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Romans 16:25 says, “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, that is, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept in silence in the times of the ages.” In the foregoing chapters we have covered seven mysteries and the divine revelation. Here in this verse we have a phrase that combines the mystery and the revelation. This phrase is the revelation of the mystery. In the New Testament the word revelation is used mainly with respect to the mystery of God. It does not refer to the ordinary things of human life.
The Bible contains many doctrines, teachings, histories, and stories. All these things are related to the basic revelation either directly or indirectly. Take a large painting as an example. The painting has a focal point, the central figure, and all the other items in the painting are related to the central figure either directly or indirectly. To isolate any item from the focus is to cause it to be meaningless. The same is true with our physical body. The body is the focus. Although the fingers, the feet, and the toes are not the focus, they are related to the focus. If you isolate these parts from the body, they will become meaningless. The arms are directly related to the focus, but the thumbs are indirectly related to it. If you cut off your thumbs, they will be isolated from the focus and become meaningless and useless.
Often when we meet one another, we shake hands. Suppose you cut off your right hand and present it to me. How horrible that would be! When the right hand is properly related to the body, it is lovely, but when it is detached from the body, it becomes grotesque and frightening. In like manner, to detach any doctrine, history, or story from the focus in the Bible is to render it ugly and terrible. Nevertheless, this is exactly what is taking place among Christians today.
Some Christians have isolated foot-washing from the basic revelation in the Bible. No doubt, foot-washing was taught and practiced by the Lord Jesus Himself, for He washed the feet of the disciples as an example for them. Foot-washing is related to the basic revelation, but if you isolate it from the basic revelation, it is like cutting off your feet. When the feet are attached to the body, they are lovable, but when they are detached from it, they are horrible. Likewise, when foot-washing is related to the basic revelation, we can appreciate it, but when it is detached from the basic revelation, we cannot appreciate it.
The same is true regarding head covering. The matter of head covering is taught in 1 Corinthians 11, a chapter related to the headship of Christ. Paul says that God is the head of Christ, that Christ is the head of the man, and that the man is the head of the woman. Therefore, it is important to care for the matter of head covering because it is related to the headship of Christ. However, to separate head covering from the basic revelation in the Bible is like cutting off your head and handing it to someone. Today many Christians separate the matters of foot-washing and head covering from the basic revelation. In doing this, they do not care for the Body.
The basic revelation in the Bible is the unveiling of God’s mystery. For this reason the Bible speaks of the revelation of the mystery. The revelation of the mystery is the unveiling, the opening up, the bringing to light, of God’s mystery so that we may see the central focus. This central focus is nothing less than Christ and His Body, the church.
A number of times I have been questioned by those who have detached certain doctrines and practices from the focus of the basic revelation. In 1963, after a certain meeting, a brother said to me, “Brother Lee, according to your ministry, it is apparent that you fully believe in the Bible. Since you care so much for the Bible, why do you not follow a certain matter that is clearly revealed in 1 Corinthians 14? Your sisters are very active in the meetings. This indicates that you do not follow the teaching of 1 Corinthians 14 that women ought to be silent in the meetings.” I told him that I had known these verses for many years and that I had ministered on them many times. Then I asked him, “Does your group have meetings?” When he said that they did, I replied, “Don’t your sisters sing hymns in the meetings and don’t they pray?” When he acknowledged that they did, I said, “Then in your meetings the sisters are not silent either. This is altogether a matter of different interpretations and practices.” This illustrates the fact that if we neglect the focus, the central figure of God’s revelation, we will find ourselves in difficulty. However, if we direct our sight on the center of God’s revelation, we will have no problem. The focal point of God’s revelation is not a matter of whether or not women should be silent in the meetings of the church.
Some have made an issue concerning whether we should be noisy or quiet in the meetings. To be either noisy or quiet does not mean anything. We do not care for silence, and we do not care for noise. I have received a bad name for advocating shouting in the meeting. However, I have been very careful not to isolate the matter of shouting from the focus of God’s revelation.
