Beginning with Matthew 8, there are several cases which illustrate principles related to the kingdom. We have covered three cases already, and they are very meaningful. The first case shows that we were lepers, but our leprosy has been cleansed. The second case reveals that we enter the kingdom by faith. The third case tells us that now we need to enjoy our Bridegroom. The leprosy is gone, and faith has come for enjoyment. This is the kingdom life.
A leper represents man corrupted by Satan. The man God created was clean and pure. After God saw everything that He had made, including man, He said, "Very good" (Gen. 1:31). However, by the time God came in the flesh (John 1:14) to establish His kingdom, man had become a leper. Leprosy signifies the total corruption of man caused by the rebellious one, Satan.
Matthew reveals the kingdom, giving us an all-inclusive picture of the wonderful One who is the seed. He is God incarnated as a man to deal with His enemy and establish His kingdom. God's intention is to set up His kingdom with humanity, and He created man for this purpose. God created man in His own image so that man could exercise dominion over all the earth, especially over all the creeping things (Gen. 1:26-28). Satan, the serpent, is counted among the creeping things. It is God's desire that man subdue the earth, conquer the enemy, and recover God's authority in order that God could establish His kingdom.
Satan, however, corrupted the man God had created, making him a leper. According to the Old Testament types, no person is more defiled, more corrupted and ruined, than a leper. A leper represents the totality of Satan's work of corruption upon humanity. Keep in mind this meaning of a leper. When God came in the flesh, the man created by God had become fully corrupted and was a leper. But regardless of how much Satan had corrupted and ruined man, God can cleanse the lepers and recover them. This is exactly what the Lord did. If you read Leviticus 14, you can see how the blood and the water were used to cleanse the leper. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, blood and water came out of His side (John 19:34). The blood signifies redemption, and the water signifies life. With His blood and His life He has recovered us. This is an exceedingly marvelous revelation! Through His redemption our leprosy has vanished. Our ruin and corruption are gone.
The corruption is gone, and faith has come. By our natural birth, we are Gentiles and thus disqualified from participating in the kingdom. But we can have faith which comes from realizing a wonderful object. Without an object to realize, faith is vain. Faith needs an object. The object of our faith is the wonderful Lord Jesus who has all authority and who, in Himself, is the highest authority. As we realize such a wonderful One by faith, we spontaneously enter the kingdom.
The corruption caused by the enemy has been cleared away, and the wonderful and mysterious faith has come into us. Once we have this faith, we should sit down and feast with the Lord Jesus. He is our feast. Also, He is our Bridegroom, the most pleasant Person, and He is our new garment and our new wine, the qualification and the energy for enjoying Him. Christ is even our church life, the new wineskin. We simply need to enjoy Him.
We need to recall the difference between the cases selected by John and the cases selected by Matthew. In John the cases are related to life; in Matthew the cases illustrate different aspects of the kingdom. The kingdom life means that the leprosy has been cleansed and that faith has come for the enjoyment of Christ.
The Bible is very profound. No human mind could compose such a book. Its composition is very simple, but the revelation it contains is profound. The Lord Jesus even revealed the matter of resurrection from the title of God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This simple title of God implies the resurrection of the dead. Although the stories recorded in the Bible seem simple, the implications of the revelations contained in them are profound.