Week of 6 September 2020
A Timely Word concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (3) — The Universal History according to God’s Economy—the Divine History within the Human History
In this universe there are two histories: the history of man, the human history, and the history of God, the divine history. The former is like an outward shell, and the latter, like the kernel within the shell. We need to have a clear view of the divine history within the human history.
The history of man is outward; the divine history, the history of God with man and in man, is inward. Before Christ’s incarnation God moved with men and among men; this was not His direct move to carry out His eternal economy for Christ and the church but His indirect move in His old creation for the preparation of His direct move in His new creation for His eternal economy.
God’s history is of two portions—the history of God with man, found in the Old Testament, and the history of God in man, found in the New Testament. God’s history in man began with Christ’s incarnation and continued with His human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. It then continues with His becoming the life-giving Spirit and indwelling us through God’s organic salvation of regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification to make us the glorious bride of Christ.
At the time of Christ’s coming back, there will be a meeting of two figures - Antichrist, a figure in the outward, human history, and Christ, the Figure in the intrinsic, divine history. At that time, Christ will descend with His overcomers as His army, to defeat Antichrist and his army. After the Figure in the divine history defeats the figure in the human history, the thousand-year kingdom will come, and this kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem—the ultimate and consummate step of the divine history.
Therefore, we need to consider whether we are living merely in the human history or living also in the divine history. If our living is in the world, we are living merely in the outward, human history; but if our living is in the church, we are living in the inward, divine history.
Our living, our daily walk, our schooling, our job, and our business must be a part of God’s history in His marvelous and excellent move on the earth today. We need to be one with God in His history, moving and energizing in His loving overcomers; that is, we need to be one with God in life, in living, and in our entire doing today on this earth! We need to write God’s today’s history!.
Furthermore, in the divine history what is being recovered today is God’s economy, which is focused on the central work of God - to work Himself in Christ into His chosen and redeemed people, making Himself one with them for His expression. According to His economy, God will rule over the world, produce a situation for Israel to be His elect, gain the church as His mysterious people, and have the nations to be the peoples in the eternal kingdom of God; if we see this, we will know where we are, and we will know the meaning of our human life. Thus, we need to have a clear vision of God’s economy and be governed, controlled, directed, preserved, and protected by this vision; today in the Lord’s recovery we must be strong and unshakable in the vision of God’s economy.
God’s ultimate move is to have Christ, the mystery of God, enter into us as our life so that we may become His living members and form His Body, which is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Those who live Christ, who live in the spirit, are the actual Body of Christ corporately; they are also the one new man in actuality, a new creation with a new living to express the Triune God. Eventually, the Body life will reach the reality of Romans 12, and this will be the preparation of the bride for the Lord’s coming back. We must be burdened with God’s ultimate move. Then we will see God’s oneness with us, and there will be no problem with our living. We must rise up and stand for the Lord’s recovery. This is the ultimate time for God to accomplish His purpose to bring the Lord back.
(Source:https://www.churchintaipei.org/weeklynews/archive/1138.pdf )
The Divine History within the Human History
If we would know the divine history that takes place within the human history, we first need to realize that the Triune God is eternal. For God to be eternal means that with Him there is no beginning. Within Himself, this eternal One made an economy. According to His economy, God wants to work Himself into man to be one with man, to be man’s life, life supply, and everything, and to have man as His expression. God’s intention in His economy is thus to have a corporate entity, composed of God and man, to be His expression for eternity. This divine history began with the eternal God and His economy.
The divine history continued with the incarnation and human living of Christ. One day the very God who created the universe became incarnated, being conceived of the Holy Spirit within the womb of a human virgin and then born of this virgin to be the God-man, the One who is the complete God and a perfect man. It is marvelous that God became a man named Jesus and that this man lived in Nazareth, working as a carpenter, until the age of thirty. Christ’s incarnation and His human living both are parts of the divine history, the history of God within the history of man.
At the end of His life and ministry on earth, the Lord Jesus went willingly to the cross. His crucifixion was a vicarious death, an all-inclusive death which terminated the old creation and solved all problems. His death ushered Him into resurrection. On the one hand, in His resurrection He was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:4; 8:29). On the other hand, in and through His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
Furthermore, through Christ’s resurrection millions were begotten, regenerated, by God (1 Pet. 1:3) to be sons of God and to be members of the Body of Christ, the church. The Christ who was incarnated, crucified, and resurrected, the Christ who ascended to the heavens and then descended as the Spirit, has produced the church as the corporate expression of the Triune God. The church today is the enlargement of the manifestation of Christ. Thus, the church also is part of the divine history, the intrinsic history of the divine mystery within the outward, human history. This part of God’s history has lasted for more than nineteen hundred years, and it is still going on.
At the end of this part of the divine history, Christ will come back, descending with His overcomers as His army (Joel 3:11) to defeat Antichrist and his army. There will be the meeting of two figures—Antichrist, a figure in the outward, human history, and Christ with His overcomers, the Figure in the intrinsic, divine history. The Figure in the divine history will defeat the figure in the human history and then cast him into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). Following this, the thousand-year kingdom will come. Eventually, this kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate, the consummate, step of God’s history.
(Life-study of Joel, chap. 6)
BAPTISM TESTIMONY
I was finally baptised on 3 September 2020 after meeting with the church for 7 years. Coming from a Buddhist family, while I was not denied permission to attend church meetings, I was told by my parents "要信不要迷", which means "believe but do not be obsessed". From the world's point of view, spending a lot of time in the church or with the Lord was considered an "obsession", which was what I believed at first. I am thankful that the Lord had chosen me and put me in His recovery to see the truth that it is not just a blind obsession. It is His love that makes us want to run after Him.
Even though I had believed into Him years ago, I was still hesitant about baptism. I was uncertain about what would change after. Over the years, I had spoken to many saints about my concerns, and they slowly helped me find my way to the Lord with their speaking. During the recent bible study sessions with the campus saints, in which some working saints were so kind to lend their homes for us to gather, the saints shared to
their stories of baptism. I was very touched when I realised that for them, baptism was a very simple and pure process to be closer to the Lord. The topic during one of the Bible study sessions was also on faith - that we believe in Jesus Christ by His faith, for in ourselves we have no faith of our own. Faith is an aspect of Christ Himself. The more you try to believe by yourself, the less faith you have. It was very encouraging to me because I always had so many concerns about being baptised, but the faith is of Him, and I do not need to have my own faith any more. I believe that the Spirit was with me when I shared with the saints how I felt. I was not of my own anymore. I also want to thank all the saints who had been praying for me fervently, as well as guiding and encouraging me throughout the whole process. Praise the Lord for the Body!
Mark 16:16 says, "He who believes and is baptised shall be saved." I had believed for over 10 years now and the Lord tells me it is finally time for me to be baptised. The Lord knows best and I will heed what He tells me. For I am a child of God and He is calling me back to Him. Praise the Lord that He has chosen and saved me from the world. —— Sister Geraldene Tay, NUS Life Science, Year 2
