God’s ultimate move was fully revealed through one apostle, Paul. He was the one who received the stewardship to complete the word of God (Col. 1:25-27), that is, to complete the revelation of God’s move.
Without Paul’s Epistles we can see God’s move in creation. We can also see His move in incarnation. The four Gospels tell us how God in the Person of the Son became incarnate. They also reveal His move in crucifixion and in resurrection. To some extent they also show God’s move in ascension. The book of Acts goes on to show more: how God moved by descending upon the disciples and by setting up the churches. However, with Acts there is no completion of the revelation of God’s move.
In order to see God’s ultimate activities in relation to mankind, we must go beyond Acts to the fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul. He clearly presents this ultimate move: the Triune God, having passed through many processes, is now working Himself into His chosen people to be their life. He is now the indwelling Spirit. This Spirit is the consummate expression and reaching to man of the Triune God, that He may constitute His chosen people both the sons of God with the divine life and nature and also the members of Christ organically united to Him, so that God may have a family and Christ may have a Body to express Him corporately.
Does any New Testament writer other than Paul give us this revelation? Peter’s writings say nothing of this. We treasure Peter’s Epistles mainly because of his word about our being “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). Peter has written only eight chapters, five in his first Epistle and three in his second. He mentions the burning of the old creation and the coming of a new heaven and a new earth. But nowhere does he tell us that Christ lives in us. He never mentions that we are members of Christ. He does not even tell us that the church is the Body of Christ. These are not insignificant items. They are great! Since Peter does not mention them, he must not have seen them very clearly.
Paul covers all these matters not just in one or two verses but in fourteen books. He tells us that we have been not only justified and reconciled to God, but also that we have been born of Him! We are His sons, possessing His life and nature. This means we are of the same nature as God. If our children have our life and nature, are they not the same as we are? They are not we, yet they are the same as we. We are not God, yet we are the same as God in the divine life and nature. We are sons born of Him, not sons adopted by Him. Paul made this more than clear.
He also made clear that we are the members of Christ. He said it was of God that we are in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). We were in Adam, but God has transferred us into Christ, not just in a positional way but in a living way. Thus there is an organic union between us and Christ. We are His members. He is the Head; we are the Body. He and we are both Christ. The corporate Christ is not only the Head, but also the Body. How could someone have a head and no body? Yet this is the Christ of many Christians. They do not even think of Christ as having a Body. Many Christians lack a direct realization that we are members of Christ. Do you have such a sense? Paul even says that our bodies are members of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15). Not only our spirit but our body! To be one with Christ, to be His Body, is a great matter. Where did this revelation come from? No one but Paul made this so clear. He completed the revelation of the divine Word, telling us that God’s ultimate move is to get this Body, this large family.
Unfortunately, this revelation was damaged. So after the completing ministry, God gave the mending ministry. John came in to mend. When the sisters repair a hole in an article of clothing, they make the mended part stronger than the original. This is also true to some extent of John’s ministry. Paul, for example, does not tell us of the seven Spirits. Is God’s Spirit one or seven? The Spirit is both one and seven. The mender stresses the Spirit sevenfold more than Paul. John also tells us that the seven Spirits are the eyes of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6). If the Trinity comprises three separate Persons, how can the Third be the eyes of the Second? How could this be explained? No one can analyze the Trinity. Paul, however, firstly tells us that Christ in resurrection became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Then John indicates that this life-giving Spirit is the seven Spirits. He strengthens the Spirit sevenfold. This is just one example of how the mending ministry is stronger than the completing.
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