Four main items concerning Christ in His divine economy are His incarnation, His human living, His death, and His resurrection. If we understand these four major items of Christ, we will realize that these major points of Christ's process are for the divine economy. We have seen that His incarnation, human living, and all-inclusive death are for God's economy. In this chapter we will see that His resurrection is also for the economy of God.
When the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He was going to die, they were troubled and disappointed. They thought that if the Lord would suffer and die that everything would be terminated. But every time the Lord told them about His death, He also told them about His resurrection. At least three times the Lord Jesus told them this one thing (Matt. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19). They only grasped the thought of His death but not of His resurrection. Eventually, the Lord told them that He was a grain of wheat (John 12:24).
People generally do not have the concept of resurrection, but in God's creation we can see the principle of resurrection. When a grain of wheat is sown into the earth, it dies in the earth. But that death is not the end. That death leads to something further—resurrection. If you bury a small rock, it will not grow. But if you sow a grain of wheat into the earth, it will die and grow, and that growth is resurrection. When it grows, it produces and brings forth many grains, and those grains are the release, the reproduction, the multiplication, and the increase of that one grain. We may consider the matter of a grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying in a common way, but the principle here is not common. The Lord Jesus used this as an illustration of His death, resurrection, and reproduction. This reproduction is the dispensing of the divine life. The reproduction of the one grain of wheat is the dispensing of the life of this one grain into many grains.