There is no doubt that the body needs the thumbs. However, to cut off the thumbs is not as serious as cutting out the heart or the liver. This illustrates that certain things in the body are crucial. Likewise, what is crucial in the Bible is the focus, the basic revelation of God’s mystery, not the doctrines of foot-washing or head covering or the way of meeting.
In this chapter we need to consider what is the basic revelation of the mystery of God. This basic revelation is the divine purpose. The divine purpose, of course, is not foot-washing or head covering. It is not any type of teaching, including the teaching of the Lord’s second coming. God’s purpose is to have the Body of Christ. In the past we have used the term the eternal purpose of God but not the term the divine purpose. The divine purpose is the eternal purpose of God.
It is quite difficult to say exactly what the divine purpose is. God’s purpose is revealed mainly in the books of Ephesians and Romans. No other books present the revelation of God’s mystery as clearly as these books do. In Colossians we find the word mystery but not the word revelation. In Galatians we read of revelation but not of the mystery. Although the word mystery is used in 1 Corinthians, we find nothing there concerning the revelation of the mystery. Only two books, Ephesians and Romans, present both the mystery of God and the revelation of God. We have seen that Romans 16:25 speaks of the revelation of the mystery. In Ephesians 3:3-5 we have both the mystery and revelation. According to Ephesians 3:5, the mystery has been revealed to the apostles and prophets in spirit. The fact that Romans and Ephesians both speak of the revelation and the mystery gives us the ground to say that the divine purpose is contained completely in these two books alone.
Nevertheless, there is a difference between Romans and Ephesians. Romans speaks from us to God, from earth to heaven, from sinners to saints. Ephesians speaks from God to us, from heaven to earth. Romans speaks from our fallen condition, but Ephesians speaks from eternity, revealing God’s purpose and the desire of God’s heart in eternity. Thus, Ephesians is related to eternity, and Romans is related to time.
Now we need to see four main things included in the divine purpose. Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love.” God selected us in eternity past, before the foundation of the world and the beginning of time, that we might be holy and without blemish. The words holy and without blemish in this verse have been misused and misunderstood. As a result, their significance has been diminished. Most Christians think that to be holy is to be sinlessly perfect. Some so-called churches are even called holiness churches. However, to be holy is not to be sinless or perfect. The significance of being holy is very deep, far beyond our concept.
In this universe only God is holy. All Bible students realize that holiness refers to God’s nature and that righteousness refers to God’s activities. What God does is righteous, but God’s very being is holy. Therefore, holiness refers to God’s being, not to His doings; it is God’s nature. Therefore, to be made holy means to be made the same as God in nature. Holiness does not denote the appearance of God. The appearance of God is glory. We need to differentiate between righteousness, holiness, and glory. Righteousness refers to God’s doings, holiness to God’s being, and glory to God’s expression. To repeat, to be holy means to be the same as God is in His nature.
Man was not created by God with the divine nature. Rather, he was made from dust (Gen. 2:7). The nature of God is holiness, but the nature of man is dust. God is holy, but man is dusty. Are you not dusty? To be dusty is different from being dirty. Before the fall Adam was sinless, but he was still dusty. He was not holy, and nothing of God’s nature had been wrought into him.
Now we need to find out how dusty man can be holy, how man with the nature of dust can be the same as God in His holy nature. The only way this can take place is for God to work Himself into man’s nature. For this reason, 2 Peter 1:4 tells us that we are partakers of the divine nature. After God created man, He placed him in front of the tree of life in order that His holy nature could enter into man through man’s eating of the fruit of this tree. As we all know, the tree of life denotes God Himself. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God is likened to food. Only food is able to get into us and into our nature. All the foodstuffs you eat day by day become part of your nature. Eventually, they become you. Thus, we are the constitution of the various foodstuffs produced in this country. But this does not mean that if all these foodstuffs are put together, they automatically become us. No, in order for them to become us, we must take them into us and digest them. After we eat and digest them, they will become our fibers and even become us.
