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CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD
in the Epistle to the Romans

Message Two

The Center of the Gospel of God—
Jesus Christ the God-man

(2)

The Essence of the Work of Jesus Christ the God-man

Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:3-4

OUTLINE

  1. The center of the gospel of God—Jesus Christ the God-man—1:3-4:
    1. The work of Jesus Christ the God-man:
      1. The preliminary steps:
        1. His incarnation, implied in His becoming the seed of David (1:3)—John 1:1, 14:
          1. 1) The eternal God, the complete God (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit), came:
            1. a) From eternity into time.
            2. b) In the Triune God’s divinity.
          2. 2) To be the flesh:
            1. a) In its likeness but without sin (Rom. 8:3b).
            2. b) Partaking of the human blood and flesh in which Satan with sin is involved (Heb. 2:14).
          3. 3) To bring God into man, making God and man mingled as one.
          4. 4) To be the God-man in the universe, as a model, a prototype, for the mass reproduction of many sons of God, for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy (1 Tim. 1:4b):
            1. a) A particular item in the universe which has never been seen in God’s old creation.
            2. b) This item is the initiation of God’s new creation.
        2. His human living, implied in His being a man living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years (Rom. 5:15, 17, 19):
          1. 1) A living of obeying God—Rom. 5:19; Phil. 2:8; John 6:38.
          2. 2) A living through death—dying to live— Rom. 5:19; Phil. 2:8; John 7:6, 8.
          3. 3) A living of righteousness before God— Rom. 5:18.
          4. 4) A living that qualifies Him to be the Redeemer of the unrighteous men—Rom. 3:23-24; 1 Pet. 3:18.
      2. In His earthly ministry:
        1. He consummated the all-inclusive death:
          1. 1) Through His death in His flesh (body)— Col. 1:22.
          2. 2) He took away the sin of the world—John 1:29:
            1. a) Bearing the transgressions and iniquities of God’s chosen people—Isa. 53:5-6.
            2. b) Dying for the sins of the believers by bearing their sins (the outward sins in their conduct) on the cross—1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24.
            3. c) Condemning (the inward) sin (brought by Satan into man’s flesh) in the flesh—Rom. 8:3b.
            4. d) For the believers’ redemption and justification—Rom. 3:23-26.
            5. e) For the healing of the diseases of God’s people—Isa. 53:4-5; 1 Pet. 2:24.
            6. f) Accomplishing God’s eternal redemption—Heb. 9:12.
          3. 3) He terminated the old creation signified by our old man (our natural man), including our flesh—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20a; 5:24.
          4. 4) He destroyed Satan, who is involved in our old and fallen man—Heb. 2:14; John 3:14; Matt. 16:23; John 6:70-71.
          5. 5) He judged the world (the cosmos of Satan) and cast out Satan as the ruler of the world—John 12:31.
          6. 6) He ended the old creation and cleared up all the negative things in the universe.
        2. He carried out the life-imparting and the new-creation-germinating resurrection:
          1. 1) He, as the one grain of wheat, released the divine life within Him from the shell of His humanity—John 12:24.
          2. 2) He, as the last Adam in His flesh, became (was transfigured—pneumatized—into) the life-giving Spirit (the Spirit of life— Rom. 8:2)—1 Cor. 15:45.
          3. 3) He, in His humanity (1 Cor. 15:45b), was born (designated in the power of His divinity—Rom. 1:4) to be the firstborn Son of God in resurrection—Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:5-6.
          4. 4) He regenerated His believers in His resurrection with Him in one great, corporate birth to be the many sons of God and His many brothers (1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10-12; John 20:17), who, as the many sons of God, are to be conformed to the image of Him as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).
          5. 5) The life-giving Spirit is the germinating factor of the Body of Christ as the new creation of God—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.
          6. 6) Christ as the firstborn Son of God and as the Head is the element and the believers as His many brothers are the constituents for God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9b)—the Body of Christ as the new creation of God consummating in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-2).
      3. In His heavenly ministry:
        1. He, as the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit of life, indwells us in the heavenlies to give life to our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:2-16) to minister the divine life of the processed and consummated God into us, the dying ones (signified by “mortal bodies”), for the building up of the Body of Christ which will consummate in the New Jerusalem for the accomplishing of the eternal economy of God.
        2. He, as the pneumatic Christ, intercedes for us in our weakness with groanings within us in the heavenlies that we may grow in Him unto maturity to reach our sonship in full, which is the redemption of our body, the glorification of our entire being (Rom. 8:23-30).
        3. In the meantime, He, as the ascended Lord of all, as the consummated and ascended God-man and as the Head of the Body, intercedes at the right hand of God in the heavens for us that we, His many brothers and members, who are the many God-men, could overcome the oppositions and any kind of circumstances and be kept in union with Him in His unconditional love, so that we may be conformed to the image of Him, the firstborn Son of God, as the prototype, to be His consummated mass reproduction for the constitution of His corporate and organic Body (Rom. 8:29-39).
      4. Thus, His earthly ministry up to the end of His resurrection produced the many sons of God who are His many brothers as the constituents for the building up of His Body; and His heavenly ministry, from His ascension to His second coming, ministers the divine life to His members that they may grow unto maturity, unto the redemption of their body, the glorification of God’s redeemed people, and keeps all His members in union with Him that they may be conformed to the image of Him as the prototype for the mass reproduction of Him for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy.

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