First Timothy 1:14 says, “And the grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus.” Faith is the first issue of the Lord’s superabounding grace. Now we need to see what this grace is.
We need to use a number of adjectives to describe grace. This grace is not only super but also abounding. Grace is superabounding. Romans 5:17 speaks of receiving the abundance of grace, and verse 21 speaks of grace reigning. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace. Then verses 16 and 17 say, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace...came through Jesus Christ.” This superabounding grace is not some thing or matter but the Triune God Himself, the processed and consummated Triune God.
The Triune God’s being processed and consummated is in the divine revelation of the Scriptures, but it is not in the theology of today’s Christianity. God today is no more “raw.” God has been processed and consummated. To be processed means He has gone through, step by step, one process after another. His being consummated implies His attainment. After all the processes, He has been consummated, that is, He has attained to His completion. Before the Triune God was incarnated, He was only God, without humanity. But just about two thousand years ago, God became a man. Two thousand years in God’s eyes is like two days (2 Pet. 3:8). Just about two days ago, the Triune God suddenly came into the womb of a virgin, and eventually God was born of her to be a man. This indicates strongly that our Triune God has been processed to become a man.
Furthermore, He passed through a long process of human living for thirty-three and a half years on this earth. What a wonder that God lived on this earth! He lived most of His life in the small town of Nazareth. I went there twice purposely to see where God lived, to see the streets where God walked. When I walked through Nazareth, I said, “Lord, You are a Nazarene; I am too. I follow You.” This was part of the process through which the Lord passed. He also passed through an all-inclusive death and an all-surpassing resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This processed Triune God is now within us to be the enjoyment in us of the divine unsearchable riches in Christ. Paul said he was a minister to minister the unsearchable riches of Christ to people (Eph. 3:8). These unsearchable riches today are the riches of the processed, consummated Triune God.
When we enjoy the processed and consummated Triune God, this enjoyment issues in something. Even today, when you enjoy food, this enjoyment issues in something. Every day we eat three meals. After eating, we are full of strength, and this is the issue of our eating. The enjoyment of the Lord’s superabounding grace issues in all the matters related to the divine life (Rom. 5:17, 21). It even issues in the kingship, so that we can be made kings. The overcomers will be in the thousand-year kingdom to be co-kings with Christ (Rev. 20:4, 6). Today we also are kings. The brothers are the real kings and the sisters are the real queens. We can say this based upon Romans 5:17 and 21. These verses tell us that those who receive the abundance of grace will reign in life and that grace can reign. Our being kings and queens is the superabounding, top issue of the enjoyment of the superabounding grace.