The Bible contains the basic concept that God is edible, that God is good for food. As the tree of life, God is to be eaten, not merely to be seen. Coming as the bread of life, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35); He also said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). Hallelujah, we can eat God!
Dietitians often tell us that we are what we eat. What we eat is constituted into us and becomes us. Some people even smell like the food they eat. For example, those who eat a great deal of garlic or fish may have the odor of garlic or fish. The only way for God’s holy nature to be wrought into our nature is by eating. God is edible, and eating Jesus is the unique way for us to have the holy nature of God.
Years ago I gave a message in a certain place in which I said that even if we were not fallen, we would still need to be regenerated. This message offended a certain preacher. He said, “No! How could one who has not fallen still need to be regenerated?” This question comes from the influence of his traditional Christian teachings, which say that because we are fallen and corrupted and because we are incurable, hopeless cases, we need to be reborn. But the truth is that even if we were Adam in the garden of Eden, we would still need regeneration. No matter how perfect or sinless we might be, we would still be only good, not holy. We might be perfect, but we are not holy. Unless we have the holy nature of God, we cannot be holy. As we have pointed out, holiness is God’s nature. We may be clean, perfect, and sinless, but we are still dusty; we are not yet holy.
Ephesians 1:4 reveals God’s intention before the fall of man, before sin came in. It was not because God foreknew that man would become sinful that He determined to rescue us from our sinfulness and to make us perfect. No, according to His divine purpose, God decided in eternity past to choose us to be made holy. God chose us for the purpose that we might become holy. In other words, He chose us to become divine through our partaking of the divine nature. He wants to make the dusty man divine. This is what it means to be holy.
Now we need to consider what is meant by blemish. This word is used for a foreign substance sometimes found in precious stones. Suppose we have a diamond, but in the diamond there is some kind of foreign substance. A blemish denotes the mixture caused by the presence of a foreign substance. This substance may not be dirty or sinful. On the contrary, it may be perfect and sinless. However, it is different in nature. God’s intention is to make us thoroughly the same as He is in His nature. If there is still a foreign substance within us, we still have a blemish; that is, there is a mixture in our being. But God’s intention is to make us thoroughly holy and divine without any mixture. What a high standard this is! Every part of our disposition is a “blemish” simply because it is not the nature of God. Anything other than the nature of God is a blemish. Suppose someone has a lovable, gentle, humble disposition. Even such a lovable disposition is a blemish in God’s holiness. In God’s holiness there is nothing except His being. Anything of our being, no matter how good and lovable it may be, is a mixture and hence a blemish. The first item of God’s eternal purpose is to make us the same as He is in nature without any mixture. This is to become holy and without blemish.
In Ephesians 1:5 Paul says, “Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” God has not only selected us but also marked us out beforehand. Before the foundation of the world, in eternity past, we were marked out for the purpose of sonship.
We have seen that the only way for us to be holy is for God to come into our being. This is related to sonship. Every son has been born of a father. All that the father is issues in the son. Hence, a son is the issue of the father’s life. Some versions render the Greek word for sonship in Ephesians 1:5 as “adoption.” Although this rendering is not wrong, it is easily misunderstood. We have not been adopted by God; we have been born of Him. I am not an adopted son but a born son, one that is the issue of the Father’s life. I have never seen a Caucasian brother who has brought forth a Chinese son. In the same principle, I have never seen a Chinese brother who has brought forth a Caucasian son. A son is always the issue of the father.
First, we were created by God. But at the time we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were born of God. Thus, we each have two stories, the story of our creation and the story of our rebirth. By creation we are not sons of God. Rather, we are merely the creatures of God. But by rebirth, by regeneration, we became the sons of God.
As the Son of God, Christ is the expression of God. No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him (John 1:18). Thus, the meaning or significance of the Son is that He expresses the Father. The Son is the issue of the life of the Father and the expression of the Father.
We have pointed out that in order for us to become holy, we need to be born of God and thereby have the life of God. When God’s life enters into us and becomes our life, we become sons of God. A son has both the life and the position of a son. The position of a son is a matter of heritage. As sons of God, we will inherit all that God is. We have been born of God, and now we have the position to inherit whatever God is. This is the meaning of sonship.
