the divine life, and thus it has God within it as its life, nature, constitution, appearance, and expression—Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rev. 4:2-3; 21:2, 9-11.
         2. The new creation is created altogether in Christ, by Christ, through Christ, and with Christ—2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 3:17.
         3. The continuing work of constituting the new creation is being carried out in the heavens in Christ’s heavenly ministry—Heb. 8:1-2.
      2. The work of God for His new creation is to complete the constitution of the New Jerusalem to be God’s corporate expression and the saints’ blessing for eternity—Rev. 21:2, 9-11; 22:3-5, 14, 17.