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THE VITAL GROUPS

MESSAGE THIRTEEN

NOURISHING PEOPLE WITH THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST IN HIS FULL MINISTRY IN THE THREE STAGES

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OUTLINE

  1. The accomplishments of Christ in the stage of His inclusion from His resurrection to the degradation of the church:
    1. To be begotten as God's firstborn Son:
      1. From eternity past without beginning, Christ was God's only begotten Son:
        1. Possessing only divinity, without humanity.
        2. Not having passed through death into resurrection.
      2. In incarnation the only begotten Son of God became flesh to be a God-man, a man possessing both the divine nature and the human nature.
      3. Through death and resurrection Christ in the flesh as the seed of David was designated to be the firstborn Son of God:
        1. In death His humanity was crucified.
        2. In resurrection His crucified humanity was made alive by the Spirit of His divinity and was uplifted into the sonship of the only begotten Son of God.
        3. Thus, He was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God.
    2. To become the life-giving Spirit:
      1. First Corinthians 15:45b says, "The last Adam [Christ in the flesh] became a life-giving Spirit."
      2. This life-giving Spirit "was not yet" before the resurrection of Christ—the glorification of Christ—John 7:39.
      3. Christ, the Son of God as the second of the Divine Trinity, after completing His ministry on the earth, became (was transfigured into) the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection:
        1. This life-giving Spirit is signified by the water that flowed out of the pierced side of Jesus on the cross—John 19:34.
        2. To release the divine life that was confined in the shell of Christ's humanity and to dispense it into His believers, making them the many members which constitute His Body—John 12:24.
      4. This life-giving Spirit who is the pneumatic Christ is also called:
        1. The Spirit of life—Rom. 8:2.
        2. The Spirit of Jesus—Acts 16:7.
        3. The Spirit of Christ—Rom. 8:9.
        4. The Spirit of Jesus Christ—Phil. 1:19.
        5. The Lord Spirit—2 Cor. 3:18.
      5. To regenerate the believers for His Body—1 Pet. 1:3:
        1. The pneumatic Christ became the life-giving Spirit for the regenerating of the believers, making them the many sons of God born of God with Him in the one universally big delivery:
          1. For the composition of the house of God, even the household of God.
          2. For the constitution of the Body of Christ to be His fullness, His expression and expansion, to consummate the eternal expression and expansion of the processed and consummated Triune God:
            1. 1) All the believers of Christ in this one Spirit have been baptized into the one Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:13a.
            2. 2) All the believers who are baptized in this one Spirit are given to drink this Spirit—1 Cor. 12:13b.
        2. The Christ in resurrection giving Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit without measure through His speaking of the words of God—John 3:34.
        3. All the believers in Christ are built up into a dwelling place of God in their spirit indwelt by Him as the Spirit—Eph. 2:22:
          1. Through dispositional sanctification—Rom. 15:16.
          2. Through renewing—Titus 3:5.
          3. Through transformation—2 Cor. 3:18.
          4. Through conformation—Rom. 8:29.

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