The grace which Mary found and with which God graced her was the initiation of God’s grace in the New Testament (Luke 1:28, 30). We must study this point by fellowshipping deeply.
The Lord Jesus grew in grace (Luke 2:40). That means that He grew in God as grace. As the Savior of man, in His ministry, He ministered God as grace to people, so He Himself as a young man grew in grace, in God. We may wonder what growing in God means. We need to see that God Himself is a constitution. He is constituted with many attributes. God is love, light, holiness, righteousness, etc. He is myriads of wonderful items. Every item of what God is, is an attribute of God. Our God is constituted in Himself with many attributes. When we grow in God, we grow in God’s attributes.
The little boy Jesus did not have that much of the attributes of God, so He grew in grace. Grace is God Himself, and God is constituted with many attributes. Thus, as Jesus grew up, He became the constitution of God’s attributes. Our human language is inadequate to fully explain this. To grow in God simply means to be constituted with all the attributes of God, the attributes with which God Himself is constituted.
Before we were saved, we did not have a bit of God. But since we believed into Christ and received God into us, some divine attributes of God have been constituted into our being. Now, as seeking Christians, we are growing in God all the time. We are growing in His attributes. We are growing in His constitution. God’s attributes, God’s constitution, become grace. Grace is God’s visitation, and God is a constitution of His divine attributes. When the young boy Jesus was growing in grace, that was His preparation to come out to minister God, with whom He was constituted, as the Savior of man. That young boy could be full of love, full of light, and full of all the attributes of God because He was growing up in these attributes.
The young boy, Jesus, grew in three things: in wisdom, in stature, and in grace (Luke 2:52). In today’s schools and in the homes, young ones are educated to grow in wisdom. But with Jesus, something was different. Jesus was advanced first in grace. His God was added to Him. Luke says that He advanced in grace and in wisdom and in stature. A person may grow to a large stature and yet not have grown in wisdom, because he did not gain the proper education. Others may grow in both wisdom and bodily stature, but they do not have God. We are here growing in God. We do not focus on growing in wisdom and stature. We may be great in wisdom and stature and also be short of God. A proper man should grow in three things—first, in God; second, in wisdom; and third, in bodily stature. To grow in grace is to grow in the increase of God. Grace is God’s visitation to us to stay in us and make Himself one with us. We are growing in this grace.
Luke 4:22 says that “all bore witness to Him and marveled at the words of grace proceeding out of His mouth.” Man needs God. Jesus is a Man fully equipped, saturated, and constituted with God. He is the practical God, God Himself. When He comes to you, God comes. When He opens up His mouth, grace comes out of His mouth. That means God comes out.
Paul said that his second visit to the Corinthians would be a second grace to them (2 Cor. 1:15). This is because Paul was constituted with grace. As Saul of Tarsus, he had merely a great mentality, but after his salvation he was transformed. His name was changed to Paul, which means “little.” Although he was little, he had the biggest portion of God. When Paul came to people, grace came. When he taught people, he ministered grace to them.
I was with Brother Watchman Nee for eighteen years. We came together often. Every time I met with him, he ministered God as grace to me. One afternoon I went to visit him, and he asked me, “Witness, what is patience?” This question troubled me because I knew he did not want a simple answer. Eventually, he told me that patience is nothing but Christ. In this contact with him, I gained a big portion of God. He ministered God to me.
In order to be vital, we must be persons who are full of God, with the addition, advance, and growth of God. If a young girl is growing with God, she might tell her grandfather, “Grandpa, I love the Lord, so I love you.” In saying this to her grandfather, she ministers God to him. If many of us go to preach the gospel today, we will have more of God to minister to others than we did two years ago. To be vital is to be full of God. In order to be full of God, we must have the advance in God, the growth in God, the continuous addition of God. Thus, we can be God-sent prophets. When we go out, we must have the assurance that we are God-sent prophets.
When I promoted going to visit people by knocking on their doors in 1984, some said that this did not work. They said that they went out for three weeks, but did not gain anyone. We need to realize that we must be prepared to go out for three years to gain people, not just three weeks. Perhaps you would go to visit someone, and he would be very cold toward you. If you would go to him repeatedly, despite being turned away by him, he would eventually think, “There must be something with this man. Why does he come to me again and again?” After the fifth time you visit him, he may eventually say, “Please come in.” Then he would ask, “Why do you come to me month after month? Who hired you? What’s your job? Why do you do this?” Perhaps at this point, your tears would come down and you would say, “I come because Jesus loves me, and Jesus loves you. I want to let you know that Jesus loves you.” This may cause him to shed tears also and he will be saved. This is what it means to be vital. Who can withstand our repeated visitation to them with God as grace? Eventually, people will be subdued by this. If we go out again and again to visit people by knocking on their doors, eventually we will gain some.