Paul experienced the Lord’s grace to be a surpassing one and to labor abundantly for the Lord (1 Cor. 15:10). The Lord whom he experienced enabled him to labor more abundantly than all the saints. When he did that, he experienced Christ as his grace. Today, the resurrected Christ brings the processed Triune God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply that we may experience Him as grace and thus be a surpassing one and labor abundantly for the Lord.
We reign in life by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. This is grace reigning in life unto eternal life (Rom. 5:17b, 21b). The life we have received does not merely save us from a few things; rather, it enthrones us as kings to reign over all things. We have received righteousness objectively, but we still need to continually receive the abundance of grace so that we can reign in life subjectively. If we have the experience of the aforementioned sixteen items, we are those who stand in the abundance of grace. Then we can reign in life so that everything is controlled by us instead of everything directing us. This is to overcome. This is grace reigning unto eternal life.
In the church life, when all the believers have grace upon them, the church will be built up. However, it is easy for us to come out of grace and argue with others. A person who has seen grace knows Christ and has nothing to argue about with others. If a person argues, he does not know grace. How do we stand in grace? Practically, it means that we come back to our spirit. We need to exercise to turn back to our spirit. When we return to our spirit, we stand in grace. Regardless of how much others criticize you, judge you, or dispute with you, never open your mouth and never reason. Instead, learn to return to your spirit. Once you begin to reason, you will begin to debate; if you keep arguing, you will end up murmuring. Do not reason or murmur; do not stay in your mind or in your emotion but be in spirit. When you are in spirit, you are in Christ; that is to stand in grace. Sometimes when you pray-read a verse or sing a hymn, the Lord’s word will bring you into the grace in Christ. You may be full of reasonings and murmurings, but when you turn back to your spirit, you stand in grace. As a result, what comes out of your mouth is grace. In His economy God does not require you to do anything. What God wants in His economy is for Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, to become the embodied grace to you. He lives in us, and we live in Him as grace. In this way God can obtain His organism.
Today we are not merely individual Christians, because it is not just one individual alone who receives grace, but all the believers receive great grace (Acts 4:33). No individual by himself is the organism of God. This organism is corporate, not individual. We have been crucified with Christ; now Christ is in us not only to be our life and life supply but also to be our person. Christ and we live together; two lives have one living, two natures are mingled into one nature, and two spirits become one spirit. Such a living is the organism for the processed and consummated Triune God to live among us organically for His expression. This is God’s intention in His economy.
In such an organic church life, the grace received by the believers is visible (Acts 11:23). The Triune God received and enjoyed by the believers is expressed in their salvation, change in life, holy living, and the gifts they exercise in their meetings, all of which can be seen by others.
What God wants today is that we experience the grace in His economy so that the Divine Trinity may have an organism. Today people only talk about the universal church and the local churches; they debate a great deal, yet there is no manifestation of this organism. This is my concern. We may be right concerning the church both universally and locally, yet there may be no organism. This organism is not a matter of arguing about the local churches or the universal church; this organism depends on our going to the cross and on the resurrected Christ’s being in us. We become one with Him as the One who died, resurrected, and ascended—two lives share one living, two natures are mingled into one nature (without producing a third nature), and two spirits become one spirit. If there is a group of brothers and sisters who live on the earth in this way, this group of brothers and sisters is the organism that God desires to have.
Brothers and sisters, if we study each of the items mentioned above, we will see that the apostles’ teaching in the beginning was according to the pattern of their living. What they taught was concerning such an organism. They did not speak about the universal church or the local churches. If we only speak about these things, we are still speaking about the ”; we do not have God as the organic One in us. If we can see this and live in this organic One, instead of engaging in outward discussions and debates about the photo, we will experience great deliverance.
Today the processed and consummated Triune God has become the life-giving Spirit and is all-inclusive. As such a One, He is in us to bring us all into His organism. In this organism is the organic element that God wants. It is not the outward explanation of doctrines. The more we are right in doctrine, the less organic element we have. The more we remain in the ”” the less we are in the living person. I hope that our eyes will be opened to see where our real need is. We need to be in the processed and consummated Triune God, taking Him as our life and our person. We are on the cross, and yet in His resurrection we have been resurrected, and we have ascended with Him. Here, God and man are mingled to produce an organism. This is accomplished by grace. The grace in God’s economy is the embodiment of God for man to receive as his enjoyment and supply. We should learn to receive such an embodied grace that we may have this enjoyment and supply. As a result, we will be full of the organic element in our inner being and thus become the organism of God.