The Bible clearly tells us what God’s ultimate move is. God’s ultimate move is to have Christ as the mystery of God enter into us as our life. Then we become His living members and together form His Body, which is the very fullness of the One who fills all in all. We do not understand this in an adequate way, but this is what is in the Bible. This is Paul’s completing ministry, telling us that Christ is God’s mystery and Christ has become our life; that we are the church, which is Christ’s mystery (Eph. 3:4-6); that the church is the Body. No other writer of the Bible besides Paul tells us that the church is the Body of Christ.
But Paul’s ministry was damaged. Even before his death, a decline had set in. Different teachings came in. Thus Paul wrote in 1 Timothy about holding the mystery of the faith (3:9). What is the mystery? “Great is the mystery of godliness, Who was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (3:16). This was Paul’s declaration to bring the degraded Christians back to his completing ministry.
Later God raised up the oldest apostle, John, and gave him the mending ministry. (We have already published three series of messages on this, called The Heavenly Ministry of Christ, The Completing Ministry of Paul, and The Mending Ministry of John.) John’s Gospel, Epistles, and Revelation were all written around A.D. 90. These last books of the Bible were written to mend the broken net, the broken completing ministry.
What was the way to mend? It was to say the same thing. We have already mentioned John 14 and 15, where the Lord Jesus said He and the Father would make Their abode with us, and that He would be in us and we in Him. He also said that we may eat Him as the living bread (John 6:51) and live because of Him (v. 57). In his Epistles he tells us repeatedly that God dwells in us (1 John 3:24b; 4:13, 15, 16).
Then in Revelation the Lord Jesus Himself promised, “To him who overcomes...I will give to eat of the tree of life” (2:7); “To him who overcomes...I will give of the hidden manna” (2:17). He promised eating of the tree of life and of the hidden manna and feasting with Him (3:20). He also promised, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God” (3:12). A pillar is for building. Thus the eating of Christ is for the building. At the end of Revelation, that is, at the end of the entire Bible, what will there be? A built-up Jerusalem with the throne, the river of life, and the tree of life growing along the two sides of the river. This is a clear picture of the coming consummation of God’s purpose. This is God’s ultimate move. We all have to see this.
Some Christians say that they follow Christ, not Paul. What can this mean? Such preaching will be largely limited to these points: Christ is the Son of God; He became a man, lived on this earth, then died on the cross for our sins; He was buried, then arose from the dead, and is now on the throne; He is our Redeemer and Savior, soon to return to take us to heaven; by believing in Him we have forgiveness of sins and are children of God; while we are on this earth, we have to improve our behavior that our lives may glorify God.
At best, Christian teachers today just encourage people to love God and to go out to win souls. They do not realize that the fourth Gospel was written by John to mend Paul’s broken ministry. How could they say they follow Christ? If they follow Christ, they should follow His word in John 14 and 15. They also should follow His word in Revelation, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” This is Christ’s word. But it seems that in their Bible the book of Revelation is missing. In their theology they do not have the seven Spirits. Nor do they have Christ in resurrection becoming the life-giving Spirit and indwelling us.
Although many Christians appreciate the Nicene Creed, it has some defects. These two main points are clearly stated in the New Testament: (1) Paul’s Epistles tell us that Christ in resurrection became the life-giving Spirit indwelling us (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Tim. 4:22); (2) John’s writings tell us of the seven Spirits for the seven golden lampstands (Rev. 1:4, 11-12, 20). But the Nicene Creed did not cover these two things. Many Christians believe that this creed, made under Constantine the Great, is scriptural and fundamental. But, it neglects what Paul tells us in his completing ministry, that Christ lives in us that we may all become His Body. It ignores what John tells us in his mending ministry, that Christ lives in us to be our food, the tree of life, the manna, even a feast, that we may become a lampstand.
In the Scriptures only Paul tells us that the church is the Body of Christ; only John tells us that the church is a lampstand. To be the Body and to be the lampstand both depend upon the eating of Jesus.
These Christians who claim to follow Christ but not Paul remind me of the primitive missionaries who went to China. What message did these missionaries mainly have? Only “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” They had no hymn about Christ making His home in my heart. They had no hymn saying that Jesus, after resurrection, became a life-giving Spirit to live in me to be my life that I might be His member and all of us might be His Body, the church, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
I hope some hymns could be written, saying that Christ is now the life-giving Spirit, even the seven Spirits, in me to make me His living member; this I know because the Bible tells me so!
A popular Bible teacher has said that since these two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are not here now, there is no reason to be concerned about them. He did not realize that these two trees are here within us more than they were in the garden of Eden! In the garden they were outside Adam; today they are within us. Is not the tree of life in you? Is not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in you? Paul says, “Christ [who is the real tree of life] lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Paul also says, “If what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that do it but sin that dwells in me” (Rom. 7:20). Who is this sin? It is Satan in our flesh (7:17-18) who is the real tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If the tree of life is not in you, how could you have the law of the Spirit of life? If the tree of knowledge is not in you, how could you have the law of sin and death (8:2; 7:21)? Do you see the blindness, the ignorance, the superficiality, of most of today’s Christian teachings?
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