God had an eternal plan before the foundation of the world. There are two goals in this plan. The first is to make all things express Christ, and the second is to make man like Christ, that man would have His life and glory. While God desires to accomplish these two goals, He encounters two problems: Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall.
On the day the archangel saw that Christ was the center of all things, he became jealous because of his pride. He wanted to raise himself to the same position as God’s Son. He rebelled because he wanted to rob Christ of His position as the center. One-third of the angels followed him to rebel against God, and on that day all the living creatures on the earth also followed him. Satan’s rebellion made everything a chaos, which could not express Christ. The universe is one big entity. We learn from science that if one speck of dust is out of order, the whole universe can become chaotic and be in confusion. Today, even though all things can express God’s glory, they cannot express God Himself.
God created man in order that first he would have the life and glory of Christ, and He intended to put all things under man’s subjection so that man would bring everything back to God. Second, He created man so that man would cooperate with God to deal with the rebellious Satan.
But man also fell. Therefore, now God has to accomplish two goals and solve two problems. In order to accomplish His two goals, God has to (1) save fallen man and (2) remove the rebellious Satan.
In order to carry out God’s two goals and solve His two problems, the Lord Jesus became a man and accomplished redemption. The Lord Jesus is not only the Christ to mankind, but also the Christ to all things. Christ is the centrality and the universality. Universality means that He is not limited by time or space. Christ is not only the Christ of the Jews or the Christ of the church, but He is also the Christ of all things. He is all and in all.
There are three aspects to Christ’s redemption: (1) substitution, for the individual; (2) representation, for the church; and (3) heading up, for all things. Christ as the Head includes all things. When the Head died, everything included in the Head died also. Christ’s death is an all-inclusive death. Christ’s death as the Head brought all things and mankind into death, so that all things and mankind are now reconciled to God.
Christ dealt with everything on the cross. He crushed the serpent’s head and dealt with the rebellious Satan and all his works on the cross. He saved fallen mankind on the cross. He brought back all things and reconciled them to God on the cross. On the cross He gave His life to man so that man can be like Him.
Therefore, we can see that God has two goals and also two problems. By means of the cross, Christ accomplished God’s two goals and also solved God’s two problems.
In what position has God put the church? What mission does God want the church to bear on the earth? Why did God allow Satan, whose head had been crushed, to remain on the earth?
God wants the church on earth not only to preach the gospel to save sinners but also to testify of Christ’s victory on the cross. God allows Satan to remain on the earth in order to provide us the opportunities to testify to His Son’s victory. God expects that we would testify to His Son’s victory. All failing believers damage this testimony.
The church is the Body of Christ. The Body should continue the work of the Head. The church is the fullness of Christ. What overflows from Christ is the church. The church should continue the works of the four Gospels.
There are three very crucial things in the New Testament: (1) the cross, (2) the church, and (3) the kingdom. Christ on the cross accomplished redemption and victory. The kingdom is for the manifestation of the accomplishment of Christ’s redemption and His victory. At present, the church is maintaining on earth Christ’s accomplishment on the cross. The cross is God’s proper judgment according to the law, while the kingdom is the execution of God’s authority. The church lies in the middle; it maintains the accomplishment of the cross on the one hand and is a foretaste of the power of the coming age on the other hand.
Satan cannot overcome the individual Christ, but he can insult the individual Christ through the corporate Christ. Failure of the Body is failure to the Head. A member’s failure is the Body’s failure. We are the continuation of Christ. We are to extend Christ (Isa. 53:10) just as we extended Adam. God allows us to remain on earth for the purpose of accomplishing His eternal plan and achieving His eternal goal.
Before the ark entered Jerusalem, it was in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite (2 Sam. 6). We should be faithful to take care of the blood upon the ark (Christ’s work) and the cherubim upon the ark (God’s glory).
(Afternoon, January 24)