All Christians need a vision of the significance of regeneration. Regeneration means that we have the life of God and the position to inherit all that God is. In the new heaven and the new earth we will realize that whatever God is has become our inheritance. This is sonship. Some may accuse us of teaching that we will become God. No, we are not becoming God, but we are becoming divine. We have the life of God, we have the position to inherit whatever God is, and we are becoming divine.
The first aspect of the divine purpose is that we are being made holy, and the second is that we have been marked out for sonship, that is, to have the life of God, to express God, to have the position to inherit whatever God is, and to become divine as the Father is divine. The Son of God said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9). The day is coming when we will be able to say, “He who has seen us has seen God, because we are the sons of God.” In the New Testament the term sons always denotes the expression of the father. Before we were saved, we were sons of disobedience expressing Satan, the evil father. Today we are sons of God expressing God, not by our deeds or behavior but by having His life with His nature within us. Day by day He is working Himself into our being so that we may become His expression. Eventually, we will inherit all that He is.
The divine purpose is also to have a Body for Christ. According to the books of Ephesians and Romans, the Body of Christ is composed of the sons of God. For this reason, in both Ephesians and Romans we find sonship first and then the Body. We read in Ephesians 1:5 of the sonship and in Ephesians 1:22 and 23 of the Body. In Romans the sonship is mentioned in chapter 8 and the Body in chapter 12. This indicates that sonship is for the Body.
Although many Christians today are talking about the Body, they have not seen that the Body depends upon the sons. If you do not have the life of a son of God, you cannot be a proper member of the Body. In order to have the Body life, we need the full experience of Romans 8. Without the experience of Romans 8, it is difficult to have the practice of the Body life revealed in Romans 12. Between Romans 8 and 12 there are three parenthetical chapters — chapters 9, 10, and 11. Thus, Romans 12 is the continuation of Romans 8. This means that the practice of the Body is the issue of the sonship. If we live the life of a son to express God, then we become a proper member of the Body. The Body is constituted of members who are sons of God living by God’s life and expressing God.
Today the universe is groaning, eagerly expecting the manifestation of the sons of God. The time of this manifestation will be the time of the redemption of our body. The life and nature of a son are within us, but this life and this nature are concealed within our physical body. But the day is coming when even our physical body will be swallowed up by the inner life. Our body will be saturated by the divine life and will be a manifestation of that life. This manifestation of the inner life is the redemption of our body. This is the revelation, the manifestation, of the sons of God.
Holiness is for sonship, and sonship is for the Body. The unique desire of God is to have the Body. If we have seen the divine purpose, we will realize that the Body is God’s unique desire and that we must be in it and take care of it. Everything we do must be out of a concern for the Body. If we are separate from the Body or alienated from the Body, we become meaningless. God’s purpose is to have the Body. For this, there is the need of sonship, and for sonship there is the need of holiness. Thus, God’s eternal purpose is not a matter of foot-washing or head covering; it is to have a Body constituted of sons who share the holy nature of God.
When God has the Body, He will have the opportunity to head up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10). Today the universe is a mess, but the time is coming when everything in the universe will be headed up. God is in the process of heading up all things in Christ through the church. If God cannot head us up, how can He head up all things? The church must take the lead to be headed up by God. Eventually, through the church God will head up all things in Christ.
If we have seen the vision of the divine purpose, we will never be distracted, misled, or isolated by anything, no matter how good it may be. Anything isolated from the central focus is meaningless. I thank the Lord that by this unique vision I have been kept in the center lane for nearly fifty years. Now I have the burden to pass on this fellowship to you so that you also may be kept by the vision. As Romans 16:25 says, we need to be established according to the revelation of the mystery. As we have seen, the revelation of the mystery is the divine purpose. This means that God establishes us according to the divine purpose. If we see this vision, we will be established, guarded, preserved, and kept in the center lane.
