The general subject of this Chinese New Year’s conference is the law and grace of God in His economy. We are not here merely to see the law and grace of God; it is not that simple. What we want to see is the law and grace of God in His economy. We will cover this general subject with four messages. The contents of this general subject are:
1) God’s economy is to work out an organism for His Divine Trinity.
2) The law in God’s economy is used by God to expose the sinner’s sinful nature and wicked deeds.
3) The grace in God’s economy as the embodiment of God is to be received by man as man’s enjoyment and supply.
4) The accomplishment of the experience of the grace in God’s economy is the organic Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem.
God’s economy, the law of God in His economy, and the grace of God in His economy—these three things—are the subject of the entire Bible. From the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation, what is the entire Bible with sixty-six books concerned with? Some say that the Bible is a book on ethics and morality that tells husbands to love their wives and wives to be subject to their own husbands. Others say that the Bible is an excellent book of literature that contains many proverbs with admonitions. Still others say that the Bible is a book on science, since more than 2,700 years ago, at the time Isaiah wrote his book, he said that God sits above the circle of the earth, indicating that he already knew that the earth was round. Furthermore, there are others who say that the Bible is a book of prophecies, for it refers to the seventy weeks, which cover the entire human history and the end of the world. Although the Bible speaks of all these things, these matters are not its central subject. What is its central subject? The central subject of the Bible is God’s economy.
Now we would like to see the economy of God, which is a very great subject. Ephesians 1:10, 3:9, and 1 Timothy 1:4 are three portions of the Word that are focused on God’s economy. God’s economy came out of His heart’s desire, which is His delight. The eternal God, the infinite God, surely has His heart’s desire. The desire of God’s heart is God’s good pleasure. For the sake of His heart’s desire and His good pleasure, God designed a plan in eternity to accomplish His purpose that He might obtain His heart’s delight, His heart’s desire, and His good pleasure. This plan, this design, is God’s economy.
According to the book of Ephesians, God’s economy is to obtain an organism. God is infinite and intangible, yet He desires to gain the tangible man that He might enter into man to be man’s life organically. God is concealed and invisible, yet He desires to be united and mingled with the tangible man that He may have a visible, tangible expression. This expression is not an expression of man but an expression of God, who dwells in man as man’s life.
Take for example a lectern. A lectern is an object with a form and an appearance, yet it is inorganic because there is no life in it. In contrast, I am a living person. I am not merely an object with a form and an appearance; I have something intangible within me that is called life. Because I have life within me, there is something organic in me; therefore, my whole being is an organism. God’s intention is to gain man as His organism, an organism that bears His image (Gen. 1:27) and takes Him as life (2:9) to express Him and represent Him (1:26) so that He may glorify Himself, that is, express Himself in glory. Furthermore, this expression is not something invisible or abstract; it is something visible and tangible within a body. This body is not God’s own image and form; it is the image and form of a God-man as the issue of the union and mingling of God with man—God being expressed through the human form. Such a body is not only the uniting together of God and man but the union of God with man as one that all God’s glory may be manifested through the human form.
God’s intention is for such an organism to be the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) that this organism may be united and mingled with Christ (John 15:5a) and have the same life and nature as Christ, that the two may become one (Eph. 5:31-32) as Christ’s counterpart (cf. Gen. 2:18b) to live Christ (Phil. 1:21) and express Christ as the processed Triune God (v. 20).
The first step God took for the accomplishment of such an economy was creation. His old creation was with man as its center. He finished the creation of all things in their great diversity within six days. When everything was complete, He created man. God created man in His inward image and according to His outward likeness so that man may be like God within and without. Man, however, could not be God Himself. This may be compared to a picture of you. It is you no matter from which angle we look at it, yet it is not you. Although it is your picture, you must admit that it is not you but just a picture of you. Your picture bears your image, your form, and your likeness, but you are not in it and it does not have you as its life. Hence, a picture is not organic; it is not an organism.
God created man in His inward image and according to His outward likeness that man may look like Him and represent Him. However, man did not have God within him. Man only had the God-created life; man did not have the uncreated life of God. The created man was man but not God; he had the human nature but not the divine nature. He had God’s form, image, and likeness but not God’s life and nature; he surely was not God. For man to be God’s organism and become the Body of Christ, man had to receive God as life. Therefore, God put man in front of the tree of life. This means that He intended for man to eat the fruit of the tree of life that man may receive Him as life.