In this message we come to the most crucial point, which is the grace in God’s economy in the believers’ experience. The everyday experience of the believers must be grace. If it is not grace, it is not the believers’ experience; if it is not grace, it is not the Christian living. The Christian living must be the living of grace, the experience of grace. In the preceding message we saw that grace is God’s embodiment—Christ. Hence, the grace experienced by the believers is Christ, the embodiment of God.
The grace in God’s economy in the believers’ experience is the processed Triune God. Without being processed, the Triune God could not become grace. God is one, yet He is three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Son is the embodiment and expression of the Father, and the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son. In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, and as the Spirit the Son is revealed and realized. This Triune God dispenses Himself into us to be our portion as grace to us that we may enjoy Him as our everything in His Divine Trinity.
God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time as grace for man to receive, possess, and enjoy (John 1:1, 14, 16-17). The first step, which is also the greatest step, of the process which the Triune God passed through was incarnation. God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time; that was His tabernacling among men. His coming among men in this way was full of grace, and of His fullness we have all received. He came that we might receive grace, even grace upon grace. When He came, grace also came. The law was given to us, but grace came through Jesus Christ. The law could not come by itself; hence, it was given to us, but grace came with Jesus. Actually, grace is Jesus. When Jesus came, grace came. This is the Triune God with His divinity mingled into humanity becoming a God-man. Such a One is grace for us to receive, enjoy, and experience as our supply. This is the real salvation of the Lord.
It is amazing that one day the eternal God, the Creator of all things, was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. Not only so, but He stayed in the virgin’s womb for nine months. The eternal God, the infinite God, the Creator of all things, entered into the womb of a little virgin and stayed there for nine months! In His creation, God ordained that there be nine months for a human pregnancy. God did not violate this principle. At the fullness of nine months, He came out of the mother’s womb and became a child.
The incarnated God is triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). The Father as the source is embodied and expressed in the Son (John 14:8-11). God the Father is hidden, and God the Son is manifested among men. The little child lying in the manger was the eternal God, the infinite Lord, and the Lord who created the heavens, the earth, and all things. The incarnated God has been united and mingled with man. He is both the complete God and the perfect man. He is a God-man. He remained in humanity and was mingled with humanity. This God-man passed through thirty-three and a half years of human living. In the first thirty years He lived in a poor carpenter’s home and learned from Joseph to be a carpenter. He tasted and passed through all the hardships and pains of human life. Do not forget that this One who was a carpenter is the Creator of all things mingled with humanity as a small man.
At the fullness of thirty years He began to minister. He came out of Nazareth of Galilee, a despised place. He had no attracting form or majesty that people would desire Him, but His words were with power, and His doings were with great might. He caused the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the dead to be raised. The words He spoke had never been spoken by anyone else. He said, “I am the way and the reality and the life” (John 14:6). He also said, “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly” (10:10b). These words are easy to understand, yet they are very profound. Neither Confucius nor Socrates spoke these words; they could not think of such words. The words of the so-called philosophers cannot be compared to the words of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus did many things and spoke many words on earth. Eventually, He was betrayed, arrested, and crucified on the cross. He was crucified from 9:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M., suffering on the cross for six hours. During the first three hours He was persecuted by men for doing God’s will; in the last three hours He was judged by God to accomplish our redemption. During this time God counted Him as our substitute, who took the place of sinners, bearing our sins and being made sin for us. Hence, God forsook Christ on the cross. About 3:00 P.M. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). When He yielded up His spirit, the veil of the temple was split in two from top to bottom, the earth was shaken, and the rocks were split. Moreover, the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and appeared to many. All these phenomena proved that His death was not an ordinary death. He died and was buried; on the third day He resurrected from the dead. On the day after the Sabbath, which was the first day of the week, while it was still dark, some sisters went to Jesus’ tomb and were weeping there. Jesus appeared to them in resurrection, telling them, “Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17). In the evening of that day He again appeared to the disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22).