The earlier overcomers will be rewarded. The Lord will reward the overcomers in this age with what they are in Christ. They will enjoy their victory, but the defeated ones who were not ready will have nothing to enjoy as their reward. Instead, the Lord will deal with them so that they can become matured and perfected. Eventually, the majority of the believers will enjoy what they are in Christ for eternity.

We can prove this according to our experience. When we are victorious in the Lord, we enjoy our victory every day, but when we are defeated, the enjoyment of the Lord is gone. When we are victorious, the Lord is our enjoyment in what we are. What we would, could, and should enjoy in the Lord will be what we are. When people graduate from college, their graduation time is an enjoyment of what they are. They enjoy the fruit of their labor during their college years. Those who failed to make passing grades still have to come back to school so that they can graduate. This is the educational system’s way.

This educational system is a wise way, but our God is wiser. He has a big operation in the universe. He selected millions of people, who were saved by grace. Grace is based upon mercy. Our salvation has nothing to do with what we are or with what we will be. God saved us and gave us so much. He gave us Himself, the divine life, the Holy Spirit, and Christ as His embodiment, the all-inclusive One. Because He gave us so much, we should be those who overcome. But regretfully many believers would not care for the Lord. They would care only for their eternal salvation. They would say, “As long as I am eternally saved and can go to heaven, I will be satisfied.” They may be satisfied, but the Lord is not satisfied. Actually, whoever does not overcome in this age will not be satisfied in the next age. They will have nothing with which to be satisfied. Since we are Christians, we have to respond to the Lord’s call to be overcomers.

We have pointed out that Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is a book concerning the overcomers (see The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation, pp. 63-75). The last book of the Bible is nearly a closed book to many Christians. It seems that nobody understands what it is talking about. Revelation refers to the seven golden lampstands, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. Eventually, this book concludes with a mysterious city. According to Revelation 21:16, the city will be a square of twelve thousand stadia (a stadion equals about six hundred feet). The city is of pure gold and precious stones with gates of pearl (vv. 18-21). Many readers and teachers of the Bible do not see the significance of this mysterious city. Because many Bible teachers do not understand the book of Revelation, they basically avoid it in their teaching.

By the Lord’s mercy, He has shown us that Revelation is a simple book. It was not written by a great scholar but by the apostle John, who was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. This fisherman surely did not have a theological mind. His writings are basically simple. In his Gospel, John opens in a simple way by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

His final book, the book of Revelation, was also written in a very simple way, but from my youth I found it very difficult to understand. By reading it I realized that there must be something in it which is truly wonderful. Thank the Lord that gradually by His mercy, Revelation has become an open book to me. Once we see what is revealed in this book, we will see that it is very simple. The main subject of the first twenty chapters of the book of Revelation is the overcomers. Revelation 20 shows us that the overcoming martyrs will be resurrected to be the co-kings with Christ, the King, to enter into a city in which they will enjoy what they are in Christ (vv. 4-6).

An overcomer is someone who overcomes in every area of his daily life. The Lord Jesus is moving within us to live through us even in the way that we comb and cut our hair. If we do not follow Him in this matter, we will be defeated in having a worldly hair style. When the Lord says, “Don’t comb your hair that way,” we should respond, “Amen. Whatever You want, Lord Jesus.” This is what it means to overcome. This means that we love Him more than our self, more than our soul-life. An overcomer knows and loves only Christ.

In a sense, the revelation concerning the overcomers is simple, but we may wonder why such a seemingly simple subject occupies the first twenty chapters of the book of Revelation. This is because there are different categories of overcomers. One category of overcomers is the martyrs of the Old Testament and the New Testament up to the time before the great tribulation. Revelation 6 unveils that these martyred saints are underneath the altar crying out, “How long, O Master, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (v. 10). The second category of overcomers is the man-child caught up to God and to His throne in Revelation 12:5. The third category of overcomers is the hundred and forty-four thousand living overcomers, the firstfruits, in Revelation 14:1-5. They will be raptured to the heavenly Mount Zion before the great tribulation. Those who are standing on the glassy sea in Revelation 15:2-4 are the fourth category of overcomers. These four categories of overcomers constitute the fifth category, which is the prepared bride in Revelation 19:7-9. Thank the Lord that He is able to make so many of His believers overcomers. We need twenty chapters of the book of Revelation to show us how the believers are made overcomers by the Lord’s abounding and sufficient grace.

The last two chapters of Revelation unveil the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth for eternity. That will be the totality of all the believers throughout all the generations of the Old Testament and the New Testament. By then all of God’s chosen and redeemed people will have been made overcomers. This gives us an overview of the book of Revelation.

The Bible as a whole is the history of God. Many people have had histories, or biographies, written about them. When I finished writing the biography of Brother Watchman Nee (entitled Watchman Nee: A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age), I considered that God also has a biography, a history. The Bible is the best history of God. The Old Testament is the history of God with man, and the New Testament is the history of God in continuation within man. In the Old Testament, God was only with man. He did not get into man until He became incarnated. Incarnation was God entering into man. The first chapter of the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew gives us a record of how God entered into man. From that day the God with man became the very God within man.

Thank God that we are saved, regenerated, blood-washed, and Spirit-filled Christians with God in us! If someone asks us who we are, we might say, “I am a Christian.” A Christian is a believer in Christ. But who are you as a believer in Christ? The top answer is-“I am God within me.” We believers are “God in us.” The church is God in a group of human beings. This does not mean that we are God in His Godhead but that we have God within us as our life, nature, element, and essence. To say that we are “God in us” means that we are a part of God’s history. The Bible is the history of God with man in the Old Testament and then of God within man in the New Testament.
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