The economy of God with its mark was unveiled at the beginning of this book, but after reading all the foregoing chapters, it is still possible to miss this economy. In simple words, God’s economy is to work Himself into us, and in order to accomplish this, He must do it in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. From the beginning of this book we have spent much time on this economy of the Triune God. God never intended to give us the doctrine of the Trinity in the Scriptures. The doctrine of the Divine Trinity only involves us in many different concepts. But the Scriptures do reveal how God accomplished His divine economy in three distinct persons.
We have pointed out that the word economy in Greek means “administration, stewardship, government, arrangement, dispensation.” The word dispensation is used here without any thought of periods of time, but with the denotation of the dispensing of God into us. Again we repeat, God’s intention is to dispense Himself into us. This intention is the center of God’s creation and redemption. God created and redeemed man for this purpose, that man might be the container into which He could dispense Himself. In the entire universe—time, space, and eternity—the center of God’s economy is to dispense Himself into humanity.
Eventually, the ultimate consummation of all God’s work of creation, redemption, and transformation is the universal mingling of God with man. Thus, the New Jerusalem comes into existence as the ultimate result of all God’s work as recorded in the sixty-six books of the Scriptures. This result is nothing other than the universal mingling of God with man. The New Jerusalem is a mingling of God Himself with a corporate body of people. At that time these people will no longer be natural, but every part and every aspect of their being will have been regenerated, transformed, and conformed by God and with God as life. They will have been transformed in nature and conformed in appearance to God Himself. In order to serve the Lord in a proper way, we need to have this vision. This vision is not new; it is the original vision from the beginning of the church age. But it must be new and renewed day by day in us. It must be the controlling vision of all our work, life, and activity.
What is the mark of God’s economy? First of all, the Father, who is the source, has put Himself into the Son. The Father with all His fullness has come forth in the person of the Son. The Son is both the embodiment and the expression of the Father (John 14:9-10); no one but the Son has ever seen God the Father (6:46). In the Son God has accomplished all that He planned through four major steps: incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. These four steps have fulfilled all that God planned in eternity.
Through incarnation God was brought into man. God was brought into the human nature and lived in that nature for thirty-three and a half years on this earth. Whatever human sufferings there were on this earth, God suffered (Heb. 2:18; 4:15). It was not merely a man by the name of Jesus who suffered; rather, it was also God within this man who suffered.
The second step in the accomplishing of God’s plan was crucifixion. All the twelve negative items listed in chapter 14, such as Satan, fallen man, sin, the world, death, etc., were brought to the cross and put to an end. All the negative things were terminated on the cross.
Christ’s resurrection followed His crucifixion. Resurrection recovered and uplifted the standard of the humanity created by God and brought the human nature into God. Through incarnation the divine nature was brought into man; through resurrection the human nature was brought into God. Now it is possible for man to have more than a created human nature, for the human nature has been regenerated, uplifted, and brought into God. After Christ’s resurrection, Christ was exhibited to the whole universe as a “model.” In this model God is in man and man is in God. Since all the negative things have been dealt with and terminated by the cross, there is nothing negative in this model.
This model then ascended to the heavens and was enthroned with glory and authority. The human mind cannot apprehend this picture. At this point everything was accomplished; nothing was left unfinished. This model, who is God mingled with man and man mingled with God, ascended far above all things in space and in time. He transcended to the highest place in the universe and was enthroned with glory and authority (Acts 2:36; Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:21-22; Heb. 2:9; 4:14; 7:26).
Then from this glorified One the Holy Spirit came like the outflow of a liquid composed of many elements (Acts 2:17-18, 33). The divine nature, the human nature, the human life, the human suffering, the death of the cross, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement are all elements included in the Holy Spirit. As we have seen, this wonderful outflow is the all-inclusive dose—whatever we need is in this dose. As this outflow the Holy Spirit has been poured into us (Rom. 5:5). On the day of resurrection and on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit who includes all the aforementioned elements, came into and upon the early Christians (John 20:22; Titus 3:5-6). On the one hand, this Spirit comes into us, and on the other hand, He comes upon us. In this way God in His three persons mingles Himself with us.