In the previous two messages we referred to the two aspects of God’s complete salvation, the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. We also covered the first two items of the organic aspect, regeneration and shepherding. In this message we will go on to another two items: dispositional sanctification and renewing.
First of all, we want to see that the contents of the New Testament are God’s work in both the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. In God’s complete salvation, the judicial work was accomplished in only thirty-three and a half years, from the Lord’s incarnation to His becoming the life-giving Spirit in resurrection as the incarnated One. The Gospel of John begins in chapter one by saying that in the beginning was the Word and the Word became flesh (vv. 1, 14), and it concludes in chapter twenty (chapter twenty-one being an appendix) by telling us that the Lord resurrected as the Spirit (v. 22). In between it tells us how the incarnated Jesus passed through all kinds of hardships on earth, lived a life under the shadow of the cross, and eventually went to the cross to die there. Then through His death He entered into resurrection, and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This is the content of the Gospels. Following this, the book of Acts gives a record of the apostles preaching the judicial work accomplished by the Lord in thirty-three and a half years. People in different places heard and believed in what the apostles preached, issuing in the churches. Then the churches constitute the Body of Christ organically and will ultimately consummate the New Jerusalem. After the book of Acts, there are the twenty-two Epistles, from Romans to Revelation, all of which speak concerning the organic aspect of God’s salvation, that is, concerning regeneration, shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification.
In brief, of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, the first four Gospels unveil the history, speaking in particular concerning the Lord Jesus; the fifth book, Acts, tells us how this Jesus was announced to different places. This announcing was greatly effective and it brought in the churches, issuing in the Body of Christ and ultimately consummating the New Jerusalem. Following Acts, the twenty-two Epistles cover particularly the church, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. In what way? By speaking concerning regeneration, shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification. These items, from regeneration to glorification, are for the producing of the church, the Body of Christ, and eventually the consummating of the New Jerusalem. Hence, these eight items are matters in between the church and the New Jerusalem. Therefore, the New Testament covers the work of Christ in two periods. The first period was His thirty-three and a half years on earth, and in this period all of God’s work was judicial and was accomplished by the Lord Jesus. The second period is from the time after His resurrection to the present day through eternity, and in this period all of God’s work is organic and is being carried out by the Spirit. Therefore, Philippians 1:19 refers to “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God, has the bountiful supply and even is the bountiful supply. This bountiful supply involves the judicial work of the first section and the organic work of the second section.
The first item of the organic work of God is regeneration, which is to bring the Triune God into man. Regeneration means that Christ is received by man and enters into man. This Christ who enters into those who receive Him is the embodiment of the Father. Therefore, when He comes in, the Father also comes in. Not only so, the realization, the reality, of Christ is the Spirit. Therefore, when Christ comes in, not only both the Father and the Son come in, but the Spirit also comes in. The three-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-all come in and abide in the regenerated ones, become one spirit with the believers, and are joined with them as one. This is an exceedingly great matter in the universe. Therefore, D. L. Moody, the founder of the Moody Bible Institute and a great evangelist in America in the last century, said that regeneration is the greatest miracle in the universe.
If we do not have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit abiding in us to be constituted with us as an organism, there can be no church and no Body of Christ. Therefore, in Ephesians 4 Paul referred to one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father (vv. 4-6). This one God and Father Himself has an aspect of three-He is over all and through all and in all (v. 6). Not only is the Father here, but also the Son and the Spirit are here. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit and the redeemed, regenerated, shepherded, sanctified, renewed, transformed, built-up, conformed, and glorified people are constituted together to become an organism, that is, the church, the Body of Christ.
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