Prayer: O Lord, we thank You that because of Your grace we are here; we are gathered around You and by Your word. Lord, we look to You to make known to us the mysteries in Your holy word. Very few brothers and sisters throughout the ages have entered into these mysteries. But in this last age, Lord, You have spent more than seventy years to point out clearly to us these mysteries item by item, releasing to us the secrets hidden in them. As we try to speak these things, may we not feel that we know everything. Lord, it seems that we know, yet we have not seen the essence and crystallization contained in these things. O Lord, be with us and give us the utterance; especially grant us the ability to understand, comprehend, and enter in so that we may be deeply impressed. O Lord, cleanse us, forgive us, and cover us that we may be hidden in You. Amen.
It seems that what we have fellowshipped in these few days is not anything new; rather, it has all been covered in the past. After more than seventy years, we may say that our speaking reached the peak at the Chinese New Year’s conference last year. But my greatest concern is that you may only have some terminology, and that you may not necessarily have entered into the intrinsic essence and the crystallization of these matters. Even after you have entered in, when you try to speak these things, your speaking may be improper or distorted. When we learn the new and profound things, to understand them is one thing and to speak them clearly and properly is another thing. Some consider themselves as knowing the economy of God, but their speaking is altogether a deviation.
The expression the economy of God is rarely used in today’s Christianity. The Greek word oikonomia may definitely be rendered economy, but people commonly use the term plan; Brother Nee did as well. A plan, however, is only a part of an economy; an economy consists of many plans. For example, you may have a project that you intend to accomplish. That project is your economy. The manufacturing plant, the machinery, the laborers, the professionals, and so forth which are required for that project are the different steps in the economy. Every step requires a plan. For instance, building the manufacturing plant requires some consideration about the number of stories to be built; this is a plan. This is a small illustration that you may see what an economy is and what a plan is.
In the summer of 1964 I released a series of crucial messages in the United States which were later compiled into the book entitled The Economy of God. In the 1980s I stressed even more the economy of God. The most complete speaking was a series of messages which began in Stuttgart, Germany in 1984 and continued throughout a number of places in the United States; these messages were compiled into the book entitled God’s New Testament Economy with forty-four chapters. My concern today is that though we have the Lord’s revelation, vision, and speaking among us, and though all have been printed in books, we still may not have adequate regard for these matters.
Our speaking concerning the economy of God has become more and more clear, concise, and crystallized. God’s economy began with God becoming flesh to be a man and continued with His passing through human living, death, resurrection, and ascension to produce the church, the Body of Christ, which is the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart of Christ. The totality of the church, the Body, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart consummates in the New Jerusalem. This is the general outline of God’s economy. Therefore, the economy of God is from incarnation to the manifestation of the New Jerusalem. This is the entire New Testament.
The entire New Testament concerns the economy of God and begins with incarnation. The Gospel of Matthew opens in a marvelous way: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob” (1:1-2). After the begetting of forty-two generations, Mary and Joseph, two descendants of David, were brought forth, and out of them Christ was born. Actually, Joseph had nothing to do with the birth of Christ; he was related only in name according to law. Although he was Mary’s husband, Matthew 1 says that Jesus Christ was born of Mary (v. 16); it does not say that Christ was born of Joseph. This indicates that Christ’s birth was unrelated to Joseph. Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit (v. 20) and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus as God who became flesh had a genealogy of forty-two generations; this genealogy is an abstract of the entire Old Testament. Hence, you must have a thorough study of the Old Testament before you can explain the genealogy of these forty-two generations. I spent much time to study this genealogy and wrote a book entitled Gleanings of Christ’s Genealogy in the summer of 1936; the main points in this book were later incorporated into the notes of the Recovery Version of the New Testament.
God became flesh and was born to be a man, and this man was the initiation of God’s economy; with this initiation grace was brought in. Hence, John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. This is still not clear enough; verse 17 says even more clearly that the law was given through Moses, but grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. This word indicates that the law, which is something dead, cannot act on its own; hence, it was decreed and conveyed through Moses. But grace, which is living, is capable of coming; hence, it came through Jesus Christ. This means that when Jesus Christ came, grace came; that is, grace commenced. Matthew 1 is the initiation of the New Testament, John 1 is the commencement of grace, and the last two chapters of Revelation are concerned with the New Jerusalem. The consummation of the New Jerusalem is absolutely the work of grace in the New Testament. Hence, the last verse of Revelation says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints” (22:21). This shows us that from incarnation to the manifestation of the New Jerusalem everything is grace. This is the general outline of God’s economy, and the crystallized significance of its every step has been covered in the previous chapter. All the brothers and sisters among us, particularly the elders and co-workers, need to learn to speak the crystallization of God’s economy.