Prayer: O Lord, our hearts are full of thanks and praise that You chose us before the foundation of the world and You set us apart in this age. How great this grace is and what a miracle this is! While millions of people are busy for the world, You have separated us so that, like Mary, we may sit at Your feet to receive Your word, seek Your heart, and follow Your lovely self. Dear Lord, we do not follow the letter; we follow You. We pray that You would remember us!
O Lord, You were once in the flesh with Your disciples, and then You became the Spirit to enter into them. You were with them not only outwardly but also inwardly; You were with them not only in one place but also everywhere. Furthermore, You not only were with them all the time and everywhere, but You were in them as the Spirit and life whereby they could live. Lord, we have heard all these things, but we are still short of revelation, vision, and light. We pray that once again You would give us the revelation, the heavenly vision, and the clear light.
O Lord, cleanse us and forgive us. We really confess that up to now we are still living in our natural being and in the old creation; we still have a great measure of our fleshly element. Outwardly, it seems that we have no mistakes or trespasses, but we definitely live in our natural self, our old creation, and even in our flesh, always offending You and opposing You. We are like today’s Amalekites resisting Your economy. O Lord, we pray that You would deal with us again and renew us. Grant us Your visitation and Your grace in every way. Amen!
There are seven great matters in God’s economy. The first five matters are the five steps of God’s economy, which are incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. These five steps bring in the sixth great matter, which is a great issue—the church, which is the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart of Christ. Hence, this great issue is of five aspects: the church, the Body, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart. This issue with five aspects has a consummation—the New Jerusalem; this is the seventh great matter. We must clearly see these seven great matters in God’s economy: five major steps bringing forth an issue with five aspects that consummate in the New Jerusalem.
The five major steps of God’s economy were accomplished by God in His becoming a man. First He became flesh to be a man in the flesh. Then He lived the human life altogether in the flesh; when He was on the earth, people saw not a spirit but Jesus in the flesh, a carpenter of Nazareth. Furthermore, most of the people whom He contacted were fishermen from Galilee and, other than Nicodemus, very few were high-class people. This was His living of the human life in the flesh.
It was in His flesh that He accomplished redemption through death. The New Testament strongly says that on the cross Christ offered Himself in His human body to God (Heb. 10:5, 10) to accomplish an eternal redemption for us (9:12). Once redemption was accomplished, He rested. It was on the sixth day that He suffered crucifixion. On the next day after the accomplishment of redemption, that is, the seventh day, the Sabbath, He rested. His disciples did not dare to do anything, so they also rested (Luke 23:56). Then on the eighth day, the first day of the week, Mary the Magdalene came early to the tomb and discovered that the Lord had resurrected (John 20:1). Once the Lord entered into resurrection, redemption was successfully accomplished (Rom. 4:25).
Redemption was accomplished in death and concluded in resurrection, because once He entered into resurrection, the Lord was set free from His flesh and entered into another stage. Actually, the Lord was not set free from His flesh; rather, He was transfigured in His body to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) that He may move as the Spirit. The first step He took in His move as the Spirit was to contact Mary the Magdalene in the morning of His resurrection (John 20:14-16). Mary received an exceedingly great blessing because she loved the Lord to the uttermost. She was not only the first one who discovered the Lord’s resurrection but also the first one whom the Lord contacted after His resurrection. Mary was very excited and wanted to touch the Lord, but the Lord said to her, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (v. 17a). This means that the freshness of the Lord’s resurrection as the firstfruits of the harvest must be manifested first for the Father’s enjoyment.
Then the Lord said to Mary, “Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (v. 17b). Previously, the most intimate term the Lord had used in reference to His disciples was “friends” (15:14-15). But in the morning of His resurrection, the Lord regenerated all His disciples, including you and me, in His resurrection. Peter was so deeply impressed with this matter that in 1 Peter 1:3 he says that God the Father has regenerated us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. From then on, the Lord began to call His disciples “brothers,” because they all were regenerated with the divine life through His resurrection.
After His resurrection, the Lord ascended to the Father with His resurrected body (John 20:17). That was a secret ascension; it occurred forty days prior to His public ascension, which took place before the eyes of the disciples (Acts 1:9-11). These are the five major steps of God’s becoming a man.